Hi, my name's Jasyn. Just joined. Here's why:

I've been doing some deep house rules for a favorite game of mine (TORG, see my .sig). In the last year, these have moved away form "rewriting bits and pieces" to "architecting a new game."

In other words, instead of revising the old system, I'm building a new one. I'll be honest, at times I hate it. Then, I'll get a great idea, something cooler than I could ever have imagined, and I'll love it. Either way, I can't quit.

There is precisely 0% chance this will ever have commercial appeal. For me, it's clearly a hobby.

(I keep telling myself it's like model trains: I'm just building a game, not a diorama with working crossings and multiple train tracks and little people and trees. I tell myself it's a past-time, not a waste of time. Some days, it even works.)

Despite being a hobbyist, I'd like to make the game itself as perfect as possible. Good writing. Solid mechanics. Interesting play. As perfect as possible, within the limits of my time and talents.

To do this, I need feedback. Which brings me here.

I intend to discuss the theories and concepts behind the game. The mechanics that implement those. And, when I put enough stuff together to do this, my experience playtesting them. Any and all comments are welcome.

I tried posting at another RPG design place, asking for some basic advice, and got smacked down for... something. Doesn't matter. Just meant it wasn't the place for me. I hope this place can be.

So, am I in the right place? That is, do my desires and plans fit within the mission statement of theRPGsite?

If so, Hello! I look forward to participating, and being participated upon.

(And I hereby officially apologize in advance for anything stupid I may say or do at any point in the distant or near future.)

Welcome, Jasyn!  I think you'll get feedback here - perhaps in fits and starts.  I encourage you to chime in on other threads as well, let folks get to know you.

Welcome, Jasyn! We'll be glad to read and offer our opinions (for what it's worth) on your game.

Just bear in mind that no amount of Internet forum wank trumps actual play. Summon your gaming group, let them know it's a playtest for a work-in-progress, and run the game you've always wanted to run, using your system. As the game progresses, you'll be fine-tuning your system until it works for you.

If you can get one or more other groups, with different players and playstyles, to test your system, even better!

Just my 2c.

Good luck, and good gaming!

Welcome aboard the crazy train.

Indeed, I too believe actual play is important to the process. I do however also believe actual play without the writer helps test the game a big finer because you aren't there to correct mistakes on the fly.

Hi! My TORG is limited, but I look forward to seeing stuff!

Don't get too carried away with mechanics and other details. Remember,

"A thing is perfect not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
— Antoine de St. Exupery

I think he might have been talking about his dinner, but the same applies to rpgs.

First, thanks for the welcome. It's a pleasant change to be greeted with a "Welcome Aboard!", rather than an "Oh, I've seen this before. You think the rules of this place don't apply to you." So, thanks for that.

Quick responses.

Quote from: VectorSigma;499488I encourage you to chime in on other threads as well, let folks get to know you.

Great Advice. I'll drop in.

Quote from: The Butcher;499510Just bear in mind that no amount of Internet forum wank trumps actual play.

 I happen to agree, totally. Unfortunately, circumstances prevent me from playing very often. Right now, I just need to bash together an Alpha release, whereupon I can begin testing.

But testing is needed, and testing there will be. Oh, yes.

Quote from: Silverlion;499577I do however also believe actual play without the writer helps test the game a big finer because you aren't there to correct mistakes on the fly.

I strongly agree with this, as well. Once I get an alpha kit together, I'll be posting it and asking those as have the desire and fortitude to give it a try.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;499594Hi! My TORG is limited, but I look forward to seeing stuff!

Thanks! I'll try and provide enough context to understand what I'm saying. I have no desire to alienate people who've never played. Quite the opposite: I am more interested in the responses of people who've never played or even disliked the system.

I'm pretty plugged into Torgers themselves (via participation in the long-running and famed Torg email List). I desire feedback from people who have experience with different games and different playing styles.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;499596"A thing is perfect not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

Honest to God, that's my personal mantra. My entire goal with my House Rules (now a House System) has been to simplify and streamline the core mechanics, to make them as straightforward and uncomplicated as possible.

(Torgers will remember the many, many charts for die rolls, pushes, NCI results, combat results, and more. In an ideal world, I would eliminate them.)

Thanks for the welcome, guys. And Happy New Year!

I liked Torg, but it felt a bit ungainly. Not just the rules but the handling of the invasion. I really would like to see more than "One country completely/mostly transformed to X" it be neat if your doing a "Clone" to have sometimes competing groups in some lands.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean here.

Quote from: Silverlion;499679I really would like to see more than "One country completely/mostly transformed to X"

What do you see being an interesting variation? What about the standard setup seemed off? What would you have liked instead?

Quote from: Silverlion;499679have sometimes competing groups in some lands.

Again, not sure what you meant. Please feel free to amplify.

Quote from: Silverlion;499679if your doing a "Clone"

My intent isn't to so much clone Torg as to make a system that implements the spirit of the original rules (action-movie pyrotechnics and cinematic heroes), with new mechanics. Then couple that with a redesigned campaign and cosms.

I have a Tharkold (the Techno-Horror reality), but it's been rebuilt around a techno-magic core. I have "Sino Tech", a cosm that is the spiritual successor to Nippon Tech, but tuned up (it's my "Urban Wuxia" reality). Then there's my Universal Orrorsh. Because fear can exist everywhere, so too can Horror.

I'm not trying to pretend this isn't a Torg campaign, or a heavily Torg-inspired system (whilst also taking inspiration from FATE, Savage Worlds, and anything else that seems interesting and apt.) It's true, and obvious, so I needn't act coy.

I guess, to me "clone" brings to mind those early days of cloned PC's which tried to copy IBM, and not do anything original. (That may not have been what you meant, of course.) Anything that's not a mindless rehash of the original would be fine by me.

I hope I'm bringing something new to the table, and what I am bringing, I wouldn't mind helpful, critical, or brutal-but-accurate commentary on. So, here's looking forward to interesting times.

In general I'd like to have seen more variants in a single country. England got Aysle, but why couldn't if have gotten a fantastic Science! Steampunk universe in one or two regions--perhaps London itself, and a few dozen miles around it. France could have gotten a reborn Charlemagne (epic but historical fantasy) competing with the Cyberpapacy. New York could have had modern Superheroes, and so forth.


Since it allows for more use of the different Cosm rules. It also show a bit more conflict between competing reality types, and their lords.

QuoteDespite being a hobbyist, I'd like to make the game itself as perfect as possible. Good writing. Solid mechanics. Interesting play. As perfect as possible, within the limits of my time and talents.

To do this, I need feedback. Which brings me here.

I feel that the best way to make a game such as you are desiring is to get a good group of gamers together to playtest and try to break it.  Let them find the flaws for you.  

The worst rule is one you think is awesome but a smart players uses to break the game making it stinko.  

I have seen this so many times in new board games and I wonder if they ever playtested it enough in that sense to find inobvious flaws.  I have seen a good host of board games come out but one simple mechanical flaw ruins the whole playing experience.

Quote from: Ancientgamer1970;499821I feel that the best way to make a game such as you are desiring is to get a good group of gamers together to playtest and try to break it.  Let them find the flaws for you.

I happen to agree. To the nth degree. With one small exception:

Before you can playtest, you have to have something to playtest.

Once I get something coherent enough to run through the wringer, I want to do so. First, I have to get to that point.

And, when building that first alpha kit, it can be helpful to have people question it. Your assumptions, goals, inclusions, exclusions, whatever. Maybe they've made the same mistakes or seen others do it.

Feedback is useful. If I were in a company, I'd sit around a table with the other two or three guys and bounce ideas off each other. I'm not. I can't. So I came here.

Quote from: Ancientgamer1970;499821The worst rule is one you think is awesome but a smart players uses to break the game making it stinko.

I agree with this, and the rest of what you've said, as well.