tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post4847583591704228800..comments2024-03-28T17:27:58.052-07:00Comments on Playing D&D With Porn Stars: A Perfect WorldZak Sabbathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08812410680077034917noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-21578904702222570082011-10-27T21:01:47.826-07:002011-10-27T21:01:47.826-07:00So, yeah, the most obvious examples: trying to fit...So, yeah, the most obvious examples: trying to fit a whole dungeon on a single US letter-sized page forces you to decide what the salient details are and then forces you to decide how to communicate those details most efficiently. Forcing you to explain all of a monster's powers in a quarter of a page makes sure that the GM will remember what each of them does, and won't say 'fuck it' when asked to look it up. Having non-grognardian players (or being one yourself) forces you to ask what the point of Feat X really is and whether you care enough to implement the rule that makes it important. <br /><br />Not that this sort of formal advice ('how many pages should your adventure notes be') is totally lacking outside of Vornheim or the OPD contest, but it could definitely show up more often. Especially in published adventures.huthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-80903145904247631692011-10-24T14:49:32.623-07:002011-10-24T14:49:32.623-07:00It's not the time, it's the focus.
I mea...It's not the time, it's the focus. <br /><br />I mean that RPG setting design rarely seems to put the material through a wringer in terms of asking "What do we <i>actually need</i> to get this across?" And that carries with it an implicit questioning of the thing people are trying to get across.<br /><br />That doesn't mean that many don't do that, but it's often in <i>reaction</i> to common boring stuff they've seen in <i>other</i> games. Being interesting—like presenting city-quarter-generation-charts instead of a paragraph of fishmongers—requires a certain aggressive stance which... look, interface design isn't high on the list of priorities for most people writing RPGs. Usually the format is just borrowed from whatever they enjoyed playing when they were kids. Instead of asking, even hypothetically, "Does this suck, even a little? What other options are there to do this?" there's a tendency to imitate whatever they're used to. Because computer games often require a greater effort to implement <i>anything</i> there's always someone asking that question. I believe thriftiness drives innovation. <br /><br />I guess I just wish there were more people approaching it with the same questions—"Is this interface too cluttered? Is a cutscene best for this, or should we integrate the clues into found objects? Is there anything we're wasting time [writing/programming] that no one uses?" I just spent a month redesigning statblocks so that I didn't hate and loathe them for all that they represented, so maybe it's a raw issue for me.huthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-68913768363985842042011-10-23T21:09:45.508-07:002011-10-23T21:09:45.508-07:00@huth
I'm not sure I get your point here--is i...@huth<br />I'm not sure I get your point here--is it that RPG lead times are too long? I don't think that's really true.Zak Sabbathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08812410680077034917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-67615470715662043222011-10-23T20:25:19.090-07:002011-10-23T20:25:19.090-07:00The best RPG books have a designer-critique and pl...The best RPG books have a designer-critique and playtest process which should, theoretically, separate the wheat from the chaff in terms of sheer wordage. I mean, if you're writing an adventure for public consumption, but not <i>playing</i> it first, the salient parts of the idea might not become really apparent to you. If it's not being playtest, it might not become apparent at all.<br /><br />Computer games, on the other hand, have to be playable from a very basic stage, and that requires significant replay on the creator's part at the very least. The salient details emerge very quickly, and often there's just not enough production time to throw in unimportant or more-boring-than-the-rest-of-the-plot details.<br /><br />So they end up forcing people working on them to pay attention to the possibility that anything they put in is unnecessary crap or too boring to be important. I don't know how many RPG books have a production schedule which allows them to really do that, <i>unless</i> they are something where the GM collated notes from some idea that went really well in play.huthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16502682297320819595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-35493236535808899212011-10-20T12:54:31.817-07:002011-10-20T12:54:31.817-07:00Final Fantasy XII was a wonderful sandboxy game, s...<i>Final Fantasy XII</i> was a wonderful sandboxy game, so much so that the main plot sort of faded into the background a bit.thekelvingreenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01928260185408072124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-54338509040395236942011-10-18T22:49:04.531-07:002011-10-18T22:49:04.531-07:00Ok, Psychonauts sandbox;
-PC's are kids in a ...Ok, Psychonauts sandbox;<br /><br />-PC's are kids in a camp (Use halfling stats or halve HP or make all the monsters giant. Or don't). It's got a forest, a swamp, a mountain, and a beach. Under the ground is a secret base. The beach faces a lake with a drowned city underneath. Across the lake is an insane asylum on an island. <br /><br />- You make a decent amount of NPC kids, and give each one a horrifying psychological problem and relationships with the other NPC's (Psychonauts comes with 20 pre-made).<br /><br />- The PC's find an item that lets them go into the mind of any NPC. Each NPC has a small dungeon in their head, themed on their personality. Changing things in their mind-dungeon changes their personality (Kill a raging bull, they stop being angry. Put something in there, they become obsessed with it).Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13576384742168685922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-14131763719269288902011-10-18T15:01:55.498-07:002011-10-18T15:01:55.498-07:00Ever read the Oz books? Lee Gold mentioned them as...Ever read the Oz books? Lee Gold mentioned them as a big inspiration in her GMing, because of the impression Baum gives that every square inch of Oz has something interesting on it.Avram Grumerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17798919258007637767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-63664049514885108382011-10-18T14:49:56.645-07:002011-10-18T14:49:56.645-07:00Some of the early Final Fantasy games (especially ...Some of the early Final Fantasy games (especially the first one) would make for a great setting. More than half of the series content was either ripped off or inspired by D&D (Bahamut the dragon anyone?). The world of Dragon Age could work as well, but then again the majority of the plot is surrounded by an "us vs them" mentality. <br /><br />The world I'm working on for my upcoming 3.5 sandbox includes the following:<br /><br />- Elements of Faerun and Eberron are treated as two separate continents. Parts of Rokugan will be included as well.<br /><br />- All "non-campaign" content from the core books will be on a continent I'm creating as the starting point for player characters.<br /><br />- A lot of material will be inspired from the fantasy I grew up on, so you can say this adventure is almost like a mega crossover fanfic.<br /><br />- The name of the campaign is called "Career Mode", so you kind of have an idea of what the game is about once you hear the title. The player characters are role playing their "adventuring career" from levels 1-30. This gives the PCs freedom to explore the world while I as the DM get the chance to create a permanent setting for future games in the process.Severine Halohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04711045609247305086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-82728342359043653732011-10-18T14:08:44.506-07:002011-10-18T14:08:44.506-07:00Ghouls and Ghosts, the NES Castlevanias, all the Z...Ghouls and Ghosts, the NES Castlevanias, all the Zeldas, Ninja Gaiden - they all just fall into place. I even have maps of most of them in my old mouldering box of Nintendo Powers. Gorgeous! Great idea. I didn't expect this part of my brain to ever be useful again.<br /><br />On the subject of video games and the OSR - I don't have an OSR blog, but if I did I'd write a post about how Dark Souls on the X360/PS3 should be played by OSR gamers who own those consoles. It's a megadungeon in current-gen video game form - nothing but dungeons, monsters, traps, and spells ripe for the picking. I've already used some parts in my current game.Jessehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12909909813154375839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-10017768848665776192011-10-18T13:58:31.897-07:002011-10-18T13:58:31.897-07:00That's not depressing at all, it's obvious...That's not depressing at all, it's obvious. The whole point of (many) video games is providing environments that are fun to explore and internally consistent.<br /><br />(Of course...it may be obvious looking at it this way, but it certainly bears repeating and talking about some more!)John Evanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17813593224618572349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-89970102281874613122011-10-18T11:42:36.351-07:002011-10-18T11:42:36.351-07:00Thumbs up. I recently added this sparse room desc...Thumbs up. I recently added this sparse room description to my dungeon notes: "A beanstalk rising through a hole in the ceiling and a man-sized metal pipe going straight down into the floor. The beanstalk extends into the clouds and the pipe leads to a surreal treasure room."<br /><br />Haven't decided yet if an Invincibility Star will be tucked in there somewhere, but I don't see why not.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-28187035302620010352011-10-18T11:14:31.773-07:002011-10-18T11:14:31.773-07:00I have been looking at the world of Albion in Fabl...I have been looking at the world of Albion in Fable as a possible setting for a while. It matches most of what you're talking about here.Robert Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03345468894311108269noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2638993969706011706.post-10042318460415204722011-10-18T11:09:23.691-07:002011-10-18T11:09:23.691-07:00everyone mentally slaps me upside the head when I ...everyone mentally slaps me upside the head when I say this. but a great model of a sandbox is world of warcraft.Nopehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02743719179352388875noreply@blogger.com