Systems are doin' it for themselves...

Another sleepless night. I don't know what's going on. I'm supposed to be writing about dreaming, and I'm not sleeping enough to actually dream. I spend my time laid in bed (or woken by the cat's demands for food) pondering over game systems.

A couple of days ago, I'd just had this idea for the actual stats for the characters, woke fully thanks to the cat, and wrote them all down (hence my Twitter comment about having a breakthrough). The more I thought about it, however, the more I thought it wasn't the huge breakthrough I wanted, it was just an idea...

Last night was the same. I was drifting off to sleep after a day off from the day job spent reading game systems and watching some Youtube videos about RPG design, and I suddenly thought of a dice rolling system that hadn't been used before. I got up, scribbled it down, and went back to bed, thinking about it...

Then, five o'clock this morning, I woke again from a half-sleep, with another realisation about the system. What I'd written down was far too complicated and time consuming. And I'd thought of something new. What do I need Attributes for anyway? Why am I getting so bogged down in traditional gaming? No, it's not going to be super weird just for the heck of it, but the very nature of the subject is lending itself to a different type of game system. It could be the way to go, but it needs a bit more thought and pondering.

It's odd. I can see what I want the book to look like completed. I can see in my mind the layout, the design, the size, the colour and the shape. I can see the interesting gimmicks I want to add - like augmented reality codes. I can see how an iBook version of it would look, complete with animations and "going deeper" options in the text.

But can I nail down the system?

Soon. Hopefully. Even if it takes another couple of sleepless nights...