Well, it seems that I need to learn to read the instructions on this thing better. I screwed up the scheduling on a couple posts last week. So, they may or may not be coming later.
I say may not, because I need some feedback here from you loyal readers. I've noticed that I've gotten pretty much zero feedback on my Seven Kingdoms stuff. More importantly, I noticed while trying to get caught up on the RPGBA feed that I tend to skip everyone else's posts regarding "here's my new system/setting!"
I'm thinking that live-blogging the development of an RPG is a lot like Greg Stolze's patron model. If you already have people who are interested in what you have to say, it can really work. If you're still making your bones, people aren't likely to be interested in watching you flail about. That's especially true when, like me, you can't drop a new post on the subject every day. People just aren't likely to remember what else you're doing to see how all the pieces fit together.
So, the feedback I'm looking for is whether or not I should even continue posting Seven Kingdoms stuff. Please don't worry about hurting my feelings. I recognize there's a difference between "I'm not interested in reading about you trying to pull this game together" and "Your game sucks."
I'm still planning on working out the game. When I get it all together, I may be releasing it as a PDF. Of course, part of this is also spawned from the fact that one of the missing posts from last week is that I'm no longer convinced that d20 is the right system, even with the tweaks I'm making. I'm actually considering creating a franken-system out of all the bits I highlight in my "System Wank" series. If I'm going to re-boot the whole system (again), I don't want to drag it out on the blog. Unless you guys want to see me drag it out.
I'll just wrap this up with a blatant begging for comments. Even if you're just saying, "meh, whatever," I'd still like to hear it. Given the number of readers I have, trust me, every vote counts.
There are various categories I usually skip when reading blogs: campaign journals, RPG theory and system development. System development rarely triggers the (entertaining) self-examination of "I wonder if I could use this in my campaign" or "I wonder this would result in". Something related that might work better (?) is writing about a scene in a game, where awesome stuff happened, what sort of rule this was facilitated by and how you worded it in your design document. Another thing that might work is comparing it with an existing system. Perhaps you don't like how Initiative is handled in some popular game, why you don't like it, what house rule you used and how you rewrote it for your design document.
ReplyDeleteThe only Seven Kingdoms bit I've read was on the sexual mores, but I enjoyed it. Perhaps I'll have to check the archives instead of just reading what you've written since I started following you.
ReplyDeleteI read everything. Rarely comment on setting stuff, because the need to take it all in and see how the pieces work together.
ReplyDeleteI frequently read design posts but rarely read "about my campaign/about my setting" style posts.
ReplyDeleteWithout looking deeper, I assumed that your Seven Kingdoms posts were the second kind, not the first.
I'm always very interested in what people have to say about mechanics and how they use them or want to use them -- but less so in "I'm writing about my homebrew fantasy world" because I don't really feel like I have much to say about someone's personal play-setting, you know?