Diary of a Failed Game Designer

Below is a game that takes up one page in Libre Office using a 10 point font. Don't want to play D&D anymore ? play this. Guaranteed to have absolutely no roots in anything. Charater Attributes: Roll 1d6 for each attribute to determine the number of dice the character has in that area. (Rolls: 1-3 = 3 dice, 4-5 = 4 dice, roll of 6 = 5 dice) Physical (phisical actions, jumping, fights) Mental (Thinking, figuring, casting, searching) Emotional (empathy, Morale, courage, self controll, concentration) Social (Bargain, arguing, deceit, initial reactions) Actions: During the story when a character wants to perform an action the player rolls 1d10. Results use the chart below. 1 or 2: A failure and a new complication that reduces the atribute pool being used by 1. (You fail to jump the pit fallign to the bottom and hurtting yout leg -1 Phisical) 3 to 4:   A failure but the enviroment gains a complication. (you fail to jump the pit and slide down the inter wall catching a ledge halway ...

Last year I entered a game into the 200 word game contest found here. This year I got lazy and missed the deadline. I had the  game written , I just never did anything to format it and never sent  it in. Que Sera, Sera. So here it is the contest  entry that never was. Thanks for reading. -Mark Tracy’s last ride: Tracy is dead. You are on the way to the funeral. Play this game in a car, on a trip. Turn on the radio. The next song reminds you all of Tracy, a favorite song. The driver starts, look around at the traffic.  Say something about Tracy based on the cars you see. Oncoming cars are negative, Cars in you lane are positive. The Person speaking must pick a car then tell. Cars Oncoming / Same lane Red car: A time you angered Tracy / Tracy angered you. Yellow Car: Something Tracy loved / something you loved about Tracy Black Car: Something bad Tracy did / something bad you did to Tracy. White Car: A memory you made with Tracy Positive / negative Green Car: A Trait T...

GO PLAY: On the internet, we talk, argue, and, insult each other about games. We rarely express how blessed we are to have the time to waste thinking about such inane things. There are people just as smart and imaginative as anyone reading this blog who don't have the chance to argue. People that will never get the chance to enjoy a life such that they have time to waste arguing over role playing games. So Go play. GO play OSR Games. GO play story games. Go play board games. GO Larp. Go make up your own RPGs and play them with your friends. Go to Cons, make new friends. Go do whatever you want. If you want, take a second to realize how lucky we are. Think about the privilege we waste every time we're unkind to each other on the internet over something as inane as games. OK, now that I'm off my soap box, here's the tax. Have this: A 13 point game. It's shit. Each player Describes their character. Each player picks a number from six to fifteen. A lower represents the ...

Ok Last one. I never submitted this one because it's not truly a game, Its more of an activity. Though I might work on it a bit and add it to one of my other projects as a "Group scenario set up" mechanic. I think it would be fun the  way microscope is fun only with  less index cards and dots. What if, And, But:  Two to five players each with a D20.   Each player states “what if "  about a place._________.” then rolls 1d20.   The player rolling highest has created a “truth”   Each player then states an “And _________.” about the place, and rolls d20.  The payer rolling highest again Creates a truth about the original place.   The player rolling lowest Can state a “But____________” about the truth created by the “And” statement.   The “But” may add or modify the “And” statement.   A new Round starts   The new “What Ifs_________.” may be related to any part of the first round and may be a person pla...

The Ukraine loves it's 200, do you ?  I never formatted this game to make it looked decent. Plus I felt it had a few cracks in its design. In the end I never sent it in. I have another one I might post tomorrow or next week that was even less finished. Hey at least I got one game in. Here is a link to view all of the submissions from the 200 word RPG challenge. So for your consumption I present a kind of dungeon crawl party game in 200 words: Endless Crawl: Always be descriptive! Four players have a piece of paper saying Map, Danger, monster, or treasure. Map player draws a room with at least three entrances. Danger player: rolls 1d10, under the (Danger) = A monster in the room. Monster Player: Monsters Have 1d10 HP + (Danger) Split hp for multiple monsters.   Monsters do 1d10-5 damage (+ Danger on a 10) Choose a character. Fighter:  10hp / 1d10-2 damage. Cleric : 8hp / 1d10-4 damage / or may heal for 1d10 HP. Thief  8hp / 1d10-4 damage per attack/ or skip turn attac...

Here you go a complete Role playing game for a fantasy setting that gets out of the way and never holds your hand at all. This is what we all want right! Right? If so  why do designers continue to make games? Why not just say,  "Here's some pretty pictures of Barbarians and caves.  Roll D20 if the GM says you succeed, you do, if not you don't,  now go play." Should we all be playing  S.L.U.G ?  Perhaps. Perhaps not. Is the  following game any good? No. Is it complete thing, like a thing for which you would give your money to a guy in a booth at MassiveCon ? No. Could the vast majority of  people reading this blog go and  run a fun game for their friends with it? Yes I bet they could, because you folks are awesome. So why are RPG systems not just this.... because this would require allot of work to get up and running.. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oldest School ...

Update to the dice chess, dice movement. Each side gets 16 six sided dice. Roll your dice then set them up chess style Players take turns moving and taking dice. The die value is the  number of dots showing on it's upward side. (1-6) Movement of dice is based on the pattern of dots on the upward facing. Ones can move 1 space in any direction and take any die regardless of value. A two can go up to 2 spaces diagonally in the direction it is facing, and take dice of  an equal or  lesser value. A three can go up to three spaced diagonally in the direction it is facing,  and take dice of an  equal  or  lesser value. A four can go up to 2 spaces in any direction, and take dice of an equal or lesser value. A five can go up to s spaces left or right or forward and back,  or up to three spaces in any diagonal direction,  and take dice of an  equal  or  lesser value. Sixes can move up to three spaced in the direction...