u/cibman

We’ve made it to July. In my part of the world, this is a time when you’re doing things outdoors. With the family. Going (shudder) camping. Not exactly conducive to writing RPG materials.

But for my (and hopefully your) projects, we’re in luck. It has been incredibly hot out, which has caused a lot of activity to move back indoors where the AC is blasting. For those of you in Europe, this may not apply.

For those of us back indoors, or under the shade of a cool tree where we can use our laptop and WIFI, let’s take advantage of this time of year called summer and get some work done on our projects.

So grab a cool beverage, and …

LET’S GO!

An extra note: you may have seen a couple of posts advertising Kickstarters or Backerkit projects. If you have a project like that, let the Mods know, and we'll approve posts about your work. We want to make everyone successful with their games.

Have a project and need help? Post here. Have fantastic skills for hire? Post here! Want to playtest a project? Have a project and need victims, err, playtesters? Post here! In that case, please include a link to your project information in the post.

We can create a "landing page" for you as a part of our Wiki if you like, so message the mods if that is something you would like as well.

Please note that this is still just the equivalent of a bulletin board: none of the posts here are officially endorsed by the mod staff here.

You can feel free to post an ad for yourself each month, but we also have an archive of past months here.

I'm doing design work at the moment. I'm writing the "collaboratively build a campaign" chapter, and I thought I'd try to get some collaboration on the topics.

I'd love to have you give ideas for other options to put in, or suggest alternatives. Yes, I have heard of lines and veils, but I'm looking for something different.

The first thing I present in the chapter are frameworks for what the group wants or doesn't want in a game. The idea is to ask the group these questions and have them rate what's important. The GM might want to pre-select things, or say, "Here's a list, answer at most X of them."

The first section is rated on a five-point sliding scale of preference between two extremes:

• Long game, Short game
• Worldly Tier, Legendary Tier *
• Slow Advance, Rapid Advance
• Frenetic Pace, Leisurely Stroll
• Serious(!!!), Campy
• Heroic, Grimdark
• Challenging, Cozy
• Dark, Light
• Magical, Techno
• Talking, Fighting
• Sanitized, Blood-soaked Gore

* This is the Tier where the game starts, from Worldly, Heroic, Cinematic, and Legendary.

The second is called "Always and Never". The idea is "I really want the game focued on this" and "No, not this game." Again, the idea is to rate a small number of these options:

• Crafting
• Death
• Downtime
• Dungeons
• Factions
• Horror
• Humor
• Politics
• Romance
• Sex
• Travel

And finally, there's the wildcard of: "I will not play this..." for elements in the game that a player simply can't have in the game.

Thoughts? Alternative ideas? Hate this with the intensity of 10000 suns? Let me know.

I just finished a cleanup, reformat, and cut down on the length of my first chapter. I'd love it if you would take a look at it and give me your impressions.

The idea is that this is the first thing you would read in the book, and it should tell you what the game is about, what's unique about the world, and give you core rules info.

I have the usual caveats: yes, this is long. Comment on anything you're interested in, or that strikes you. As much or as little as you want.

Here is the link.

I'm more interested in the content than the formatting here, because it's all going into Affinity for that.

I'd love to hear thoughts on the rules sections. You get:

• Task Checks (the resolution system)
• Karma/Threat (the metacurrency)
• Aspects (the "taking world elements and giving them mechanics")
• Clocks (my "resolve things over time" rules that you may be familiar with from other systems)
• Characters (an overview of characters, with an example)
• Combat (with an example)

Are they clear? Make sense? Examples are solid? Horrible tokens I used for characters in the combat example, bad enough? (I grabbed these from my VTT, so they are just placeholders).

Of course, I always welcome comments on the introduction, the world overview, and the Ethos (virtues/flaws), but I know these are sometimes the hardest things to get through.

Let me know what you think, and then I'm on to chapter two, where I discuss how to create a game collaboratively. No pressure there.

This is a question both for me, but also for the sub as a whole. We see a LOT of games posted for feedback. My question is, "What format do you want to see them in?"

I think the most obvious choice is Google Docs, but as a creator, I don't want to give you a block of text, and formatting in Docs doesn't really carry over into my publishing program, Affinity.

I find myself sharing things as PDFs, but, as recent discussions have made me realize (or more more accurately, remember) how much people hate PDFs.

So I open the floor for your comments and suggestions: you're taking the time to read someone's game online, what format do you want to see it in?

I had a question that I'm asking here because I think it will be helpful to some other designers out here.

In my recent character sheet post, one of the things people said was, "dude, your logo ... ugh." And that is one of the things I am going to address.

Does anyone know someone who does logo design and has experience in the RPG world? I know there are a ton of places that do this, but I think it would look better if the person doing the design actually knew about RPGs.

That and I want to give money to someone working in the RPG sphere.

I'd love to see some of their other work, and also, I want to know that this won't be an AI design.

Discussions ebb and flow on our sub. Sometimes we’re all having a good time laughing and joking, while others we get, to be kind, a bit grumpy.

We’re seeing a lot of that lately, so the goal for this activity is to discuss and be helpful to new people.

We have a lot of new people coming to our sub, and not all of them have much experience with the goal of making an RPG project. That manifests itself in threads about “What kind of initiative system should I use?” or “What are the probabilities of success for this dice pool mechanic?”

But recently we’ve had some issues with things that are much more basic: writing and art. Specifically, how to do those things or add them to a project on a basic level.

For writing, one way (and this is what I did…) to learn to write is to get a degree in English Literature with an emphasis on creative writing. In 2026, I would not recommend it from a financial standpoint.

Most of us working on projects have a long experience with writing, from creative writing they did while growing up, or writing those English papers on Lord of the Flies. But what if that’s not your strength? What can you do?

Similarly, the skill of formatting an RPG to lay out correctly or organizing chapters can be a difficult task.

And then there’s art. If you’re not an artist, you might feel like you’re drowning when you look for art options.

Fortunately, there are a lot of people here who have experience and work with all of those things. And that’s why I’m turning on the RPGdesign-signal to get some help for the new folks who need it.

Where did you learn it? What resources do you recommend? How should someone who needs to learn these arts in 2026 go about it?

DISCUSS!

This post is part of the bi-weekly r/RPGdesign Scheduled Activity series. For a listing of past Scheduled Activity posts and future topics, follow that link to the Wiki. If you have suggestions for Scheduled Activity topics or a change to the schedule, please message the Mod Team or reply to the latest Topic Discussion Thread.

For information on other r/RPGDesign community efforts, see the Wiki Index.

And just like that, it was June. Each year is different. Each time of year is different. Sometimes time stretches out like things are never going to end and each day is an endless possibility. Other times, and this is the way it has been for me, you wake up and half a year is almost gone.

It’s time to look at how your project is going. Do you need help? Do you have the time to give help? Either way, this is the place to talk about it. Do you need resources? Are you a resource?

Before we all go out and spend the day in a hammock or at the pool, let’s take a moment to consider what we need, and what we have to offer others.

So grab a lemonade, get back inside and …

 

LET’S GO!

An extra note: you may have seen a couple of posts advertising Kickstarters or Backerkit projects. If you have a project like that, let the Mods know, and we'll approve posts about your work. We want to make everyone successful with their games.

Have a project and need help? Post here. Have fantastic skills for hire? Post here! Want to playtest a project? Have a project and need victims, err, playtesters? Post here! In that case, please include a link to your project information in the post.

We can create a "landing page" for you as a part of our Wiki if you like, so message the mods if that is something you would like as well.

Please note that this is still just the equivalent of a bulletin board: none of the posts here are officially endorsed by the mod staff here.

You can feel free to post an ad for yourself each month, but we also have an archive of past months here.

 

 

Hey everyone, another chapter to share, this time it's character creation.

Right off the bat: I expect a lot of you to say, "How long is this? Oh, hell no!" and that's fine. I'll suggest that you're free to look at any or all parts of it, and comment on as much or as little as you care to. There's fluff in this chapter, and crunch as well.

And in looking at it, I'm sure this will not be the kind of game some of you like. That's also okay. I still appreciate your comments, and I learn the most from these, honestly.

And I'm still waiting on one of my players to finish up and give me his final choices, so you have one of the two character examples done with. What can I say? Friends who work for pizza and beer don't work on a firm schedule.

Here's the link.

If you choose to download it, there are bookmarks for each section.

Here's a summary of the different steps to give you an idea of what's going on (steps 3-8 are the crunch parts):

0.    Create the Game Framework

Before building your character, work with the group to establish the game’s Framework. Complete this step before recording anything on your character sheet.

1.    Create Your Identity

Decide who your character is. Choose a Name and Ancestry. If your character uses supernatural power, select a Power Source. If you are beginning play as part of an organization, choose a Faction.

2.    Choose Your Ethos and Convictions

Define what your character believes in. Assign points to your Ethos, select your Beliefs, and work with the group to establish your initial Goals.

3.      Choose Your Backgrounds

Shape your character’s past by developing their starting Backgrounds.

4.      Rate Your Skills

With your Backgrounds established, assign ratings to your Skills. Afterward, pick two Pickup Skills.

5.      Choose Talents

Record the Talents granted by your Backgrounds and select additional options where available.

6.      Choose Arts and Forms

If your character possesses supernatural abilities, choose their Arts and Forms.

7.      Fill In Your Derived Stats

Determine your Derived Stats. Some abilities may change how they are Rated.

8.      Choose Your Gear

Select and record your Gear. The equipment you choose may modify your Derived Stats.

9.      Describe Your Character’s Look

Now that your character’s Skills, Abilities, and Gear are set, describe their physical appearance and overall style.

Hey everyone! I've shared my character sheet journey with you before, and there have been changes. Less printer ink for one. But I'm completing the character creation chapter for my game, and I needed a character sheet to put everyone on, so I got back to work.

Here are the results.

This is designed with Affinity Publisher, which I am now actually pretty decent with.

So what do you think? The next step is to take a copy and have my players build some characters. I'll try to post an actual filled-in sheet when I get the results.

Things are pretty much ready to go forward for my next playtest. Moving right along, everyone.

Thanks for all your help and comments!

I'm not going to try to say this isn't a really esoteric question, but I hope some of you will have opinions on it and be willing to share.

I’m trying to format my game consistently. I have three different types of words or phrases that I want to draw attention to. Here’s what I have so far. My question to you is whether this works or if you have other ideas.

First are game system terms that are important. These terms are defined the first time I use them, but they are also in the glossary. I want to use small caps for this. Let’s see if Reddit can do an example:

ᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ᴘᴏɪɴᴛꜱ measure both how much a character can do in a combat round and how fast they can do it.

These terms are only written that way the first time they are used in a section (typically a two-page spread).

Second are terms that I want to emphasize because they’re important. These are bolded. Example:

Pay attention here, this is important.

Third, I have game abilities. They might be skills, talents, or magic. These are in italics.

A Powerful character learns an ᴀʀᴛ automatically. Our example character Nathaniel chooses Protect.

What do you think? Too extreme? Too pedantic? Or do you have a better idea?

Edited to add: thanks to all of you for the assist. I was thinking this post would not get any traction, but it has. You are all awesome.

May is upon us. For many of us, it’s a time of change: the end of a school year or semester, or even graduation. For others, it’s just the month where it finally gets nice outside. Whichever it is for you, May is a transition month, from indoor activities to the outdoors.

If you’re writing a game, this can be a problem. Before you know it, ball games and hikes and family vacations can make us look up and say, “Wait, is it September already? Where did the time go?”

So it can be a tough time to focus. If you’re me, you’re planning those trips to see your Sportsball team play. Or planning the movies you’re going to see. Or even planning those water park trips. Ahem.

That’s where the rest of you come in: let’s make it a point to get some work done, alongside the summer fun.

Summer days used to seem like they would never end. Let’s use that to move all our projects ahead!

 

LET’S GO!

An extra note: you may have seen a couple of posts advertising Kickstarters or Backerkit projects. If you have a project like that, let the Mods know, and we'll approve posts about your work. We want to make everyone successful with their games.

Have a project and need help? Post here. Have fantastic skills for hire? Post here! Want to playtest a project? Have a project and need victims, err, playtesters? Post here! In that case, please include a link to your project information in the post.

We can create a "landing page" for you as a part of our Wiki if you like, so message the mods if that is something you would like as well.

Please note that this is still just the equivalent of a bulletin board: none of the posts here are officially endorsed by the mod staff here.

You can feel free to post an ad for yourself each month, but we also have an archive of past months here.