READ THIS FIRST

[zenbitz]

Here are my (fearless Mechanics leader and final arbiter of ruleset justice) current thoughts on all Mechanics issues:

http://wiki.parpg.net/Proposals:Mechanics

If you are interested in contributing to the "rules" you MUST read this first!  If you are a programmer who is looking for something to implement, please read this.  It's not anywhere near finished, but if you get a wild hair I will be happy to flesh out any specific areas.

Generally speaking, I write a bunch of random thoughts down.  Then they get organized into some kind of coherence - a pre proposal.  Then this gets posted to the forum, people discuss it.  I make changes to the Proposal.  Eventually, they become "Drafts" i.e., set-in-stone.  

A "Draft" in the case of Mechanics is going to be actual codeable specifications.  Again, if you are a programmer and wish to start working on some area of the game that needs Mechanics or Rules (even place holders) -- let me know in the forums or by PM or email me to meet me in IRC to chat about it, and we can work on getting some specs to you.  Please code FLEXIBLY, there is no reason to lock us into anything.

UPDATES:
6/30/09 The next area of activity I think will be on "core" character stats, which is going to require some prep work on skills and tasks etc...

[qubodup]

This thread tells one to read Proposals:Mechanics before writing in this forum, but Proposals:Mechanics is messy.

1. Everything that is not a proposal should be on a different page or the page should not start with "Proposals:".
2. "Background and Motivation" - should this not be on the author's user page?
3. Links to interviews should be put in an "interesting reading" section or something like this.

I think these steps are necessary, because it's not clear what is important and what is not, what is a requirement and what is not. I guess that the "Actual Proposals" might be the relevant/important/required pages. Is that correct? If yes, this should be mentioned on the page, that would help much more than the three points I mentioned above. Help in the sense of making the entry barrier visible, right now I'm not sure where it is.

I would gladly help cleaning up by adding categories to pages (mediawiki's 'tags') or renaming them, something like that, if necessary.

[zenbitz]

I may be in a bad mood, but, REALLY?

If it pleases you, you have my permission to change the Proposals:Mechanics page to be ONLY the list of "actual proposals", and put the rest in a "Mechanics Notes" page with a link.   I don't care what wiki name space. 

I think the background and motivation is important to read for anyone who actually wants to think about game mechanics (as opposed to implementing them).   So, it should be put wherever anyone interested in contributing to Mechanics and game design WILL ACTUALLY READ IT.

[qubodup]

uum.. I had a horrible misunderstanding here it seems. I need to read more careful.

"Read this first" lead me to believe that you want anyone to read http://wiki.parpg.net/Proposals:Mechanics first , including taking a look at that >200 pages design patterns pdf before participating in discussion.

[zenbitz]

Hmmm....  I could see where you could get that impression.   I do think it's pretty important that a SERIOUS contributor at least *skim* the sections I wrote.  Otherwise, how would you know what was needed.

The last thing we need is "we should use this game mechanic I came up with for the RPG I wrote when I was 14 and pimply" without someone actually knowing what is going on.

I think the RPG design patterns is pretty important for anyone who wants to actually communicate various ideas in general.  If you are not willing to at least look at 200 pages about game design, how can you consider yourself a game designer?