Diary of a Failed Game Designer

Phryne at the Festival of Poseidon in Eleusin Looking  back at ancient cultures is an excellent way to find inspiration for your  D&D campaign. I can't think of a better time to talk about festivals in a game world than the day before The United States Thanksgiving. Slipping a few festivals into a campaign worlds calendar can add a touch of realism and flavor to  a setting without allot of  Game master overhead. All a GM needs is a date on the calendar a name for a festival, observances, and a reason for the festival. Lets look at the  " Apaturia " Celebrated in Athens and most of  the  Ionian towns, perhaps even as far back as 1100 BC. It involved the " phratry " which were social divisions in the Greek tribes, the  best description I can find is "clans."  The festival was to enroll new phratry members, who could then become citizens * The festival was three days, during what to us would be  Late October Early November. The  first day was a large

I read this over at Dyvers and it drove me to thought. It's Saturday so I have time to write a bit. I stay out of the  current issues of the internet gaming community. This is not for lack of opinion but more for lack of desire to engage the internet at large in any discussion beyond the issues of rpg mechanics. * So let me be clear before I break my own rule. I am 100% in the corner of inclusiveness, fairness, and equality  for everyone in every phase of life. Gaming being  just about the most inconsequential of all those phases * . If you are reading this and are a person who can pass judgement on others based on their, race, religion, sex, or sexuality be very sure we disagree at a basic level. The issue of who belongs in gaming will like be the least of our disagreements. I want every type, shape, and form of person enjoying these games, because I think they are the perfect vehicle for any type of person to have a good time and embrace whatever life they want to depict thoug

Being Done? When is a thing done? How does a great artist know that one more brush stroke is not going to add anything to the piece they are currently working on? How does an author know one more chapter would be too much? Is in an inherent sense? What is something is well and truly undone. I see it at my job when an employee tells me at noon that they are “done “ and I can easily find another days worth of work for them to do. The employee is not lazy; they just don’t look, or don’t see the undone. What about in games? I can go back to Phase abandon (a pdf of our house rules) that has been codified and done for about three years, and find enough things to change that I would have to start a rewrite. I don’t Phase Abandon is done.   I look at AAIE, that game desperately needs a rewrite, but whatever, it’s done. Neither of these things is done in the truest sense of the word. As a designer I am no better than the employees which I instruct on a daily basis. I know I’m not done; I just r

First off Thank you to anyone who served in our military and happy Veterans day, much respect. On with the show. Yesterday I posted this: "Best darn game accessory ever." In part of which I waxed on about  giving character backgrounds some mechanical weight using 5th ed as an example. Thanks to Charles of over at the Dyvers campaign blog* and his article, " Cleaning up the  AMA with Mike Mearls " I found the exact reason why I'm wrong, well wrong in the case of how they designed D&D 5th ed. here is the quote. First part of a question from (the IronApotecary ) 2) Traits, Ideals, Flaws, and Bonds were an incredible introduction to 5e, and I've found they're great at giving starting characters real personality. That said, why don't they have more mechanical support? I really would have liked to see more bonuses for embracing, as well as penalties for ignoring them. The the answer from Mike Mearls.  "We avoided penalties in the game as much as

The  best darn game accessory ever is the GM's ears. A gm who actively listens to the players, keys in on what gets them excited, and  tries to  work that exciting subject matter into the game will consistently run enjoyable games. That sounds so simple. Right? I think Apocalypse world / dungeon world tries to codify this by making the  system force active listening. The GM ask questions like, "You are going to attack the orc? OK in what way? Tell me exactly how you attack the orc." The player's answer  might change what "move" the Gm is going to assign to the action and in turn what effect the dice can have on the story. That it makes you slow down and listen is one of the things I like about dungeon world. With that in mind, if I were to work on a fantasy style game, I'm not sure I would integrate the need to  actively listen to the players in quite the same way. Dungeon World enforces this idea action to action, move to move. Some times the interpreta

Every project large or small has a tipping point, a moment when the end is truly in sight. As a person who likes to write games this stage is always the most difficult for me. I am quite good at getting fired up about an idea, but quite bad at tying up all the loose ends. So it is with the “Amazing Adventurers and Incredible Exploits,” project.  I want it to be done, as soon as possible would be nice, now I just have to motivate myself to do it. I have read on other sights by people who are working  designers and authors and such That the end game is always  hardest. By the time a project is near completion you don't even want to look at it any more. I don't feel that strongly, I wrote a game , and a joke of a game at that, I'm certainly not as invested in time, emotion, or aspiration as an author of say a novel wold be. Still I'm ready to move along. Still there is this lingering thing about the game, a something I can't put my finger on. A something I need to nail

About a month ago I read this book, "Color A natural History of the Pallet" by Victoria Finlay It was quite interesting. And very applicable to RPG games. This is definitely not a scholarly work, and I don't mean it as one. I'm just a guy who games. This is a huge wide ranging subject as such this blog will just scratch the surface of the possibilities but lets look at some quick ones. Things to know and use: Tyrian purple was thought to have been discovered by Hercules, but in fact it came from shellfish left to rot in vats. Form the  juice inside the   Hypobranchial gland of said shellfish , to be exact. It took about  10000 molusks to make one gram of purple dye. Not to mention the  process stunk, literally. In fact It stunk to high heaven. If characters are coming up to a dye making town that made Tyrian purple chances are they woudl smell it long before they saw it. In fact garments dyed with a purple made from the Murex were said to hold a "fishy smell"

Last year I posted these 1 page games, wherein I would write a game that could not go beyond the  limits of one page on Open office or Microsoft word. None of these efforts were great, but that's not the point .. here are the links for those who are interested.  Wrestling with Dice  (The weakest game of the bunch never played still has some good bones, but no meat. Dice Chess  (this has been played a couple of times, I even updated it once . Neal and I made an afternoon of it once and  he eviscerated me in a couple of games. The end game needs a better definition.) Down on Old Mill Road: (I think this one had the most legs, but needs a great deal of tightening up. I did a solo play here. ) These are not Micro-games  or even nano-games . I look at what I was doing more like sketches, or exercises. My thought here is that every game does not need to be a  gem of game design to be a playable even fun distraction. it's alright for someone who enjoys designing games to make sketche