Design Games

What is “a success” in play? What is failure? When do players’ and characters’ victories align? When do they diverge? And how do we talk about it all? Tune in and hear. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching for our G+ Community. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

When we talk about “color” in RPG design, we’re often talking about texture and tangibility and how they interact with and express your game and what it is about. We think. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching for our G+ Community. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

What do we mean when we talk about emergence? What’s emergent by design and what emerges anyway? We wrestle with the issue this time — and maybe not for the last time! Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching for our G+ Community. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Space, in many games (and especially RPGs), is abstracted and metaphorical, letting the idea of space mingle with other ideas in exciting ways. What is “narrative mass” and how do relationship maps suggest or defy a space? Let’s talk! Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching for our G+ Community. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

It’s time to talk about time. This time, we make time to discuss real-time play, abstractions, and dramatic units of time in RPGs and other games, which takes us into territory about focus, abstraction, and player agency once again. Expand the episode with these links: Caitlynn Belle’s Message is a text game you play in an hour. The Beast (Fair warning: contains adult content) Black Sun Deathcrawl Also, re: Continuum — There are 5 Levels of Span (time travel ability, basically) in the game: Span 1 -> Span 2 requires two months of real time, including 3 4-hour sessions Span 2 -> Span 3 requires three additional months of real time, including 4 4-hour sessions Span 3->Span 4 requires four additional months of real time, including 5 4-hour sessions Span 4->Span 5 requires five addition months of real time, including 5 4-hour sessions Additional Span levels are possible, each of which require 5 months of real time and 5 -4 hours sessions, plus some fictional triggers. Design Games is made possible

What’s the situation in your game? How do you flag, support, and inspire situations in play? RPG play can be as small as a single dramatic situation or as vast worlds teeming with volatile circumstances … but it’s for naught if the players don’t know how to interact with that situation. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching for our G+ Community. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Let’s talk more about settings and worlds for gameplay, including designing and recognizing links between your world and your game! Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching for our G+ Community. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

How does your game’s setting interact with its design? How do you begin to design a setting? How does your setting suit your game — and why? We talk about this rich and vast topic, not for the last time. Look around the old site for more info from this episode! Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching for our G+ Community. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Let’s talk about influences on our designs and how we converse with them and with our own game’s vision and voice. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching for our G+ Community. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

What are some early exercises and tactics for starting a new design? Formalize your inspiration and vision. Make some notes on what is exciting you about this game. Visually sketch out a scene in your head or write it out as lines of dialogue. Other techniques include: mockup a possible cover for an eventual book; sketch a character sheet; make art-direction notes Try analog mind-mapping: sketching, making lists, arranging reference material on a table, post-it notes and notecards, or any other method that attaches your hands to your brain without using a keyboard. Write an example of play from the perspective of “here’s what play should sound like.” Fill it back in with notes on mechanics and structure to get play to sound like that. Analyze the “inputs” and “outputs” for a specific moment of play. What do the players need to already have? What does play revolve around? What needs to come out of the scene in order for play to progress? Note which inputs and outputs connect into reward cycles. Desig

This time, we look back at the show and reflect on 20 episodes of conversations. What are we happy with and what do we still want to attempt? What course corrections might we attempt for the show next? This approximates the kind of reflection we do as designers, midway through a design, and helps us identify what’s next for the show in 2016. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching for our G+ Community. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

What is antagonism in play — we talk about the problems inherent in the term, what it means in play, and how you can think about it in your design. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching for our G+ Community. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This time, we talk about communications between a game’s designer and its players—especially the GM—both implicit and explicit. We also refer again to our previous questions, written by Nathan and refined/revised through our conversations, about (but not just about) GM tasks, authority, and responsibility: What need to be created (or established)? Why does it matter who does it? Who does the buck “stop with” in terms of content? Who maintains authority over it once play begins? What’s the propellant? Who does what to make the (plot/action/story/situation/etc.) dynamic? Who does what to keep it going? What makes things “interesting” (and what does "interesting” mean in your game)? Where does antagonism, challenge, or fictional friction come from? What makes things non-trivial or non-obvious? What makes the outcome of the game both unpredictable and inevitable? Which personal visions for play do you prioritize (and why, and when)? How do you handle the conflict of personal visions? What structures i

This time we’re dropping names and game titles all over the place, focusing on just a few of the games that we’re feeling influenced by lately or over time — especially when it comes to GMing. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching for our G+ Community. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This time we’re talking about designing for GM authorities and responsibilities in tabletop RPGs — a rich topic that we’ll explore more in the future. Here’s a version of the questions that we considered on the show, useful for considering in your own designs, too, we hope: Questions about, but not just about, “GM” tasks, authority and responsibility: What need to be created (or established)? Why does it matter who does it? Who does the buck “stop with” in terms of content? Who maintains authority over it once play begins? What’s the propellant? Who does what to make the (plot/action/story/situation/etc.) dynamic? Who does what to keep it going? What makes things “interesting” (and what does "interesting” mean in your game)? Where does antagonism, challenge, or fictional friction come from? What makes things non-trivial or non-obvious? What makes the outcome of the game both unpredictable and inevitable? Which personal visions for play do you prioritize (and why, and when)? How do you handle the c

In this episode, we discuss the roles, responsibilities, and authority of the GM in tabletop RPGs and story games. It’s a role with a lot of permutations for designers to think about, plan for, and react to. What do you think? Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching for our G+ Community. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

We’re tackling a few more listener questions this time — and it’s a bit of a challenge. These are great questions! Of course, it was only after we recorded that we remembered a great example of a game with character-leading-to-class mechanisms: Mortal Coil! Galileo Games’s worlds of magic and magical systems builds up the rules of magic during play in a really fun way! This episode experienced some audio issues, too, as we wrestled with strange, new equipment. We’re getting it worked out — please bear with us. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching for our G+ Community. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

For our not-spooky 13th episode, we address a few listener questions we’ve received. Still, things get a little spooky. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching for our G+ Community. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Listen in as we discuss resolution mechanisms in RPGs, including musings about scope and scale and fictional time. How do you know when a thing has happened in your game? How do you know when to check to see if a thing has happened? By listening to this episode, maybe! Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This time, we have a quick talk about the difference between a system and its rules. How does that affect your design and can a design change systems already in place? Let’s talk. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/