As those of you who are following the Cinemechnix design know, I’m currently working on an entirely new section about adapting the game rules to specific game settings. Tweaking game rules is nothing new to me. I’ve been doing it for nearly as long as I’ve been gaming, and almost every QAGS supplement I’ve worked…
A few weeks ago, I talked about some of the things that game-specific rules adaptations can accomplish, like clarifying how story concepts fit into the game rules or allowing for customization. The next section covers actually deciding whether or not to implement special rules for a specific story element. If you think of the first…
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…
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