Making a Web 1.0 Journaling TTRPG - I need YOUR help!

[ZinesByLennon]

--NOTE--
Wasn't sure where to put this topic so I put it in writing as i'm "writing" a TTRPG. If there's a better place for it, mods please move it there.
--END NOTE--

Hi! I had a wild idea while on a walk today.
I like to play lots of indie/zine TTRPGs, usually based around tarot/52 card deck and I thought. "What if I based it around an UNO deck?" and then next follow up idea "What if it was a journaling TTRPG but instead of Journaling it was a Webmastering TTRPG?"

Thus this idea was born. I went into doing some research and started setting the rough framework after getting inpired by the TTRPG un-OWNED, another TTRPG that uses UNO.

--FROM MY NOTEBOOK--
NEED: Site Creation Rules (like character creation)
      Site Building Rules (How you do the journaling stuff in the form of webmastering.

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My idea for character creation is quite simple, to keep it as rules light as possible (May get harder later). Have the first flip of the deck (that is a number, so draw until number card) dictate the theme of the site, which connects somehow to your actual character which you create how you like.
 And here's my first spot of help I require, I need some site types. At least a total of 10. So far on my short list: "Business, Personal, Fanpage, Shop, Reviews, Animals, Punk, Abstract" These are not final and some I don't think are broad or narrow enough. So please I welcome as many ideas as you can muster.

The type of the webpage dictates what the site will be ultimately. Think of it as Webmastering in character. You're making the webpage your character would be making. So if you get the business type, maybe the character is the person running the website of a business. (This still needs work, admittedly.) You may have noticed blog is not present, and that's simply because further into the "system" both Blog/News and Homepage are pages your site would start off of.

I will share more as I get closer to shaping things out. But some previews: You will have a standard UNO hand of 7, those cards dictate what paths the site will take/evolve and introduce problems in either the character's or website's progress. (Admittedly the part of this concept I'm worried about is game-ifying it TOO much. But I'll get into the mechanics later, but it's not far off normal UNO.)

Things I still need to figure out: Does it HAVE to be solo? , End State? (How would a session/site "end"), How to keep the rules LIGHT, THE NAME! (I have some ideas, so far I like HTML or Dial-Up but please shoot me ideas)

Anyways please, I welcome any ideas! Especially if you have TTRPG experience. Making a little zine TTRPG has been something I've wanted to do for a long while, but I haven't done before. Thanks!.

[TheFrugalGamer]

I think this is a really cool idea! There's one I've played called "Alone in Cyberspace" that is sort of similar--it's in the same vein as the other Solo RPGS with similar names: "Alone on a map," "Alone in Space," etc. But generally you're building several different sites/spaces instead of one.

Here are a few ideas for additional types of sites:

• Cult Recruitment Page
• Social Media Site
• Forum
• Government Department
• Conspiracy Theory Page
• BBS
• Flash Games
• Educational
• Humor
• Art Exhibit
• Cartoon
• Software

As for names, the only things I'm coming up with sound like the names for old Choose Your Own Adventure books: "You Are A Webmaster" etc.

I'll be interested to see its development, as this sounds like something I'd play!

[ZinesByLennon]

I think this is a really cool idea! There's one I've played called "Alone in Cyberspace" that is sort of similar--it's in the same vein as the other Solo RPGS with similar names: "Alone on a map," "Alone in Space," etc

I'll be interested to see its development, as this sounds like something I'd play!

Thanks! I'll be checking these out for sure as I continue to wrap my head implementing some sort of system that works with the UNO cards.

I took some of your ideas, so here's the final list for "Site Creation"

0 - Cult
1 - Business
2 - Personal
3 - Fanpage (If using a themed UNO deck, the fanpage is the same theme, otherwise choose one.)
4 - Shop
5 - Review Page
6 - Animals
7 - Punk
8 - Humor
9 - Abstract

I've also decided for the site type to be selected by drawing until you get a number card. However I want drawing for site type to be optional as players may either have an idea in mind or may want to do one not listed here. I don't want to restrict selection.

I've also come up with a simple skill system that applies to your character.
There will be 4 Skills to resolve the 4 types of conflicts.
The current 4 skills are: Patience, Coding, Debugging, and Creativity (These are subject to change.), and the 4 types of conflict, represented by UNO colors: Red = Errors, Green = Codebase, Yellow = Time, Blue = Design. (Again these are subject to change especially as I'm not entirely happy with Codebase as I feel it's too similar to Errors.) Players will be able to Excel at one skill, but forced to underperform in one of these as well. (Basically a +1/-1 to a skill)

I'm still ironing out the rest of the system so to avoid giving too much info that's in a current state of flux I'll stop here.

Also You Are The Webmaster is a pretty good title, and I'll shortlist it.

(Looking at Alone in Cyberspace and I'm getting lots of ideas, particularly "Play until you are tired and want to log off." As I've been struggling to find a good end state.)

[ZinesByLennon]

Happy to say that I have more or less a concrete outline for the system now so I can share a bit more info. Admittedly this should have been the first thing I made but I got a bit bogged in the details early.

1- Webmaster Creation
(Webmaster, Skills)
2 - Site Creation
(Site, Pages)
3 - UNO System
(Cards representing conflicts to influence the website and what’s written into the site’s pages)
4. End of Game
(Getting Tired and taking a break, running out of cards)

I’ve got a good view that the game is likely best played slowly overtime, whenever you feel like coding something. And overtime you’ll have a filled up site and you can decide to stop when you want to. This is rather instead of having a death mechanic. The “death” is just the site no longer gets updated.

Also I have a baseline idea of what I want the setting to be now, some of the set dressing for the system. The world that this RPG will take place in is a world that just never stopped coding their sites in Web 1.0 Style. And cyberpunk of course since I can’t help myself. Of course this is all gonna be very malleable as that’s just the default setting so to speak.