Author: Sérgio Mascarenhas (---.70.164)
Date: 07-20-2003 23:12
Well folks, things have been moving slowly. Too slowly for my tastes, in fact. I consider that the design of The Travels of Mendes Pinto may be an interesting effort for *me* but I suppose it is not sufficient to generate enough interest on the part of other people, at least to the point of justifying a column at RPGnet. So I'm dropping the The Travels of Mendes Pinto column.
Don't take me wrong. I'm not dropping the design of the The Travels of Mendes Pinto game. That I'll pursue. I'll just not do it in RPGnet. I think it makes no sense to keep presenting iteration after iteration of unfinished files. You see, I plan to write a players book of around 144 pages. And I would also love to write a GM book of some other 144 pages. At the current rate it may take years. That's something for me to do in private, not in a public forum. Not at the present rate of development.
Does that mean that I'm dropping my column? Not at all. I'm just changing it once again. In which sense? Simple: I'll continue with a game design column where I design games. The difference is that instead of trying to write down a long and complex game, I'll focus in small, simple, one shot games. So, what's the deal?
For a start I'll write down a basic game system. This will be based on the ideas I was developping for TToMP. Let's say that I'll write down my own BRP, GURPS Lite, Nexus, The Window. I have a name for it: The Glove Engine or GlovE.
After that, I'll write a new game each three months. I'll pick a book, movie, real world situation, game, song, whatever interests me and I consider that may serve as the basis for a good game session; and I'll write a game for that particular source of inspiration with my GlovE system. That's why I'm renaming the column 'One Shots'.
What are mu design goals? The next:
To have a system that is so simple that you can learn it in some minutes. The idea is that even someone that never played a rpg can pick it up right away.
To have a system that allows you to pick any source of inspiration and design a game almost as fast as it takes you to read/view/listen to the source. For this purpose I don't want an universal system but a customizable system. What's the difference? Well, compare BRP to GURPS and you'll get it.
To work on a "what's next?" approach to sources of inspiration. I suppose you know the feeling when, after screening an exciting movie you feel you would love to start from there and jump into the action. That's what I have in mind.
Why each tree months? Let's face it, I've never been too respectful of the monthly column format. Designing a game takes time, even with a good foundation in a source you know and a simple, customizable system.
In the next couple of columns I'll go back to the original name of this column: 'Ruleslawyer for Free' since I'm going to present GlovE, the system bones for 'One Shots'. I hope to have this ready by September so that I may start working on the first game the following three months. It will be presented in December. After that I'll present a new game in March, June, September and December. At least I hope so.
Sérgio
|
|
