xBlackWolfx
2013-03-01, 05:06 PM
I know this technically isnt about making an rpg, but it is related to homebrewing.
For years I've suffered from indecision, and constant revising. Though i've been working on my homebrew(s) (i was working on a generic system for a while, but i abandoned that a while ago) for years, I still have nothing to show for it. I've downloaded several free rpgs, and even bought a few books (including both editions of bash, and DC adventures), but not one of them appeal to me at all. I've abandoned homebrewing now and then believing i had finnally found a system that i liked, only to lose interest in it and go back to making my own rpg, even though its been obvious for years that my only hope of getting an rpg that appeals to me perfectly, is to simply make it myself, though sometimes i think there is nothing that would make me happy.
I constantly revise my systems, and by revise i mean completely scrap them and go in a completely different direction. If i had actually followed through on every single project i started, i'd easily have tens of different rpgs by this point. Granted some of my earliest ones weren't even playable, but i've learned over the years and i do have some idea of the do's and dont's. Like dont make a system with d4 dicepools that can easily have tens of dice (yeah, no idea why i didnt realize my mistake sooner, infact i actually got quite far with taht system, even got to the point of making a list of powers, heck that thing might have actually been playable to some extent if it wasnt for the 30d4 dice pools).
And as for why neither bash nor dc adventures appeal to me? Different reasons, I like the simplicity and ease of bash, but the lack of granuality in the attributes always bugged me (1 is human and 5 is superman, wtf?) and it wasnt customizable enough for me, though the ultimate edition did help with that quite a bit. As for DC adventures, I love its customizability, but its far too damned complicated. Sersiously, every singly power in the book takes at least a paragraph (if not an entire page) to explain, and that's not counted the tens of pages it takes just to describe how to make a character (and even after reading through that section two or three times i still cant remember anything, hell i read the entire book front to back shortly after i got it, and i didnt learn a damned thing). Obviously, something like HERO is completely out of the question. Another thing i didnt like is that despite the fact that M&M claims to be able to make 'virtually any power imaginable', i cant think of one instance where i thought up a power that it could do. The only character i ever made with it was a joke character (a yeti, who had magic powers and the ability to turn invisible AND 'hide in plain sight', yeah having both was redudant, but it was supposed to be a joke). Oh, and i didnt like how free-form dc adventures is. There is clearly no attempt at all to balance things, power descripters are completely free-form and easy to abuse, and the 'complications' are also free-form, though at least those are somewhat self-balancing, but i still prefer the relatively pre-set 'weaknesses' of BASH. Long story short, DC adventures is unusable to me bc of its complexity, and BASH lacks the versatility I want, and ironnically DCA doesnt have quite the versatility I'm after either. I'm guessing the only way to solve that conundrum is to make my own rpg, with a list of powers of my own choosing, i can just have an rpg with exactly the list of powers that i want, rather than dishing out tens of dollars for a pdf that does nothing but take up memory space. I dont even have anyone in my community to play with for crying out loud. My local comic/rpg/TCG shop was supposed to have a game every two weeks, but after wasting an entire day sitting around waiting for the guy to show up, i found out that he didnt come in regularly as advertised, infact he only came in whenever he felt like it, even if it wasnt a friday, or the time that the game was supposed to take place. I never went back.
But that was all years ago (i got DCA shortly after it came out, i would've bought second edition if it wasnt for the fact that DCA was due in like a couple months). I still suffer from indecision, and I still havent finished an rpg purely bc i cant decide what i want, or the damned thing comes out unplayable. Ironnically, a recurring problem with me is i tend to make the game overly complicated just trying to get the versatility i want. Like i've said before, I once tried to make an rpg with over 20 attributes. It didnt go beyond a list of attributes though, bc seeing that long list itself was enough to make me abandon it.
Does anyone else suffer from the daunting problems I have? My main problem is, I'm a huge perfectionist, to a fault. If it isnt absolutely perfect, it is completely unacceptable and belongs in the garbage, literally. And I cant stop myself, if I dont have a system that is exactly to my liking I cant stand it. I used to play DnD (or more accurately NWN on an online rpg server), but i lost interest in it years and years ago, mostly bc i found the way the system worked to be wierd and completely nonsensical (like the way wizards work, the wierd list of attributes, but mostly it was the highly religious setting and lack of flexibility most other servers have, the one i played on was very very liberal, even allowing good drow, kobolds and goblins as PCs). I've tried to pick it up again, but to no avail. I actually tried to pick up pathfinder a while ago, but despite my familiarity with 3rd edition (i learned how the game worked so i could play battle of the dragons better), pathfinder to me is dauntingly complicated, i mean each class takes like a book to explain, its ****ing rediculous. Only thing i like about it is the ability to create custom races, and its not free-form either (mostly anyway).
And here i am ranting again, lets just end this. Can i ever actually finish this project despite how much time has passed without me making any real progress? Could i ever be satisfied? Does anyone else suffer from this? How long does it take normal homebrewers to get their own custom system off the ground and playable. most of time i'm lucky if i even get to making attributes, for years i was pondering various bizarre dice mechanics, only to discover years later that all the math i had been using was faulty, every equation that i had relied to to determine probability was completely wrong, joy.
For years I've suffered from indecision, and constant revising. Though i've been working on my homebrew(s) (i was working on a generic system for a while, but i abandoned that a while ago) for years, I still have nothing to show for it. I've downloaded several free rpgs, and even bought a few books (including both editions of bash, and DC adventures), but not one of them appeal to me at all. I've abandoned homebrewing now and then believing i had finnally found a system that i liked, only to lose interest in it and go back to making my own rpg, even though its been obvious for years that my only hope of getting an rpg that appeals to me perfectly, is to simply make it myself, though sometimes i think there is nothing that would make me happy.
I constantly revise my systems, and by revise i mean completely scrap them and go in a completely different direction. If i had actually followed through on every single project i started, i'd easily have tens of different rpgs by this point. Granted some of my earliest ones weren't even playable, but i've learned over the years and i do have some idea of the do's and dont's. Like dont make a system with d4 dicepools that can easily have tens of dice (yeah, no idea why i didnt realize my mistake sooner, infact i actually got quite far with taht system, even got to the point of making a list of powers, heck that thing might have actually been playable to some extent if it wasnt for the 30d4 dice pools).
And as for why neither bash nor dc adventures appeal to me? Different reasons, I like the simplicity and ease of bash, but the lack of granuality in the attributes always bugged me (1 is human and 5 is superman, wtf?) and it wasnt customizable enough for me, though the ultimate edition did help with that quite a bit. As for DC adventures, I love its customizability, but its far too damned complicated. Sersiously, every singly power in the book takes at least a paragraph (if not an entire page) to explain, and that's not counted the tens of pages it takes just to describe how to make a character (and even after reading through that section two or three times i still cant remember anything, hell i read the entire book front to back shortly after i got it, and i didnt learn a damned thing). Obviously, something like HERO is completely out of the question. Another thing i didnt like is that despite the fact that M&M claims to be able to make 'virtually any power imaginable', i cant think of one instance where i thought up a power that it could do. The only character i ever made with it was a joke character (a yeti, who had magic powers and the ability to turn invisible AND 'hide in plain sight', yeah having both was redudant, but it was supposed to be a joke). Oh, and i didnt like how free-form dc adventures is. There is clearly no attempt at all to balance things, power descripters are completely free-form and easy to abuse, and the 'complications' are also free-form, though at least those are somewhat self-balancing, but i still prefer the relatively pre-set 'weaknesses' of BASH. Long story short, DC adventures is unusable to me bc of its complexity, and BASH lacks the versatility I want, and ironnically DCA doesnt have quite the versatility I'm after either. I'm guessing the only way to solve that conundrum is to make my own rpg, with a list of powers of my own choosing, i can just have an rpg with exactly the list of powers that i want, rather than dishing out tens of dollars for a pdf that does nothing but take up memory space. I dont even have anyone in my community to play with for crying out loud. My local comic/rpg/TCG shop was supposed to have a game every two weeks, but after wasting an entire day sitting around waiting for the guy to show up, i found out that he didnt come in regularly as advertised, infact he only came in whenever he felt like it, even if it wasnt a friday, or the time that the game was supposed to take place. I never went back.
But that was all years ago (i got DCA shortly after it came out, i would've bought second edition if it wasnt for the fact that DCA was due in like a couple months). I still suffer from indecision, and I still havent finished an rpg purely bc i cant decide what i want, or the damned thing comes out unplayable. Ironnically, a recurring problem with me is i tend to make the game overly complicated just trying to get the versatility i want. Like i've said before, I once tried to make an rpg with over 20 attributes. It didnt go beyond a list of attributes though, bc seeing that long list itself was enough to make me abandon it.
Does anyone else suffer from the daunting problems I have? My main problem is, I'm a huge perfectionist, to a fault. If it isnt absolutely perfect, it is completely unacceptable and belongs in the garbage, literally. And I cant stop myself, if I dont have a system that is exactly to my liking I cant stand it. I used to play DnD (or more accurately NWN on an online rpg server), but i lost interest in it years and years ago, mostly bc i found the way the system worked to be wierd and completely nonsensical (like the way wizards work, the wierd list of attributes, but mostly it was the highly religious setting and lack of flexibility most other servers have, the one i played on was very very liberal, even allowing good drow, kobolds and goblins as PCs). I've tried to pick it up again, but to no avail. I actually tried to pick up pathfinder a while ago, but despite my familiarity with 3rd edition (i learned how the game worked so i could play battle of the dragons better), pathfinder to me is dauntingly complicated, i mean each class takes like a book to explain, its ****ing rediculous. Only thing i like about it is the ability to create custom races, and its not free-form either (mostly anyway).
And here i am ranting again, lets just end this. Can i ever actually finish this project despite how much time has passed without me making any real progress? Could i ever be satisfied? Does anyone else suffer from this? How long does it take normal homebrewers to get their own custom system off the ground and playable. most of time i'm lucky if i even get to making attributes, for years i was pondering various bizarre dice mechanics, only to discover years later that all the math i had been using was faulty, every equation that i had relied to to determine probability was completely wrong, joy.