Click here to download the rules and join the playtest! From the game: If you haven’t seen Roger Corman’s 1963 film The Raven, starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre & Boris Karloff, this’ll be a little harder to explain. Wizards don’t concern themselves with the affairs, great events, wars, or politics of non-wizards, what they dismissively term “the Mortal […]
Category: RPG Theory
Troupe-Style Play
Here’s how we’re laying out troupe-style play in the Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven’s Ars Magica playtest document. Part I: Troupe-Style Play If you haven’t played role-playing games troupe-style before, this should be a pretty good place to start. Let me lay it out for you. Main characters & Supporting Cast: You can think of your wizard as […]
In Brief, the Problem of RPG Design
This article was made possible by the generous support of our patrons. Please consider joining them by supporting us on Patreon. For today’s purposes, let’s say that I care about one thing: the creative energy that a group feels while they’re playing my game. Let’s say that they start at a receptive neutral, content to start the game […]
Revisiting Task & Conflict Resolution
This article was made possible by the generous support of our patrons. Please consider joining them by supporting us on Patreon. 1. History The Art of Dramatic Writing is a book by Lajos Egri, published 1946. It’s a how-to book for playwrights, and according to our friend Wikipedia, it’s “widely regarded as one of the best works” in […]
Apocalypse World, PbtA, Projects, RPG Design & Development, RPG Theory, The Demon Tree, The King Is Dead, Under Hollow Hills
Powered by the Apocalypse, part 11: Dice
Using Apocalypse World to Outline and Draft Your Own RPG Here in Part 11, I explore a few of the dice systems we’ve used in our games. This article was made possible by the generous support of our patrons. Please consider joining them by supporting us on Patreon. Dice: an Accident of the System Back in Part 1, […]
A PbtA Thought Experiment
This article was made possible by the generous support of my patrons. Please consider joining them by supporting me on Patreon. Prelim 1. Otherkind Dice & Assigning “Say” You may recall that a dice system called Otherkind Dice was the mechanical precursor to Apocalypse World’s moves. I’ve written a whole piece about Otherkind Dice, laying them out in […]
Powered by the Apocalypse, part 10: 3 Underlying Models
Using Apocalypse World to Outline and Draft Your Own RPG Here in Part 10, I develop the idea of underlying models further, with 2 solid examples and 1 tentative one. This article was made possible by the generous support of my patrons. Please consider joining them by supporting me on Patreon. Model #1: Apocalypse World’s Conflict Model Apocalypse […]
Powered by the Apocalypse, Part 9: That’s What’s Happening
Using Apocalypse World to Outline and Draft Your Own RPG Here in Part 9, I lay some groundwork for the idea of underlying models by pointing out a crucial feature of Apocalypse World. This article was made possible by the generous support of my patrons. Please consider joining them by supporting me on Patreon. Normal RPGs A normal […]
Ritual In Game Design
This article was made possible by the generous support of our patrons. Please consider joining them by supporting us on Patreon. Background: I have been creating ritual spaces and experiences for groups from two to 20+ for about 35 years. I was for a dozen years a professional facilitator and ritual designer for a local non-profit specifically designed […]
An Independent Project in Game Design
This article was made possible by the generous support of my patrons. Please consider joining them by supporting me on Patreon. In 9th Grade, Tovey decided to do an independent project in game design instead of one of their other electives. We sat down together and I wrote up a rubric for their project, so that (a) Tovey […]