epidiah.bsky.social
Author & tabletop role-playing game designer, perhaps known for Dread, Swords Without Master, Vast & Starlit, or Wolfspell.
(he/him)
https://unwrittenearths.com
https://dig1000holes.com
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1,364 posts
1,022 followers
1,065 following
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Hasn't even been elected and already making housing more affordable!
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The functional programming book is Grokking Simplicity by Eric Normand.
The music one is Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation by David Huron.
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That first example is true (within its context), but doesn't exactly excite. You nailed it. What else is there to say or do?
The second example cannot be true (it's not even about ttrpg) but it excites! If I wedged all my ttrpg thoughts through this paradigm, what will pour out the other side?!?!
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...the ability to recognize the difference between data, calculations, and actions; and I'm like, "HOT HOLY FUCK, this is the greatest text on ttrpg design I've read since that book about how music relates to the psychology of expectations and surprise!"
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But then I read the intro to a book on functional programming that says it won't focus on the affordances and constraints popularized by functional languages, but instead will focus on the skills developed by programmers using them, starting with...
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Like, I see someone accurately and succinctly describe all the fundamental working elements of a D&D and how they relate to one another (absent players or players assumed, it's hard to tell) and I'm like, "Impressive. Yes. Well done."
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Which is my clumsy way of saying, I am happier when I judge a particular ttrpg take not by how true it feels, but rather by what game designs it inspires in me.
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In case you were wondering where my ttrpg graphic design thoughts were lately.
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This is the best news!
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Ha, I saw your response and thought, "uh oh," but liked what I read, so I leaned into it.
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(Don't tell anyone, but by "sweet, sweet fruits," I meant games. I mean, I'm into what this has become, but I wasn't expecting it. Shhhh.)
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Thank you for your kind words! I'm so happy about the impact that game continues to have.
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For the Time-Being.
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Instead, the adventure ends when…
🏹 …the Game Warden has decided on a gift for each outlaw…
🎯 …and then all the outlaw players agree to end it, so they can get those gifts!
There's a lot this plays into with the rest of the rules, but this little bit I've very excited about at the moment.
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So I can't say, "The adventure is to rescue the monk from the gallows, what do you do?" And then end the adventure when the monk is rescued.
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Adventures in the Robin Hood game are kind of inverted from the D&D tradition. By necessity. A reactive Robin Hood is boring.
The adventure is the outlaws' schemes. Not a scheme presented to the outlaws with the tacit understanding that if they don't all accept it, we won't have an adventure.
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I want this conversation for the Robin Hood game. And it seems to me that this makes for a good timing mechanism.
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Playing these Sanguine games, I've seen this conversation change the course of a character's progression in very compelling, very divergent ways.
Like handing an aging silent film actress unable to find her way in the wold of talkies a tommy-gun and saying, "This might be your calling now."
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GMs aren't restricted to narrower Gifts, by the way. You do something spectacular, you might get a juicy one.
The Gifts are a way of say, "Hey, given how the adventure played out, this is where I see your character going." And the player is empowered to agree or disagree.
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The Gift can have some narrow application, that's fine, because Gifts can be traded in for points that can be collected and spent on new Gifts. There's some diminishing returns, but that's fine.
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Basically, the GM looks at what has occurred in the adventure, and chooses a Gift for each character. This Gift is usually related to the events of the adventure and the character's actions therein.
Like, Good Reputation With Village You Saved, or Area Knowledge This Ancient Forest, etc.
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This is a wonderful thing that I'm stealing for my Robin Hood game.
Let me explain what I love about it without diving too far into the details. Because it's a wonderful conversation happening between players.
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Sanguine, the company that published that Usagi game I mentioned up-thread, has published a number of bangers over the years.
Somewhere around Myriad Song, they started having the GM give the players gifts in the form of Gifts at the end of adventures. You know, Feats, Powers, Moves, Stunts, etc.
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I am consistent!
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But enough about the Bullwinkle & Rocky Role-Playing Party Game (for the time being*).
I'm thinking about my Robin Hood game!
* What a weird and wonderful prayer, "for the time being."
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It's what most of my groups have settled into and generally when things run much longer than that, you tend to feel the energy waning.
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Of course, I should've learned this lesson when we all should've learned this lesson, back in the late 80s, when the most important role-playing was published. But like all the lessons in that game, it would take decades for them to sink in.
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For Dread, it's a particularly thorny question, for reasons I'm not really interested in going into at the moment; but it has had an effect on my design ever since.
Generally speaking, now if I design a game that doesn't tell you when it has ended, I'm making that choice.
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Years ago, at a summer camp for playing #ttrpg s—because even adults should enjoy a childhood well spent—a good friend and colleague asked me, "How do you know when a Dread game is over?" and the question has haunted me to this day.