The year was 2010, #RPGenesis was born in abreojogo.com, a forum for tabletop games in Portugal. Inspired on #NaNoWriMo from the beginning, we challenged each other to write a new #ttrpg in a week by putting at least 5K words on paper. I try to make a convincing logo.
In 2011 #RPGenesis becomes international joining designers from Portugal and Brazil. Here are a few submissions that I've still managed to keep on my hard drive from that year. Already an incredible variety of #ttrpg ideas were made into actual playable games👍
For the 2012 #RPGenesis we tried to have two different weeks, one to create new games and another to work on already existing ones. We also start translating the event to English. Both attempts have little engagement, the original premise is still what keeps the event going.
In 2013, I tried to work some more on the #RPGenesis graphical design and communicate better in English. This was also the auspicious time of Google+ before it began to sunset. 'member that?
The 2014 #RPGenesis had the event's first official webpage from which it pointed to Facebook, Twitter and Google+, all in an attempt to decentralize it as much as possible following the regrettable exodus from open internet forums into closed social networks.
2015 marked the last time that #RPGenesis had two separate weeks, given the lack of interest in working to improve already existing games. This year we also had workshops to help guide participants, but engagement with the event was waning. This lead to a three-year hiatus.
As a community event, the only thing #RPGenesis really needs is for people to set a date. But everyone keeps associating the event with my ability to host it, asking me when it's gonna be. Thanks to the @rpg_portugal Discord and itch.io jams, 2019 was our comeback
For #RPGenesis 2020, I made my favorite version of a design that was already a decade old. The website included shiny particles animating upwards. "The universe smiles upon you..." We settled on the itch.io format and on allowing hacks of already existing games.
Last year, #RPGenesis had an energy boost from having new hosts 💪 but the old 2010 logo really started showing its age for me. I started wondering if it was possible to replace it, which meant *gasp* trying to draw something else.
This year, #RPGenesis is even more accessible with the possibility of working on a submission as a team. So I've also scrapped the old landscape and made a simpler logo with a stronger silhouette, one that you could trace with your finger. Join the jam: itch.io/jam/rpgenesis2…
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Random stuff I've learned from #RPGenesis: sometimes you can just focus on finishing something you can playtest your ideas with.
You can tweak the difficulty of your #RPGenesis design by adjusting randomness or the concentration of responsibilities. Difficulty is not necessarily bad as it generates word count. Less randomness and more cooperation can lead you into having much more to explain in your game.
On the other hand, saying "just roll for it" or "just have the GM decide" are common strategies namely for one-page RPGs. You can still use these in #RPGenesis for aspects of your design that you don't feel like deciding right now and would rather write about something else.
So many issues in #TTRPG sessions have to do with disconnecting what needs to come together. The game we play and the fiction we imagine in it. The person hosting the session and all the other people at the table. How we know something will ruin our fun but still do it anyway.
Disconnection between game and fiction is a bit like debt. You manage it but it may cause problems in the long run. Like not addressing why someone loses hit points and then, when they are recovered, it can feel cheap and hollow. Vincent Baker has a few great articles on this.
Disconnection between players is maybe more deliberate. People like to do their own thing on their own time. Characters and the world that they live in are created separately and then the whole thing doesn't fit. But let's put up a cardboard wall and ignore the disconnect :)
What kind of fictional premises have you found helpful for our usual #ttrpg stories that involve multiple protagonists? Besides the standard you-all-meet-in-a-tavern, invited-to-a-party, secret-guild-of-good-dooers, letter-from-a-distant-relative stuff that's a bit weak.
For example, in games like #NightWitches or #BlissStage we have the pilot-to-co-pilot approach. Doesn't matter if it's planes or mechas or, I don't know, submarines. The premise usually involves drama, rivalry and having to work as one cohesive physical unit.
Another is to split the traditional single protagonist into different facets that can be played with as a way to explore their inner world. While #BlueBeardsBride goes all in with it, #WraiththeOblivion does this by everyone having a Shadow personality played by another player.
1/5 Putting out the data from dreamup.games/dndrpg/ that I collected from reddit, September to December. For a total of 34 320 unique users that posted/commented during these months, 25 563 were active solely on r/dnd (75%), 7 972 on r/rpg (23%) and 785 on both (2%).
2/5 So, 3 out of 4 of all unique users in the two biggest RPG subreddits are active only in r/dnd. If we look for #TTRPGs ranked on ICv2 and look at subreddit subscribers, something like r/pathfinder has 29 948, r/shadowrun 40 697, r/rpg 1 307 575 and r/dnd 2 234 415.
3/5 One question is if r/dnd can be a gateway for other RPGs as compared with r/rpg. So, I've also looked at the smaller subreddits to check the possible overlap. For example, r/dnd and r/shadowrun had 69 users in common while r/rpg shared 124 with that subreddit.
To run, as in running games like I'm some kind of machine.
To let, as in letting someone do a thing as if I'm some kind of authority.
To deal, as in having to deal with some problem that the game I payed money for is ignoring.
To run or to be the referee (our heritage from Strategos that #dnd has infected many #ttrpgs with) means I don't get to play. Or that I play with myself while everyone just gets to color within the lines. Nope, hosting the game doesn't mean I can't get to play with my friends.
To let or this strange vocabulary where freedoms we all already have are "granted" to us by those who run (ugh) the game or by the game itself. Don't buy a game because it gives you a set of permissions. Buy it because it gives you the tools that can make what you want come true