The group gathers at the home of Joel, who is also a relatively new member of my neighborhood boardgaming group. And get this—the current GM, Eric, works at the same agency as I do, in my building!

Eric is running a D&D 3.5 campaign. The setting is original. Nothing particularly inspired, yet, but nevertheless, I’m already having a great time. The game as played is an interesting mix of adhering to the rules and ignoring the rules. But that’s good for me, as given the length of time since I’ve actually played, it may take me a little while to catch up and get in to my part. In the one session so far, we began investigating a series of brutal murders, only to discover the involvement of the party’s nemesis, who was previously thought dead.

Eric will continue running his campaign for the next few weeks. Then Joel has promised a 1920s pulp campaign using Savage Worlds. And since the group likes to have more than one campaign going on at the same time (to account for people not being able to attend on any particular week) I’ve been inspired to restart development on my science-fiction RPG system. More on that soon.

The Name of the Game

One of the things I’ve been thinking about is a name for the science fiction roleplaying game. I think it would be a little awkward to keep calling it “that sci-fi game.” But a good name is not so easy to come up with. First, it should sound cool. But an ideal name should also convey a feel for the game’s theme, setting, or style. “Black” would be a good name for a space-based science fiction game. However, I think it might give the impression that the game is about exploring uncharted space, which this game is definitely not. Other names that I’ve considered based on the setting include: Fringe, Regent, Custodian, Beacon, Domain, Agents of Empire, Near Space.

Unfortunately, nothing has excited me yet. Perhaps a name based on the game’s special board game-inspired mechanics would be better. That, however, will have to wait until I’ve developed them. Until then, I’ll just go with “Black” as a temporary solution. I’ll use “Black” as a category for my posts and change it when I’ve come up with a better name.

The World Around Us

As I suggested in my last post, I do have a setting in mind for this game, one based on a science fiction board game that I enjoy. Members of my game group will immediately know what I’m referring to, but I won’t be revealing it in a public post. I’ve heard back from the publisher of the board game and they’ve asked me not to publicly post a role playing game that uses their trademarked material. When I figure out how to password protect posts, I may address the setting that way.

Nevertheless, I do still intend to use that setting for this game. I have no intention to publish the game, so I don’t see that it’s a problem using the background material in a private setting. Further, the setting for this board game is just the right balance of hard science and space opera. The theme is very much heroic but the background material includes a healthy dose of detail on technology, economics, and politics.

It may seem a little strange as I continue without explicitly revealing the background setting, but I think that it’s important to keep the setting in mind when developing the rules. I want the rules to reinforce the theme, style, and feel of the setting. I’d even like, as much as possible, to be consistent with the style and mechanics of the board game. So, for example, to the extent Black uses dice, to match the board game, it should be 10-sided dice exclusively.

Major Components

The next step is to outline the scope of the game. That is, I need to identify what components need to be developed in order to produce a working game.

At the highest level, these are the parts of Black that I need to work on:

• Task resolution—the basic mechanics for determining character success at actions.
• Character definition—what details describe a character’s nature, personality, and capabilities.
• Character creation—procedures for players to develop characters.
• Achieving Goals—what defines player objectives, how they achieve success, and methods for tracking success.
• Activities and Environmental Conditions—guidelines for applying the task resolution mechanics to various circumstances.
• Objects—descriptions and the impact on game play of weapons, spaceships, tools, vehicles, and other things.

Within each of these major components there will obviously be many elements. But before attempting even an initial itemization of those elements, I think the next thing I should do is explain my general approach to each area.

This statement probably seems obvious, unoriginal, and of little value. Nevertheless, it needs to be the first and most important point of reference for every design decision, both large and small, because it is exactly what I’m trying to do. After years uninvolved in this part of the gaming hobby, I am interested in getting back into roleplaying but recognize that there are many hurdles to organizing a game among my friends. With a game custom designed for our interests, strengths, play styles, and outside lives, I’m hoping to maximize the odds of generating interest. I welcome the input of others and invite anyone else who might read these pages to make use of my work. But when it comes to final design decisions, I will always choose what will work best for my existing group. This philosophy leads to several design principles:

• The game should be easy to learn and the group should be able to begin play without much up front investment in time. Because of our busy lives and our history with board games (where a 3 hour game is considered long), I can’t expect a lot of patience. Should I finally convince people to try the game, I’ll need to draw them in quickly.

• The game should employ interesting new mechanics without totally abandoning the traditional elements of roleplaying games that my friends remember from their past experiences. There is a certain nostalgia for roleplaying, but right now the group is enjoying exploring the many varied mechanics found in modern strategy board games.

• The game must balance realism and heroic fantasy. Escape is definitely a benefit to gaming. And heroic adventure is what I think my friends would expect from roleplaying. However, I don’t think that they’ll be able to completely abandon their professional backgrounds even during a game about an imaginary world.

Based on these principles, my overall design concept is an RPG styled after a board game. There are board games based on RPGs and I know that some of my friends have expressed interest in them. But while the designs of those games seem to have adopted the same or similar principles, for the most part they focus on monsters and combat. I think a game with more sophisticated challenges, plots, and characters would be of greater interest to my group. It’s certainly what I’m interested in.

At the other end of the spectrum is the story-game crop of modern roleplaying games. I’m amazed at the innovation in these games. However, I’m not, and I don’t think my friends are either, the artistic, explore-your-emotions type of people. A game about character development (as in personality and emotions) exclusively—with no or minimal plot—would not go over well. Still I plan to draw heavily on story games for inspiration. Improv, acting, and extensive speaking in character—no. But sophisticated representations of social situations—yes.

In fact, I think that there are strong parallels between story games and board games. In pursuing a more sophisticated approach to modeling behaviors, personalities, and social interactions, story games often treat a character’s mental state or motivation as a resource—one that may be depleted and restored over time. Other aspects of play are also treated as a resource in some story games. For example, a persistent shared dice pool could represent limited reserves of luck, money, loyalty, or political influence.

These mechanics are similar to what you see in modern Euro-style board games, which place a heavy emphasis on managing resources. Employing them in my roleplaying game design will hopefully make it easier and more enjoyable for my friends.

Other board game inspirations that I think may help me meet my design goals include:

• Accessories or props to minimize record keeping for characters. For example, cards or tokens to be placed with character record sheets would represent wounds.

• The ability to declare victory when a certain goal is met. The potential for a definitive end (win or lose) might provide my players with some comfort regarding the time commitment required.

• Multiple paths to victory. In traditional roleplaying games, character advancement is achieved by accumulating experience points, which are used to purchase skill advancement. But in Euro-style board games, the measure of success is victory points, which can be earned many different ways at the same time. Explicitly measuring success with multiple factors in a roleplaying game adds a strategic element to the game and may also help with players who have somewhat different interests. For example, a player interested in business can focus on the character’s wealth, while the player interested in politics can focus on developing a character’s power and influence. Game mechanics may provide a method for comparing the two approaches.

With a general approach set, the next step is an outline.