I found this great discussion page while googling for info about something, in which the author challenged others on the site to write rules for an original role-playing game in 365 seconds (six minutes, five seconds, in other words). Although it was half in jest, several comments were posted containing entire games, which had all been written within that amount of time.

You can find it here (warning: language).

I tried, but failed. I've gotta say, I went into that thinking six minutes was a much longer amount of time then it really is. If any of you RPG wizards are feeling up to the challenge, then break out the kitchen timer and give it a go! Don't forget to post your results here on the lab, or right on this page in the comments!

I was reading somewhere on the web about RPGs where the player's can spend resources to alter the game world slightly, which makes an RPG more like a collaborative story. I was going over it in my head, and said aloud "Geez, why don't you just make the players the GM?" Then it hit me.

God-mode is an idea for an RPG in which players control the game world and the GM controls the main characters. Each player stills creates their own character, and the player still wants that character to succeed - But they do that by creating the situation and setting rather than stating their character's actions. The Game master (or maybe Character master would be a better term) plays the parts of the character's and reacts to the player's control of the world as they think that character would.

Okay, I was writing a paper on the history of game theory, most notably the Nash equilibrium and a game/experiment called The Prisoner's Dilemma. The basic setup is this:

"Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated the prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal. If one testifies for the prosecution against the other (defects) and the other remains silent (cooperates), the defector goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the prisoners act?"

I am in the process of creating my own rules-light role-playing system which I have dubbed SNARG (Starter's Non-genre Advantage/Disadvantage Role-playing Game (name pending)). I'm planning to one day release the game as a free PDF on it's own website. At the moment it's little more than a simplified GURPS, but I hope that I can get some input from the folks at RPGlaboratory so that the project can get itself off the ground.

Character creation is simple. Characters are given a name and description to start with. The abilities of the character are fleshed out with buffs (advantages) and nerfs (disadvantages). Buffs at the moment are divided into four categories: Skills (actions they have learned to use), talents (actions they are naturally good at), powers (special actions unique to them), and immunities (actions that won't work when they are the target). Nerfs include compulsions (actions they are forced to do when given the chance), weaknesses (actions they are naturally bad at), dependencies (actions or substances they cannot go without), and aversions (actions or substances they suffer with when physically or mentally close to). This list is meant to fix the one problem I have with GURPS, the fact that every single advantage/disadvantage is catalogued. With the buff/nerf system, I tried to generalize a bit.