A place to stand

Or, some principles I want to keep in mind.

1) My heart is not with the story kids. I appreciate 'story now', and narrativism, and clever tricks, but the fundamental act of roleplaying for me is entering into a cohesive shared-world. The more a game forces me to use abstract story-manipulation tools instead of concrete world-manipulation tools - or, more correctly, rules - the less I enjoy it.

Resolution: Write what I want to play, instead of subconsciously trying to fit in with the cool gang. If that means writing initiative mechanics and combat rules, so be it.

2) Given a free hand, I over-mechanise. I try to be both GM and rules designer, covering every eventuality and corner-case in the rules. Worse, I write these rules in the full knowledge that if I were actually running the game, I'd dump three-quarters of them and run it on the fly.

Resolution: Write only the rules that are needed. Parsimonious rule design is a must.

3) This is not a commercial endeavour. Working in what we laughably call 'the industry' means I approach too many ideas from a marketing perspective, asking 'how can this game sell' before it's even played.

Resolution: I will not consciously consider monetising any game chef ideas. I won't rule out the possibility of publishing the game, but that will not be a short or medium-term goal. This is game design as a creative exercise, not on spec design.