The SBRPG Manifesto

Way back when SBRPG was just a half-sheet of rules in a DVD case (we didn't have a pocket-box), we came up with a list of don't-so's for the game that would go on to be SBRPG 1.0. These were a sometimes negative list of things that bothered us about other games, and things we did not want to support in our game. Some of these were quite sarcastic, so take them with a smirk and a smile - they are not meant to be incendiary. Some need explanation, so that will be provided:

SBRPG Don'ts

• Make dungeons or write modules.
• SBRPG was meant to play 'live' with no preparation time, the sandbox and factions handled everything, and the referee dealt with everything as play happened.
• Port in other games to these rules.
• We didn't want you playing Star Wars (tm) with SBRPG, or porting in your favorite fantasy game world. One of the ground rules was you needed to create something new to play.
• Port in classes from other games.
• Similar to above, please don't port in your World of Warcraft shaman into the game, all classes had to be original creations.
• Limit yourself to other people's ideas.
• Self-explanatory, this was a defense against 'why aren't you playing X?'
• Feel pressured to accept other people's ideas as law.
•  This covers fiction, other games, movies, or anything else that could limit your creativity. This basically gives you a right to ignore it.
• Think your ideas are stupid.
• Creating new stuff is hard, and hard to get buy-in. People are afraid to be creative, for the vast majority of people outside of RPGs, we have encountered the feeling that, "Oh, my ideas are stupid and no one wants to hear them."
• Let publications, the Internet, chat rooms, or others tell you what to think or feel.
• Again, a defense against toxic attacks from the Internet that could derail your creations.
• Be overwhelmed by floods of news about other games, releases, or the noise of websites or magazines. People want to sell you stuff.
• Haha, people do want to sell you stuff, and too often, you toss your creations out for the cool new thing on the shelf.
• Assume quantity equals quality. Just because other games have more monsters, gear, worlds, NPCs, rules, or books doesn't mean anything you create is worthless.
• A big one. Our shelves are filled with games where the sheer weight alone says 'play me.' Also, there is a tendency to feel other games are better because they have more. This is 'start-up protection' where creators give up in the face of having to create something equal to what's on their shelves.
• Assume your current RPG collection is gold - what are they really? Half of what's in the books are lists of stuff you will never use, and the other half are combat rules. How much of those books inspire you to create a story, world, or your own unique creation?
• A second point to the preceding one, a bit sarcastic, but funny nonetheless. Most RPG books are filled with lists and lists of stuff, powers, spells, equipment, monsters. When you say 'that stuff is not important' - what do you have left? And yes, the line about half of the book being combat rules was smarmy, but too often true.
• Trust a game company (even us) unless you really like what they did.
• We have been burned by companies releasing official stuff that we inadvertently introduced into our campaigns, and it spoiled everything. Save your original conception about what a game is about, and be wary of expansions and new material. If you create all your own stuff, you are mostly immune to this.
• Play a game because you spent a fortune on it.
• Too true. But funny.
• Think a game is the 'end all' of RPGs (even this one).
• Yep, all games are never the answer for everything. Something new and cool will come out next year. If you like something you are playing though, stick with it.
• Buy a game for its name.
• True, sometimes games go downhill in new versions, and lose what made them special. Just because a game has a name, doesn't mean it's any good. See also: Hollywood sequels.
• Be intimidated by other people's ideas of what's right.
• More of the 'your ideas are gold' defensive material.
• Think you need to play with other people's IP and copyrighted material, you own creations and ideas are often superior.
• We were really anti-other people's IP in the game. In SBRPG, we have a section banning using other people's copyrighted materials, movies, ideas, or IP in your creations. The reason is copyrighted material is so powerful culturally, it will take over the game. If you are playing your 100% original sci-fi game having fun, and being creative; and then Darth Vader (tm) and the Empire (tm) all of a sudden show up, all your original ideas pale in comparison to that cultural 'force.'

Well, there you go, our crazy manifesto of don'ts for the SBRPG game, and a lot of those ideas were cleaned up, made less negative, and incorporated into the game. We had some negativity in the first draft of the rules, and we purposefully went through and eliminated it in our revisions. In a game about 'creating your own cool stuff,' razzing on other people's games or ideas seemed petty, and it was. Our writing matured, and SBRPG was better for it.