So creating a pen and paper roleplaying game is a massive undertaking, no matter what scope or scale you are working with. It’s important to start with a firm idea of what you are aiming for and why you are doing it. So I’m going to ask and answer a few questions in regards to my own project, but applicable to any rpg project, that I think will be a useful starting point.

What do you want to make?

Ok this is a fairly obvious question, but it’s a bit more specific than just an “rpg”. It’s good to, early on, have an idea of the broad categories your rpg will fit into.

Rules. Do you want it to be a rules light story game? A rules heavy simulation? A flexible system that provides the rules necessary for simulation but also allows for a lighter experience? I’m leaning more towards a rules-light game. Not a complete story game where it is entirely narrative based with almost no dice rolling, just rules-light enough that you will still be cheering over successful rolls, but you won’t be rolling your entire collection of dice every few seconds either.



Scope. Do you want a flexible system that can deal with any situation, or will you be focusing on a particular type of scenario? Generic or Specific? I definitely want to go the specific route. Creating a generic roleplaying game would require a lot more knowledge and experience with game mechanics than I possess. I think it is easier to make a unique and interesting game if you focus the design down.

The more general it gets the more likely you are to be making something almost exactly the same as another system. It is also much easier to find out whether or not the design space you are looking at is occupied if you make the focus on a specific type of story because instead of having to look at every rpg already available you only need to look at the ones within your genre, and if it is the only one in the genre then the genre itself makes it unique which takes a lot of pressure of the mechanics.

As a new designer (I have designed one rpg before, but it stopped during playtesting because it was based on a zombie apocalypse and I started seeing zombies crop up everywhere so I got a bit bored with the theme) this is very useful to me. Genre. What is the theme or genre of the stories that will be told within the system? This is where the project becomes a little less nebulous and really gets a direction to work with. This was the first idea I had about the rpg and the reason I wanted to make it, because I wanted something that was catered towards telling stories of a particular genre or theme. I have two alternatives for this, both of which I find interesting. One is slightly more general and the other is very specific. Now I haven’t done too much research yet so these might have been done previously, I’ll have to find out, but I think they have the potential to be very interesting.

General: Regular children taken on fantasy adventures (the name of this genre might be “portal fantasy” though I’m not sure). This is a very common theme in young adult fiction, a kid or teenager (or group thereof) from the normal world is thrust into a magical world, left to fend for themselves in a place whose logic is different from what they are used to. This is more general because the world they are thrust in to could be wildly different each time, it has no setting requirements apart from “different from the real world”.

This includes stories such as: Alice in Wonderland, Wizard of Oz, Chronicles of Narnia, Rondo series, Over the Garden Wall.

I think designing a system where the player characters are all children is very interesting, and it also changes the way you think about progression. These are regular human children, they are probably not going to learn how to cut their way through an army of orcs but they are going to become braver and more familiar with the way certain parts of the strange world they are in works. I think designing mechanics that reflect these kinds of themes would be a fun challenge that would result in something quite unique (though again, I haven’t done much research into it as of yet)

This includes stories such as: Alice in Wonderland, Wizard of Oz, Chronicles of Narnia, Rondo series, Over the Garden Wall. I think designing a system where the player characters are all children is very interesting, and it also changes the way you think about progression. These are regular human children, they are probably not going to learn how to cut their way through an army of orcs but they are going to become braver and more familiar with the way certain parts of the strange world they are in works. I think designing mechanics that reflect these kinds of themes would be a fun challenge that would result in something quite unique (though again, I haven’t done much research into it as of yet) Specific: Seemingly regular children going to a secret fantasy school. Another relatively common theme, especially popularised by Harry Potter, of course. Anyone who enjoys Harry Potter (apologies if you don’t and are sick of it) has wanted to experience what it’s like going through Hogwarts. The world that JK Rowling created was arguably the best part about the books. This would be a similar idea, though without using Harry Potter specifically and allowing for different interpretations of the secret fantasy school premise.

This includes stories such as: the Harry Potter series, and the Children of the Red King Series.

Again the young player characters makes for some interesting design considerations, although this time the progression becomes a bit more clear. They are going to be gaining magical skills of some kind (HP style magic, alchemy, learning to harness individual powers, super powers etc.). Another interesting design consideration for this type of game is integrating classes into the game in a way that is fun and not just “roll to see if you do well in class today”. This would be a bit of a challenge, but could result in something really cool and thematic.

The biggest problem for this type of game is figuring out what the campaigns would actually be. How would they be structured? Surely many weeks and months of time would be fairly uneventful so how would you deal with that? Or is there a way to make those weeks and months interesting to play through and not just skipped over? I know there are some attempts at Harry Potter RPG’s including a GURPS 3e one, so I’ll have to look into them to see what sort of things have been done already.

Why and How will you make it?

These questions are definitely linked. If your answer to why is something along the lines of “I have a new idea that’s never been done before” then your answer to how better include “Using my extensive knowledge and experience with a vast number of other pen and paper roleplaying games”. If not, then look around. It’s very possible that you will find your idea has been done before and if that is the case then you are left with no reason to make the game. You certainly wouldn’t want to spend months and months of time making your idea that has never been done before only to find out that you’ve just recreated D&D for the millionth time and then feel like it wasn’t worth it because that was the only reason you wanted to make it.

My “Why?” is much simpler, and probably a smarter reason if only because no matter how similar your game ends up being to another it doesn’t really matter. For fun. I love creating and I enjoy the process of thinking about all the possibilities that an RPG system can have. “How?” using my fairly basic knowledge of RPG’s, my extensive experience with running and playing RPG’s, and my large amounts of free time, that’s how!

Basically these questions are important for you to ensure that this project isn’t a waste of time for you. Because it does take a long time, there are so many considerations. If your why is anything other than a personal reason, then you better have the how to back it up.

Answer me!

Each post I’ll leave some questions that I wouldn’t mind answers to just in case anybody actually does read through.

1. What do you think of the two genre ideas? Which do you prefer?

2. Do you know of any roleplaying games that fit within these two genres?

3. Do you know of any roleplaying games that have mechanics you think would fit with either of these ideas?

Rhys, maker of words.