Grab Bag of Ideas

Things I Want To Make – Plus Some Extras

I want to make more games! Why? That’s an entirely different topic, maybe even a CHG article, moving on.

The Ideas

Entirely New Games

After running across a few Lost & Found games like Bucket of Bolts, I’d really like to take that system out for a spin. My take on a fantasy tavern or adventuring guild (hall), maybe, and I’ve also got this idea that it might be interesting to follow some dice. Things lasting and mattering more than a single lifetime appeals to me in general, and L&F games let you speedrun that in game form.

There’s this idea that Aaron (also of CHG) and I have bounced back and forth, about a cyberpunk bar and the people who go there. Yes, the idea may or may not be inspired by Va-11 Hall-A (it is). It’s fallen on and off our collective radar over the years, but I’d like to take a more honest stab at it or something like it.

One idea that’s been percolating for a bit is something in what the anime side of things refer to as isekai. You know, normal people end up in a fantasy/video game/etc. world. Chronicles of Narnia. There are existing and upcoming games for that, but the focus wouldn’t exactly be the actual adventuring. A sort of ‘what next?’ thought that I always get when watching or reading that kind of work is that you end up with a group of people with an intense bonding experience that would also be somewhat insular.

If you and your friends were trapped in a game where death became real and yet managed to survive, who else could relate to that? What kind of relationships would it foster? How would you treat each other back in the real world? Would you go on another adventure together if you could? It’s that sort of after-the-game/fantasy bond that I’d want to explore. One of the games in Seven Wonders took a look at your went-to-Narnia kids who end up in therapy when they’re adults, but I’d want mine to be a bit broader. And maybe not quite as traumatized. Maybe.

I keep coming back to the mecha genre. Yeah, I’ve already done it as a journaling/storytelling game, and yeah, the market’s pretty full (Mecha Hack, Last Sentinels, Beam Saber, Lancer, Tears of a Machine SC, Mechasys, and on and on), but what can I say, I just really like giant robots. Perhaps something with a specific campaign a la Band of Blades would be a way to stand out? Either way this would probably be a more ‘traditional’ project, and honestly with all the storytelling I could use a bit of crunch in my diet.

I want to do standalone stuff like the above, but I also want to do something Big. You know, a recognizably ‘core rules’ book sort of game, the kind of thing you make hardcover version for, and then go on to write supplements for. Maybe that’s the mecha game? The real question when it comes to something Big, aside from ‘what is it about’ and ‘what mechanics do you use’, is ‘do I do it alone?’ On the design side, I mean – proofreading and editing is definitely good to have help with, and maybe even layout. For the actual creation bit, though, being on a team has been a good experience. If anything that’s why I’d want to do something Big in the first place, the chance to work with others. Networking, though, is not something I do easily, and don’t entirely know how to get better at.

The problem with most of these aside from the Lost & Found idea is that I don’t entirely know what to do with them in terms of mechanics/rules. What to do with an idea often hits me like a lightning strike: Brian proposed the idea for Transit and I knew I wanted to push Powered by the Apocalypse, I read The Chained Oak and immediately knew how I could hack it to fit the long-marinated idea for Lost Among The Starlit Wreckage. I’m trying to read more systems to see if that helps, but the best thing for it may just be to make a few doomed-to-fail alpha versions and sift through the chaff. I can think about them for years, but it’s the writing that actually gets the game done!

Stuff For Existing Games

Transit: The Spaceship RPG

Once Advanced Programming was finally finished, I told myself I was going to be sort of retired from Transit. Yeah, I’d continue to plug it, and I’d run it – granted SilZero is my only recent opportunity given my inability to attend conventions – but in terms of doing design work I’d give it a break. The core game has been out for more than three years, after all, and took more years before that to create.

Still though.

AP was in a lot of ways an itch I had to scratch because there were ideas we didn’t get into the core game that I didn’t want to abandon, and with that itch scratched I don’t really have rules and options bouncing around my head… but there are missions. Little one shots, an anthology thereof, maybe a FURTHERMORE-sized campaign.

It’s been almost a year since AP came out, anyways, right?

The Game What Has The Giant Flying Lizards and the Underground Imprisonment Complexes

Hey, Dungeons & Dragons is where the money is, right?

Aside from that somewhat cynical outlook (even considering that it could be used to fund other projects), the fact is that I put together quite a few small adventures and set pieces when I was still running D&D for First Timers nights with Board Game Empire. I liked them! They were fun! Other people seemed to agree with me!

So, beside tapping into another source of treasure, the fact is that I’ve already got some usable material, it’s just in the form of notebook scribblings. Converting them to something publishable might not be too hard, and it wouldn’t hurt to have some more ‘mainstream’ stuff.

Also, not for nothing, Eberron is my favorite D&D setting and it’s an option for publishing on the DM’s Guild, so there could be some good fun there.

All The Rest

I’ve done a supplement for Quill, a background for Troika… there are a ton of games out there that encourage you to create for them, and enough System Reference Documents to fill their own library. I wouldn’t say that making things for an existing game/system is easier, but it is a different kind of challenge that may be easier if you can find the right angle. The trick is finding inspiration to do so – once again, this sort of thing tends to come in a lightning strike, and I’m not sure how to build the necessary lighting rod to make it come easier.

Overall making stuff for an existing game, my own or others, in theory would let me keep creating things with a somewhat quicker turnaround than making anything from scratch. Audiences get built because there’s a show, and that show needs to keep… showing, right?

The Extras

Lost Among The Starlit Wreckage Review

The Wizard’s Respite recently reviewed my 1-2 player journaling/storytelling game of war, loss, hope, and reflection from the cockpit of a deteriorating giant robot!

“When I sat down to read, Lost Among the Starlit Wreckage, I didn’t know how lucky I was that this would be my first science-fiction TTRPG review. This game strikes right at the heart of what makes Science Fiction a unique and powerful genre. A far too often neglected literary tool provided by science fiction will always be the laser point focus on the human experience provided by the setting. Starlit Wreckage does not make this mistake. In fact, it functions as an unambiguous yet elegant reminder of how traveling to the stars can really be about traveling within the human soul.”

Ash spends a good amount of time talking about what science fiction offers as a genre, and I think also does a really good job at pitching to newcomers about it, the mecha genre, and journaling RPGs in general. There’s also some good focus on the 2-player mode, which I feel like even I overlook from time to time.

Something Cool To Check Out

Hey, I figure if I’m going to be basically writing about what’s going on with me here I’d better spread the love a little, so every issue of the Dispatch I’m going to point you towards something I think is worth your time! This time, it’s Single Samurai.

“You are a Ronin. A wandering samurai. You have happened upon a village to rest in for the night. Upon waking, you learn that the village will soon be raided by violent marauders. You decide to do something about it.”

Aside from being a cool game that lets you solo the bandits from Seven Samurai with some pretty heavy stakes – your choices of dice results may see you perish, or may see the village destroyed or demoralized – it’s also interesting from a design perspective. Single Samurai pulled mechanical ideas from Sacred Forge, but took that framework to create a very different experience.

Alright, that’s it! What’s next? Maybe I try out one of the ideas mentioned above and report back about it, maybe something completely different! Either way-

Until you catch the next Dispatch,

Seamus