Design Games

We had more to say about reward cycles, systems, and mechanisms in theory and in practice, so this episode is about more of that. As proof that the podcast is doing its job (for us, at least): we have thoughts beyond what we were able to squeeze into this longer episode. (Will had something of an epiphany a couple of days after we recorded.) Here’s a quick rundown of additional thoughts from Nathan, starting with some mechanical forms that rewards take in-game: Currencies, pools of points to spend to help you (in the short or the long term) Immediate rewards, like a bonus or some kind of advantage that applies immediately Growth; some kind of pool, metric or meter that triggers different effects based on thresholds or overall totals but aren’t spent like currency Some effects of rewards that make them, well, rewarding: Unlock new character elements or abilities Allow the player a certain kind of fictional authority, or fuel its use Ensure success or counteract randomness Establish new relationships between

In this doozy (doozy!) of an episode, we talk about reward cycles in design and play, from their core dynamics and philosophies to how they can befit or bemuse different players differently. (See also, flow as understood in psychology.) 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/

Let’s talk about the terminology of our games and how that influences the patois at the table. What lingo do you use in your game and what sobriquets develop over time? As ever: decisions, decisions. 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/

What is character monogamy in an RPG and what does it do in your design? Let’s talk about it! This time we reference games like Ars Magica, The Adventures of Indiana Jones, Dark Sun, Amazing Engine, Monsterhearts, Circle of Hands, and more (also salmon) while talking about what happens when players play just one character apiece… or not! 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/

Here we look at the gist of experience points (XP) and character development, especially in tabletop RPGs, and how character progression can reward, reflect, and influence the play of your design. Once again, we’ve dipped into a deep topic, so we may well dig into this again down the road. This episode is the result of several different techniques to the audio recording, so bear with us please through these audio developments? We talked a bit about Remember Tomorrow and Night’s Black Agents in this episode, in addition to a lot of other games. 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 talk about characters in theory, in practice, in play, and in design, with examples focusing on tabletop RPGs and some references to video games. This is a big topic worthy of more talk later on, when we have more instruments on the table, but this is a good start. Will references Robin D. Laws’ manner of iconic characters in this episode, which Laws once summarized like this: “A dramatic hero follows a character arc in which he is changed by his experience of the world. Examples: Orpheus, King Lear, Ben Braddock. An iconic hero undertakes tasks (often serially) and changes the world, restoring order to it, by remaining true to his essential self. Examples: Beowulf, Sherlock Holmes, Batman.” Robin Laws has more to say on the subject of iconic heroes in tagged posts on his old blog and his new blog, respectively. (Will talks too loud and too fast, he’s been made aware of it.) Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar help

Listen in as we reveal some of the questions and ideas that we consider and reconsider near the beginning of various game designs, like “Why is this a game?” and “How does it start?” Identifying what we design and how we design when we design games is important. This episode looks at some of the ways that we do that. Not everything we do is the best way to do it, sure, but here we see some of what we think about when we design games. 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/

Here’s a big one. We spend an hour talking about dice, uncertainty, and information in analog game design and we still only manage to put grooves in the surface of the topic. This was a wonderful talk, though. We could probably do another hour about this stuff if there’s time for that someday. We drop some jargon and some names in this one, so take in these links if you just can’t get enough: Pascal’s triangle is a probability matrix about coin flips (or dice with 50/50 odds of success) that can be pretty important to know about. James Ernest’s article on volatility in game design is a must-read that Will presents pretty weakly from memory in the episode. What are we talking about when we say “Fortune in the middle” in this episode? Click on. AnyDice.com is a wonderfully useful tool for game designers and players. 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

Let’s talk about how we talk about game designs. Let’s talk about how a game does its thing and how a design achieves (or doesn’t) its selected goals. What is your game about and how is it about it? Let’s do that by talking about variations on the “Big Three” questions of RPG design. The audio in this early episode is, uh, unpolished. Thankfully, writer, interviewer, and friend of the show, Brie Sheldon, stepped up to transcribe this episode, so you can read that transcript now, too! We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Jared Sorensen in these show notes so that you can google him and read more of him. 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/

We, Nathan D Paoletta and Will Hindmarch, design games. Also, we talk about designing games. Sometimes that means talking about design outside of games and games outside of their designs, but always it comes back to how we make games—especially in the style of analog roleplaying and story games, as is our fashion. This first official episode is about ideas as the earliest parts of design. Get out your notebooks and jot down what you’re thinking about for your games while you hear us talk about the value and function of ideas for game designs, won’t you? 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/