Game Design Other Systems Random musings RPG WR&M

Why there will be no 2nd Edition of WR&M

Over the last years I have thought several times about creating a 2nd Edition of Warrior, Rogue & Mage. No game is perfect and WR&M is no exception. The combat rules need fixing, some talents don’t work as intended, several of the monsters in the bestiary need to be looked at. Most people don’t seem to mind, but I look at the Wyrm System and see its flaws in every little detail. I guess it’s true that the worst critics of any game designers are themselves.

Fixing some of the issues would probably be doable, but whenever I start working on WR&M I get the urge to change more than just the problematic parts. Perhaps a new dice mechanics would be fun! Why not make weapon damages static? Let’s remodel the whole magic system! I guess it’s a sign of what I call game designer ADD. I just can’t help myself, I just have to mess with my own designs.

Recently I released the WR&M SRD under the very open Creative Commons Attribution license. So WR&M is now basically in the hands of the community. I am confident that they’ll treat “my baby” with respect. In a way that helps me not to turn all George Lucas on it and totally mess it up in the long run.

A new edition of WR&M would probably be very different to the game you all know, just because I like to come up with new solutions to old problems just for the heck of it. The same thing happened when I started working on WR&M Pocket Edition. At first I tried to simplify the rules even more, so that I could fit it into Pocketmod format. But then I read about dice-less RPGs and decided it would be cool to make it dice-less as well. What I finally came up with might have worked as a system, but it just didn’t feel WR&M anymore.

Long story short, the reason why there won’t be a 2nd Edition of WR&M is that I just can’t help myself changing the game beyond recongnition. So instead of doing that I should just take the elements I like and create something new with them. WR&M is better off in the hands of its fans. I don’t want to become the George Lucas of the RPG industry. Zwinkerndes Smiley
Stargazer

Michael Wolf is a German games designer and enthusiast best known for his English language role-playing games blog, Stargazer's World, and for creating the free rules-light medieval fantasy adventure game Warrior, Rogue & Mage. He has also worked as an English translator on the German-language Dungeonslayers role-playing game and was part of its editorial team. In addition to his work on Warrior, Rogue & Mage and Dungeonslayers, he has created several self-published games and also performed layout services and published other independent role-playing games such as A Wanderer's Romance, Badass, and the Wyrm System derivative Resolute, Adventurer & Genius, all released through his imprint Stargazer Games. Professionally, he works as a video technician and information technologies specialist. Stargazer's World was started by Michael in August 2008.

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6 comments

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Symatt

Then a second edition didn’t happen. But wow what an awesome and amazing new system is on the horizon. Maybe a Sifi game this time. ?
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revlazaro

So what are the odds of us finally getting an “Omnibus” edition of the core rules + supplements on POD?
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    comments user
    Stargazer

    That depends on whether I like to relayout the whole thing because I just can’t put the whole shebang on Lulu or something similar before fixing the font errors. it would also make sense to create a proper omnibus edition instead of just slapping everything together nilly-willy.
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      comments user
      revlazaro

      Well, all of that sounds like a major pain in the buttocks — so, I wouldn’t blame you if ya decide to just let it be. I could always just get a better print run of all the PDFs myself — my current “hard copies” are on normal printer paper, in a 3-ring binder. I know our local Staples print center could probably do a good quality run, on nice thick paper and coil-bound for like $20 (if that.)
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johnkzin

Eventually, with all things, you have to know when is the right time to let something go and grow on its own… instead of continuing to try to guide it yourself. Not an easy choice, but eventually a necessary one.
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Toby Vandal

Hey, I’m late to the game here, but I’ve got a few questions. Hopefully you can shed some light on it.

Firstly, you say “The combat rules need fixing, some talents don’t work as intended, several of the monsters in the bestiary need to be looked at.”

Can you elaborate? I’m planning on running a game soon and I’m houseruling a few things, creating some spells, traits and monsters. Knowing what you think needs fixing could greatly help influence my designs.

Secondly, I noticed there are no “Charisma/Social” skills like diplomacy, bluff, intimidate, and yet there is a racial trait that causes a -3 to social tests.

Was the intent to make Mage tests as Social roles like bartering and threatening and so on, or is it meant to be completely left to Role Play?

Thank you, and thanks for the great game!
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