Make your own one-page RPG (Part 3: Choosing a theme)
A step-by-step guide to making your first one-page TTRPG
Welcome to Skeleton Code Machine, a weekly publication that explores tabletop game mechanisms. Spark your creativity as a game designer or enthusiast, and think differently about how games work. Check out Dungeon Dice and 8 Kinds of Fun to get started!
This is Part 3 of a series. Be sure to read Part 4 - Selecting Mechanisms next!
In Part 2 of this Create and publish your own one-page TTRPG guide, we explored the various elements and types of one-page RPGs.
In this part we are choosing a theme for our one-page RPG.
Available in print and PDF
Want this guide in a complete edition? Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game is available now in print at the Exeunt Press Shop and PDF at itch.io. Written by the creator of the ENNIE nominated Exclusion Zone Botanist, this Skeleton Code Machine guide takes you through every step of the process from initial concept to publication. It offers practical advice and examples you can use.
How to choose a theme
In many ways, coming up with an idea for a game is the easiest and most enjoyable part of the process. You don’t need to be an expert game designer to come up with a game concept. In fact, you don’t even need to design a game yet!
That said, it’s worth the effort to carefully choose your theme.
Here’s my initial advice:
Choose a theme that you are excited about. It doesn’t need to be your life’s passion, but it does need to be something you can’t wait to write.
A unique setting makes it easier to find a catchy hook. Using the same generic theme isn’t bad, but it might make it harder to stand out
Blend, mix, and combine genres. If people have trouble defining what genre your game is, it means you might be doing something new.
Those tips are easier said than done, so here are some methods that might help…
Scope and resolution
I mentioned Sarah Shipp’s Thematic Integration in Board Game Design in the Layers of Theme article. It’s a fantastic book and highly recommended for anyone interested in tabletop game design.
In the chapter on narrative structure she defines scope and resolution:
Scope: How focused or wide-ranging the theme is, with focused games zooming in on a particular part of a setting or theme. Example: An entire galaxy vs. a tiny part of an alien planet.
Resolution: How detailed or abstracted the theme is, with low resolution games abstracting out the theme more than high resolution games. Example: Global trade and politics vs. running a single bookshop.
Wide vs. narrow scope: A wide-scope game might cover all of world history. A narrow-scope game might cover just a specific bit of the Bronze Age.
High vs. low resolution: A low-resolution game might try to have mechanisms for trading across the ancient world. A high-resolution game tries to model trading in a specific geographic location and time.
Sarah makes a compelling argument that high-resolution, narrow-scope themes are more engaging for players, have better marketing hooks, and more intuitive rules.
It’s the difference between a game about politics and supernatural happenings across Europe in the Early Modern Period vs. a game about a single monster hunter in 1746 London.
Pick a theme and setting, but then try to see how far you can zoom in both chronologically and geographically.
Public domain settings
You don’t need to start your theme from scratch! There is a wealth of public domain works that are available for use, remixing, and modifying.
The public domain includes works where no exclusive intellectual property (IP) rights apply. This could be due to many reasons:
The work was created before copyright laws existed
The rights existed, but have expired
The rights were expressly forfeited or waived
Copyright is otherwise inapplicable
When no one holds the exclusive rights to an intellectual property, you and anyone else can use, modify, incorporate, and reproduce those works without permission.
RPGs like Broken Tales have taken public domain works (e.g. Alice in Wonderland) and used it to create an entirely new setting.
Some interesting public domain works to consider include: A Princess of Mars / Barsoom, Sherlock Holmes, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Dracula, Treasure Island, and King Solomon’s Mines. All of these and a few others are detailed in the Adapting Public Domain Works article.
Note that some specific adaptations and translations of these works are still under copyright. The confusion around the rights to Robert E. Howard’s Conan is complex enough that I would just avoid it.
History, folklore, and mythology
The stories from the past are strange, wonderful, horrible, epic, and endless. If you include ancient mythology, the sources of game themes abound.
It’s been said that Game of Thrones is loosely based on the War of Roses. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) is a modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew. West Side Story (1957) is loosely based on Romeo & Juliet.
Take a story (e.g. Theseus and the Minotaur) and give it a twist (e.g. What if the Minotaur were the hero?). Sort of a “what if phones, but too much” approach:
The Iliad / Trojan war but fought with mechs in the far future.
The Odyssey but you are the sirens attempting to capture sailors.
The Labors of Heracles but the labors are hacking jobs in a cyberpunk world.
As noted above, it might help to take one of these ideas, narrow the scope, and increase the resolution.
Randomly generated themes
Sometimes you are stuck, and just can’t think of any ideas. If that’s the case, you can use the Skeleton Code Machine Theme-O-Matic:
Roll 1d6 + 1d12 twice and use the results to look up two different words on the table above. For example, rolling d6=3 and d12=4 would be “Robot.” Rolling d6=2 and d12=8 would be “Crime.” So your theme would be “Robot Crime” or “Crime Robot.”
Roll until you get something that seems interesting and engaging to you: 1980s Aliens, Jungle Vikings, or Vampire Detective.
You might think this is a silly method, generating nonsensical themes like “space bees.” In which case I’d direct you to look at Apiary (Vogelmann, 2023) published by Stonemaier Games:
Over the span of untold generations, one species of the humble honeybee evolved to fill that void. They grew in size and intelligence to become a highly advanced society. They call themselves Mellifera, and they have made substantial technological advances in addition to the technology they adapted from human ruins, up to and including space travel.
So, yes, anything up to and including “space bees” can be a theme.
Your one sentence pitch
Once you have your type of one-page RPG and chosen your theme, you can start work on a pitch. Your pitch is a short hook or sentence that gets people interested in your game. It can also help you to better define and focus on what your game will be.
Your pitch needs to be short, and it needs to explain your game.
Based on interactions while selling games at conventions, I’ve learned that you should pitch what the player becomes and not how the game works. Don’t bother trying to explain the rules and mechanisms up front. Skip the lore and backstory.
Three examples from Exeunt Press games:
Eleventh Beast: You are a monster hunter in 18th century London.
Exclusion Zone Botanist: You are a botanist exploring a dark and corrupting forest.
You are a Muffin: You are pastry in a cafe watching customers, wondering if they will eat you next.
You don’t need to know which mechanisms you’ll use in your game to be able to start working on your pitch. You certainly don’t need the game fully written. In many ways, your pitch is your starting point, not the end. It is your vision for your game.
📝 Exercises
Each part of this Create and publish your own one-page RPG series includes something to read/watch and something to make/try. Here’s your assignment:
Read about the Layers of Theme at Skeleton Code Machine.
Watch Creating Resonance with Thematic Table Game Design from GDC.
Use the SCM Theme-O-Matic or other method to choose a theme for your game.
Answer the following:
How does this theme fit with the type of RPG you want to make?
Has this theme been used before and/or is it from the public domain?
What kinds of fun do you want your players to have?
What type of player do you want to attract?
Now that you know your type of one-page RPG and theme, think of some possible titles for your game.
Write the one sentence pitch for your RPG.
Can you trim your pitch down to just four words?
You now have a title, type of RPG, theme, and short pitch for your game! Tomorrow’s post will cover how to add rules and mechanisms. Continue to Part 4!
— E.P. 💀
P.S. You are a monster hunter in 18th century London in Eleventh Beast.
Skeleton Code Machine is a production of Exeunt Press. All previous posts are in the Archive on the web. If you want to see what else is happening at Exeunt Press, check out the Exeunt Omnes newsletter.
Following along with the exercises? I’d love to hear your one sentence pitch! Post it in the comments.
"You are a badger in a post-apocalyptic world, trying to make jam. Or snacks."
The dice roll was "post-apocalyptic" and "alchemy." Honest. I wasn't subliminally trying make them roll the way I wanted.