Making shorter RPG texts
I just finished editing the text of Conspiracy of Shadows: Dirty Hands. I can’t say the text is perfect and flawless, but I think it’s much improved. IÂ hadn’t edited anything in a while, and certainly nothing that long (43,000 words). It’s a robust and “complete” game — it has lots of moving parts and play advice. Good stuff.
One of the things I’m working on in the next couple months is editing the text of my game 44: A Game of Automatic Fear. I published the game as an ashcan a couple years ago. The text is shorter — it’s around 15,000 words.
And, another thing I’m working on is a game chef 2008 idea I had called Lady Killers. It’s not a complete design. I don’t know how long it will be. I’m aiming for very short. Say, 6,000 words.
Meanwhile, John Harper put out Lady Blackbird as a not-quite-stand-alone game that’s under 12 pages.
All of this got me thinking about texts. I’m really interested to see how lean and mean I can make RPGÂ texts. When I play well-designed board games they have maybe 3 pages of rules! There are certainly ways to make that happen with RPGs. My original Dust Devils draft was 6 pages. The book now weighs in around 120 pages, though that includes lots of advice, history, and alternate game expansions.
I have the advantage of not trying to sell hefty books anymore (not that mine were ever really hefty). I can get away with free texts that are only 12 pages long. I have to wonder if other game writers can also cut down their books.
I’m curious to find out whether doing that helps make free texts I offer more appealing and playable to others.
In the creator-owned culture of RPG design, collaboration is difficult. It happened, certainly, but it was the exception not the rule.
Now, I’m calling collaboration here actual assistance on the creative process. This is in contrast to something I’ll call mutualism, which is creators helping each other out with publication and marketing and so on. But, it’s murky. Is playtesting collaboration or mutualism? See? Murky.
But, it’s different enough to talk about.
In the creator owned model, if two (or more) talented designers wanted to craft a new game, it’s an uphill battle, and sometimes a battle of egos. Some people did this successfully. Some people — myself included — tried and failed before they even got out of the gate.
This creator-owned thing was important to people. It was — and probably still is — definitional among my publishing peers. It was the foundation, both philosophically and financially, upon which everything was built as a movement. There are good reasons for this.
But, it also means the model is potentially limiting. If you’re a creator, and you want full control of your efforts without others — even partners — contradicting your wishes, you’re very likely to hit obstacles. This means that most people are one-man bands. And, for many of them, that works just fine. They do seek out assistance from people. For example, they hire someone to do art or layout. And, those are creative works (usually artists retain rights to their works in this model, but layout folks do not).
Right now, I’m collaborating with a friend on his game. I seek no ownership of his property. I just like collaborating with him and with his game. In the short couple weeks I’ve been doing this, I can clearly see his game improve significantly. We’re doing things that he doesn’t have the resources to do alone. Collaboration is powerful.
I can do all this because I’m not really following any model at all outside of having fun with a hobby and helping a friend. But, it’s instructive. Should I seek out to create something new — say, a new game design — why shouldn’t I enlist a team? It’s almost certain that while I may compromise on some level of unique and passionate vision, I’ll gain much more in quality and resources for a better product.
I wish we saw more of this in the indie scene (there is some, it’s true). Of course we see it all the time in traditional RPGs. So, it clearly comes with some downsides. But, the indie scene it’s really taking advantage of the benefits.
Indie RPG Layout contest
The Indie RPG scene has a tradition of contests, especially game design contests. They tend to be high energy affairs, and some have produces amazing games like Polaris, The Mountain Witch and 3:16. And, there are hundreds of other games, many hosted at 1km1kt.com.
Some of the design contests take a simple list of “ingredients” in the form of cool words like “horse” or “island” or “fire” and so on. Other variations have included inspiring artwork that designers incorporate into the game. And, a few of the contests have evaluated the presentation of the games with rushed-but-cool layouts.
I’m about to launch a new contest. It’s a layout contest. I want to see people’s creativity as it relates to information design, typography, art direction and layout.
I’ve got a text picked out. It’s Keith Senkowski’s Conspiracy of Shadows: Dirty Hands. I’m editing the text currently, and it’s a really interesting game. It also has some heft — it weighs in over 42,000 words. I’ll likely whittle that down to make it a bit more manageable, but one aspect of the contest is creating a layout that appreciates some of the nitty gritty work book designers have to do to make a layout work.
The trick will be doing it so that doesn’t drive away participation. So, I’ve got to settle on some happy medium.
I’ll be judging the contest along with at least one or two other layout-savvy pals. The winner will get an actual prize or two — actual RPG books that the judges think are well designed. Everyone will get at least some commentary and notes back from the judges on their layout.
It’s going to take several more days to assemble the text, get artwork, write the rules and launch the contest. It will likely run for about 3 weeks.
The end result will be several usable PDF layouts of a very cool and under-rated game in Conspiracy of Shadows: Dirty Hands. And, another result will be a fun way to help others improve their layout skills.
