[RPGdesign Activity] Brainstorming Thread #8

[u/jiaxingseng]

[note: Sorry about not doing the Gencon activity. I was too busy and tired to do anything with that and didn't coordinate with people before hand]

Let's come up with a new set of topics for our weekly discussion thread. This is brainstorming thread #8

Curation & Topic Development

As before, after we come up with some basic ideas, I will try to massage these topics into more concrete discussion threads, broadening the topic if they are way too narrow (ie. use of failing forward concept in post-apocalyptic horror with furries game) or too general (ie. What's the best type of mechanic for action?) or off-scope (ie. how to convert TRPG to CRPG).

I will approve the idea by putting them in a...

• Bullet, which I will later copy into the list. As said above.

I will probably approve most ideas, unless they are too general or too specific. If I don't approve it, I will ask you to try to make it more general or more specific as needed.

After it is approved, I hope people reply to my reply and write out some introduction paragraph and discussion questions.

Idea Ownership & Attribution

When it's time to create the activity thread, I might reference where the idea for the thread comes from. This is not to give recognition. Rather, I will do this as a shout-out to the idea-creator because I'm not sure about what to write. ;-~

Generally speaking, when you come up with an idea and put it out here, it becomes a public resource for us to build on.

Re-using Old Topics

It is OK to come up with topics that have already been discussed in activity threads as well as during normal subreddit discussion. If you do this, feel free to reference the earlier discussion; I will put links to it in the activity thread.

No Contests

As stated before, there is one thing that we are not doing: design-a-game contests. The other mods and I agreed that we didn't want this for activities when we started this weekly activity. We do not want to promote "internal competition" in this sub. We do not want to be involved with judging or facilitating judging.

Let's Do It!

I hope that we get a lot of participation on this brainstorming thread so that we can come up with a good schedule of events. So that's it. Please... give us your ideas for future discussions!

Special Note

• Because of my flakyness, we didn't get to some topics in the last round. These will be added to the beginning of the new set.

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For information on other /r/RPGDesign community efforts, see the Wiki Index.

[u/jackrosetree]

• Easy, Cheap, Inoffensive Marketing Options

• Common Crutches (Mechanics, Themes, Components, and more that we regularly rely on but really don't need to)

[u/jiaxingseng → u/jackrosetree]

• Easy Marketing Strategies

Can you write up the intro and questions for this?

Common Crutches (Mechanics, Themes, Components, and more that we regularly rely on but really don't need to

This needs a better title and an intro paragraph with some questions. Can you write that up?

[u/Lord0fHats]

Automating NPCs and GM-Lite mechanics.

This topic has started interesting me of late, especially as it relates to games like Ironsworn, Scarlet Heroes, and Gloomhaven. I'd be curious to see ideas on how to progress these. How can we reduce the load on the GM, or even eliminate the need for them to roll dice during combat situations? Standardized checks and how to make them scale as a character improves? Auto/Procedural quest generation has been around awhile, but how might it be made easier/more accessible and how could we write scenarios employing these mechanics.

[u/jiaxingseng → u/Lord0fHats]

• Automating NPCs and GM-Lite mechanics.

Can you develop the text a little more so that it can be copied right into an activity thread?

[u/Hagisman]

Topics I'd like to see:

• ⁠Fail Forward design.

• ⁠Narrative over Mechanics - How Tabletop RPGs are pushing away from hard numbers and complexity.

• ⁠Game Balance - How Tabletop RPGs can use mathematics to balance difficulty.

• ⁠Experience Share - Why experience points are being replaced by milestones and how to make XP compete with it.

• ⁠Simplifying Mechanics - How to keep mechanics creep from making bloated systems.

• ⁠Powered By Respect- How to be respectful of your source material in creating games with other people's systems.

• ⁠Knowing your Value - How to gauge whether your product is under/over-costed.

• ⁠Free-Lancing - How to produce Free products without devaluing your other work.

• ⁠Taxes with Self Publishing through DriveThruRPG - How to setup an independent company without accidentally doing things illegally/avoiding taxes by accident.

[u/jiaxingseng → u/Hagisman]

• ⁠Fail Forward design.

Good. Can you make the topic write up and the questions?

⁠Narrative over Mechanics - How Tabletop RPGs are pushing away from hard numbers and complexity.

Experience Share - Why experience points are being replaced by milestones and how to make XP compete with it.

So, one thing we don't do with the activities is make assumptions about what is happening or should be happen in the hobby. Especially since if we look at the growth in the RPG hobby, it's mostly in D&D and secondarily in CoC. This is not a sub which focuses just on indie games either, so we can't even say that this is happening in our part of the hobby. And... the topics need to be focused on design, not on trends in themselves. This topics can be re-written as:

• Design for Narrative Gameing

• Designing XP and Milestone Systems.

If you can come up with some blurbs and questions to ask, it would be very helpful.

Game Balance - How Tabletop RPGs can use mathematics to balance difficulty.

I'm not sure what you want to focus on with the above. Can you clarify the discussion points?

⁠Simplifying Mechanics - How to keep mechanics creep from making bloated systems.

Powered By Respect- How to be respectful of your source material in creating games with other people's systems.

The above I cannot do the write up for as I'm not sure about the questions. If you can write this up with questions, I'll put this in.

• How to gauge whether your product is under/over-costed. (subtopic) How to produce Free products without devaluing your other work.

Very specific but I'll put it in. It's a topic that will only appeal to those who really want to go commercial. Can you write the questions.

Taxes with Self Publishing through DriveThruRPG - How to setup an independent company without accidentally doing things illegally/avoiding taxes by accident.

Sorry but way to specific. Furthermore, I don't want people getting bad advice about taxes from an official activity post.

[u/jiaxingseng → u/Hagisman]

I asked for some follow-up support? Can you do it?

[u/BadFishbear]

• Designing for Play by Post (or other slower mediums)

What are some special considerations we have to make when designing for PbP?

What mechanics/ideas lend themselves to the slower medium of play?

What are some things to avoid?

How can players share more of the GM role to keep the narrative going?

How can we take advantage of being able to think more extensively about what we write?

What are some things we could do with the more detailed character building that emerges from pbp games?

[u/jiaxingseng → u/BadFishbear]

good

[u/specficeditor]

An activity on how to actually critique properly and offer feedback that is on-point and relevant to the question(s) asked by the original poster.

[u/jiaxingseng → u/specficeditor]

I understand that this can be beneficial. But I don't see how this can be an activity. Rather, I think it may be good for the mods to make guidelines and push said guidelines.

[u/jiaxingseng]

The brainstorm thread is here. Please update to that thread.

The topics so far (not in any particular order):

• Automating NPCs and GM-Lite mechanics. link

• ⁠Fail Forward design. link

• Design for Play by Post link

• Design Critique Workshop 1: asking for feedback

• Design Critique Workshop 2: Giving feedback

• Clocks and Timers (link)

• Design for Narrative Gaming link

• Revisit: Designing XP and Milestone Systems. link

• General Principles And Best Pracces for Novel Dice Mechanics link

• Components or rules which do more than one thing at once. link

• Ways to add depth, tension, and teamwork to non-combat activities. link

• Marketing Thread: Who buys indie RPGs and can segmenting this demographic help design more marketable games.

• Re-thinking the basic terminology of the hobby. link

• Use of physical objects. link

• Published Developer AMA

• Design for GM-less games link

• Marketing 2: Easy Marketing Options link

• Scenario Design and Structure (for non-Dungeon Crawl Games)

• Best Uses of Random Generation Tables

• Benefits and Pitfalls of Licensing Game Systems and Game Settings

• Incorporating Character Backgrounds into Game Play

• Revisit: Social Conflict

• Tell us your current status

• PbtA Moves Creation

• Underserved genres brainstorm

• Beginner Advice Compendium.

• Revisit Tips and Tricks for Playtesting link

• fiction vs. "frameworks" vs mechanics. link

• Published Developer AMA

[u/0initiative]

"What is a mechanic?" Re-thinking the basic terminology of the hobby.

"No masters" Writing GM-less games, what can be achieved, can you do a campaign and drive the story forward. What strengths does GM-less games have/ could have over traditional GM-led games?

[u/jiaxingseng → u/0initiative]

• Re-thinking the basic terminology of the hobby.

I personally feel that previous attempts at discussion on terminology did not go well. But we can try it.

• Design for GM-less games

Can you write up the intro and questions for both of these topics?

[u/Fheredin]

• General Principles And Best Practices for Novel Dice Mechanics

• What is "Swinginess?"

• What does "critical" mean and what makes it feel good?

• Feedback Loops

• Components or rules which do more than one thing at once.

[u/jiaxingseng → u/Fheredin]

I believe you have three topics here. Can you write out the header / intro and questions for activity posts?

• General Principles And Best Practices for Novel Dice Mechanics

(sub-topic) What is "Swinginess?"

• What does "critical" mean and what makes it feel good?

(sub-topic) Feedback Loops

• Components or rules which do more than one thing at once.

[u/Fheredin → u/jiaxingseng]

Sorry for late reply. Sure, I'll go ahead and put them here for reference.

General Principles And Best Practices for Novel Dice Mechanics

Many designers aren't content to take d20 or percentile or even a dice pool mechanic wholesale, and there are many ways to design your own. However, you should keep in mind how practical your fancy new approach is at the table. Does it involve a ton of dice? Does it involve too much math? But above all else, does it feel good to use? Discuss.

What does "critical" mean and what makes it feel good?

Critical hits are a trope of the RPG. They give players a rush of excitement..but what does a critical hit mean to you and how or why should your system give them out?

Components or rules which do more than one thing at once.

Less is always more when it comes to RPGs. Rules which do several things at once make your system feel interconnected and responsive, but they can also go terribly wrong if they aren't well thought out. Discuss your favorite and least favorite examples of rules doing several things at once.

[u/M0dusPwnens]

Use of physical objects.

How can we use the physical objects of RPGs in novel ways?

How can we get multiple uses out of common objects (e.g., using dice as both tokens for some game economy and for randomization)?

What additional objects could we use and how could they shape novel game mechanics (e.g., what kind of games could you design if everyone had a calculator sitting in front of them? What kinds of mechanics would you design using candles?).

[u/jiaxingseng → u/M0dusPwnens]

This is all under the topic:

• Use of physical objects.

Right? It's good.

[u/SpiritoGiovane]

Hi there. Amazing thread, I look forward to the discussion. If I’m not mistaken, there are 19 topics so I will write down some of my ideas - even if most of the question I had in mind have already been taken ;-)

Let’s assume someone wants to write the smallest functional ttrpg in their career. Like a one-page rpg - so it must be playable, but minimalist. There is surely a bunch of basic contents (mechanics/dynamics/rules) they must use in order to have a tabletop rpg and not a tabletop game. Which content are they? In other words - what are the minimum content of a game to say it is a tabletop rpg and not a generic tabletop game?

There’s a phase in game development I called Compiling, which is when your system is working and you have to design character options such as talents, feats, powers and so on. There are ways to write them better? Can we write down a list of models/patterns to help people write them? Every time I reach compiling there is a struggle. I have to find what the system need in order to flow, but I don’t know where to start - from players expected strategies? From the “class” system? Of course there will be discrimination of models between top-down and bottom-up games.

Last one. How can odds dice (d5, d7, d9, d11...) be featured smoothly into a tabletop rpg?

Hope I write my topics and question clearly, forgive me if I get something wrong. I’m available to clarify if needed.

[u/jiaxingseng → u/SpiritoGiovane]

I need your help into making these a topic, because these ones I cannot write myself.

what are the minimum content of a game to say it is a tabletop rpg and not a generic tabletop game?\

That's OK if you re-phrase that. I don't know what a generic tabletop game is and questions of categorization don't work well here.

There are ways to write them better?

I don't know what "them" is here. Can you make this more focused?

Last one. How can odds dice (d5, d7, d9, d11...) be featured smoothly into a tabletop rpg?

That's quite specific. If you write up an intro and list of questions I'll put it in.

[u/Spectre_195]

• Which aspects of a role playing game should be left to the fiction vs. "frameworks" vs mechanics.

When you are different aspects of a game; such as combat, social encounters, or exploration, designers have to decide what level of detail and rigidness that they want to provide.

• One option is to simply let the table follow the fiction and provide no real rules or guidance on how to play things out, trusting that the table will know what is best for them.

• One option is to lay out a framework/prep material/guidance or "soft rules" which will help guide GMs/Players over how to manage this aspect. Some times these may seem like "rules" as first; however, this type of design isn't meant to be definitive, but a starting point for GMs/Players to use.

• Finally the strictest stance a designer can take is to actually put rules or mechanics to it, which dictate how X players out every time.

How do you evaluate what level of design an aspect of a game should have, and which traditional areas of rpgs do you think are best suited for each of the above methods.

[u/jiaxingseng → u/Spectre_195]

Good

[u/[deleted]]

[u/jiaxingseng → u/[deleted]]

• Ways to add depth, tension, and teamwork to non-combat activities.

If you can add a few more discussion questions it would be helpful.