The Art of Game Creation

[|TJ| he/him]

13 hours ago, Through the living Wahr said:

Also has anyone some feedback for this Game Idea? This will probably be a Partial Blackout so there are some rules that are not visible in the Doc

Any reason why you prefer Group PM for Faction communication? I think it would work better with Docs because there would be a lot more scheming and coordination in a faction game and it would be easier through Docs than in a Group PM. 

[Wahrheitswächter He/Him]

10 minutes ago, |TJ| said:

Any reason why you prefer Group PM for Faction communication? I think it would work better with Docs because there would be a lot more scheming and coordination in a faction game and it would be easier through Docs than in a Group PM. 

No particullar Reason, havent much experience to pull from, but if you think that Docs would work better, I can change that, any other feedback?

Edited April 9 by Through the living Wahr

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

On 4/9/2026 at 4:13 AM, Through the living Wahr said:

Always happy to help. 

Also has anyone some feedback for this Game Idea? This will probably be a Partial Blackout so there are some rules that are not visible in the Doc

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aSJFRGSFSiAQFhjkkEDVBWzVqpdXtWxruZE3wVYhuhc/edit?usp=drivesdk

Its based on Emberdark so there are some Spoilers for that, as well as a very slight Spoiler for Elsecaller

Is there no way to die in this game other than the Anti-Investiture explosion? Abilities like Returning and the Sleepless Regrowing don't seem like they'd be very useful.

[Wahrheitswächter He/Him]

Well the Ghostblood Role can kill Players 

The Doc also only lists the public Information there are some secrets in this Game.

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

3 hours ago, Through the living Wahr said:

Well the Ghostblood Role can kill Players 

The Doc also only lists the public Information there are some secrets in this Game.

Ah okay.

[Cuendillar He/him]

I threw out the children of the light concept, and now I'm thinking: (wot spoilers)

Spoiler

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vee1H707PNk9oP1HWGsHIhWPzSBng80G8uQ8PACsIJM/edit?usp=sharing

When the trolloc army disappeared in Shadar Logoth

What do y'all think about this?

[Araris Valerian he/him]

23 minutes ago, Qianweilian said:

I threw out the children of the light concept, and now I'm thinking: (wot spoilers)

  Hide contents

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vee1H707PNk9oP1HWGsHIhWPzSBng80G8uQ8PACsIJM/edit?usp=sharing

When the trolloc army disappeared in Shadar Logoth

What do y'all think about this?

Looks interesting! You may consider having the fists share Google Docs, rather than PMs.

It’s not entirely clear how many Trollocs the myrddraal can use their ability on per cycle, so I’d clarify that.

Otherwise, the balance seems like it would largely come down to the distribution. I like the flavor, though the game probably doesn’t lend itself super well to player RP. There’s still plenty of potential for fun writeups though!

[Cuendillar He/him]

10 minutes ago, Araris Valerian said:

It’s not entirely clear how many Trollocs the myrddraal can use their ability on per cycle, so I’d clarify that.

I was intending the myrddraal can use one of the two on one trolloc and another one of the two on another trolloc. I'll clarify that.

10 minutes ago, Araris Valerian said:

Otherwise, the balance seems like it would largely come down to the distribution.

What distribution would you recommend?

[Araris Valerian he/him]

1 hour ago, Qianweilian said:

What distribution would you recommend?

That’s a hard question that also depends on the number of signups you get. I’d suggest just listing out a couple of possibilities for 10-15 players and seeing if there are any obvious breaks in the game. If you ran the rules this is something you could get help with from a coGM or IM.

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

Alright! New ruleset. It's the Cognitive Realm game I was talking about a while back.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18R-m8MVfpdgLwGzXKMuJMlfgZX9jm1ZLnidkBrfOL5g/edit?usp=sharing

Would this work? I realise that I've probably gone a little overboard with the spren and Radiant mechanics. 

Also, how do I get rulesets approved? I want to approve my taynix game.

Edited May 28 by KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren

[Wahrheitswächter He/Him]

Definitely an Interesting game, I like it.

To get a Game approved you need to either PM or Ping the Game Balance Comitee Members and at least two of them need to approve it. You can find the Comitee Members in the First Post of the GM Sign Up Thread.

 

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

16 minutes ago, Through the living Wahr said:

Definitely an Interesting game, I like it.

To get a Game approved you need to either PM or Ping the Game Balance Comitee Members and at least two of them need to approve it. You can find the Comitee Members in the First Post of the GM Sign Up Thread.

 

Alright thanks

@Amanuensis, @STINK, @Sart, @The Unknown Medallion and @DrakeMarshall have logged on in the past month

Here's my taynix game:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/16gvW0r8KneAmPXX_7D9v0ZK7Y1nXZuIya77M-_qweLY/edit?usp=sharing

Edited May 28 by KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren

[TwinStorm He/Him]

11 hours ago, Through the living Wahr said:

Definitely an Interesting game, I like it.

To get a Game approved you need to either PM or Ping the Game Balance Comitee Members and at least two of them need to approve it. You can find the Comitee Members in the First Post of the GM Sign Up Thread.

 

generally tho you dont need to get a game approved until you know your running it next

[Araris Valerian he/him]

I've been brainstorming updates for my House on the Hill game and am interested in ideas for rooms/items. The current ideas are here (page 4), I'm curious what folks think might be fun to accidentally stumble upon in the House.

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

On 5/28/2026 at 9:12 AM, TwinStorm said:

generally tho you dont need to get a game approved until you know your running it next

I for one applaud the more proactive approach though!

even if I've never actually done it that way myself

On 5/27/2026 at 10:19 PM, KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren said:

Here's my taynix game:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/16gvW0r8KneAmPXX_7D9v0ZK7Y1nXZuIya77M-_qweLY/edit?usp=sharing

"If you start the game with one, you get to name it, and it will have that name for the rest of the game"

10/10 good rules

 

speaking broadly, a lot of rulesets I see seem to come down kinda harshly on giving stuff away to other players, with lots of limitations on how you're allowed to do that

eg they limit it to only transferring 1 gift per cycle, they make it cost an action that competes with other actions you could have taken, stuff like that

from a certain point of view, the trust mechanics in your taynix ruleset are additionally penalizing gift giving, since you're resetting the trust level of that taynix in most cases

and! in my opinion this is slightly unnecessary

idk I've yet to see a game get broken by too much gift giving (y'all may take this as a challenge to create a game like that if u want), I've seen plenty of games where the mechanic just doesn't get used at all though

both because giving stuff away is inherently zero sum and therefore Not Overpowered, and because people want to have the cool stuff for themselves and are usually a bit reluctant to give it up

the one limitation on gifting that  probably should exist imo is it should happen after death in the order of operations. Because giving all your stuff away to a teammate on the cycle you're getting exed feels cheap, to me. [honestly even this is probably not inherently unbalanced. if anything it could sometimes keep the game more balanced, since deaths don't remove key abilities from play, cutting down on swingyness. I just think it's a little boring is all]

point is! if you wanted to buff giving away taynix / remove some of the limitations surrounding that action, I think that would be grand

but this is not an Important Balance Thing and it would not affect whether the game got approved or not, it's just my two cents. It's your game and you should do what you want with it

 

"Lone Taynix know who killed their owner, and whoever did so loses one Trust with them"

idk murder feels pretty untrustworthy

maybe deduct whatever amount of trust the Taynix had in its owner

so if your Taynix had +3 trust in you, your killer gets -3 trust

makes it more likely that you could get a Taynix with negative trust in you if you killed its last owner, which I think is very funny

just a thought

 

anyways I actually don't have a lot of notes about the different slug types

they are good

I like them

the abilities seem like they should all be pretty well-balanced if distributed correctly ('distributed correctly' is doing some heavy lifting, as it does in literally every game ever, because there is no ruleset that is guaranteed balanced regardless of distro, but I don't think committee reviews are mainly about addressing distro. someone can correct me if I'm wrong about that)

well done

if you want the game to be role madness (everyone starts with at least 1 slug) then maybe you could stand to create 1 or 2 more types for variety's sake but honestly even if you don't it's fine

 

anyways I would approve this ruleset!

if you end up making a lot of changes between now and when you end up running it then maybe don't count that as Official, but

I think your rules are probably good for what it's worth

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

2 minutes ago, DrakeMarshall said:

On 5/28/2026 at 3:19 PM, KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren said:

 

"If you start the game with one, you get to name it, and it will have that name for the rest of the game"

10/10 good rules

Thank you!

3 minutes ago, DrakeMarshall said:

speaking broadly, a lot of rulesets I see seem to come down kinda harshly on giving stuff away to other players, with lots of limitations on how you're allowed to do that

eg they limit it to only transferring 1 gift per cycle, they make it cost an action that competes with other actions you could have taken, stuff like that

from a certain point of view, the trust mechanics in your taynix ruleset are additionally penalizing gift giving, since you're resetting the trust level of that taynix in most cases

and! in my opinion this is slightly unnecessary

idk I've yet to see a game get broken by too much gift giving (y'all may take this as a challenge to create a game like that if u want), I've seen plenty of games where the mechanic just doesn't get used at all though

both because giving stuff away is inherently zero sum and therefore Not Overpowered, and because people want to have the cool stuff for themselves and are usually a bit reluctant to give it up

the one limitation on gifting that  probably should exist imo is it should happen after death in the order of operations. Because giving all your stuff away to a teammate on the cycle you're getting exed feels cheap, to me. [honestly even this is probably not inherently unbalanced. if anything it could sometimes keep the game more balanced, since deaths don't remove key abilities from play, cutting down on swingyness. I just think it's a little boring is all]

point is! if you wanted to buff giving away taynix / remove some of the limitations surrounding that action, I think that would be grand

but this is not an Important Balance Thing and it would not affect whether the game got approved or not, it's just my two cents. It's your game and you should do what you want with it

Alright, I have implemented this

4 minutes ago, DrakeMarshall said:

"Lone Taynix know who killed their owner, and whoever did so loses one Trust with them"

idk murder feels pretty untrustworthy

maybe deduct whatever amount of trust the Taynix had in its owner

so if your Taynix had +3 trust in you, your killer gets -3 trust

makes it more likely that you could get a Taynix with negative trust in you if you killed its last owner, which I think is very funny

just a thought

Ooh yes good idea, I'm adding that

4 minutes ago, DrakeMarshall said:

anyways I actually don't have a lot of notes about the different slug types

they are good

I like them

the abilities seem like they should all be pretty well-balanced if distributed correctly ('distributed correctly' is doing some heavy lifting, as it does in literally every game ever, because there is no ruleset that is guaranteed balanced regardless of distro, but I don't think committee reviews are mainly about addressing distro. someone can correct me if I'm wrong about that)

well done

if you want the game to be role madness (everyone starts with at least 1 slug) then maybe you could stand to create 1 or 2 more types for variety's sake but honestly even if you don't it's fine

Alright.

I don't intend to hand out too many.

5 minutes ago, DrakeMarshall said:

anyways I would approve this ruleset!

if you end up making a lot of changes between now and when you end up running it then maybe don't count that as Official, but

I think your rules are probably good for what it's worth

Alright thank you!

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

Ok so I have some questions about GMing

How much more activity intensive is GMing then playing SE?

Because I have been really wanting to start up a game, but I don't have enough time to play an SE game, so I'm not sure if it would be worth it to make a game.

Also, what are the rules on non-sanderson SE games?

[Wahrheitswächter He/Him]

Its definitiv more time intensiv, because you need to be on to do roleover and during cycles you will need to note down submitted actions as well as answer potential questions that may come up in thread.

As far as I know, at least one of the GMs needs a Non-Sanderson Pass which is usually won in an AG and only every fifth Game of a Format can be a Non-Sanderson. 

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

6 minutes ago, Wahrheitswächter said:

Its definitiv more time intensiv, because you need to be on to do roleover and during cycles you will need to note down submitted actions as well as answer potential questions that may come up in thread.

As far as I know, at least one of the GMs needs a Non-Sanderson Pass which is usually won in an AG and only every fifth Game of a Format can be a Non-Sanderson. 

Hmmm... I feel like the noted down actions and votes could be automated with a spreadsheet (like some GMs already do), being on roleover shouldn't be to hard if I plan it well, but the questions could be difficult...

Is the non-sanderson pass an exception to the second rule, or both must be fufilled? Like, ever 5 games and a non sanderson pass or every 5 games or a non-sanderson pass?

[Araris Valerian he/him]

27 minutes ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

Ok so I have some questions about GMing

How much more activity intensive is GMing then playing SE?

Because I have been really wanting to start up a game, but I don't have enough time to play an SE game, so I'm not sure if it would be worth it to make a game.

Also, what are the rules on non-sanderson SE games?

I would say that for simple games, GMing is a fair bit easier than playing, but that's because I tend to do a fair bit of analysis if I end up surviving to later parts of the game. And if the rules are simple, your players won't have many questions to answer. Also, there is a requirement for new GMs to run a simple game first, or to have an experienced coGM.

1 minute ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

every 5 games or a non-sanderson pass?

This is correct. You don't need a pass if it's been a while since the last non-Sanderson game. This is tracked in the signup sheet, and it's per game type (LG/MR/QF).

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

4 minutes ago, Araris Valerian said:

I would say that for simple games, GMing is a fair bit easier than playing, but that's because I tend to do a fair bit of analysis if I end up surviving to later parts of the game. And if the rules are simple, your players won't have many questions to answer. Also, there is a requirement for new GMs to run a simple game first, or to have an experienced coGM.

This is correct. You don't need a pass if it's been a while since the last non-Sanderson game. This is tracked in the signup sheet, and it's per game type (LG/MR/QF).

Oh alright. And I was not about to be like, "And for my first ever GMing experience, here is the 200 page ruleset, the 50 different rules, and this one giant spreadsheet!!"

Thanks for the info on non-sanderson games.

[Jo and the Bush all/any]

I actually find GM'ing to be less time intensive than playing. With GM'ing, other than answering questions, you really only need to spend 2ish hours a turn, around rollover. I strongly recommend spending more than that, just keeping up with the game and the players, but you don't have to in order to run a fun game. It is more time STRICT than intensive though, for the obvious reasons of a scheduled rollover every turn.

[Aeoryi she/her]

6 hours ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

Ok so I have some questions about GMing

How much more activity intensive is GMing then playing SE?

Because I have been really wanting to start up a game, but I don't have enough time to play an SE game, so I'm not sure if it would be worth it to make a game.

Also, what are the rules on non-sanderson SE games?

Imo it really isn't too much. Sure, you probably have to spend 30+ minutes at regular intervals each day, but that's about it. Rollovers take a bit of time and other than that it's very low investment. An active GM will do more vote counts, but even that doesn't require a lot of time on your hands.

I will say you need to be able to dedicate a good amount of time at the same time for rollovers and if you're struggling/uncertain if you will be capable of that, it's okay! Just make sure to pick up a coGM or get your IM on board or something.

For more complex games, things can definitely take a bit longer but I'd advise against hosting a complex game with tons of moving parts as your first GM game of the shard. QFs are also the most time demanding of the three formats, with MRs being the least

[Mystfall He/Him]

6 hours ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

Ok so I have some questions about GMing

How much more activity intensive is GMing then playing SE?

Because I have been really wanting to start up a game, but I don't have enough time to play an SE game, so I'm not sure if it would be worth it to make a game.

Also, what are the rules on non-sanderson SE games?

I’d be willing to help btw

[The Unknown Character he/him]

6 hours ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

Ok so I have some questions about GMing

How much more activity intensive is GMing then playing SE?

Because I have been really wanting to start up a game, but I don't have enough time to play an SE game, so I'm not sure if it would be worth it to make a game.

Also, what are the rules on non-sanderson SE games?

I'd say they're less time intensive, unless you're running a complicated game and/or are making big (or even medium tbh) writeups, but even then they're about equal. 

Basically, you need about a half an hour on each side of rollover where you're completely focused on the game, but outside of that you don't have to do anything, and even if you choose to do more, it'll only take 5-15 minutes whenever you have the time for vcs and actions and such. 

You do need to quite a bit the first rollover/before the game starts, with sending GMPMs and making/finalizing the distro. There's ways to mitigate those though.