Topics regarding design and game theory.
This morning I was thinking about monster design, and how different choices affect play. Specifically, I was thinking about how to balance attacks. Is it better to have two attacks each doing 2d6 damage, or a single attack doing 4d6? Or, making the situation a bit bigger for examination, one …
Sometimes I think I’m losing my mind, sometimes I find I’m losing words. I could’ve sworn I wrote this down here, recently, but buggered if I can find it. Okay, here we go again. In the grand theme of GreyKnight’s “Post to End It“, I’m coming back to my card …
History is made by stupid peopleClever people wouldn’t even tryIf you want a place in the history booksThen do something dumb before you die “History is Made by Stupid People”, The Arrogant Worms Making fictional history, on the other hand, needs creativity (to make interesting) and good memory (to keep …
To my mind a good sandbox campaign doesn’t just plop the PCs down and tell them to find some way to entertain themselves. A good sandbox is seeded with points of interest to give the PCs something to start with. The PCs can find their own trouble after that, but …
The other day I stumbled on Midjourney, an AI generating images from descriptions. Out of curiosity, I decided to see what happens if I input one of the seeds from the other day. I picked the first one of the most recent ’12 seeds’ posts (Eldritch Fairy Tale): An iron …
Another 12 seeds using the Story Engine Deck. Tonight I’m combining the Fantasy expansion with the Eldritch Horror and Fairy Tale boosters. I had planned to use the Gothic booster with the Fairy Tale booster, but it turned out when I packed up the other night I put stored the …
Third up in my 12 Seeds series, after Horror and Fantasy, it’s time to break out Science Fiction-based Story Engine Cards. I’d initially thought to use the Sci-Fi expansion and the Cyberpunk and Dystopian boosters, looking at a Snow Crash or Shadowrun kind of vibe, but the Post-Apocalyptic or Military …
I really liked how the Horror Seeds turned out yesterday, and a Facebook post today caught my eye. The blacksmith’s daughter has been captured by goblins too many times. Give me your “fresh” low level village shenanigans, writing prompts, or pointers to short modules (< 10 pages) on dmsguild or …
The few days ago I saw a request on MeWe for Good blogs for Adventure Seed ideas? I’m looking for one or two short sentence prompts to build on. The more grim, dark and seedy the better. Betrayals. Murders. Narcotics. Abductions. Etc. Jeremy Hart I figured that since I recently …
Most roleplaying games I’ve played have the PCs at more or less full ability at all times, unless they have exhausted their resources or are otherwise specifically constrained. There are a few exceptions, and I’d like to explore them a bit. In 13th Age, a d6 is placed on the …
