By Expy -
December 10, 2007 -
8 Comments
The Dungeon Masters Creed
Food for thought
We, the undersigned…
- Demand a rules system that is consistent, clear and concise in all respects
- Want one book that contains character generation, the game rules and a wide and inspiring selection of opponents
- Expect regular supplements which take the game in fun, exciting and unexpected directions. Give us new monsters, new rules and new ideas, not formulaic repetition and rehashes of previous material
- Need published adventures created by the best minds in the industry that are fun to run and don’t require multiple rule books and monster manuals open at the table just to run a simple encounter. Give us all we need to run the encounter straight off the page
- Demand a system which works with (but doesn’t demand) miniatures, an internet connection or an electronic gaming aid. Let us choose how we play rather than be dictated by the financial interests of your company. Get this right and the profits will follow. Have faith in your customers, and they will have faith in you
- Want a combat system which can scale with the number of opponents, whether it’s a single foe or a thousand screaming goblins.
- Expect to be able to be able to create and customise monsters and NPCs simply, whether we be planning a scenario or sat at the table mid-game. We demand simplicity.
- Want stat blocks which take up a few lines of text, not a whole page
- Demand character generation that is as flexible and unrestricted as possible
- Expect the rules system to reflect the genre, not mould the genre into it’s image
- Want game designers who listen, not preach; improve, not re-invent; and inspire, not promote.
- Require a freely downloadable Test Drive Preview of the game with which we can run a sample adventure from start to end.
In return, we will…..
- Advocate, promote and play this game at every opportunity
- Make this game our game through customization of the classes, features and game world
- Introduce new players to the game, and thereby expand the hobby and profits of the company
- Buy the game, buy the supplements and buy the adventures, for they will be good, and worth our hard earned cash
- Have fun and be very, very happy indeed!!
signed
Yax from Dungeon Mastering
This was started by Greywulf, and spotted on ChattyDM‘s site.
(add your name in the comments and/or cross-post in your blog if you agree).
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Arete
hmmm, I agree completly to the majority, but a couple worry me:
“2. Want one book that contains character generation, the game rules and a wide and inspiring selection of opponents.”
this mighty tome would likely weigh more than my little sister. I like the trio of rule books, known as the “core rules”, that we have now.
“12. Require a freely downloadable Test Drive Preview of the game with which we can run a sample adventure from start to end.”
how the heck would that work without the entire rulebooks being printed on the net?
I agree with all of the above, sylvain included.
“12 Require a freely downloadable Test Drive Preview of the game with which we can run a sample adventure from start to end.”
AND makes those quick-start rules COMPATIBLE with your core rules, so that I might take my quick-start character and play it as a regular PC…. (with as few changes as possible).
I don’t want to see another quick-start rules that capture the ‘flavor’ of the setting, but use completely different rules than in the main game. (White Wolf, I’m looking at you!)
Go Yax!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
check out savage worlds; pulp genre. the test drive rules do have core rules (a simplified version of the full rules; compatible as far as I know woth the published rules). lots of online stuff, and even a sample scenario and sample characters to play it in the test drive. the core book is only 9.95, too!
Amen Brother! :)
GURPS has something similar too – GURPS Lite is a free download – though I can’t remember if it’s got a sample adventure.
Y’know, perhaps that’s a good test of a system – if it can’t be condensed into a shortened but still playable sample then maybe it’s too complicated….
I concur. And Sylvain, check out FEAR RPG. It’s a combined PHB, MM, and DMG, all in less than 500 pages.