The Official Ingredient Thread

[George Austin]

Come up with either a game design constraint or requirement, or a one-word ingredient to spark creativity. Previous ingredients were chosen using the following method:

Pick up a nearby book. Turn to page 187. Count down 15 lines, count in 8 words. Pick that word or a word next to it. That's an ingredient. Everyone do this and send in the word. Contestants pick 3 words to integrate into a game.

EDIT: Here are the ingredients so far, including the recently revealed Secret Ingredient:

Secret Ingredient: "Write your game for an audience that's never played a role playing game before."

Other Ingredients:
Listed in the order they were suggested:

* "Chains" - Mel
* "Opened" - Ron
* "Second" - Buddha
* "Mesencephalon" -Stephen
* "Through" - Jeff
* "Counseling" - Elliott
* "Initiated" - Nick
* "The game must involve a randomizer that is neither dice nor cards." - Buddha
* "The game must have an explicit losing condition." - George
* "Pain " - Stephen
* "The rulebook must exist both in the game world and in objective reality." - Arpie
* "No Numbers" - Kevin
* "Seized" - Ashock
* "Bond" - Mike
* Your world, characters, or rules must be inspired by two of the following works, all of which were consulted in an attempt to generate ingredients:
Fahrenheit 451
The Princess Bride
[a neurology textbook]
Superpowers
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Flatland
The High Frontier
Designing with Type
Understanding Media
Stone Kiss
The Freemasons
H. P. Lovecraft Omnibus #2
How to Read and Understand the Financial Times
-Ron

[Ron Stanley]

Ah, yes... but isn't a CRPG, an RPG? And aren't we writing a game for someone who has never played an RPG before?

My five-year-old nephew knows what a boss and a level are, but he is a CRPG veteran. My mom doesn't know what hit points or levels or bosses are. She thinks a dungeon is "something you put people in to torture them in a castle." She mostly plays Sudoku and Spider Solitaire on the computer... and she used to play Bridge. You know, the card game.

There is a lot of overlap between people who play tabletop RPGs and people who play MMORPGs. I think we should aim for people who like Twister and Monopoly and Clue and Texas Hold-Em. I want to make a game my Mom could play... and I might have one. An RPG party game, like Pictionary except with stories and abilities instead of drawings.

[Mike Olson]

I dunno -- I draw a big, thick line between CRPGs and tabletop RPGs, even though both involve things like hit points, classes, and levels. They're just different radically play experiences, IMO. If someone tells me they play RPGs, I never, ever think CRPG or MMO. I think, y'know, dice and Mountain Dew.

And again, nearly every RPG in existence was made for "new" gamers. I don't think you have to reinvent the wheel to bring in new blood.

[Ron Stanley]

One last comment... actually, an admission of ignorance... and then I'll let this go.

I played a lot in high school, but I haven't played RPGs for about 23 years. I recently started playing them again, starting with D&D 4th edition, and then several indie RPGs.

I have to tell you, a lot of these games baffle me. A lot of the language that people use to talk about these games baffles me. I'm not a stupid person. I've read War and Peace and Ulysses and A Brief History of Time and The General Theory of Relativity and The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. I'm not bragging, just trying to give you an idea where I'm coming from.

I have not been immersed in the language of gamer culture, so I don't get Fate Points and Aspects and "narrative control" and references to games I've never heard of--that are usually referred to by abbreviations, so it's difficult to even research them. The thing is, I don't think I WANT to be immersed in that language, because that would make it difficult for me to communicate what's so cool about RPGs to someone who--like me--isn't part of that world.

And there is so much that is cool about tabletop RPGs, that I don't understand why more people don't play them. To me, playing an RPG, if it's done right, is an activity that sparks creativity, decision making, and cooperation--which are, outside of compassion, possibly the three most important skills any human being can develop.

Every RPG in existence may have been made for new gamers... but not everyone is playing RPGs yet. And they could be. We could have an audience as big as Scrabble, Monopoly, chess, kickball, or Spider Solitaire. Heh... if we build it, they will come.

[George Austin]

On the one hand, Aspects and Fate Points are defined quite well in the text of Spirit of the Century.* I'm positive we did a poor job of introducing at least 90% of the new concepts in SotC to you because of time constraints and the numerous assumptions we made, but I'm very glad you came back to game with us more.

On the other hand, I think that SotC is primarily, and perhaps consciously, targeted at people with prior gaming knowledge. Though it's one page introduction is pretty good, truth be told.

*Are you aware that the rules to SotC are "open" and available for free? Check them out! It's not the full text of the book (no one page introduction, no "Background" chapter, no delicious (Amazing! Numerous!) examples, no sample scenario or Secrets of the Century" chapter, etc.), but it's chock full of goodness.

At the very least, I hope the "Aspects" chapter and other passages will provided you with many "so that's what those jokers meant" moments.

[Ron Stanley]

I don't mean to imply that these are bad games, or even overly difficult games. I think they're a miracle of economy compared to, say Advanced Squad Leader or any version of D&D. And don't worry... I'm going to keep coming back, especially after Mortal Coil... that was epic.

I guess what I'm trying to express is that I cut my teeth on cardboard counters and hex maps, so I can sit down with any classic Avalon Hill wargame from the 70's and be playing it in 15 minutes. I know what a CRT table is. I know what movement points are. I know that terrain affects movement and sometimes combat. If you've never played that kind of game before, it takes a while to get used to, no matter how well the rules are written. ("Whoa, you mean, I can move all my men at the same time? Weird...")

Same thing with any D20 or D100 RPG, or for that matter, with any game played with a standard 52-card deck. There are certain assumptions that have become part of my gaming DNA that allow me to slip into those gaming worlds quickly.

Indie RPGs are a whole new thang for me. So no matter how well the rules are written, it's going to take a while for me to "get" them.

George, Buddha, and Jeff: If you're interested in the story of how I got sucked into the Thursday night group see below.

http://www.thereisnoscreen.com/index.php?topic=111.0

[Ron Stanley]

I'm not sure if George wanted to close out the suggestions for constraints at some point, but I have one that might spark some ideas.

Your world, characters, or rules must be inspired by two of the following works (all of which were used to pick words, or would have been used, had they had enough pages or words that were appropriate).

Fahrenheit 451
The Princess Bride
a neurology textbook
Superpowers
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Flatland
The High Frontier
Designing with Type
Understanding Media
Stone Kiss
The Freemasons

I wasn’t sure where Mel got “chains,” Buddha got “the,” or Stephen got “pain,” but we can add those.

[George Austin]

First, full disclosure time:
Huck Finn yielded "He" (and no interesting words next to it - "would he say" was the phrase), Flatland, The High Frontier, and Designing with Type either didn't have enough pages, or enough lines on page 187 (same with House of Leaves, but I didn't bother mentioning that before), so they didn't yield ingredients.

Second, a correction:
Jeff got "the," I think. Also, H. P. Lovecraft Omnibus #2 and How to Read and Understand the Financial Times (and probably a few others) belong on the list, no?

[Ron Stanley]

Yes, I forgot about those...add 'em on.

I decided to include all of the books mentioned by people, even if they didn't yield words, because some of them were interesting and might inspire something original.