thread: 2006-02-27 : Unpopular Ideas for 2006 #1
On 2006-02-28, Lisa Padol wrote:
Have rules.
Have as many rules as your game needs in order to work the way it is supposed to work.
Don't worry about your rules not being trendy enough.
Don't worry if your rules are traditional or if they break with tradition.
Does the game work?
Can someone who has never had the privilege of playing with you, your group, or the Forge / Indie-in-crowd pick up the finished game, learn it, teach it to friends, play it the way it was intended to play, and enjoy it or decide it's not for him/her/it/them based solely on what the game is, or do the players get confused about how the game is supposed to work?
That about cover it?
-Lisa
This makes NinJ go "That's not how fashion works..."
The reason there's fashion, Lisa, is that the creators are communicating with each other and benefiting from each others' ideas. No one, seriously, I've never suspected this, no one uses rules because they're trendy with the exception of when they don't know of other options.
I've never seen someone who didn't care if the game worked. It's much more common to lack the courage to make something creative and unusual, and to lack the courage of one's convictions to keep on it.
Confusing rules explanations are hard to fix. It's hardly contrary to opinion that they should be explained well, though. This is a question of degree of craft, and it's something we all need to take seriously. But your advice is that of someone who doesn't know the challenges and stands aside and throws fruit.
