Tag: game design

May 30, 2012

Thoughts on hit points and misplaced abstraction

Hit points are an abstraction of a combination of physical durability, tenacity, skill, luck, narrative importance, and… well… probably a few other things. Damage, however, typically scales directly with the size/power of the weapon used. There’s a disconnect here. At first level, I can maybe take a hit or two from an ax… but probably not more than that. At...

January 9, 2012

A game designed for web based play?

When RPGs were created there were some assumptions that were made. They’d be played around a table. Players would have paper and writing implements. You’d be playing with people you know.These weren’t outlandish assumptions. They probably weren’t even conscious. These assumptions led to some very basic game design decisions. Players could roll dice as a randomizer – everyone around the table could...

January 2, 2012

New Year, New (for me) Game: Discovering Pathfinder

I’m late to the party, but I recently discovered that Pathfinder is pretty cool. Back in November, I picked up a few of the core Pathfinder books. I hadn’t really looked at the game since the early days of the open playtesting/beta/whatever. I was impressed. Pathfinder isn’t D&D 3.5. I think I assumed it would be D&D with the numbers...

November 22, 2011

The sweet spot: simple, creative, tactical

The resurgence in old-school gaming has highlighted the appeal of simple rpgs that foster creativity. There is a powerful appeal here. Remove the learning curve for the rules, and you can focus on the learning curve for play. Player skill becomes a matter of critical thinking and decision-making rather than rules mastery. (This last bit raises issues of tension between...

November 9, 2011

How Many Stats?

What’s the sweet spot for the number of attributes and skills in an RPG ruleset? Last week, I complained a wee bit about the proliferation of attributes and skills in Eclipse Phase. One of my biggest frustrations with the Dresden Files RPG is how many disconnected social skills it has (Contacts, Deceit, Empathy, Intimidation, Performance, Presence, Rapport… ). Old World...

November 3, 2011

Almost Loving Eclipse Phase

Eclipse Phase is almost a great game. As a rule, I don’t like science fiction games set in space. I just don’t get excited by them. I’m not sure why. I mean, I went to Space Camp when I was a kid. I like space travel. My best guess is that in space games, you’re typically just playing a normal...

August 10, 2011

System Matters… Sometimes too much…

I’m going to be running a Wasterunners campaign for some friends scattered across the country. This is exciting, but it is also a bit frustrating. I have a good idea of the setting, but I don’t have the necessary game mechanics down. I’m a firm believer in the fact that system matters, otherwise I’d just run this in Shadowrun or...

May 29, 2011

Old thoughts on Wraith

My wife is planning on starting up a tabletop Wraith game. Wraith has a bit of a bad reputation, but it is one of my favorite games out there in some ways. Its game mechanics required PCs to care about things. Its setting was rich, and it could handle stories both intensely personal or epic in scope equally well. Unfortunately,...

March 12, 2010

Spells vs. Rituals

When 4e came around, one of my big criticisms was the ritual system. I mean, I liked the idea of rituals, but the way that they were implemented seemed driven wholly by game balance. It didn’t make any sense to me that the vast majority of utility magics cost time and money to use while combat spells were quick and...

March 9, 2010

Destined: What is it?

I’m just about done with the first full draft of the game I’ve been writing. At this point, it is over 100 pages, although nearly half of that is devoted to things like spells and feats – long lists of things with write-ups. So, what sort of game have I written? Originally, I set out to create a fantasy version...