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Can't write? Can't draw? Can't design an RPG? Tips on RPGenesing as a team

A topic by dreamup created Jul 03, 2022 Views: 96
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Host (3 edits) (+1)

The current rules of the event indicate that you may work as a team on your project as long as:

  • A single person is still responsible for handling the submission and ensuring it follows all these rules. 
  • Everyone has a creative say in the project and gets explicit credit in your game for all the work they put in.
  • You self-organize with your friends, the event does not include pairing random people up.

Although RPGenesis is a RPG design challenge put in practice through a writing exercise, participants are probably aware that other talents can play an important role in publishing your game, namely graphical design or illustration. In fact, some ideas almost require the power of visual aids in other to make other people believe that they are even possible. 

Even focusing only on RPG design and writing, these are two skills that can feed off each other as a clear design helps you write and putting ideas into words helps you think, but they are still distinct domains. Are you confident with dice math but need a lot of time to write a sentence? Are you able to quickly proofread a text but know little about RPGs? You can still find a way to participate on RPGenesis as a team. 

But wether you go at it solo or as a team, the constraint of time is real for everyone. The advantage of working solo is that you can decide almost until the last couple of days that you're actually getting a submission together, since no one is depending on you. The more people you have on a team, the more there's a possibility that someone won't make it after all. However, only the actual writing of the game happens during its seven days. Playtesting, character sheet designs, cover illustrations, file templates... most tasks (besides editing and proofreading) can be finished beforehand. Still, notice that the rules require everyone to have a creative say in the whole project, you're not commissioning people for work. Each person should have a personal interest in this RPGenesis submission in particular and in this new RPG project in general. So, even if you've made your thing seven months ago, you still want to be involved in the decisions put on paper during the seven days of RPGenesis.  

So here a few tips to taking full advantage of joining the event as a team. 

Decide on a workflow that can culminate with one of you submitting the files at the end of the jam. Experiment with it so you don't need to discover at the very last minute that this person, for example, doesn't have the fonts needed to export your PDF correctly.   

Keep your team small. It's better to have a duo where both of you check-in everyday with each other than a full team where proofreading or illustration only show up when the jam is over. 

Give yourselves time to communicate. Any time you think that you might be saving by not having to do everything is time that you probably need to put in coordinating with each other. 

Talk it out until you know what your game is before hand. Completely changing your mind back and forth in the middle of RPGenesis week is a luxury for solo participants.  

It doesn't have to be perfect. RPGenesis is not a competition and you have all the time in the world to improve on your game after the jam, so please enjoy the event.

Have fun 馃憤

(pending Portuguese translation)