I want to start by thanking for Ms. Vinings for taking the time to break down my rather lengthy e-mail(sorry about that)and give me some questions to think about...here are some of my answers. Are all of the game mechanics original? If not, do you have permission to open them? Yes, the game mechanics are all my own work. This system began in 1987 when I was in college and wrote a simplier version of them we used to play our own "homebrew" game. There are about as "original" as I guess game mechanics are for RPGs nowadays. :-)I do feel there are some unique aspects to the system that will set it apart from others. Why don't you want to use d20? To be honest, there are aspects to d20 I don't like, and I don't feel you can create the same kind of characters with them that I want players to be able to create. Besides, I've put too much work into them to just drop them now because d20 has come along. IMO, what makes a game great has more to do with its themes and less to do with its game mechanics. I agree. My system definitely has a theme it is centered around. Do you think your game engine is the best for your plans? Why? There are problems with alot of game systems I have never agreed with. I set out to try to create the game system "I" would have always wanted to play. Are you going to do any playtesting? Definitely! My plans are for the game to go from a "Alpha" development version, to a "Beta" playtest version, and finally when problems or kinks have been worked out to become a full release version. I'm without a doubt a long way from the full release version, but I believe in taking my time and trying to do it right rather than rush it along. IMO, any game is modular because people usually change what they want to regardless of what is allowed by the original game system. How will your game facilitate tweaking more than other game systems? In essence we plan on promoting and inviting you to make the changes you feel are necessary, and release them as Open Content for anyone to use. I don't expect everyone is going to love the game the way I have written it. I expect them to want to make changes, and I WANT them to. If you design a better system for using psionics than what I came up with, then PLEASE submit it! I'd love to use it too! I think this is where it will work with the Open Gaming concepts. How do you plan to make this convienient for people who don't like or don't have the time to sort through vast amounts of data? Design,layout and organization. The website will not be a jumble of confusion that I see on most free RPG sites. People can create new game mechanics and release them as open content without being involved in your project. How will you attract them to your project? This is my experiment to create not only a RPG, but to create a cooperative, interactive environment through the internet and the website. A project like this needs to inspire a sense of comraderie amongst the players,gamemasters and designers. I plan on a strong, aggressive promotion campaign to bring the game to the attention of those interested in becoming involved in this kind of environment. I didn't major in graphic design/advertising for nothing! :-) Look at the people who write quality material for FUZION...I want those kind of people for this project. How will your project be different from a compilation of already open content? I'm not quite sure what you mean here. What steps will you take to make sure that everything your group publishes as open content is original? You mean how will we know that someone else isn't just ripping off material directly from another game we haven't read and sending it in as Open Content? Good question...I'm not quite sure. Its been my experience that if you're ripping off anyone, SOMEONE out there will find and be quick to point it out. Any suggestions? So there is no control over how content gets published? What if some of it is inappropriate for children under 13? What if some of it is published as open and it wasn't really original? Right now we plan on moderating all content submitted to be published on the site. If we feel something is inappropriate for our site or if we recognize it as someone else's work, we won't publish it to our site. How do you plan to handle copyright notices? Do you mean acknowledging other people's work? I don't think you should use it (the OGL) at all unless you have some convincing answers to all of the above questions. I don't know if my answers were convincing or not, but I think the concepts and material qualify it to be release as Open Content, for anyone to copy, modify or redistribute. Why? How will other people be able to benifit your work? How do you plan to make sure the experience is positive for you? How will you get them all to work together? I read on RPG.net and other sites everyday someone who is struggling to design their own game...I'm hoping they see many of the same ideas they want in thier game in my game system also. I hope they will find it beneficial to help make the open content game system better by adding to it, knowing they can use it for their own works,also. Everyone can work together through e-mail, forums, mailing lists, chat rooms and the website itself. How do you plan to keep creative control and provide leadership over content that is open and available to the public regardless of what you think or need? I would have to release part of the creative control over what others do with the open game content when I make it open. I realize that. As for leadership, we plan on producing quality material that will demonstrate what can be done with the system when it is "applied" to a game setting. Who is "we"? Do you trust them? Do they trust you? Who will be the legal owner of the PI? So far this has all been developed by myself and two of my best friends I've known since grade school. We not some big design firm with lots of dough to publish and distribute the game. We're just a group of fanboys who feel we have some cool ideas we'd like to share. How will you prove who the owner is if you have to? Owner of the game mechanics, you mean? How will you separate game mechanics from the setting? Two different sections of the website. I think you should take this step slowly. LOL...thanks...we don't have too much choice...we're just doing this in our spare time, after all! Having a web site and getting involvement is not as important as establishing a long term plan designed to make your project thrive. We've got the long term plan...if we can just get the time to implement it! Thanks for all your questions, it has really helped. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
