I've been thinking a lot about game design lately, and one topic that I keep coming back to is character growth and player incentives - namely, how the character growth system (experience points (XP), generally) can influence player behavior through the desire to advance the character. 😈As usual, I'm not

An interesting topic of discussion came up in the Arcane Library Discord a bit ago (during one of the hangouts that I unfortunately could not attend due to prior obligations) which boils down to the question: Why does Shadowdark seem less suited to running long-term campaigns? Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have

It's difficult to find a place to start with this post, as it's been a meandering ride through thinking about the way I engage with games, learning how others engage with them, and digging more into the history of the hobby. You can consider this a part two of my