I Make RPGs

[neko ewen]

Does anyone else here design tabletop RPGs?

I'm that nerdy, and I'm working on several, some of which could use feedback:

• Thrash: A fighting-game style martial arts RPG. Currently working on the much-improved but still very new and raw second edition.
• Mascot-tan: A silly little game about anime mascot girls, like the OS-tans, Habanero-tan, Di Gi Charat, etc.
• Raspberry Heaven: Still in the early stages of development, but it's a GM-less game about slice of life high school girl stories like Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star.
• Tokyo Heroes: I'm working on some revisions to the test rules right now, but it's meant to be a sentai/Power Rangers/magical girl RPG.
• Catgirl: The Storytelling Game: I'm still barely getting started, but this is meant to be a semi tongue in cheek parody of White Wolf games, about catgirls with magical powers.

[mDuo13]

Yes, I've been designing tabletop RPGs for, uh... *counts* 6 years?

Not that I've been working consistently those years, but yeah. My friend SSFSX17 and I designed a fairly complete cyberpunk RPG called "Project Gunhyper" and a tabletop SRPG called "Oread Fantasy Tactics" - though we've never actually gotten around to playtesting them...

So yeah, the only feedback I can give you at the moment is that you should probably hyperlink the tables of contents in your PDFs for convenience's sake. It's probably best to refrain from further comment until one has actually playtested the games...

[neko ewen]

Well, I have a heck of a time getting playtesting done myself (the regular campaign tends to eat up what little free time people have for role-playing). Comments informed by playtesting are much *more* helpful, but impressions from just reading stuff can be useful too. (I'd be happy to look at your stuff, but I can't make any promises about playtesting, considering).

Right now I'm trying to get some revisions done to Thrash, Tokyo Heroes, and Raspberry Heaven. And I'm contemplating a zanier cousin to RH that'd be more along the lines of Pani Poni Dash and Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei, called something like "Dandelion Complex". But finals are going to keep me from getting too much done with all of the above for a while yet.

[JohnnyAR]

Tell me neko ewen? What is required to make a table top rpg?

[neko ewen]

That is an exceedingly broad question, really. The first thing I would suggest is to read and play a variety of games, in a variety of styles. Mainstream stuff like D&D and Exalted, and weird indie stuff as found on Indie Press Revolution. It's kind of like creative writing in that there's no one way to go about it. Also, whatever you might try to design, playtest the hell out of it.

[Akira Miyamoto]

Hey, you're the Neko Machi guy! I love your webcomic!!

*cough*

What I meant to say is that I too have a love for assigning stats and dice to stories and stuff. I can never get past the first few words, though, so I've never really gotten anything down.

[neko ewen]

I actually started trying to design RPG stuff well before Neko Machi. :3 But anyway.

I think to design a full game you really need to have some idea what the rules are going to do. It also helps to think about what they're going to do that other games haven't done before. The design process always involves coming up with new ideas to accomplish stuff as you go along (that's my favorite part, really), and occasionally tossing stuff out and rethinking the game.

So with Raspberry Heaven I was making a list of different anime genres to try doing in RPG form, and it occurred to me that a game based on Azumanga Daioh and other slice of life anime shows could be fun. After much writing, throwing most of the stuff out and doing a rewrite (focusing on telling a story rather than seeing who succeeds at stuff), and two playtests, it's starting to come together (though it needs more work and more playtesting).

RPG design is like creative writing in that there are few actual rules to follow, but I recommend having a strong concept to guide you, both in terms of the story and the rules. The rules should evolve and the story concept can mutate, but you need some kind of image to work towards for both.

[SuperKawaiiNeko]

Neko Machi is decent, but I will forever lament the untimely passing of Magus Martin. Boo hoo ;_;

I've been working on a Naruto RPG off and on for a few years now. I don't have much beyond the general concept, though.

I read through most of your Raspberry Heaven game, it sounds great! Now, I haven't actually played it, but I do have one issue. The way it's all set up makes it sound to me like more time would be spent yutzing with cards setting up each scene than would be actually roleplaying. How does this work in execution?

[neko ewen]

I'm still doing some fine-tuning on Raspberry Heaven, but the first playtest went pretty smoothly. I think messing with cards in the middle of the scene lowers the level of immersion, but I think that works to the game's favor in terms of keeping it light and free-flowing. IMO it's actually not a game that would benefit from deep immersion in the first place, so it's purposely tilted away from "my guy" and more towards "our story." I did a revision to make it so that no two Special Moves overlap (and made some more useful), but I want to do something with the turn order for playing cards.

Speaking of Naruto (and its ilk) I've also been working on a fighting shonen manga RPG tentatively titled "Zero Breakers." It ditches a lot of stuff from your typical RPG formula, but I like how it's turning out so far. Here are some of the blog posts about/leading up to it: 1 2 3

(And there's also this thing called Maid RPG...).