Design rpg game

The first-page of this two-page pamphlets talks about how to neatly format the text and images of a small, pamphlet-sized tabletop RPG system. The second page talks about how to bring an RPG concept to life, find public-domain images to decorate an RPG, and how to write out pages worth of rules with both clarity and concision.

Paoletta on itch. This page document, each page formatted in a rough scrap-book style, discusses how to write out and clarify the core theme and design goal of a tabletop RPG, then use this articulated premise as a structure for developing game mechanics.

Should gameplay rules and character abilities be more free-form or more granularly defined? Learn more Are you interested in making your very own tabletop role-playing game RPG? These games are a great way to show off your creativity in a fun, imaginative way. Since tabletop RPGs span a wide variety of genres, it can be difficult to know how and where to start.

Not to worry—before you embark on your own game-making journey, here are a few commonly-asked questions and answers to help you get started. Log in Social login does not work in incognito and private browsers. Please log in with your username or email to continue. No account yet? Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great.

By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Tips and Warnings. Related Articles. Question 1. All rights reserved. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc. Unlike traditional board games, like chess or checkers, RPGs revolve around a specific premise or plotline.

In Dungeons and Dragons , the basic plot is fighting monsters and picking up loot or treasure. Study both successful and unsuccessful RPGs. Look to some of the classics, like Dungeons and Dragons and Call of Cthulhu —both of these games have at least 5 editions, are well-loved by many tabletop players. Many unsuccessful games have confusing rules and premises, and are great case studies for what not to do when designing your own game.

Question 2. Choose which genre your RPG will fall under. Tabletop RPGs span a wide variety of genres. You might branch into a gothic, crime-style RPG, like Blades in the Dark , or create your own take on the western genre, like Deadlands. Pick a genre that really appeals you, and work your way up from there. Brainstorm your potential player base.

Do you want your game to focus more on individuals, or give your characters plenty of chances to interact? Try playing without powerful abilities, and see if characters still work.

One session playing a monk without Hands of Stone will show you how silly it is to make that trait optional. Magic is, well, magic. Unfortunately, in trying to deliver that special feeling, many games make magic the most powerful option in town. For the most obvious example of this, see the old D6 Star Wars system , when jedi were like unto gods among the non-force sensitive rabble. Anyone trying to mix the various New World of Darkness NWoD settings will immediately notice that mages are the most powerful by leaps and bounds.

NWoD mages are so flexible that they leave everyone else in the dust. Not only can they turn their enemies into lumps of rock, but they can also do it from a bunker half a world away.

Another tool of the Wizard King is magical buff stacking. You see this even in games with great magic systems, like Burning Wheel and L5R. Both systems have spells that add substantial bonuses to mundane skills.

Not only can sorcerers and shugenja do things others can only dream of, but now the spell slingers are better at everyday stuff too. Thankfully, these two systems have toned their skill enhancement spells down significantly from previous editions, but they still make non-magical characters sad.

At worst, the non-spellcasters will sit glowering in the corner while their magical friends solve all the problems. Fortunately, this problem is not insurmountable! One option is to make the magical and mundane complementary. Burning Wheel is actually a great example if you take out its skill buff spells. Sorcerers can shoot lightning out of their hands, but to cast such a spell successfully you need to not be stabbed during the long incantation.

You see a similar dynamic in Torchbearer , where arcanists spend many of their spell slots getting around the unique challenges of being in a pitch black dungeon rather than murdering everything in sight. Burning Empires follows such an approach. Psychics in that system do most of their work in the minds of others. The final option is to give everyone the same access to magic. In the short term, we GMs can either avoid systems in which the wizard is king, or we can muddle through and throw some bones to the non-spellcasters.

If your sorcerer PC has an ice spell that can instantly kill everyone in the room, throw in at least a few scenarios where murder will actually make the situation worse. Long term, game designers need to take some cues from systems like Call of Cthulhu and Torchbearer. In those roles it can still feel magical without unbalancing the game. This is what happens when PCs are pressured into acquiring more and more powerful items, until it seems that the only reason they sit down at the table is to find a shiny new short sword.

The way a GM runs their game has a big effect on the reward aspect, but the system will also exert a lot of pressure. Call of Cthulhu and NWoD are both good examples, even if their reputations suggest otherwise. CoC is supposed to be about a Lovecraftian descent into madness , while World of Darkness is hailed as a game about roleplaying rather than combat.

Neither of those sound like systems for obsessively collecting gear. Unfortunately, the rules for both systems disagree. In CoC, the most effective way to stop a monster from giving you sanity loss is to wipe it off the face of existence , and most monsters are perfectly vulnerable to bullets.

In both systems, your PC will be vastly more powerful armed with a fully automatic assault rifle. Also, a plethora of expansion books introduce all kinds of new toys that will give just a few more bonuses.

Laser sights, extended clips, etc. All of this is the perfect recipe for the Gear Grind. Gear Grinding not only takes the spotlight off the characters themselves but can also get out of control really fast. In World of Darkness, especially when the players are ordinary humans, an anti-material rifle will make all the vampires and werewolves run for the hills.

The PCs can quickly get so powerful that nothing will pose a serious threat to them. There are three ways to avoid the Gear Grind. The first is to GM really well. This is doable, but it would be better if the rules were more on your side.

To that end, you could always play a game like Spirit of The Century , where gear is of trivial importance to the mechanics. Both have cool gear systems that allow for a lot of detail without a crazy power curve. Many games could be improved by taking cues from those systems.

In Torchbearer, foot poles give a small bonus to disarming traps. In Spycraft, tiny water jets allow an agent to move more easily underwater. If more games were designed with this dynamic in mind, the Gear Grind could become a thing of the past. How many crossbow shots do you think you could survive, roughly? This is Hitpoint Mountain. Characters can take hit after hit and walk away completely fine. This is, to say the least, really silly. Those are an abstraction. This creates a dynamic where everything is a realistic model of real life, except when a character is hit by a crossbow bolt.

See the problem? Things get more absurd from there. A character standing in the middle of an empty room can be struck with a fireball and be completely fine. Remember, this is an exploding ball of fire. Trying to explain how that happened in-character is a Sisyphean task. I guess you were protected from the deadly inferno by… positive thinking? This breaks immersion. As we saw with the crossbow, it also has negative mechanical impacts. How many people actually want to play a character who burns to a cinder at the first sign of dragon breath?

The second option is to abstract all the rules , not just hitpoints. The GM describes an incoming fireball, which does a little damage, and the wounded player describes how their character avoided the worst of the flames by hiding behind a zeppelin. In general, the absurdity of hitpoints gets worse the more powerful your characters are. Maybe the designers ran out of time before the game had to ship. Maybe a chapter was cut to save printing cost.

Whatever the reason, this mistake can range from annoying to game breaking. Most commonly, you get incomplete rules in ancillary sections that, while not required to play the game, would have been a nice addition.

The L5R fourth edition crafting rules are a perfect example. They essentially add nothing to the game, yet they take up an entire page doing it. There are no rules for making anything unusual or of exceptional quality. If you need a response,please use the Contact the Commissioner form instead. NYC Parks. Email Print Translate this page. Learn how to create games for your smartphone using RPG Maker.

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