Theory From the Closet

This is a work in progress. I got a thought a while back when I was working on a game I back-burnered called Outside. I thought, “Clyde what exactly do I need in a roleplaying game?”

The other day I’m looking through my mess I call an apartment for all the notebooks I have that have like 5 pages of writing. I found what I wanted for one of the many side projects I’m goofing with as I try to think deep thoughts about my main game. Anyway I found this Outline.

What do I need to add, what have I put that sucks, and what might it be good for? I’m thinking it’s good for thinking about all the pieces you need to think about after you have a good idea of your game design goals. But hey, what do I know.

1. Places - A place where stories take place. (setting)
2. People
1. Antagonists - NPC’s who oppose the PC’s.
2. PC’s - Someone for the players to use to access the fiction.
3. Allies
1. Mentors
2. Boss/Leader
• Importance of this depends on setting.
• Asian Inspired - Likely more impotant
• Occidental inspired - Likely less important
• African inspired - ?
3. Followers
4. Friends/Family
3. Powers - Typically games aren’t about playing the janitor, cube worker, etc.
4. Conflict - Without conflict a game is likely to be pretty boring. Traditionally two types of conflict in RPG’s:
• Man versus Environment
• Man versus Man
5. Change - The characters need to be able to change most games address this through advancement.
• Level Based - Gain Experience and become stronger and more skilled. (D+D)
• Skill Based - Gain experience and increase attributes and skills. (White Wolf)
• Sentence Based - Gain experience that allows the writing of descriptive sentences about what the character has learned. (Dogs in the Vineyard)
6. Randomization - Some games eschew this but most embrace it.
• Dice
• Cards

So what’s missing? What do I need to add or remove?