What is it?

It's an RPG design challenge where you complete each other's games. How does it work?

It has three stages, which are entirely anonymous. In the first stage you submit a 700-1100 word RPG by midnight on Tuesday, August 11th, 2015. Maybe it's playable, but likely it's not. What you're trying to do with your 700-1100 word submission is give the next designer a core they can take forward. In the second stage I randomly reassign the submissions back to everyone, and you have roughly twelve days to increase them by 1000-1200 words. You can change or delete whatever you want, as long as you keep what you believe are the important conceits of the game, and end up with an increased wordcount in the target range. These are due by midnight Sunday, August 23. Then in the third stage I randomly reassign the stage two games, again making sure no one gets one they submitted in stage one or worked on in stage two, and you work the one you get up by an additional 2000 words. You have another fifteen days for this stage. And like before you can keep, change, delete whatever you want. Your goal is a playable game in the target wordcount range. And they're due midnight Sunday, September 6. No theme? No ingredients?

Yep, none. But I know it can be hard to start without creative constraints. My advice for your initial 700-1100 word submission is to try and capture the core of a game you'd like to play that doesn't otherwise exist for you. And they'll be judged?

I'll post all the completed games online and solicit a public vote for the finalists. Anyone, designer participant or just interested gamer, who asserts they've read at least, I dunno, six or seven of the games can vote by ranking their top three games. I'll use STV (Single Transferrable Voting) to pick five finalist games based on the submitted votes. Then, a panel of four judges will read the finalists and have a publicly viewable Google Hangout conversation about them, and then they'll pick a winner. And it's anonymous?

Well, when you tell me you want to participate I'll email you back a code number. You'll submit your 700-1100 word game with that number as the filename, and it'll move through the next two stages by number. But then after the winner has been picked I'll post the names of everyone who worked on each game. Everyone will want to know who the collaborators were on each game. Okay, I want to do it. What do I need to do?

Send an email to paul@halfmeme.com from the email address you want me communicating with. Include your name, so I have it for the list of collaborators at the end. I'll email you back your code number. Then email me your 700-1100 word game by midnight, August 11th, 2015, as either a .txt or .rtf file, using the code number as the filename. So you'll be sending me a file with a name like 9999.txt, or 9999.rtf. Also, email me for your code number when you decide you want to participate. Don't ask me for one in the hours leading up to midnight on the 11th. Frequently Asked Questions What time zone are the deadlines?

I'm in Eastern time in the United States, so the deadlines are midnight, my time. If you're worried about a miscalculation and missing the deadline, just submit your stuff early.