Seeking New RPG System Survey Questions

**The Rose Dragon** · 2009-09-23, 11:54 AM (ISO 8601)

I was wondering what questions would be useful to ask, whether to determine the target demographic of a new RPG system or simply to choose which path to take during the design.

...I think that's it. Any details you need, feel free to ask.

**Yora** · 2009-09-23, 12:01 PM (ISO 8601)

* "Detailed" rules (hit areas, 10+ base abilities) or "basic" rules (one attack or save bonus fits all)?
* Dice Rolling AS the game, or as a device to determine the outcome of the plot?
* Many options or only the basics?
* Leveling up at regular intervals or rarely and after major acomplishments?
* Constant harvesting for better loot, or very few "special" equipment?

Things like these.

**Kurald Galain** · 2009-09-23, 12:01 PM (ISO 8601)

You mean this is a meta-survey?

**The Neoclassic** · 2009-09-23, 12:06 PM (ISO 8601)

Is this about survey design? How serious is this, and how would the survey be distributed? I'm in a few classes about consumer research (which includes lots of stuff on surveys and focus groups), so I might be able to help if you're serious about the matter. And bad surveys and research suck, so I'm in favor of anything to help possibly prevent that.

**The Rose Dragon** · 2009-09-23, 12:13 PM (ISO 8601)

It's not going to be an actual survey to be conducted, it's more to determine what a survey on RPG design key points would look like. It came about when I wanted to ask my friends what kind of RPGs they would like to play and how to explain RPGs to them in general when I realized I have no idea what kind of questions I would have to ask to have solid results.

Though if you can give me a few pointers on how to conduct a resulting survey, that would be nice too.

**Temet Nosce** · 2009-09-23, 01:01 PM (ISO 8601)

1. What are we trying to model?

2. How many different areas of the game should have individually different chances of success and failure?

3.What kind of system should be used for determining success and failure?

4. Should advancement occur for characters, and if so how?

5. What should be defined outside of the players (and in how many different ways)?

**The Rose Dragon** · 2009-09-23, 03:39 PM (ISO 8601)

Nosce, I'm not sure I understand the questions 2 and 5. Mind clarifying for me?

**Temet Nosce** · 2009-09-23, 03:57 PM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by The Rose Dragon

Nosce, I'm not sure I understand the questions 2 and 5. Mind clarifying for me?

2 is about which areas of the game are grouped together. Basically the difference between having a single body stat on one side (like Nobilis, which handles all such things under Aspect), or on the opposite something like str/dex/con/wis/int/cha with various other areas that apply to specific subdivisions of those (3.5). Simply put, how many different parts should be covered by a single way of determining success or failure.

5 is basically asking "What do the rules need to stat out beyond the characters?", it's a question of what needs concrete numbers and rules and what is left up to RPing. Do you define weapons as a single buyable bonus, or individually, or maybe not at all? What about rules for poisons? Drugs? Vehicles? Fatigue? Sex? Wealth?

I should actually probably add more, but I've been up a long time. Regardless, I consider the most important question to be what you're trying to model. You need to have a solid idea of what you want to do, before you begin breaking it down into gradually smaller chunks.

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