anyway.
A Penny for Your Thoughts

2011-01-03 : The Basics of RPG Design
a brief outline with links

Section 1: Your Three Insights
You have insight into how your subject matter works.

You have insight into how real people work.

You have insight into how collaboration works.

A few links:
2009-12-08 : Your 3 Insights
2009-12-18 : Seed content
2010-11-08 : What I learned from my horror binge

Section 2: System & Rules
How do you decide what happens in the game? That's your game's system.

A game's rules don't define, but instead inspire and provoke, its system.

A game's rules embody, express, its insights.

A game's rules provide permission and expectations.

The purpose of a game's rules is to supplant the group's default interactions.

A few links:
Vincent's Standard Rant: Power, Credibility and Assent (10-04-2002, at the Forge)
2005-01-20 : The goal of designing rules is to change social contract.
2005-06-07 : Periodic Refresher
2009-09-14 : Subsystems

Section 3: Players' Duties & Tools
As a player, what's my job? How do I go about it? How do I know when I'm succeeding?

To avoid:
Conflicts of interest between players;
Conflicts of interest between a single player's duties & tools;
Mismatches between duties and tools.

A few links:
2009-04-10 : A Moment of Judgment
2009-06-15 : GM Agenda
2009-06-10: "Every player has responsibilities to the group, and the group gives every player tools."
2009-07-27 : Resolving Player Conflicts by Reconciling Their Interests
2010-04-26 : The MC, a GM

Section 4: Two Timelines
A game's rules coordinate what's happening in the real world with what's happening in the game world.

Real world:
A game's rules structure and coordinate decision-making among the participants. ("What should I contribute? How should I treat others' contributions?")

A game's rules (usually) also maintain and depend upon a body of real-world cues: dice, character sheets, lookup tables, maps & minis, whatever else. ("How do I roll the dice? How do I read them? When and how do I make changes to my character sheet?")

Game world:
A game's rules respond to fictional events and details, and provide fictional events and details of their own. ("What must we decide before we go to the dice? What must we leave for the dice to decide?")

Interplay:
A game's rules create links and feedback between the player's position in the game and the character's position in her world.

A few links:
1-18-05 : How RPG Rules Work
2005-05-20 : Things on Character Sheets
2006-05-18 : A quick IIEE primer, by request
2009-06-07 : Concrete Examples of Arrows
2010-02-16 : Things on Character Sheets (2)
2010-02-18 : Currency - Spanning Divide and Range

Section 5: Subsystems
A game's design lives in how its subsystems interact, not in just the subsystems themselves.

Subsystems operate over real-world timeframes: What are we doing right now? What are we doing tonight? What are we doing over the course of the game?

Subsystems operate in game-world domains: How is my character situated in her setting? What do characters strive for, and how do they achieve them? How will my character change, grow, lose, suffer?

Subsystems serve players' duties & tools.

A few links:
2005-10-20 : The Fruitful Void
2006-10-05 : Reward systems
2006-10-10 : "[It] isn't the moment of changing your character, but the whole process of changing your character."
2008-04-29 : GameChef08 - a Dirty Joke
2009-09-14 : Subsystems
2010-02-16 : Things on Character Sheets (2)
2010-02-19 : Shared Positioning at the Micro

Section 6: Social Context
Who needs your game? That is, who needs its insights?

What does it promise them? Does it make good?

How will they know?

The call for external playtesting is a dry run for publication.

A few links:
"Here's when I knew that Dogs in the Vineyard was good..." (10-04-2004, at the Forge)
2008-04-09 : Rules vs Vigorous Creative Agreement
2009-07-28 : "Designing a roleplaying game means more than designing rules that we can all agree to play by, and that are playable."
"You'll know you've hit it when you start to get excited playtesters." (12-09-2009, at the Forge)

1. On 2011-01-03, Vincent wrote:

2. On 2011-01-03, Ben Lehman wrote:

3. On 2011-01-03, Ben Lehman wrote:

4. On 2011-01-03, Troy_Costisick wrote:

5. On 2011-01-04, Simon C wrote:

6. On 2011-01-04, Larry wrote:

7. On 2011-01-04, jaywalt wrote:

8. On 2011-01-04, Bret wrote:

9. On 2011-01-04, Simon C wrote:

10. On 2011-01-05, Suna wrote:

11. On 2011-01-05, Suna wrote:

12. On 2011-01-05, Valamir wrote:

13. On 2011-01-05, jaywalt wrote:

14. On 2011-01-05, Vincent wrote:

15. On 2011-01-05, Vincent wrote:

16. On 2011-01-05, Seth Ben-Ezra wrote:

17. On 2011-01-05, eggdropsoap wrote:

18. On 2011-01-06, Simon R wrote:

19. On 2011-01-06, Bret wrote: