I'm creating an RPG! And I need your help!
I've been a fan of Role Playing Games (RPGs) for an extremely long time. At this point, it has to be over 15 years. In that time, I've played lots of games. While I enjoy many of them, one of the things you need to know about me is that I always have a constant drive to create new things. Sometimes, I get ideas that don't work within any of the games that I know. For instance, there have been many times that my D&D group wants to get together and play, but our DM cannot make it for some reason. Without them, it is really hard to continue our current campaign.
The last time this happened, I had an idea: what if we had a short game, designed around simple adventures, that we could play on those days when the entire group cannot continue our normal story? A game that would be all about silly fun, and it wouldn't matter how ridiculous it was because you wouldn't be worried about any long lasting continuity. So I decided to create that game. Over a weekend, I wrote up a framework of some ideas for a very light game - extremely light, as the original framework only took up about 4 pages. Then, it just so happened that my group had another regularly scheduled game that couldn't be held. A perfect opportunity to test out my new idea!
I ran a short game for my group that night, and they provided me with lots of feedback. Incorporating some of their thoughts, I reworked a lot of the mechanics and ran another game - this time with half of the Dirtbags of Holding folks. We actually recorded this short game as well, so look forward to hearing that adventure after our Fate campaign wraps up. This game was very inspiring, as I ended up making even more changes while we were playing.
Now, I'm ready to open up to everyone else about this, because I need your help! I've taken all of these experiences and drafted up the first version of the rules for this new game, which I'm calling "We've Run Out of Ideas", or WROI. The premise behind the game is that you are Actors within a big budget time travel movie. The writers, however, have gone on strike - to which the studio decided to just fire them all! So now, you are in charge of coming up with the movie's plot. You and the other players will create characters, discover the quest that your characters are on, and take turns playing through the storyline. You don't even need a GM to play! All you need is the rules and some six sided dice.
The idea behind the game is to be an easy and quick game to pick up and play. The test games that I have done have gone about an hour or so. However, this is the first game I've ever tried to design, and probably one of the biggest projects I've ever worked on. So, I need people to help me out and download the rules and play it with their friends! Let me know what works and what doesn't work. The more feedback I get, the better the final product will be!
If you are interested, send an email to chris@ocdcast.com. Or, hit me up on twitter @ChrisTheProf. I'm using an app called Slack to talk with playtesters and distribute new versions of the rules. If you contact me, I'll send you a link to join the Slack and read up on the rules I've written.