Neat things in the TTRPG space
Just a pile of interesting things I've seen over the last few weeks.
So it's been a bit since I've done a post that outlines my thoughts on stuff and that's largely because I've been busy with other stuff. I am displeased to report I don't have a lot to contribute to the discourse ™️ right now, but I have seen several interesting essays that I want to share and provide some thoughts on.
The Expressionist Games Manifesto — Jay Dragon
https://possumcreek.medium.com/the-expressionist-games-manifesto-122d8afd1fe2
This has been making the rounds, and I have to say that it's provoked a lot of fascinating talk. I really like the thoughts and premise behind it, and it's both a familiar and foreign to me all at the same time.
To be sure, I've always played my characters and NPCs as if they have rich inner worlds and desires (though sometimes those desires are muted to ensure group cohesion — I'm not going to play a character that stabs the party in the night unless we've agreed ahead of time that sort of thing is okay to further the narrative), but it's rare that the rules of the game are the thing that prevents the character from achieving their desires.
The other thing I think is intriguing about this is it presents bleed as a "goal" of the game, which is not something I generally connect with. I can slip into and out of character roles pretty readily and have only really experienced minor bleed (the one instance I can think of was both the character and I were super thrilled to see an NPC alive and well, which I think is more a case of my character's goals aligning with my own). I'm not sure how I feel about a game that has a goal of inducing bleed and alienation in the players. In my fiction, I do want to create a sense of immersion, and good horror is all about being able to experience fear and isolation in a relatively safe environment, so I can empathize with the idea. The hesitation boils down to providing enough tools for players to deal with the bleed and I feel like a game designed from the outset to blur the lines between player and character will require some serious group buy-in and safety discussions.
Anyhow, this is not the kind of interplay between characters and rules that I usually think about when designing games (with the possible exception of It Belongs in a Museum) and it gave me a lot to chew on.
It's hard to find good help — Lucas Asher
Lucas Asher
This one is a multipart deep dive into the various roles that servants play in aristocratic households and how those roles were typically divided. I'd sort-of intuitively known most of this based on observation of period drama and books and the like, but I didn't realize what the permutations actually were. For example, the degree and position of the Steward and how responsibilities of the Steward would fall should a household not have one of those.
All in all this looks to me like it's going to be a great resource for verisimilitude. It's worth noting there's a whole Rethinking Fantasy series on that blog and so far all the posts have been informative and pleasant to read.
Designers and Dragons: Origins — Evil Hat Games
Evil Hat is launching a new 4 book series in the Designers and Dragons cinematic universe (That's an affiliate link) which looks like it's going to be great. I've read the original series several times now and go back to reference it regularly. Shannon Appelcline did a fantastic job on the first series, and I'm excited to see what he's got for this second series. If you want to know more about all things Designers and Dragons, you can visit the homepage here: https://www.designers-and-dragons.com
The Praxic Compendium — Levi Kornelsen
Forestmaster Games
Levi's been cracking away at the ultimate pile of rules, elements, bits and bobs, and the like from other games and distilling them into digestible and understandable chunks. You may recognize the name from my post on Schema, the system he designed. This little thing is full of interesting tidbits and I keep watching him design more and more flowcharts to explain various game elements. It's a ton of fun.
Wrap Up
And that's about it for stuff on my radar but I'll probably do another round-up soon in lieu of having actual ideas 😭.