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Game Design: First Thing on a Blank Page (Cultsmasher RPG)
So, I’m having trouble focusing on my tasks today. This idea for an entire RPG that would look a lot like a weird hybrid of Starfinder, AGE, PF2, 5e, 4e, and… like… Fudge beginning to form in my head.
It wants out, and I do NOT have time today. 😛
Historically, my best bet is to write down just enough of the idea that it feels like I won’t lose it over time, and I can convince my muse/subconscious it’s safe to move on. So, you get a peak behind the curtain at some of my design musings.
Often the hardest part for starting a whole new RPG, or a new subsystem, or even just something like a class, is to get the very first thing down on the blank page. I can expand, and build, and riff, and iterate MUCH more easily than I can craft from a starting point of absolutely nothing.
So, just to have a textual jumping-off point, I often create concept pieces that I know may have nothing to do with final text. These are visualizations of how rule interactions might be described eventually, starting life along–hanging in midair with no surrounding game infrastructure to connect to. But I have to start SOMEWHERE, and writing a new-ish idea as if it was final text linked to a whole game often helps spark potential opportunities, pitfalls, and complications in my head, often in real time as I write down the tiny seed of thought I started with.
So, here’s a game mechanic, currently with nothing else tied to it.
“Focus: Your character’s focus represents making a concentrated effort. Doing so is physically, mentally, and even spiritually taxing. As a result, your character has a limited number of Focus Points, which fuel Focus Abilities. If a Focus Ability is tied to an Attribute which is a Primary Attribute for your character, using it costs 1 Focus Point. If it has no Attribute, using it costs 2 Focus Points. If it is tied to a Secondary Attribute, using it costs 3 points.
Every character begins with the Reroll power. If you fail an Attribute roll, you may expend Focus Points to reroll it. This decision must be made immediately after seeing the result of the roll. When you reroll, rather than roll 2d10 and add your bonuses, you roll 1d10 + 10, and add your bonuses.
Characters gain Focus Powers from their Descriptor Paths. Any character may take any Focus Power they qualify for, but some Focus Powers are more effective for certain types of characters. For example, a character with the Fighter path can take Mighty Blow, and since it is tied to Might, a Primary Attribute for the Fighter, it costs him only 1 Focus Point to use. A character with the Occultist path could also gain access to Mighty Blow, but since Might is a Secondary Attribute for that path, the Occultist would have to expend 3 Focus Points to use that power.
A character regains all their Focus Points when they Recuperate.”
I mean no, that’s not anything like a whole mechanic, it it already assumes this that very well might not be how any final game came together. But it’s a good verbal description of this vague IDEA I had in my head.
I also like to label these things as if they were part of an existing RPG framework. Again, these are placeholders, and mental tags to let me organize snippets and file them where I can find them again. So, and just for now, I’ll decide this is part of the CULTSMASHER RPG.
Now, maybe I can get back to working on today’s deadlines.
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Design Diary: Concepts
Often game creation starts with a design concept. Your design concept need not be a jumping-off point, you might have a theme, or a licensed IP, or even just a title you like. But fairly early in a design process, you need to decide what your goals are. Having design goals is not a guarantee you’ll hit them, but the odds are much better when you know what you are aiming for.
As an example: Most ttRPGs that use character classes have the class give characters a set of tools designed to cover specific kinds of problems better than other classes. Rogues are better as sneaking. Warriors are better at fighting. Wizards are better at…. well, in some games, they’re better at everything.
But you could design them differently. You could design classes so they are all designed to be able to tackle any kind of situation, but do so differently. Different tools, different styles, different tactics, but equally useful in all kinds of encounters
So how would you pitch the abilities of classes designed like this? As a thought experiment, I came up with conceptual descriptions for 5 classes for a theoretical RPG “EDWEIRDIAN: STRANGE ADVENTURES FROM 1901 to 1910.”
Aesthlete-Style is your substance. You are never out of place, can can blend in or stand out as needed, drawing and controlling attention as you desire.
Brevet-You can punch above your weight in any circumstance… briefly. You have borrowed authority, borrowed resources, and powered influence. But if you abuse or even use them, they may be removed by their true owners.
Fieldfare-You don’t look like much. You are behind the flashy ones, and just to the right. You have a solid trade, a solid community, and a solid head and your shoulders. You’re not the person making the biggest difference… but you are also hard to get rid of. Your contribution may not be as large, but it’s nearly impossible to stop you from rolling up your sleeves and making a difference, and you make everyone else more effective.
Havelock-You need time to plan your approach. You can prepare to tackle any challenge or hazard, using your own abilities and those or your allies with precision and brilliance… if you know in advance what has to be done. You’re not useless when taken by surprise, but you can’t apply your best effort without some forewarning.
Ripper-You can tear you way through fights, social problems, and barriers, but you can’t do it quietly. You are a spectacular last resort, but you are a LAST resort.
Now, a crucial part of such design is to follow through in adventure design. So if I am writing “BELLE EPOCALYPSE: CITY OF BLINDING LIGHT” as the first adventure for EDWEIRDIAN before the RPG is even finished, I need to remember how the classes are supposed to all be useful in any circumstance and try to set up the flow or the adventure to match. And I should be ready to adjust how that is handled as the RPG rules are refined. And no matter how things go in that first adventure, when I start work on the second, more horror-themed EDWEIRDIAN adventure, GILL DEAD AGE: ATLANTIC RISING, I should refresh my memory on how the game rules are supposed to work to ensure I don’t double down on a rushed, flawed adventure design.
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Owen K.C. Stephens 