benlehman

1: Keep in mind the symbols and associations with which the audience will be familiar. Consider Exalted, for example. They though carefully about the race, age, and gender of the signature characters; and the effect that would have on the audience. The "Cleric" type is black, because they thought a black character would seem less preachy and more crusading. The setting does not have an analogue to Black American Churches. But the audience knows the stereotypes surrounding Black American Churches. So race becomes an effective way to communicate.

2: You do have to keep the audience in mind. One of my favorite games is Unknown Armies, but it fails somewhat in this department. Its a wonderful game - if you're a veteran gamer with a good education and a healthy dose of cynicism. If you're not, you're likely to miss a lot of the irony and think the whole thing is just kind of dumb.

BTW, a while back you asked me why I disliked Indie games. Sorry about not getting back to you sooner. I don't like to talk about it, because A) I think the concept of indie games is cool and want to be supportive and B)Its a little hard to know why I don't usually like 'em. I just see the final product, not the process at work.

One problem is that they tend to be very short. $20 for 100 A5 pages is a tough sell. Often the ideas as well as the text is underdevoloped. Where are the character hooks, the plot ideas, the setting?
Indie games rarely support the style of play I perfer. I like more crunch. Not D&D level crunch but more than Kill Puppies.
Finally, the intended PCs and intended story have to be engaging. I don't but Starwars games because I don't like Starwars. I'm not going to play Cat cuz it just doesn't seem cool to me. I know plenty of people who would love Cat, but hey, its just nor for me.

So, yeah, those are my thoughts, take 'em for what their worth.