New Year’s Resolution Mechanics
(Inspired by this post: https://www.prismaticwasteland.com/blog/new-years-resolution-mechanic) In my recent ponderings on ttrpg design, failure stakes, and resolution mechanics, I’ve come to what in retrospect seems like a fairly obvious realization – what you choose to put in focus for an uncertain resolution is what you, as a game designer, declare is important to have a chance…
Keywords, games-as-languages, and engines of meaning
For the sake of demonstration, let us construct a hypothetical game. (Don’t worry, in this case, “hypothetical” means it won’t be a whole thing, and by “us” I mean me. You don’t have to lift a finger.) This game contains, among many other components, the following snippet of rulestext: “When you activate an Action, suffer…
Genre emulation, or “how can birds be real if our eyes aren’t real”
I’ve had a really longstanding game project on the back-burner for many years now, long enough to have gone through several iterations of “now that I know more about game design, I need to scrap all of this and start over from the base concept”. It’s called Draw Your Last, and it’s specifically built to…
A gross perspective on games
If you get squicked out by kinda-disgusting descriptions of anatomy, maybe skip this one. Speaking as someone who fits in that category, why did I write this? “Mechanics are the bones of a game.” That’s a thing I say a lot. It’s pithy, and short, and kinda communicative. Enough for a quick remark that people…
“Fun” isn’t real and it can hurt you
(Fair warning, this one’s pretty much just an angry rant) So there’s a refrain I’ve heard a bit too often in game design spaces. “You’ve convinced me that it’s bad, but I’m still convinced that it’s fun.” Usually in regards to, like, “hey, this power gives the players a giant headache and screeches the game…
So what was up with Champions?
So, I had a chat with my dad a bit ago, and, as our conversations are wont to do, it turned into ranting about tabletop roleplaying games. Specifically, as it had been on my mind lately, I expressed my retrospective bafflement at what exactly Champions, a superhero rpg that honestly doesn’t feel much like that,…
Exalted is pretty neat, y’all
So I’ve been in a bit of a MoodTM lately, and I wanted to channel it into talking about a game far and… dar from my heart, Exalted. Exalted second edition, specifically, which I’m sure is prompting a few of y’all to recoil in horror, as well you should. It’s rough. It sucks. But I…
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Ru's Roleplay Rants 