If you want something to exist, create it!
Thanks, Ron. Thanks, Clinton.
-Vincent
Learn what it is you actually want, concentrate effort on getting it, accept no substitutes. Then invite others to join in.
Thanks Ron, Vincent, Clinton.
Quote from: Erik Weissengruber on June 01, 2012, 10:58:53 AM
Learn what it is you actually want, concentrate effort on getting it, accept no substitutes. Then invite others to join in.
That's possibly the most profound thing I've heard in a long time.
What we do at the table creates everything we imagine.
Thanks guys for an amazing, eye-opening thing that was made here. I'm going to attempt the same thing in my own way.
I'll log in one more time to say thanks as well. The Forge was a great and wonderful thing and changed the way I think about and look at games (and other things!). Thank you to everyone who built, maintained, contributed to or otherwise was a part of the Forge.
I am grateful for the games I've enjoyed which exist as a result of this forum. In the end it's about people playing games.
I never posted here much, but this is the place where I first learned that something like game design could even be talked about and thought about intelligently. And that I could do it, too, if I wanted to.
Thanks, everyone.
Even though I was not a substantial participant, my games were still born here.
Publishing books is remarkably easy.
Design matters!
A game's reward system isn't just about mechanics; it's also how the game satisfies the people playing it. A reward system is the 'Why' of "Why we play this game".
(I learned this here (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forge/index.php?topic=31097.0).)
You don't need anyone's permission to make the game you love. But you do need to love it, and you do need to connect with other people who love it as well.
Thanks everyone!
Two things, really.
1. I am not alone (we are not alone!).
2. The amazing things I always suspected RPGs could be (without any concrete proof!)... it's true, they can actually be like that.
Thanks to everyone who helped make this place what it was, is, and will continue to be. My life is immeasurably better because The Forge was a part of it and the relationships made here will go on and on.
I learned to be critical in how I thought about gaming.
Thanks, especially, to Ron, Clinton, Vincent, Emily, Ben, Paul, Mike, Ralph and Eero. To Joe Prince, who through the Ronnies became such a very close friend offline. And to everyone I was on a Forge Booth with, particularly Nathan and Kevin.
And the quote that chimes with me most about the stuff I read on the Forge?
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
—Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788–1860)
"This thing I'm doing" which is such a big part of my life can be serious stuff for grownups, fully worth the effort I'm putting into it, and not merely a self-serving escape into my childhood memories.
Meaning in a story is an audience's interpretation of action and consequence, not a calculated message delivered from on-high.
Jesse
On reflection, the most important thing I've learned is how to spot Narrativist games. I can now tell a Narrativist game simply through flicking through it.
My own group are Narrativists, except for one person who is a Gamist, so we like Narrativist games the best. I am really glad the Forge produced so many Narrativist games and did so much to promote Narrativism as opposed to Gamist games like Dungeons and Dragons.
I can do it, to!
(much love)
The results you are likely to attain are shaped by the system you used to produce them. If you are consistently dissatisfied with the results that seem to keep happening, re-evaluate the system you are using to produce them. None of this will take away from spontaneity or joyful unpredictability. It's true in every other social endeavor human beings participate in, and it's true in gaming.