Let's Build an RPG (pt. 4)

 Creating a good RPG is a long, ongoing process. What I managed to make when I started Dragonette was playable within 20 minutes. Making it presentable to the world has taken considerably longer.

Still Polishing

What I put out last week was perfectly playable. In fact, I've gotten some good reviews and a lot of great feedback from people on it. But, it is far from something I'm satisfied with. Since it's initial release I've created an alphabetical index and a table of contents.

I am still working on adding another 20 monsters, who will be put in the next release version of dragonette. After that I want to do two more loot tables, add in some advice on converting OSR material to play in Dragonette, and if I ever get ambitious, I might create a couple of example adventures.

I would be curious to know if people wanted to have a section specifically on creating third party content for Dragonette. Given that I have placed it in the Creative Commons such a document is not necessary, but it might be appreciated.

And and the thing about Dragonette is it is a one off. My two passion projects, Deathtrap Lite and Eternal Ocean are requiring much more.

With Deathtrap Lite, I am currently writing a "first edition," which is different from the Playtest Edition as it is arranged and formatted differently, and with a lot of feedback from players integrated into it. I also want to run it on a Discord server a few times for people to get clear feedback. Unfortunately, I sudden need to move house and protracted illness has prevented me from keeping up on my Dungeon 23 project which was to be the first module.

Eternal Ocean already has two books in pretty decent format: A setting book on the Confederacy and background on the Mission, and a rulebook with a Cairn-based science fiction TTRPG made for the setting. It has a third book in process. This book is broken into sections on playing eternal ocean both with the wreck engine I created for it and with other systems, information on the planet Roosevelt and it serves as the primary setting, including an extended gazetteer and several different recommended campaign structures, along with the number of random generators. It has been a slow going project because it is required so much careful thought.

Beyond that, I actually have 24 adventure scenarios outlined for Eternal Ocean. What started as a side project for my cyberpunk game Midnight Zone has become a far superior and far more interesting project..

You never stop working on a good role-playing game. There's no such thing as a one-off creation. If you allow it to, a TTRPG can become a long-term and highly energy consuming project.

And I have the far more finite project of Ruins & Redcaps, my AD&D1e clone that is designed to be far more readable and learnable while being as true to a d&d1e's rules as humanly possible. And an experiment for a couple of years down the road in the form of Valkyrie. Not to mention a few OSR modules.

Ultimately, someone who tries to do everything accomplishes nothing: Once Dragonette is cleared, I'm going to have to narrow it down to my two biggest projects, and do the rest once they have been completed.

But, I want to finish the low hanging fruit of a highly refined version of Dragonette first..

Hopefully in a year's time, I will have a small stable of gaming titles complete and can spend a few years biting off less and making them all better games.