Brantai and I have been working on a release of a True20 conversion of a D&D setting I came up with a long while ago. It's pretty much what we would have wanted from Green Ronin in a fantasy setting, and since the closest we got was Caliphate Nights, I decided to stop griping and actually put together a pdf/print version of the setting in True20 terms.

I'm a bit of a rules wonk, and spent a pretty decent amount of time picking D&D 3.0 and 3.5 apart to see how it worked, so I could design my own Feats, Classes, and Spells. It's something that I enjoyed, but it always frustrated me that Wizards of the Coast were so obscure in the design process. Even though one of the big perks of D&D 3.X was that it was so unified in its design (which, in theory, should mean it's pretty modular and mutable), that obscurity made it difficult for people to reasonably design their own classes and feats.

That's why, when I write this role-playing text, I plan on adding designer comments in boxes through the books and style guides in the Appendix in the interest of being clear in the design process.

Now, I'm a little curious. When a role-playing book comes out, what kinds of things do you expect in it, or would want in it? I've seen tons of people comment on both their hate (and love) of flavor text, fluff, and game fiction inside books. I've seen how important indexes and character sheets are. When a core book releases, what do you want in it?

Functionality, ie. a book that's designed to be used as the table. This includes a comprehensive index, plenty of cross referencing and a layout that's easy on the eye. A clear delineation between fluff and crunch is also vital. I want to be able to locate the relevant information in seconds, not minutes.

It's probably one of the most overlooked aspects of RPG design, but as I get older it becomes more and more important. Genre, setting and flavour are all matters of taste, but basic utlities are something that every book needs. Its importance cannot be overstated.

Quote from: Thanatos02That's why, when I write this role-playing text, I plan on adding designer comments in boxes through the books and style guides in the Appendix in the interest of being clear in the design process.

Now, I'm a little curious. When a role-playing book comes out, what kinds of things do you expect in it, or would want in it? I've seen tons of people comment on both their hate (and love) of flavor text, fluff, and game fiction inside books. I've seen how important indexes and character sheets are. When a core book releases, what do you want in it?

I'd be interested in seeing a traditional fantasy True 20 rule book/setting book, even though I totally HATE the wound system and rather see the optional HP system form M&M 1st edition implemented.

As far as the design notes, there have been a number of threads on this and it seems almost unanimous that people DON'T like this sort of thing, so you may want to re-think it.  Personally, I like a page or two of design notes at the end or beginning, but all the way through the rule book would be very annoying.  I'm almost sure that people will ream you a new one for it, despite the quality of the rest of the product.

In a core book?  I want no setting material (unless it is a very setting specific game, like WFRP, in which case I want ALL the setting material in the core book) if it is going to be even remotely sold as generic, very limited fluff, and well described concise mechanics.  I want innovation and wonky mechanics kept to a minimum in favor of simple rules that work.  I want artsy fartsy stuff to go out the window in favor of meat and potato mechanics that are simple and functional in play.  I want a solid framework and rules that cover a lot of situations WITHOUT having all those situations detailed in minute little rules I'm supposed to remember during play.

That's all I want.

You asked.

nipples

Quote from: Aosnipples

Exalted can totally do that.

Yeah, I looked througha copy last week. I'm not crazy about the genreal idea of the game, but I did like the shamelssly erotic nature of the artwork.

I want enough material so that I the GM would know how to present the world and what kind of challenges I can put towards them.

I want enough so that if they read the book, they know what to expect, without giving away any secrets (mind you I don't think campaign settings should HAVE secrets from the GM.)--In general I want them to know what the average "person" of their given setting might know.

I don't care for a lot of mechanical changes to the base game if its a setting book for a rule-set I like. Only things specific to filling out the setting and its feel.

If you change a lot of the base rules, you probably didn't pick the right game to right a setting for.

Really, it's sort of a futile question, as everyone wants something different.  Just do what you want to do and hope there are others that want the same thing.  Trying to please anyone but yourself is a waste of time, unless you plan on striking it rich...then you want to please your target demographic.  If you are doing it for love and becasue you feel you have to or you'll burst, then do what you want and screw everyone else, or they are going to force you to comprimise, and the product you will have in the end won't be your vission...and you'll have wasted your time and still be unsatisfied.:thepope:

Eh, I'm going to try to write something clean, easy to use, and fun. But, really, thinking about what I'd need to do that, I wondered what others thought was others liked.

Like, when Serenity the RPG was released, the fact it didn't have character sheets pissed a lot of people off. I was like, "Really? Huh." The fact that I'm trying to write a book is kinda a side issue, since there's a good chance nobody'll want it anyhow and it'd be downloadable. It's a hobby more than a business enterprise.

First make it work.  Then make it reliable.  Then make it efficient.  Then make it cheap.  Finally, make it pretty.