Introduction to (Tabletop) Role-playing Game Design

Course Curriculum

Chapter 1: Introduction

Lecture 1: Who am I and what is this class about? (The Promotional video, but read notes)

Lecture 2: Fundamentals of RPG Creation: Business versus Hobby, RPGs versus other Games

Lecture 3: How do I know this stuff?

Chapter 2: Designing Games

Lecture 1: The Joys of Designing Games (as a hobby, not a business)

Lecture 2: 10 "Need to Knows" about Game Design

Lecture 3: 11 More "Need to Knows" about Game Design

Lecture 4: 7 ways to learn game design

Lecture 5: 10 steps to designing a game

Lecture 6: Are you a fiction writer or a game designer?

Lecture 7: 10 "Need to Knows" for designing a good game, pt 1

Lecture 8: 10 "Need to Knows" for designing a good game, pt 2

Lecture 9: Top 10 game design software tools

Lecture 10: All I needed to know about game design I learned from Dungeons & Dragons, part 1

Lecture 11: All I needed to know about game design I learned from D&D, Part 2

Chapter 3: Designing RPGs

Lecture 1: What do RPGs really Amount to, part 1

Lecture 2: What do RPGs really Amount to, part 2

Lecture 3: 10 "Need to Knows" about RPG Design, part 1

Lecture 4: 10 "Need to Knows" about RPG Design, part 2

Lecture 5: Pacing

Lecture 6: Do's and Don'ts for designing RPG monsters, part 1

Lecture 7: Do's and Don'ts for designing RPG monsters, part 2

Lecture 8: You didn't say much about the "don'ts" (of creating monsters), Lew

Lecture 9: Enabling RPG rules to fit the theme and setting of the game, part 1

Lecture 10: Enabling RPG rules to fit the theme and setting of the game, part 2

Lecture 11: Bucketsful of Dice? Just Say No to this poor game design

Lecture 12: Character ability generation methods: pros and cons

Lecture 13: 10 "Need to Knows" about writing clear rules (and GDD), part 1

Lecture 14: 10 "Need to Knows" about Writing Clear Rules (and game design documents), part 2

Lecture 15: Peculiarities and special cases of RPG rules

Chapter 4: The business side of tabletop RPGs

Lecture 1: The state of the tabletop market

Lecture 2: Are tabletop adventures written more to be read than to be played?

Lecture 3: 10 "Need to Knows" about Freelance Game Design and Writing

Lecture 4: Marketing your game when someone else publishes it

Lecture 5: Twitter

Lecture 6: What attracts Kickstarter backers to board and card games?

Chapter 5: Section for Miscellaneous Material, formerly "Bonus Material"

Lecture 1: Warren Spector's Rules

Lecture 2: Why I wrote my book "Game Design"

Lecture 3: What makes my book "Game Design" unusual or unique

Lecture 4: RPGs – Prisoners of Capitalism? Part 1

Lecture 5: RPGs – Prisoners of Capitalism? Part 2

Lecture 6: "A tax on those who are bad at math."

Chapter 6: Final Section

Lecture 1: "Bonus Lecture" – Lew's online courses and information sources