Project Delta, Coffee Shops, and George

Over our Saturday morning ritual of donuts and coffee, George talked about his 'Project Delta' (name TBD, we have nothing to call it) miniatures game with me. I say 'his' even though we are both working on it, because George is really the driving force behind the Project Delta project. Let me tell you where PD comes from, and where we want to take it, and how it differs from SBRPG 2.0. Let's look at the two projects:

Delta was born out of disappointment with how the a certain post 3rd edition miniatures-based fantasy RPG ended, and a lack of faith of the direction in the game's future. We enjoy nothing more than playing tabletop strategy fantasy RPGs, and love the whole hobby of creating terrain, collecting figures, building characters, and using teamwork to take down a big baddie. It is a miniatures game at its heart, focusing on 'the path of a hero' - taking an average nobody and watching how they change as they have adventures, learn the mystic arts, and grow to incredible heights of power. You will be able to mix classes and powers as you level up. When a high-level warrior slams his boot on the ground, it should literally shake the tabletop.

SBRPG 1.0 was developed before the 3rd edition of the world's most popular fantasy RPG was released, and continued in development until it was released in 2005. It's focus was off the tabletop, with story-based roleplaying dealing with factions, NPCs, and group-created game worlds. Characters here started out at a low level of power, but fundamentally had the powers they needed to begin. It was, and will be a different focus than Delta. Characters in SBRPG start out a fighter or wizard, and continue on gathering fighter or wizard powers (of the players own design) until they reach maximum level. It is not about a 'find yourself' character build system, it is about being a 'level 1 rogue' and progressing with a custom rogue build all the way up. SBRPG 2.0 will follow this design philosophy, and also strengthen the story and faction elements. It will be tailored to verbal roleplaying where groups share the world and create new things together.

I wish you guys and gals could be part of our morning planning discussions, since they are fascinating game design brainstorming sessions. We hashed out the direction Delta was going to take, along with where we wanted SBRPG 2.0 to go. They are both going to be great games, and Saturday morning's session clarified a lot of the differences between them. Now I just gotta get George to start the PD blog....

This also follows our philosophy as 'games as books' - we don't really believe in one 'master system' to rule them all. To us, you write the game to enhance the experience of play. Games should be simple enough to pick up, so learning them doesn't get in the way of having fun with them. Monopoly (tm) has different rules than Risk (tm), but both are simple enough you can pick up and play them with ease. Saying that in order to play board games you need one 'master board game system' for all family board games is kinda silly; and for RPGs, gets in the way of crafting a custom experience for your readers and players.