Three insights

According to Vincent Baker, a successful RPG will have insights into three areas:

1) RPG design
2) Your game's subject matter
3) human experience

"A lot of the time, somebody will come to me and say, 'Vincent, I have this great idea for a game,' and they'll describe one of those insights. They'll say, 'You roll dice like this and you count dice like this.' And I'll say, "Okay, what's that about?' And they'll say, 'I don't know.' Okay, that's fine. You should keep practicing--that's practice to develop that particular insight, but until you also have insight into subject matter and insight into real human nature that will never be a whole game."

-Vincent Baker, in his Ropecon 2013 session entitled, "D. Vincent Baker: the Man, Career, and Games"