Author: Drew (---.hbs.edu)
Date: 04-24-2001 08:14
This thought came upon me in a fit of insomnia last night, so please excuse if it (or I) seems frazzled.
With continued interest in the 'Game A Week' content, I thought it may be neat to bring in a variety of folks, both of name and wishing to make a name, to help contribute in a fun and interesting way. As I'm a big fan of shows like Iron Chef, Junkyard Wars, and BattleBots the transition from weekly column to biweekly contest/game seemed natural.
So... How's this... The Chairman, insane RPG billionaire (played by either Sandy or GMS), wants to create his elite team of Iron Game Designers. These super-persons of game design will stride forth over the land like giants, awash in the fame and loose women that come with their advanced positions. Of course, the Chairman can't just pick folk at random, so a series of eight initial contestants must battle it out to see who can claim the title.
On a regular interval (weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc.) a battle takes place between two of the contestants, with the winner advancing to the next round and the loser returning home to nurse his wounds. The Chairman will release his specifications for a game ("If memory serves me right, d20 is a popular system amoungst many gamers. Many gamers also enjoy the book "Watership Down" and other sentient animal literature. Now, brave designers, design me a d20 game that combines the themes of sentient animals with the ease of d20..."). The two contestants then have a week (or so) to design a game according to the Chairman's specs.
At the end of the design period, the two games (each about the size of GMS' standard 52 Pickup offerings) are passed on for Tasting and Judgement. Judges will fit the Iron Chef stereotypes and will come from amoungst the RPG.net community. So, there will be the Food Critic (someone with industry connections, another good role for GMS pending his busy schedule), the Wise Rockstar (one of RPG.net's more reliable RPG Reviewers), the Bubbling Starlet (A column reader chosen at random from a pool of folks who wanna contribute), and the Smarmy Photographer (I dunno about this one... Maybe as poll-like mass vote of everyone? This would be the Populist Judge). Each judge will review the two games and rate them, perhaps adding a few lines of comments detailing the game's strengths and weaknesses. Their scores will be tabulated and then the Chairman will announce the winner.
Of course, through all this, the phorums will remain open for anyone to comment, debate, and discuss. After the first batch of 8 Contestants are complete (which would be 4+2+1=7 contests worth), the first RPG.net Iron Game Designer would be chosen!
Thoughts? This idea requires some logistics that may need to be outsourced outstide of RPG.net HQ. I bet, though, that if it takes off finding Doc Hatoris, Fukuis, and Otas wouldn't be too hard.
Thoughts?
-Drew.
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