I have three quick questions, that may help younger developers in the future:

What is the one thing you DONT want in a new Game System?

What keeps you from accepting a new game or system?

What would you LOVE to see from a newer designer?

Answer all or any...  go...

1) "This is why we're better than [some other game, usually D&D]."

2) Page count.  I see "This Here New RPG is a 457-page book" and I stop reading.

3) What the game is trying to do and what makes it good for doing that.  Greg Stafford's designer's notes for Pendragon 5th edition should be required reading.

Overselling a game system, a la FATE and it's aggressive marketing, is off-putting I'll say first up.

In terms of new game systems, it's a case of whether it's ideas are really warranted or just gimmicky. I'm set in my ways to a degree, but if there are some new clever ideas I will take note and give them some due. I'm not really a fan of generic systems for this reason, as we have plenty of generic systems out there. New systems, for me, should be warranted by emulating the setting of the game, and so the interest in the setting itself is paramount. Beyond that, I like efficient efficacy in design - not clutter. Don't have 10 stats, rather than 1, sort of thing.

What I'd like from a newer designer? Primarily a passion and genuine craft towards emulating the source material, rather than a desire to impose a system design on it.

My bar for new systems is stratospherically high these days. There are just so many fucking game systems out there now, and nearly all of them are mash ups of ideas that have been floating around for decades, or arbitrary changes in mechanics that make no difference. And I think it matters (in a bad way) because so much creative energy gets eaten up by these projects, and it fractures and dilutes the community. For example, there certainly needs to be several kinds of games outside the OSR genre, but do we really need the ~20+ D&D style OSR systems out there? Would it actually make any difference to how we play that kind of game if we just blew off all the system wankery, picked one of the relatively well developed editions (1E would be fine with me, but I wouldn't care if it was something else) and just use it? Then all the awesome small-batch publishing going on could focus on what it does well: settings, dungeons, and stuff like that.

So, my answers to your questions would be:
1) Don't exist at all, unless you fulfill some clearly useful purpose not being met by one of the 15 frillion games already out there
2) Pointless redundancy
3) I would love to see some creative material - that dungeon you and your gang have been playing for 12 years, etc.

Quote from: rway218;937408What is the one thing you DONT want in a new Game System?

What keeps you from accepting a new game or system?

What would you LOVE to see from a newer designer?

Answer all or any...  go...

1:  Dont try to "fix" something that wasnt broken in the first place, it was your own bad gaming or one bad GM. REALLY hate this and why I so dislike Gumeshoe and all attached to it so. Dont badmouth someone elses game just to make yours look batter. Pundit and especially Zwiehander are guilty of this. Also please god not another OSR gank of the same damn rules for the umpteenth billionth time. Or using the OSR as an excuse to steal someone elses game.

2: Not much really. I'll give most any system a try. What may keep me from actually running it past one session if that tends to vary. But overcomplexity is a prime offender. And pretty much a no sell for me is the aforementioned fix-it and pretentiousness.

3: Be creative. Dont just rehash whats gone before with a new coat of paint. Also dont just cater to whats "trendy" and for gods sake dont try to be politically correct or SJW. Just make a setting and let the pieces fall where they may instead of another soapbox with RPG written on the side. Think about how the races and monsters all interact and weave it together.

1. As others have said... it's the overselling. Whether it's claiming to advance the 'evolution' of RPGs with its 'innovative' mechanics, or it's bashing on older well-established games, or claiming to 'fix' other systems. Aggressive appeals to the 'newer is better' crowd just turn me off.

2. Its the overzealous fans of a game that often do the most to keep me from wanting to play it.
New Game comes out and suddenly, the next day, there'll be a horde of the usual suspects lined up to tell us why New Game is the best thing since pie.
If I didn't know how little money was involved in RPG publishing I'd suspect they were hired sockpuppets.

3. Something  that is more concerned with the actual play than showing off how 'clever' its rules are or how lavish its production values are. Something that makes me want to play it because it's got a great setting that the author has really sunk his passion and imagination into and isn't something I would have thought of on my own.

Quote from: rway218;937408What is the one thing you DONT want in a new Game System?

anime/manga-inspired art.

QuoteWhat keeps you from accepting a new game or system?

Failure to provide a meaningful improvement over systems I already used, combined with imagination inferior to my own.

QuoteWhat would you LOVE to see from a newer designer?

An original setting that is evocative and makes me want to play the game combined with a solid system that doesn't try to re-invent the wheel but is clever enough to entice me to use it. Also a complete game without an obvious intention to ride a supplement treadmill that may or may not ever happen.

What is the one thing you DONT want in a new Game System?

Thick rulebooks. I find thick rulebooks are full of bullshit where 100 pages are used to express 10 pages of content.


What keeps you from accepting a new game or system?

Forge / Narrative / Storygame elements (not my thing)

Rehash/Reboot of something I already own (I rarely buy later editions of stuff)

System without a Setting (I don't like generic systems)


What would you LOVE to see from a newer designer?

Nude selfies.

And the same thing I want from all designers: entertain me!!!

D&D won the RPG war. No other RPG really matters, in comparison. Good luck with your new game design.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;937428D&D won the RPG war. No other RPG really matters, in comparison. Good luck with your new game design.

Quote from: rway218;937408What is the one thing you DONT want in a new Game System?

Narrative mechanics.

Quote from: rway218;937408What keeps you from accepting a new game or system?

Narrative mechanics, OOC mechanics, dissociated mechanics.

Quote from: rway218;937408What would you LOVE to see from a newer designer?

Brains, heart and guts.
Also a well-designed setting, adventures, and maps.

Quote from: rway218;937408I have three quick questions, that may help younger developers in the future:

What is the one thing you DONT want in a new Game System?

What keeps you from accepting a new game or system?

What would you LOVE to see from a newer designer?

Answer all or any...  go...

1) Crunch. Not a fan of masses of tables, subsystems and rules for everything under the sun; non-unified mechanics (i.e., 'role high for this, but role low for that').
2) My actual litmus test is the character sheet. If everything can't fit on one page, with some white space leftover, I'm probably not going to bother with it. Don't make me constantly refer to charts.
3) Settings, supplements (not rules) or adventures for established systems, OR system neutral adventures/supplements. Tell me how to convert your stuff to other systems, maybe. MAPS. MAPS, MAPS, MAPS.

On the whole, I don't need another system. I'm always hacking my own. But  sure do read or scan a lot of them.

Quote from: rway218;937408I have three quick questions, that may help younger developers in the future:

I don't care about hypothetical younger developers in the future. When something is actually developed, I might pay attention then.

Quote from: rway218;937408What is the one thing you DONT want in a new Game System?

Gimmicks. Specialty dice like FFGs Star Wars, Cards. Miniatures. Things that may not provide more enjoyment of the game but should be bought to play the game as intended.

Quote from: rway218;937408What keeps you from accepting a new game or system?

The fact that 99% of the time, I already have a system that does what the "new" game or system does, and does it much better too my satisfaction.

Quote from: rway218;937408What would you LOVE to see from a newer designer?

Some actual fucking research. If you are coming out with a replacement for D&D, then I expect you to have played some D&D so that you have an idea about what you are replacing. There are a lot of wannabe game designers who have only read online about the game that they are writing to replace - they do not have direct experience of that game and thus no insight into why the original game works at what it does.

Quote from: CRKrueger;937440dissociated mechanics.

What do you mean by dissociated mechanics?

Also, for those who don't like thick rule books, would you be OK with a larger book if it was 20 pages of rules and then the rest was items, monsters, setting info, etc?

Quote from: Ashakyre;937467What do you mean by dissociated mechanics?

For dissociated mechanics, read here.  Essentially an OOC mechanic which does not exist in or reflect the reality of the setting.  
A player spending a Drama Point to change what happens - the character is unaware of what occurs - dissociated.
A fighter tripping a slime - slimes can't be tripped, the purpose of the mechanic is just to apply a negative modifier regardless of the reality of the character's situation - dissociated.
Aspects are true - unless I don't spend a Fate point to actually have them apply - dissociated.
Etc.