Three techniques for being an effective game designer. I may think up more later.
1. Its been mentioned a thousand times in a hundred different articles and books, but its still good advice.
Work every day.
Sure, you can take Sunday off, and you might only have twenty minutes, but hey that can add up. I'm finishing up my fifth novel, and most of that I owe to this rule. And if I'd followed it better, I'd probably be on my tenth novel.
2. Along with #1 is Set A Small Goal for the Day.
Aim for a thousand words, or a full page, or one mini-chapter, or even two paragraphs.
You might want to work on stretching yourself, but keep in mind that if you jump from a thousand words a day to ten thousand on one day, you might find yourself burnt out for two weeks thereafter.
It can be good to even stop before you're fully blown (like a horse gets blown). Stop when you want to do a few more sentences possibly. It may keep you eager to get back to it the next day (Might not. This part of the advice is pretty speculative. It can work, I think.)
3. KISS, or Keep It Simple, Silly.
Start with a small project. I know I've said this one before, but like the others it bears repeating. You're going to get tired, and want to quit. Its human nature. If you get tired at the ninety or eighty percent done mark, that is far better than getting tired at the ten percent done mark.
You can haul your dead tired mind over the finish line by main force of will if you have to for the last ten percent (that and prayer). It gets a lot harder, and seemingly impossible to do that from the ten yard line.
Start Small. Aim for the little fish. Later you'll head out into deep water.
4. NP Rule. No Parasites.
I saw two games that were group games. One succeeded, and the other tanked. One had three guys with the lead guy near pulling out his hair, and frantic effort at the last minute. The other had nearly ten people and a fairly calm leader.
Problem was those ten people were there to look good Dressed in Black (r). They were there to lounge on the couch, and exchange mildly witty comments at a slow pace, and inspire awe from others at how Kool they were.
This can work.
If you are say Carrie Prajean or the Queen of England or President Obama.
Otherwise, you need to exert yourself a little bit, and most of us, that little bit is a lot.
No parasites.
Or if you must have them, keep a clear line between the lay-abouts and the worker bees.
In school, I found this to work really well. When doing homework, always do the subject which gives you the most trouble first. Get it out of the way whilst you're still sharp and fresh-minded. Then you can look forward to the easy stuff. I'm sure this line of thinking could be adapted to what you're talking about.
Three techniques? You count like Solomon writing Proverbs.
They're good techniques, and important to remember. I'm just a bit rammy tonight, keep wanting to say goofy things.
Like there are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
1) Make a list of ten things that will entertain geeks.
10) Use binary.
Seriously, when I saw Ahmetia's thread about her friend catching the serial rapist, my first thought was it's a shame what some people will do to breakfast foods. My second was I hope it's not contagious.
I'm going to be a real trip running games tonight. Well, I'd better get to it.
--M. J. Young
I think he's saying I'm as wise as Solomon...
I'm fairly serious most of the time, but on occasion, I decide to go weird. When I get that impulse, I usually give in to it.
And that leads to another Game Design Rule (da-da-dum!): Explore the possibilities. Sure, you can write world after world about heroic heroes stomping Evil Aliens, Evil Communists, Evil Dark Lords. You can write world after world about meeting primitive cultures, meeting starfaring civilizations, meeting pretty girls for lunch.
Multiverser actually does a pretty good job of Exploring the Possibilities. Ask yourself what kind of story you haven't done, and see if there is a way to do that type of story that would be fun.
Write a list of genres, and try to come up with a fun idea in each genre. If the last four worlds you've done have been Western themed, perhaps its time for a visit to the Exotic East.
Don't let yourself get into too much of a rut.
Try to analyze what you've done. Break what you've done into various categories, and see if you can find commonalities. Sure, you did a Western, and a Space adventure, and a visit to the Incan tombs...but all of them were Mysteries. Who shot the sherriff, who was trying to start an interstellar war, and who had violated the tomb of the Incan kings and unleashed a vengeful spirit? Perhaps its time to write a story with no Mysterious Criminal in it?
And so on.
Let me footnote that. Watch for the possibilities as a referee.
It's particularly difficult to write a romance story in which your verser is going to be the paramour. Unless you know him or her really well, getting the right hook is much too difficult. One of the reasons Dancing Princess has three princesses is because they're designed to appeal to different types--the strong and proper Margaret who will always do the right thing and stand side-by-side with her man, the demure and withdrawn Nerene who brings out the protector in a man, and the fun-loving Olivia who will tease and be teased with equal ease. But it's not really going for a romance there; it's going for a fairytale wedding. Creating the girl or guy that will catch your verser's eye is very tricky. What is not so tricky, though, is watching the player's response to the people you bring into the world, and then building on the relationships he has. I don't even know why they all go for the girls they choose, but Chris married Olivia from Dancing Princess, Bill married Cally from Blake's 7, Adam married Geneice daughter of an Italian crime boss in Why Spy, David married Cynthia the werewolf from Vampire Philadelphia, and there have been quite a few others over the years. I did not place any of these girls there to be brides of a verser (although I knew with Olivia that there was that possibility, in the end I was completely floored when Chris asked her). What I did was put women in the world, play them as individuals, and respond to what the player did. Once I saw the relationship blossoming, I went with it.
That's not only good for romances (although it's especially good for that). I've been thinking about running someone in the Teddy London stories I so enjoy, but to do it I need someone to set himself up as a detective in a modern world with high biases in psi and mag. If that happens, and the character survives a few mundane cases, I'll bring the girl to him that's being followed not by someone but by something, and we'll go from there. That, too, might wind up having a romantic element, but it will depend on how the character responds to the fair maiden in distress.
So keep an eye open for opportunities in play. Remember, what really matters in a good game (not just Multiverser, any game) is not whether things went the way the referee wanted but whether the players had a great time doing something they enjoyed. Responding to what your players are pursuing is a great way to make that happen.
--M. J. Young
On romance...
Ray the Verser met Lilandra, princess and paladin from a tiny medieval country (about three days horseride across). He had to prove himself worthy of her attention (become a knight) and defeat a rival for her attention (the good guy Red Knight), and rescue her from a vampire who had bespelled her, and kiss her to wake her up from the spell (because it deeply offended her morals which made for another barrier to be overcome), and then there was the test of him versing out and would she follow him (she did). After that, she wants to be married, in a temple to her god. Problem is, no temples to her god in the next universe. Or the next. Verser gets her to agree to marriage anyways, but then backs out because he wants to do it right. So, in Mythica (an American Tall Tales world of Paul Bunyan and so on) on the Great American Plains, he spends a month to build a temple to the Eye of Truth. And then, on the day before the wedding, he gives me a look, and tells me he's going to stay up all night just to make sure the temple doesn't catch on fire in the night. Heh, heh. I didn't even think of doing anything like that at that exact time, but I'm pleased my player thought I might have.
Its the raising of difficulties, and the overcoming of it. Its having others strive for your prize which convinces you of the merit of the prize. Its having romantic scenes that double as something else (like if you get tied face to face with the girl who claims to hate you by the wicked pirates who are about to toss you both to the sharks...).
Edit: I should have had a band of Comancheros come in and steal away his bride on the wedding morning.... OTOH, sometimes you can be excessive. There is the bounds of probability. Just ask yourself if the player is going to be ticked off at you, or disengage from teh story because its too unbelievable that such things happened. Most of the barriers that he overcame were natural to the story...She's proud of being a fighter, so she wants a tough guy who's disciplined (become a knight). The Red Knight rivalry is natural because she's beautiful and the verser is not the only one who noticed this. The fight about the kiss is part of her moral upbringing. Her getting caught by a vampire is perhaps a little out there, but she is the Paladin who goes and looks for trouble.
As far as the extremely improbably happening, that's what GE rolls are for.
--M. J. Young