Introduction and design principles

I've started this blog to share my progress in designing the forthcoming Glint RPG. (Subtitle: Mighty Feats & Meaty Fights"). It's a working title - let me know what you think!

The game is part of the Old School Revival / Renaissance - i.e. it's inspired by early fantasy RPGs played in the late 70s and early 80s. For an introduction to OSR principles, I recommend the famous Principia Apocrypha by Ben Milton, Steven Lumpkin, and David Perry.

There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of OSR games already. My design was sparked by the same feeling which no doubt drove all the others: a sense that nothing out there quite matched what I was looking for. Inevitably, I've leant heavily on the work of other designers. But I hope I've innovated enough to make this a worthwhile exercise.

My current main design principles are, in no particular order:

1. Compatibility. It should be possible to play the game with materials (particularly adventures) from other major OSR systems and the original games. Where conversion is required from other systems, it should be fast and simple. Ideally, conversion should be easily done on the fly at the gaming table.

2. Asymmetry. Systems don't have to be applicable to both the PCs and monsters / NPCs. Some systems can be fun when limited to PCs but either too punishing or too slow and complex to be universal. Systems used for monsters / NPCs should be as simple as possible to reduce the mental load on the GM.

3. Mighty feats and meaty fights! Combat should be cinematic and fast. PCs (particularly fighters) should have ways of ending a fight quickly and bloodily, right from the start. Positioning should matter, even in Theatre of the Mind combat. The game should encourage and reward feats of bravery and creativity: swing on that chandelier; climb that dragon and stab it in the head! And let's see if we can do away with overly boardgamey turn-taking in combat and get simultaneous movement flowing instead.

4. Weapon differentiation. Weapons should *feel* different from each other. A two-handed sword shouldn't just have a slightly larger damage die, it should cut terrifying swathes through the battlefield. But you probably shouldn't stand right next to the person swinging it. Similarly, a dagger should feel different from a spear.

5. Simpler pre-game admin. Lightning fast character generation. Quantum gear: it isn't fun when your clever solution to a puzzle fails because you didn't write "twine" on your character sheet two sessions ago. Non-Vancian magic. Some aspects of character generation to emerge through play.

6. A simple, almost unified, task resolution system. No skill lists. Not a unified d20 system for reasons I'll get into in a separate post.

7. No "builds". Every character of a particular class will be quite similar when they start out. Character progression will be partially randomised.

8. More flexible magic. Fewer spells, with more flexible effects to spark creativity. Spell dice inspired by GLOG, which compensate for low rolls instead of punishing them as some roll-to-cast systems do. Levelless spells which function sensibly whether they're cast with one spell die or scaled up to ten.

9. Encourage smaller parties. Large groups of retainers slow the game down a bit. Smaller, stealthier parties will attract less attention and be more likely to surprise enemies rather than being surprised themselves. Lethality will be dialled down a little for low-level PCs to compensate for having fewer retainers.