Category Archives: Game Design & Play Testing

An Interesting Take on Star Trek or other Sci-Fi RPG?

This is a game I have been looking at for quite some time, but my gaming group never seems to have time or interest in playing:

Where No Man Has Gone Before 2.0

http://trek.abillionmonkeys.com/

Here is a setting that is more or less rules agnostic. It is produced in 3 blog posts. Has some interesting ideas:

https://ruleslightrpgs.com/2022/06/mini-setting-the-pan-sentient-confederation-part-1/

https://ruleslightrpgs.com/2022/06/mini-setting-the-pan-sentient-confederation-part-2/

https://ruleslightrpgs.com/2022/07/mini-setting-the-pan-sentient-confederation-part-3/

I have been thinking of combining this setting with some lite rule system, perhaps ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before 2.0’, but I would need to know there are some players looking to use it.

Pulp Kharma TTRPG February 2023 Jam

Starts 1 FEB 2023 and ends 28 FEB 2023.

But you can join now!

Pulp Kharma v.2 is a game ‘lite’ system that is fast and easy to play. 

You may submit anything you like as long as it is based upon Pulp Kharma v.2. 

Pulp Kharma v.2 is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). This is the most open license under the Creative Commons and allows you to create content for any purpose you like as long as you provide attribution.

https://itch.io/jam/pulp-kharma-ttrpg-jam-feb-2023

License? We don’t need no stinkin’ license!

There is a lot of confusion about Wizards of the Coast, Inc. (WotC) and the Open Game License (OGL). Some people seem to think that if you make a game that is in any way similar to products made by WotC, or some other game, you have to have permission, or a license to do so. Unlike the complex task of cutting hair, doing nails, fixing plumbing, etc., you do not need a license or permission to write games. I think that for most projects based upon the OSR or any project with game mechanics similar to other games, there is no need to use any OGL, license, or obtain any permission other than that required by the ‘fair use’ doctrine and common courtesy.

As I suggested in Is it OK to “steal” game rules or mechanics?, game rules generally cannot be protected, only the actual words and images (copyright), trademarks and tradenames, and occasionally patents for really unique processes and game items. So, unless you are just copying another source word-for-word, which is what the WotC OGL 1.0a allows you to do, you do not need to worry about copyright or getting permission or a license to use copyright protected content.

The ‘fair use’ doctrine does allow for the use of copyright protected material under limited circumstances:

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 17 U.S.C. § 106 and 17 U.S.C. § 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:

  • the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
  • the nature of the copyrighted work;
  • the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
  • the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

17 U.S.C. § 107

In effect the ‘fair use’ doctrine allows for the word-for-word use of copyright protected material in limited circumstances and properly cited. Including brief properly cited quotes of someone else’s work is fine, including vast amounts of that work without the author’s permission may not be wise.

But remember, only the words are protected by copyright, not the mechanics, formulas, systems, processes, etc. If you take a set of rules and use the exact same mechanics, but you do not copy the text, images, trade name, or trademark then there is no violation of copyright, and you do not need any permission. Nor do you have to provide any attribution at all, but courtesy would suggest you do so.

It is possible that certain unique process ‘tech’ used in a game might be protected under patent law for some ‘process patents’, whether those ‘processes’ are filed or not. However, such ‘process patents’ have a very limited time period for protection (20 years at most) after which they become part of the public domain. Such ‘process patents’ can also be abandoned by the maker if others use the process and the maker does not legally defend it within the statutory period of limitations to bring suit.

The OGL 1.0a created by WotC allowed the user to copy specific protected content word-for-word as long as you followed the terms of the license, which is more strict in some ways than traditional copyright law, trademark and tradename law, patent law, etc.

If you are not copying word-for-word from protected content, using the tradename or trademark of another author, or using mechanics, formulas, or other game systems that are currently protected under patent law (very unlikely), there is no reason to use ANY licensing system.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing in this article is being provided as legal advice or a substitute for legal representation. I am not your lawyer.

Self-Publishing on DriveThruRPG vs Amazon vs Free Webpage Downloads

My first game that I decided to take from homebrew to self-publishing was C’est la Guerre which I posted on Wargamevault.com (a sister website of DriveThruRPG aimed at wargamers) in August of 2013 in PDF format. After several years of struggling I managed to put it in the proper format for paperback publishing on that website. My big problem was producing the cover and back page which needed to meet some very specific guidelines. In those days the folks at DriveThruRPG/Wargamevault were incredibly helpful and walked me through the process while tactfully avoiding commenting on the fact that I knew nothing about book formatting and was a total putz. To this day I thank them immensely for their patience and tact!

Since that initial foray into self-publishing on the DriveThruRPG system I have posted a number of other games on the website, most in a beta state, and some that ended up being ‘finished’. All of these were in PDF format.

I also post very early stage games on my website under Experimental Games. These are all very rough ideas in PDF formats at most. Some are just meandering ideas posted on my webpage.

Lately, I have become better at formatting my work to the point that the game is not just a word processor document printed out to PDF; there is a decent cover page, title page, working table of contents, page numbering that actually works, etc. I have also learned how to use GIMP to format images for the cover and the work itself so that it is not just endless words with large white spaces. This may all seem very rudimentary to some, but for me it was a great leap forward! As the formatting of my games became a little better I decided to try to turn some of them into paperback format. I began on DriveThruRPG, and I am sad to say that their open and helpful attitude towards amateurs (and hacks like me) has changed. Instead of silently smirking at the fact that I use a word process to format my work, they point out that I should get with the times and use a fully fledged publishing program and come back when I figure out what I was doing (or perhaps hire someone who could do the job for me). I downloaded a few of these publishing programs and could not make anything work. In fact what I produced using these publishing programs looked much worse than the product of my word processor.

Frustrated, I turned to Amazon publishing and found that it was much more user friendly. If you have a work that is in a suitable properly sized PDF format the Amazon system will set it up for you. And if you are unable to create your own cover and back pages using some fancy publishing program, Amazon offers a system that will help the most inept self-publisher create a completed project using some simple but attractive templates. As I became better at creating my own covers with my dowdy little word processor, the Amazon system made it very easy for me to drop these finished covers into the online project software. And when I got those messages from the proofreading part of the program that informed me that my work did not meet the printing guidelines it also explained why it did not meet the guidelines and how to fix it. Very helpful indeed!

I still love DriveThruRPG, but I now only use it to post my PDFs in final or beta version. Paperback versions go to Amazon, and my very experimental games get posted on my webpage open to universal scorn and derision. Feel free to look them over and tell me how much they suck!

Do you have a game that is in some stage of development? Do you have something you would like to publish, but you don’t think it will ever justify hiring a professional formatter to give it that professional look? Do not despair! Self-publishing may never be more than a hobby for us, but that does not mean we cannot work to improve the look and feel of our final product!

Doing Graphic Design and Creating Art for Games – For the Non-Artist! by Nick Shaw

I am not a graphic designer, nor am I an artist. Far from it! My limited experience in graphic design is purely what I have picked up over the years by seeing what others do, and what they do that I really like the look of, and trying to emulate it. And actually creating art? Nope, no way, I just don’t have that kind of an artistic flare. And I don’t have the money to buy-in artwork.

This is a common problem for game designers. You want a game to look nice enough for playtesters to be willing to play it, functional enough for them to understand what all those nice icons on components mean, and professional-looking enough for publishers to take a closer look. Sure, innovative mechanics and a good ‘elevator pitch’ will go a long way, but the look of your game helps connect the players to the gameplay; it draws them in. Making the game look nice enough is often enough to get a foot-in-the-door for someone to try the game.

But what do you do if you have no experience in graphic design, and don’t have enough money to pay for high-end graphics packages like Photoshop, or high-end graphics-image websites like Shutterstock?

Well, there are plenty of free or almost-free resources available for you! Here are a few that I use myself:

Graphics/paint packages:

* *Paint.NET* (free) – I use this for the majority of graphics manipulation. It has the vast majority of tools needed to do some pretty good image editing! Windows only.

* *GIMP* (free) – another image editing package, which is available for Windows, Linux and Mac. Has a whole host of tools that I never even scratched the surface of. Has a little bit of a learning curve, but it’s worth it if you need to do some advanced image wizardry.

* *Inkscape* (free) – for all your vector-graphics-creation/manipulation needs! I’ve not really used it much as I rarely need to create vector graphics from scratch. But if you want/need to, it’s perfect. And available for Windows, Linux and Mac.

For graphic design:

* *Microsoft Publisher (part of MS Office) -* Many people already have this as part of MS Office, so if you do, go use it! I use it a huge amount, as it has just enough nice tools to allow for some pretty complex graphic design – rounded-edge rectangles, image opacity/translucency, built-in vector graphic shapes, gradient/image backgrounds, master-page, etc.

Also some useful places I frequent for royalty-free icons / artwork / vector graphics /photos:

And some geeklist items which have a load of other links:

https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/198220/item/4952512#item4952512

https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/198220/item/4217482#item4217482

Can you over-playtest a game? by Nick Shaw

In the GameTek segment on a recent Dice Tower podcast episode, Geoff Engelstein was talking about the development of AI programs able to play a game hundreds of thousands of times, which could be used to check that a game is properly balanced. But is game balance something that needs to be developed to that kind of level? Geoff pointed out that players will often, in their first few games, notice game imbalances (perceived or otherwise) that wouldn’t be an issue with seasoned players of the games, but can be an issue for people who have played the game a handful of times.

With the ‘cult of the new’ being a big thing in the hobby these days, how many boardgames get played sufficient times to gain the depth of experience necessary to see the true game-balance? A game played only 5 times, say, may actually be unbalanced at that low play count, simply because players cannot become good enough at the game to learn how to “play out” the imbalance.

How can designers work around this? We are always told, “playtest, playest, playtest”. But if too much experience in playtesting your own game can adversely affect your view of whether the game is balanced, is there a way to check if a game is still balanced for a player who has only played the game a few times? Is blind group playtesting the only way to check this? Finding sufficient playtesters is often a challenge in and of itself, so finding sufficient playtesters to only play the game a few times and comment on balance at that stage must be even more difficult.

I would love to hear any thoughts anyone has on this!