It seems it was, in many ways, inevitable. When you've turned a very particular corner in your gaming life and you make the decision to try your hand at designing an original RPG, one question is certain to arise: is it really worth it?
This is most definitely a well-trod path. In fact, I suspect that this is a path winding in close proximity to several other, similar paths within the same wood, all of them converging at the aforementioned corner. In the same way that most people reach a point in their lives when they question if they've made the right choice regarding career path, the RPG game designer almost certainly will -- and definitely should -- call up the specter of doubt to haunt their project. There are, after all, a lot of RPGs out there that bear a much-more-than-passing resemblance to one another.
Originally, I had the idea that I would make an augmented version of an existing RPG, take something that I felt had promise and expand or edit some of the rules, perhaps retool the setting a bit. There was a sci-fi game I found that, at first, seemed right for this treatment. But as I went along, I started to realize that it would really work better if I started from scratch and worked from the ground up. Thus, Red Shift was born.
Red Shift is my sci-fi/horror RPG. My vision is a game that focuses on exploration within a mysterious and foreboding galaxy. I wanted a hard sci-fi feel without a great deal of crunch in the system; something that could be relatively easy to play. At the same time, I wanted some streamlined mechanics that reinforced a horror mood, brought a feeling of high tension, and encouraged roleplaying towards those aesthetic elements. I want it to have some of the feeling of a dungeon-crawl in space, with its potential for claustrophobic dread and attention to resource management; but I don't want to exclude opportunities for extended social interaction, requiring role-playing from the players.
So I began again, making notes for all the basic mechanics. After spending a few months working on it here and there, in the morning while sitting at the island counter in my kitchen eating toast before work, in bed before turning in. (I'll outline some of the individual systems that I decided on in future posts within this series.) All the while, I started to become aware of the growing number of sci-fi RPGs out there that were gaining ground and attention. And it was this awareness that gave rise to my current questioning of this entire project.
As I see it, in the broad spectrum of sci-fi RPGs, there are two general camps -- or at least two camps that I see as relevant in relation to Red Shift. On one end, you've got in-depth, hard sci-fi games. In this vein are RPGs like Eclipse Phase, Traveler, and Free Spacer. Usually, these games give you meticulously detailed rules within a massive rules tome, as well as a lot of metaplot and setting backstory. I know that I can't compete with these games, as I'll never create something that can function on that scale or level of detail. Of the three I mentioned, I guess it's really Eclipse Phase that I'm giving the most attention to, as it's also a sci-fi/horror game. It has such a defined niche that it works in -- and works in extremely well -- that I see no real point in even trying to set my sights on that RPG as a potential peer for Red Shift. I don't see how I can even remotely hope to operate in the same league.
This brings us to the other camp: rules lite sci-fi. They might broadly stick to the "hard" end of the genre, but without the exceptional density of rules and a high page count. Here, I'm thinking of RPGs like Mothership and Stay Frosty. Honestly, these two in particular are what cause me the most hesitation in developing Red Shift. They both do what they do very, very well, causing me to think maybe I'm reinventing the wheel. Mothership hits that pitch-perfect blend of horror and sci-fi. And let's face it: my layout design will pale in comparison. Another thing that gives me pause is that, as I learn more about the mechanics of these two games, I find some that are quite similar to those that I've been constructing. The thought that, in the end, I might be creating a second-rate heartbreaker RPG (albeit unintentionally and somehow without having read the source games at the time) makes me hesitate.
So what do you think? Is it worth continuing to design my RPG? I'll continue to mull this over -- and it won't stop me from writing posts here that explore the different mechanics and systems as I draft them. More soon in that regard. Stay tuned.
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