Starting out game.....

As I mentioned when I responded to the beginning of your story: A great place to start a game idea is with a story or other fiction writing, it can give more depth to your game than any dice mechanic.

Then later on it is easy enough to license somebody else's system. For example you could try FUZION which is a game system already used by R.Talisorian Games to make many great anime style games.Just avoid the OGL and D20! Or you can make like the rest of us and try to create your own system tailored to your fictional setting and characters.I also suggest play testing, every day if you can.

-John Lennon

To help you get an idea of how it works, check out the following pages.

John Kims "What is a Role-Playing Game?" Articles

John Kims System Design Articles

If you are after a do-it-yourself easy game system to give you an example of how to tinker with rules, try the following link.

FUDGE: Freeform, Universal, Do-it-yourself Game Engine

Hope these links help
http://www.1km1kt.net/Aaron-White.htm

Can you be more specific?

I've seen you mention a collective storytelling game of yours in past blogs, and you've also mentioned your interest in computer RPGs such as Dragon Fable.

This is a site dedicated to pen and paper roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons, games where the players roll dice and keep track of things by writing stuff down.

If that is the kind of RPG you want to now make, you are in the right place. If the type of RPG you want to make is a computer one, we probably can't help you much here. Your storytelling game may find some contributors here due to it's roleplaying aspect, but then again there might be better sites with more people who would want to contribute to such a storytelling game. If I knew of one, I'd definitely provide a link, but I'm afraid I'm a little ignorant of the topic.

No matter what type of game it is you seek to make, best of luck with it.

Peace, Errin : )

http://www.1km1kt.net/Errin-Famiglia.htm

Adventuria Online RPG

First of all - what do you want to happen in the game? What are the players supposed to do? You established that you like anime, but what type of cartoon do you want to replicate - Dragon Ball Z and Rouni Kenshin both feature martial arts prominently, but vary wildly in their presentation.

Generally, you can either start with a story, and then come up with some mechanics that support the concept or you can come up with some mechanics and then an idea that supports it.

For an example, let's create a combat system that works as follows:

• Each participant in combat gets one attack.

• Important character's get a supply of points that can be spent for extra actions, enhancements, or interrupts.
  Parrying a blow without losing your footing (and thus your counter-attack) is one Action Point.
  Aiming/charging an attack is one point.
  A second attack is Two points.
  Points are restored at the beginning of each round.
• Throw away mooks get no points, your average hero gets five.
• Hit-points are fairly low (one or two sword cuts to kill a person) but good fighters can block multiple attacks, and armor deflects a portion of the damage.
• (Damage roll - AR = HP inflicted) Low damage items like knives ignore armor entirely, to give a bit more incentive to get up there with a stiletto. (Ie Dagger = 1d6 damage, Sword = 2d6+5, average HP = 20-25)

So, we can determine that this system is deadly, though it still has a possibility of skilled characters evening the odds. However, its defiantly more a historical/deadly system, that an extended fight exchanging blow for blow. Ninja Scroll rather than Ranma 1/2.

Skills begin at 10, and are bought down, as the idea is to roll over your personal rating on 2d6. Roll-rating = outcome, highest margin of outcome wins a contested action. (ie 7vs 4 beats 12 vs 10). Attributes determine the number of skill points or other abilities, but are not directly tested.

Admittedly, I should not be writing the whole game for you, but this is just kind of how my mind works. I'll just at random come up with some new mechanic or idea, and write it out in my journal. I literally have more rules then games at the moment.

Perhaps to enforce the anime nature, there should be genre points players can earn for following genre tropes (ie scarring villains, swearing revenge, falling in love with the alien princess regardless of biological differences etc.) These can in turn be redeemed to enact shticks only possible in cartoons (dramatic slow motion, training montage, cherry blossom background 5 minuet monologues...) which somehow provide a bonus to the character.

Basically, just start writing and putting together what you think is good - before I write the whole thing before you. Is this going to be a specific anime style, or general? Giant Robots? Magic Girls? Rubber Monsters walking over the warehouse district? (You'd think after a while they'd get used to it - Traffic is slowed down on the I-50 as Rodan has collapsed the bridge for the second time this week, please use an alternate route and avoid the zilla hatching zone)

How might that vampire story translate into a game. Vampires exist, like blood, and can read minds - what else can they do? I've always wondered about a world where vampires are at least tacitly accepted - you walk into a local fast food restaurant and blood is one of the available drink choices...

There is a fine line between hobby and obsession. I seem to have lost sight of it some time ago.