guiding principles
Watch a Video by the Creator explaining guiding principles.
a note from mike
If you’ve seen Stranger Things… those kids were me. I was playing D&D at about 10 years old. But after my teenage years I swore off games and pursued a creative career for a couple of decades. Then the 2020 pandemic hit and my older brother launched a D&D 5E campaign during lockdown. We played from 1st — 20th levels and it reignited a passion. I’m bringing all I’ve learned from my experience in games and creative life to Super Maps & Legends to make it my ideal role-playing game (and hopefully it resonates with some of you, too!). Below are some of my guiding lights.
Imagine a family
Imagine a group of diverse humans, like a family of many age categories, sitting down for a game night and choosing Super Maps & Legends because they each love it for different reasons.
just Trust
Trust that the Game Master will make good rulings and that the Players won't exploit them. Make a game for friends, not competitors.
Don't lock people in a closet and say it's fun
Why is every RPG in hardcore mode? If a class is a job, why can't you just change careers? Why do characters start at level 1? Why can’t people decide not to die if they don't want to?
Celebrate the Mundane
Don’t rush through downtime. It’s a fantasy world and some people enjoy the mundane things as much or more as the fantastical things.
Learn from a human
The best way to learn the game is YouTube or in-person. A book is just a rules database. It is not the optimal or recommended teaching tool for how to play. Don’t sacrifice utility for monetize-ability.
Force good skills
If players don’t have new skills they can make a million dollars with by the end of their time with this game, we haven’t done our job. Technical, social, creative, software, and problem-solving skills are just a few of a giant list of things we should not abandon for the sake of fun or making a buck.
Go big & go home
If you can't make the Battle of Pelennor fields with the game, it just isn't big enough. If you can’t have fun designing a tiny house or a sword, it's not small enough.
Fugly is good
“Fugly” character art and maps are not only tolerated, but encouraged and celebrated — especially if it keeps the game flowing and maintains player and GM freedoms to do whatever, whenever!
Characters first
You don't need miles of tables to create a fun story if the world is filled with interesting characters. Interesting characters spark imagination, and imagination sparks stories.
Ask people to create
Don’t apologize for asking players to use their imagination and creative skills. This game celebrates all good uses of the imagination!
Just once more
Strive for making the core so good and dynamic that people want to play the game again and again. Style, perfection, and a hyper-focused theme just aren't that important compared to replayability.
Failure is good
Push your creative skills to the next level. No matter where you start, get out of your creative comfort zone and try something new. Failing is ok. It’s part of the process. Take a short rest, and try again! Be patient with yourself and your peers. It may take a few tries. But failure means you are growing.
Create drama, not action
Provide interesting choices and people will become emotionally invested, regardless of how much hack and slash is involved.
Improv First
If a gaming session takes longer than 30 minutes to prepare, that's too long. If a battle or encounter takes longer than 5 minutes to prepare, that’s too long. If the GM isn’t constantly surprised, thrilled, and having fun along with the players, all of them making it up as they go, then we failed.
AI is not evil
AI generated artwork, music, writing, etc, is discouraged, not because it is innately evil, but because pushing one’s creative boundaries, at whatever level they are at, is innately good.
Modern tech is useful
Technology should be embraced for its strengths, namely, data creation, processing, manipulation, and display, and connecting humans together.
Digital-assisted Experience
This game is not a traditional old-school tabletop role-playing game meant to be played with a book, dice, and paper and pencil. The game is designed to be played assisted by a computer for character generation, world simulation, data management, etc. Each player needs access to a device running Word or Pages, a virtual tabletop or databasing software for maps and world data, and various digital tools provided by the game creators.
Free for followers
The game will be free digitally to anyone who supports, shares, cares, or otherwise helps out the project.
The Discord will connect you to Mike and his team directly via a series of chat rooms.
Get access to an ever-growing library of battle maps, digital minis, and more for a low monthly fee! (COMING SOON!)
get the game free (once it’s ready)
Get the game when it’s done baking in the oven for free digitally (PDF) when you sign up for emails. No strings attached!