A new unscheduled idea: the original plan needs to be fixed!

I don't remember actually if I have already mentioned a fact that made me think a lot... In the first weeks of January I sent some emails to pen pals just to let them know that I published my game: iirc I wrote to 5 fellows, not a large group but to those that I am really in touch for my hobby.

I met them along my experiences of RPG collector and researcher. I got a nearly immediate answer from my friend Maarten! He said he would have bought the book and sent me a feedback... and so he did! About two weeks later, Maarten wrote me an extensive email with both congrats for my effort and (moreover!) hints, suggestions and comments on several ideas I developed.

Some of the suggestions will be part for sure in the VIII·XII·XX book (the expanded rules of VI·VIII·X). Further details will be disclosed in the next update about this book!

Some other comments made me consider that he had a very keen view on what I did: on at least 3 points he outlined, there was a single underlying concern. The point was about the effect of blending or overlapping between stand-alone rules of an RPG and concepts referred to the setting the author has in mind while writing the rules for it. The outcome is that even if I tried to keep distinct rules and setting, as a matter of fact this didn't always occur: the most evident example is the magic spellcasting chapter! 

Along with these comments Maarten proposed me to rethink some parts of the rules where I do not necessarily have to be extensive (like the Exclusive Skills chapter where I list all the ES for the sake of completeness): I could have a more 'game-desing' approach and write how an Exclusive Skill could be made up instead of the total list of the skills I have in *MY* mind.

Adding up these two comments from my friend I came to the same conclusion he got when he closed his message: it'd very interesting to build an 'universal set of rules' completely (or nearly) setting-neutral. This could foster the use of the rules in any setting by applying the guidelines to build the proper list of skills, weapons, careers and so forth in any kind of game setting: from a sci-fi up to a modern, horror or post-holocaust one! Everything would be up to the GM and his world of immagination!

I am now in touch with Maarten to see if and how we can find a way to write down in a collaborative way this new book! The positive aspect is that his highly energetic approach and very keen way to see things will help me for sure to have another product within my project. The sad part is that this is an 'unexpected journey' as it wasn't not in my plans! But being completely free to choose, I find this idea very charming and with an high potential to find people likely interested in my proposal.

As a consequence, a new revision of my plan is ongoing: as soon as I finish the quickstart, I will schedule this undertaking (assuming Maarten is available and hasn't changed his mind in the meanwhile!). 

My last words are, of course, words of gratitude towards Maarten: kudos to him! 
(the Friends page has been duly updated...)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The concept of KUP RPG (part 1)

As promised, let us focus on an oustanding detail of my project: the KUP RPG.  Several years ago I started thinking of a game model where only the GM uses the dice and makes any action required to determine the events of the game. I talked about this idea with a friend who convinced me that this would have been a failure for sure in terms of interest and playability. I must admit that the discussion didn't last so much: the explanation he gave was solid... Gamers want to toss dice and ideally make 20! That's one of the keys for the success of the RPGs! I then set aside this idea and tried to elaborate something different which brings to the same result and found a solution that now I call KUP: Keep Uneducated Players. Before any further detail I need to explain the reasons that led me to rethink the current game model: one (and it is not the only!) aspect I dislike is the complete disclosure of any detail of the game mechanics to the players. First of all if you look at a moder...
Follow the white rabbit...

The concept of KUP RPG (part 2)

Once it is clear the background, my vision and the main idea, let us try to figure out some more details of the KUP model. The first main feature is that the rules are for GMs only. They need to learn and use them: I wrote "use" and not "apply"; despite the fact that in the majority of the traditional RPGs the "rule 0" is invoked (i.e. the rules in the book are subject to changes upon decision of the GM), I have tried to leave the rules open to the application of the GM (whenever it is possible of course). Therefore the GM has to learn the rules and then define how he wants to use them. The players do not need (or better have not to) read the rules, in particular those referred to the game mechanics. The second main feature is that some rules work on pieces of information that are known to the GM only; among these you can find that even some PC stats are not known to the players, they do not need to know these info (I called these unknown stats US, the acr...
Follow the white rabbit...

Core Rules: what is under the hood

After some days spent on DriveThru in order to understand how tricky is the preparation of a title over there, I am back to the real matter, the game. Let me only say: yes, I will likely put on DriveThru my stuff and as soon as the Core Rules will be ready, I will start a communication campaign. Now, what is in the rulebook: this book has 9 chapters, I will provide you with a summary of each of them here below. Ch.I - Introduction to the VI·VIII·X KUP RPG game; here you will read what is the KUP concept, what is the underlying rationale and how the rulebook is built. Let me add a detail: for this book I decided to write the rules in a (hopefully) easy to read way; short explanations, some examples and many many links to other related or recalled rules; in order to help the reader I outlined keyword or concepts in bold (now, with the formatting, I lost this feature but I will insert it in the printed version).  Ch.II - Character's definition: in this chapter all the main stats ...
Follow the white rabbit...