Stregoneria RPG Feedback.
Callan S.:
I'm trying!
I'll tell you what, I'll give a hypothesis about how some other gamers will read this text: They will read it in a way where they 'know' what they are supposed to read. It'll in real fact be a cherry picking process, where they just pick out what they want to read and other parts wont be seen at all. This is how early D&D was read as well, check out the forge article. Look for the emphasis they make when they give feedback, and how those emphasises don't actually correlate between each gamers feedback, yet each gamer will write their emphasis like it IS the emphasis of the text.
Or at the very least, if I were to attempt to not cherry pick, I really don't know where to start. I had a look at criticals - I'm not sure it said anything that seemed to grab the games theme. I couldn't find the infection rules or impaling rules.
The way the game reads to me, it fits the classic D&D mould of putting forward a huge amount of material, which people are excited to get into, so they cherry pick their way through and then say with whatever they clung onto (and as a result, what they dropped) IS playing the game. Except do people get excited about these texts anymore?
I really don't know what to, at a procedural level, do to give your game a good shot. And as said, I'm not interested in creating an echo chamber for myself - heck, I did this even with the riddle of steel RPG. I completely forgot, in play as GM, to include its main feature (spiritual attributes), because of the games design it is easy to look past them. So I ended up doing D&D with dicepools. And with your game, I'd end up doing D&D yet again. A flexible system just lets me fall into my ingrained habits all the easier.
I'd like to see a quickstart version, with small adventure (either a GM and one player, or completely solo adventure) and a step by step on what rules to use at any point within it (please, no general advice - that's yet another opportunity for my ingrained habits to kick in).
The fact is, I am interested in the theme of the game (or atleast what I think is the theme - see my notes on gamer emphasis above), but I honestly don't know how to get at it. Indeed, I could also lay this charge at older versions of D&D, rifts, underground, cyberpunk, warhammer. So your amongst prestigous company, even if the prognosis isn't flattery from me. I can't get at the good bit of your game - I can't get at the interesting tree of your game, for the forest you've made.
Stregheria:
An interesting reply as always. :)
I'll try and respond to what I think is the gist of what you're saying: I haven't played a single rpg in my entire life where I didn't have to cherry-pick material. In fact, it's something I've just accepted that I'll have to do no matter what system I play. My game is probably no different, and more than that, it has actually been designed to be cherry-picked. The game attempts to present its own take on the fantasy rpg genre, that while not reinventing the wheel, tries to present what have become standard rpg mechanics in an interesting way and also add its own ideas alongside.
I know that there are games out there that have attempted to create new and exciting mechanics and incorporate different approaches, and I applaud such enterprise and forwardness of thinking. I believe however that my game is not without its own original concepts, but rather than start with a radical new idea and try and make it workable, my game starts with a fairly standard approach and then tries to expand upon it.
I've learnt a heck of a lot since I started writing Stregoneria, and in some ways that game has been a cathartic experience. Completing it has made me now want to tackle something else more leftfield, that investigates different approaches to rpg design. Stregoneria is not a reinvention of the wheel, but it is about as original a game as you are going to get as far as standard frpgs go.
Callan S.:
Well, in that case I must have given it a good look over after all!
Quote
I've learnt a heck of a lot since I started writing Stregoneria, and in some ways that game has been a cathartic experience. Completing it has made me now want to tackle something else more leftfield, that investigates different approaches to rpg design.
Well, it has been completed (and quite a large document to have built, at that!) so congrats on that and yeah, now you know it's done and dusted you can feel free in whatever other horizon you might wish to look toward. :) Good luck!
Stregheria:
I can barely keep up with the feedback and suggestions that i'm receiving from around the web for my game. I'm on holiday from work and have spent virtually the whole of the last 5 days implementing suggested revisions/minor corrections.
As always I need as much feedback as possible and the latest version of the document (1.07) is completely reformatted and even has a new cover. A graphic designer who looked at the game suggested I clean it up; a lot! I won't bore you with the list of changes he suggested but many hours later, here they are...
www.stregoneriarpg.com
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