Assorted Thoughts
What is an MVP, Time Management, and Next Steps
Boy howdy, have I ever been busy since my last post. Up until now, my blog posts have been a little behind the actual amount of progress I have made. I had written them more or less in sync with the work as it was completed but wasn't ready to post until recently. In fact, by the time this post is up, it will probably be a little behind as well.
Because a lot has been going on, I have decided to break this up into several sections instead of one coherent topic.
Recap
To start, let’s recap everything that has been done so far.
published a website with Netlify
set up some deployment automation (CI/CD for the software devs out there)
put together some branding
started writing the actual system
set up a blog
Overall, I'm having a blast writing with this project. My day job rarely ever provides the opportunity to work on anything front-end related (granted, I don’t go out of my way to look either). I might have jumped the gun a bit putting together some brand material, but I want to have some semblance of a brand if I am going to put this out there. The site and blog have turned out well enough, but I’m going to have to combine them into one soon to avoid some SEO issues down the road. Now that we are all caught up, let’s move on to some other topics I want to address.
What is an MVP?
I was nervous initially when I made my first post, but the community has been supportive, and the feedback, while critical at times, has been constructive. At the very least, it has given me food for thought. One thing I have noticed though is that there is a difference of opinion in what a minimum viable product (MVP) is. Let’s start with a definition:
An early, basic version of a product (typically a computer program or piece of technology) that meets the minimum necessary requirements for use but can be adapted and improved in the future, especially after customer feedback. wikipedia
I get that this is not a software project, but I can at least apply my own interpretation to what this would mean. My TTRPG interpretation of an MVP is a basic starter kit. It would include core mechanics and some world building. A polished starter kit in my opinion will give me a clear idea if it is worth expanding that product. A fully featured product by comparison would be a two-hundred page rulebook/campaign setting with all the bells and whistles. I would rather write fifty pages worth of content, find out no one is interested in this, figure out why, and either pivot or shelve the idea.
Getting Organized
Looking at the recap above, it should be of no surprise that I haven't been exactly focused on my approach. I would spend one evening just dumping random rules into markdown files, another evening organizing the site, and the night after setting up a mailing list, etc. There hasn't been any method to my madness, and that changes now.
I need to apply a little time management. My first iteration of that is going to be:
Another question I keep getting is whether the blog is cutting into precious development time of the TTRPG itself. It is a little bit; however, not as much as you would think. The benefits I get from writing it far outweigh what I would get from spending a little extra time writing content. It allows me to organize my thoughts about the game, get immediate feedback from the community, and spread the word about what I am doing. From what I’ve read since then, it seems like it is a crucial part of marketing in preparation of a Kickstarter campaign. There is a recurring blog/site that keeps recommendations on this topic. I never got around to clicking it and can no longer find the reddit posts that have it. If someone reading this thinks they know what the post is, can you share it with me? I’ll update this post to link to it.
Next Steps
I spoke about time management, but what am I doing with that time? Well buckle up, because here it is! Before anything else, if my MVP for this is going to be a starter kit, then I’d better start researching how other TTRPGS put together theirs. Some starter kits on my list: D&D, Fallout, City of Mist, and Call of Cthulhu. I got this list from some random blog post (sorry to whoever wrote it, I wasn’t thinking or I would have saved it!). The list said they were the best starter kits (it seemed a bit arbitrary to me). Arbitrary or not, it’s as good as anything I have to go off of. I think the real winners of this are my friends because now I’m going to buy and GM at minimum 4 different systems for them.
At this point, some of you may be asking why I’m choosing D&D if I have already played that system for years. My reasoning is I will to use that as my baseline in which I’ll compare the rest of the systems to.
Because it will take time and money to go through those systems, I’ll have to keep myself busy with other tasks as well. I noticed the last time I looked at the site there are some mistakes in formatting. That should be an easy fix and it will help me take inventory of what I have so far.
After that, I’d like to rename the Introduction to Game Rules and write an actual introduction for people new to the system. It should outline what it is and what the expected flow of the game looks like, as well as any expectations for the players and GMs of the game.
Finally, I’d like to actually start fleshing out the roles. I’m in a bit of a chicken and the egg scenario here. One of my roles should be tightly coupled space travel and combat, but it’s really challenging to design a system that translates to tabletop that is fun and engaging. So, I’m just going to kick that space can farther down the road and pick two roles not explicitly tied to it.
I could add more to my to-do list here and expand on my thoughts for the intent of the game, but, truthfully, this feels long enough already and seems like enough work for now. This still doesn't seem super focused, but it is a huge upgrade from what I was doing before (nothing).
As usual, if you like what you are reading and want to follow along with me as I make progress on it please subscribe or follow me on Twitter / Reddit. If you want to check out the progress of System Theory I have a draft of the site deployed here!
Photo by Maksim Istomin on Unsplash
I commit a minimum 15 minutes/day (with Saturdays off). I find that if I start writing I tend to spend a lot more than 15 minutes, but this helps me avoid procrastinating.
I potentially do more than this, but I want to dedicate 1-2 hours of intentional engagement. I try not to count a quick reply I made while standing in line waiting to pay for something in this case. When I started doing this, it was just to find some communities where others were doing the same thing as me and hold myself accountable to stick with the project.
This could easily eat up a ton of my time if I go down this rabbit hole. It’s familiar and fun to do (for me anyway). If I didn’t time box this, I would be fooling myself that I am moving the project forward when in actuality I am playing around with another site generator.