It's been brought to my attention that a game called Spectrum has been released, and in the interest of not causing any confusion, I've renamed my open-source game system to Spectra. It's been a dormant project for years, but I think I want to revive it, and this would head off any potential miscommunication. The… Continue reading A mostly inconsequential name change
Tag: spectra
Spectrum, Color, and Colorblindness
Since color is an essential mechanical element in the Spectrum system, it bears thinking about how the system might accommodate those who have difficulty distinguishing colors. The answer is: more readily than you might think. Among the rules tweaks being added to the new Spectrum Prime document is a sidebar addressing these concerns. The most… Continue reading Spectrum, Color, and Colorblindness
[NGDM] One more thing, Jackie!
A lot of ideas about this come to me as I'm going to sleep at night. That makes posting about them slow, since I have to wait until the next day to put anything up, but I get to hammer things out in my head before they make it to the blog, too. Here's what… Continue reading [NGDM] One more thing, Jackie!
[NGDM] Fight finishing, system eyeballing, setting sketching
First, let's finish up our hanging fight scene. Lakshmi has taken a wound (-1), and with her low dice, that's a big deal, so she wants to get out of this wizard's atelier and away from the guardian automaton. Time for her to perform a complex action: she's going to put all of her magical… Continue reading [NGDM] Fight finishing, system eyeballing, setting sketching
[NGDM] Oh, wait, we need a setting.
Yeah, right there in the NaGa DeMon rules: an RPG has to have a setting as well as rules. Hrm. Well, since we're designing something generic, it's not too much of a stretch to come up with one - in fact, it's useful if one is trying to sell a generic system to have some… Continue reading [NGDM] Oh, wait, we need a setting.
[NGDM] A few add-ins, plus a fight!
While I compile the rules into a coherent written form and flesh them out, I'll toss a few ideas here to keep some transparency on what's going on. The action declaration system is intended to be super-flexible in allowing characters to perform actions, provided that they are capable and willing to use their imaginations and… Continue reading [NGDM] A few add-ins, plus a fight!
[NGDM] A quick chargen rundown
Let's write up a character! I keep using this nebulous mage-thief as a character example, so let's do that: a cutpurse for a fantasy setting with some minor magical talents. Start with 20 points. Envisioning magic as flexible and fast, but our character wielding only minor tricks, I buy 2d4 for her, giving each of… Continue reading [NGDM] A quick chargen rundown
[NGDM] Tying things together
I promise I'm still here! The last couple of days in the office were pretty busy, but I've been collecting my thoughts on what's been done so far on this project and where it's still in need of development. Here's everything that's come up so far, with some clarifications that I've been mulling over in… Continue reading [NGDM] Tying things together
It’s NaGa DeMon!
...or, if you're not hip to the lingo, National Game Design Month! I'll be trying my hand at this, and blogging about it as I go. Today, some groundwork. I know I have an idea, or rather two separate ideas, that might or might not go together. One is a premise, and the other is… Continue reading It’s NaGa DeMon!