The Art of Game Creation

[Young Bard]

Nyali: Sounds fun. But, do you really have info sheets like that for, say, 20+ characters? After the first few, they might be tough to think of.

 

EDIT: Are faction games always so popular, or is this a trend at the moment? The last 4 suggestions have all been faction games.

Edited June 2, 2016 by The Young Bard

[A Joe in the Bush]

The meta tends to shift from game style to game style. Faction games are in favor right now probably because it's been a bit since one was played. They aren't usually this popular.

[Haelbarde]

So is this a good time, or not, for me to write up rules for my game where everyone starts factionless, and have to join one of the available factions to gain a win condition?

[Nyali]

Nyali: Sounds fun. But, do you really have info sheets like that for, say, 20+ characters? After the first few, they might be tough to think of.

 

EDIT: Are faction games always so popular, or is this a trend at the moment? The last 4 suggestions have all been faction games.

 

I have like, six done or mostly done, and 20 or so more outlined (character, faction, basic goals). Most of the difficulty comes from the goals - the specials follow pretty easily from who the character is, at least so far. For the goals, I'm starting by focusing on using more simple/generic ones than I'd prefer, and I can go back and make them more exciting later. Like, "end the game alive" or "X needs to die" or X needs to end the game alive" or "successfully use X skill Y times" - all of those are super easy to come up with. Skill balance is something that needs serious work, but the players don't all need to be the same power level, the factions just need to be balanced.

 

I'm just trying to balance factions right now character-wise, and deal with the fact that I wanted to include 5 worlds and White Sand isn't out yet so I know nothing about Taldain. Right now, nearly every character idea is from Scadrial or Roshar, and I'm having to figure out which ones to cut (or at least regulate to ones to use if the game gets more signups than anticipated) and what Nalthis, Sel, and Taldain characters to add.

 

I'm likely going to set up the characters like I would when writing a theater-style LARP - Find the minimum for the game to work, and then list which characters to add or remove for each number of players from that point to the maximum. Like:

14: Add Renarin.

15: Add Shallan, Pattern. Remove Renarin.

 

It's not as complicated as it sounds since you usually just add one, but sometimes you need to keep a group together for one reason or another (like a two-person faction), so you have to remove someone to make room.

 

 

EDIT: And I have no idea about faction games - I wrote up three ideas in a short period of time and only shared two of them (I have an Alloy of Law era Mistborn game 90% written up as a backup), and only one of them was a faction game.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Nyali

[Mailliw73]

So is this a good time, or not, for me to write up rules for my game where everyone starts factionless, and have to join one of the available factions to gain a win condition?

YES! I want to see this.

[A Joe in the Bush]

So is this a good time, or not, for me to write up rules for my game where everyone starts factionless, and have to join one of the available factions to gain a win condition?

That's basically what my House Wars Game is.

[Nyali]

So is this a good time, or not, for me to write up rules for my game where everyone starts factionless, and have to join one of the available factions to gain a win condition?

 

What if everyone joins the same faction?

[Haelbarde]

What if everyone joins the same faction?

People won't. I can almost guarantee it.

[Mailliw73]

People won't. I can almost guarantee it.

If I'm around to play, I'll guarantee it.

[Haelbarde]

If I'm around to play, I'll guarantee it.

See, entry to factions would be based on player actions, if I could make it work. And there almost definitely wouldn't be secret factions.

[A Joe in the Bush]

I can also Guarantee it. I'll try to be alone on a faction, just for fun.

[Haelbarde]

Sorta @Mods, but anyone's thoughts would be useful: Would there be any chance of having another 'format' as it were - a "Break Tank", as Gamma suggested.

 

Basically the idea would be to have 3 day games with 24 hours cycles, and only a 1-2 day signup period, that could be used to stress-test games before they are run, or to try out new mechanics that don't have a full game attached to them yet. They'd basically be whenever someone felt the need to test something, but only ever 1 at a time (and maybe only 1 a week), and the expectation going into these games is that they could be highly broken, and won't be played to completion. 

 

I know that my Codex Alera game could have benefited from a stress test, and I've had a whole bunch of ideas that would be interesting to try, but wouldn't necessarily fit in to a proper game.

 

@Mods: Is this sort of thing something that could happen?

@GMs: Would you find it useful to have something like this available?
@Players: Would you sign up to games like this? As in, concepts that haven't been fleshed out yet, games that haven't been balanced, and games where there won't be a satisfying conclusion or a winner at the end?

 

---

Not sure which is the best thread to put this, but the other question was: Would it be possible to have a thread where things like Day 1 lynches, advice for analyzing information in game, and other such things could be discussed, and possibly have "articles" written and linked to in the OP, so that discussions don't have to clog up game threads, and so that newer players can easily find the information?

Edited June 4, 2016 by Haelbarde

[A Joe in the Bush]

I think General Rules works for the articles Essays and Discussions.

Edited June 4, 2016 by The Only Joe

[Master Elodin]

If anyone besides Elb wants to help with the Young Wizards game, just say so.

[the winter system]

When is it going to be? 

[Master Elodin]

No idea. I don't know what format it will be yet. The game will be up soon though.

[Conquestor]

Haelbarde, that would be awesome! I would join them as a player because if it did become a game, then it would give me an advantage when the actual game came out. As a GM (well, almost) I would love to test out ideas that might not work.

[Mailliw73]

I'd also play those, Hael.

[Bugsy]

Elodin, I'd love to help assuming I'm free. If it's at any point in the next month or so, I won't be able to, unfortunately. When you say the game should be up soon, do you mean for playing or on this thread as an idea?

Oh, and I'd definitely sign up in the BT games. They'd be some nice practice sans consequences, and a nice break from higher intensity games

Edited June 6, 2016 by Bugsy6912

[Conquestor]

I had another great idea for a new set of SE games. Games where not even the eliminators don't know their an eliminator. It would be interesting to see what people would do, I mean, what would you do? There wouldn't be scanner roles, the lynch would definitely be more interesting. Just an idea I was throwing out there, want to see what you guys think.

Edited June 6, 2016 by Conquestor

[Master Elodin]

Elodin, I'd love to help assuming I'm free. If it's at any point in the next month or so, I won't be able to, unfortunately. When you say the game should be up soon, do you mean for playing or on this thread as an idea?

Oh, and I'd definitely sign up in the BT games. They'd be some nice practice sans consequences, and a nice break from higher intensity games

It's 18th in line for LG. I have a rough draft by now but if you'd like to help design and flesh it out/smooth it out shoot me a PM.

[Haelbarde]

I had another great idea for a new set of SE games. Games where not even the eliminators don't know their an eliminator. It would be interesting to see what people would do, I mean, what would you do? There wouldn't be scanner roles, the lynch would definitely be more interesting. Just an idea I was throwing out there, want to see what you guys think.

I've considered the idea of sleeper agents before - players who start the game as villagers, but after some condition is met (maybe a randomly chosen cycle, or the death of another eliminator) they get activated, and get added to the eliminator doc. The paranoia would be amazing

Edited June 6, 2016 by Haelbarde

[Straw]

I promise I will run this game. I just need a Co-GM. A Paranoid Town.

In the town of Longsvale there was a whisper that grew Louder. The whisper carried a sentence, "It is rising..."

Factions:

Disciple of The Dark: The disciples of the dark are the eliminator faction. They have a doc and group kill. Their win condition is to outnumber the Townspeople.

Townspeople: The Townspeople are trying to survive against the dark. Their win condition is to kill every Disciple of The Dark.

Roles:

The Darkling: The Darkling is always evil. He can corrupt 1 player every cycle. He can have up to four corrupted players.

The Mayor: The mayor is elected by the players. Mayor votes are placed in orange. The mayor has a extra vote.

Guard: You can lock a player away preventing them from using a action.

Doctor: You look like a normal doctor but you have dabbled in necromancy. Once per game you can bring a player back to life. They will get a new faction and role.

Detective: You are excellent at finding out what people did. Each night you can find out a person's role and alignment.

Murderer: One stab to the back and it's done! You can kill a person each night.

Villager: You may be a normal guy but you do know some of the workings of the town! You participate in a secret lynch.

Edited June 6, 2016 by Straw

[Seonid]

It's just:

[b]Text goes in here[/b]

[Straw]

Thanks. Stupid formatting ☹️