You’ve just bought a new RPG for your group to try out, and if it’s organized like most RPG rulebooks there’s a players’ section and a GM’s section. If the game is at all well-designed, the GM’s section has tons of useful information to help you figure out what you’re supposed to do both before…
Different kinds of games reward different abilities. Pictionary rewards players’ ability to draw recognizable clues and to guess the right answer from the clues other people draw. Poker rewards understanding the likelihood of winning with a particular hand, strategic betting, and bluffing. Candyland rewards the player with the best luck. I’ve talked before about the…
So, if you’ve been following along, you know that I’ve come to the realization that the “how to adapt the rules to the game you want to run section,” which was originally a single chapter with some general advice, has turned into a whole section because it’s kind of the central idea that makes the…
Last time around, I talked about a problem I was running into with a disconnect between intent and interpretation when it comes to rules. Basically, since we usually think of games as “systems” where all different rules concepts are interconnected, some players assume that anything not clearly marked “optional” is essential. The truth is that…
The first step in solving a problem is identifying the problem. For some problems, like being on fire, that’s not very hard to do. For other problems, like being addicted to meth, (or having an irrational dedication to a particular die type) the big step is recognizing and admitting to the problem. For more complex…
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With the new rules changes, I had to change a few things around with character creation, so while I was at it I rearranged, renamed, and simplified character creation. Since I also had to rewrite the Sample of Play Theater entry for character creation, I went ahead and upgraded the characters for the Guardians of…
I’m going to do all of this year’s #RPGADAY questions real-quick like. 1) Real dice, dice app, diceless, how do you prefer to “roll”? Don’t care. If I’m sitting around a table, I’ll usually go with real dice. If rolling dice is a pain in the ass, I’m fine with an app. Facebook Twitter Reddit…
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Since people seemed to like last week’s Dumb Table, and since I’ve got jujitsu chauffeur duty soon, I’m going to do another one this week. There’s been a little forward momentum on Cinemechanix in the last few days, so hopefully I’ll get back to the design journal next week. Just like last week, I’m going…
