The Tactician's pool starts with d6s, however, it's not a single die. They get a number of dice equal to the size of their Tactics skill. So if they have a d8 in Tactics, they start with 8d6
Ok, so browsing your store, if there were a realm atlas for REAP as there is for RUNE that would be wonderful. Also, will you do another print run of the RUNE atlas?
Well I loved REAP, love it. I have seriously contemplated asking you how you conceptualize and develop realms. Then I found this, hopefully this will answer a lot of my questions! Looked for more realms for it, found none, so I'm going to give RUNE a shot. Eventually I'm going to need to make new realms though- what program are you using to create this and do I have permission to try to make realms? My only gripe is that all of the REAP realms are not printed in the booklet. I find printed material easier to digest. Is there any way you would recommend to get them printed?
@@GilaRPGs is Affinity easy to learn? I have a feeling you are not new to graphic design, and I am a dabbler, to put it charitably. Also just ordered four more of your titles- love the way you think!
I imaged creating a sweet treasure chest to “hold the loot in” as a GM. And when the players finish the quest just busting out the tiny treasure chest and letting them “get the loot” 😂 Backing this!
Like the concept, very different from the Lumen 1.0. I'm not 100% sold on the idea of the Boss's defence. I have seen too many cases (in D&D) where PC's choose to wail on a monster inflicting vast amounts of damage even though its clear that this method isn't working, rather than try to find the weakspot. You could end up with this situation very easily in Thorn. I would need to see an actual play on how this works.
Hey! Glad to see you are still doing these. I haven't been following Thorn, but I just picked up RUNE and ran through two maps. I'm looking forward to LUMEN 2.0. I made an unpublished LUMEN 1.0 game based on Metroid a while back and it was a lot of fun. These design videos made that a lot easier, so I'm happy to see you doing them for your other games too.
The instant I read the Draco Knight's main ability, I had the vision of a Starlit using Comet Strike as a Draco Knight leaps in to slaughter everything within This fucking rules
On the "there's no difference", I think the biggest issue is often that there are unspoken assumptions about what games are that aren't compatible. The "Cultures of Play" article is a good intro, though I strongly disagree with a lot of the characterizations. That, and a number of the design schisms have also to one degree or another aligned along political lines, and that always makes things ugly. But realizing these differences, and treating games that break your assumptions as just kinda "different" things, and becoming more omnivorous is always a good thing.
The whole thing about "the one thing that links it what people expects" really resonates. I'm more in the Fate space, and the big challenge with Fate is usually "yeah, I know this looks like <this other game>. It's not. It's actually this other thing, and if you try to treat it like another game, you're gonna have a bad time. Try to forget what you think you know." There's some real value there that if something doesn't work like usual mechanical tropes, *don't let it look like them*.
The golden box concept is so interesting. It makes me think of into the odd like how HP is small and damage goes at your strength stat and the lower your strength the harder it is to succeed. Or games like knave where damage attacks your carry capacity and your bag space is a core game and narrative mechanic, as you lose stuff in your golden box as you die. I also had the idea about classic monster tropes like vampires and warewolves dying to steaks in the heart or silver, meaning players shouldn’t be able to damage their HP (truly horrific) unless they “find the clues” to their weaknesses. Monsters like goblins just die from HP and there is no “mystery” on how to kill most monsters. This does mean meta gaming trumps player build though. There needs to be a mix of both. So HP representative of making the monster vulnerable and then you have to execute their weakness I suppose HP monsters need to exist though so immunity monsters can truely shine
I haven’t read any PBTA rule sets or hacks. I play ironsworn/starforged which is mixed success design for GMless play. I saw dungeon world creator play it and he thought it was “innovative” does BLG have any strong opinions on how ironsworn was adapting pbta for solo play ?
I was slightly disappointed by FIST , it's a weekend warriors boardgame without a board and barely achieves to be a fleshed out ttrpg as it's claims it is. Although I can see much potential for it further down the track.
Very cool. When I first played Nova and looked at the system, I thought about a Diablo using the Lumen system. But I love the concept of the cards and how the deck changes depending upon who you work for. I am especially interested to see the "improve the city" mechanic, as this is often an area I struggle to implement in my other games.
Oh man, listening to BLG talk PbtA makes me realize how much I've borrowed from his philosophy when describing it to people after years of listening to Stop, Hack, & Roll! I'm running an Unlimited Dungeons game at lunch at my work (derived from Dungeon World), and I've been debating stripping away HP and replacing it with a Masks' style "Conditions" counter, where once you've marked each Stat with a debility or whatever they're called, you're out of the fight, and they linger, only recovering either 1 per Rest or when an ally uses Gear/a Move. I love the idea to also do something like Brandon said about "when you mark a condition on an enemy, they use a specific move." This should help with the limited time we have on lunch breaks, too. Also, 100% going to try voice-capture copy writing, that's genius. I already podcast and edit my own voice to obscene levels, doing it while describing my ideas for games just makes sense! Have a great vacation! Thanks as always!
I respect the diceless approach, but I'm also very fond of games that only require and use 2D6 (TinyD6 games are my favorite of this kind, like Tiny Dungeon 2e). Makes them less crunchy and more accessible, while keeping a small element of randomness.
Brandon is like twice as loud as you, Spencer. But well worth listening to! 0.00 Introductions and Background 15:10 PbtA and Combat - how it works? 20:27 Brandon's Dungeon World Homebrew 22:32 Masks' Combat 24:12 How Brandon would design Dungeon World - "Dramatic Change Moments" 26:45 Don't just think about Damage - Everything has a real Move People don't read PbtA games 35:50 Urban Shadows has section on how to make a PbtA 38:27 PbtA Diametrically opposed to traditional play; The Golden Box; 44:43 Protean City Comics biggest complaint is how relentlessly Brandon runs the PCs; Combat should allow time for vignettes (and smooches) 48:05 All games are just games 49:10 Dungeon World criticisms 51:28 Brandon wants to write Fantasy PbtA 52:56 Need a crash course on PbtA Combat Living RPGs - Never T-T Hey Brandon, Check out Magpie's own Helena's new Fantasy PbtA Against the Odds! It has some great romantic themes mixed in especially the Knight
We were trying to give the actual real world experience of being around Spencer and me where I'm twice as loud as he is 😆 And oh my gosh, I don't think I've heard of that yet! I'll check it out, thank you!
Re: the grapple action, One of the reasons I think you’re a great designer is your willingness to say “ah, this part of design sounds boring to me, screw it.” More folks (me included) should be honest about what parts of their game they actually care about
Based on what I know, the term "tap" used to be patented my MTG but it fell through at some point. That being said, Hasbro has some robust lawyers and is evil enough to throw their weight around, so I wouldn't fight it if they bug you.
@@GilaRPGs Gloomhaven uses the terms "Spent" (item is "recoverable" after use), "Consume" (item is not "recoverable" after use on the same mission) and "Refresh" ("recover" an item)
This took me back to ed psych in my teaching program. It's cool how the conversation about scaffolding students in a classroom setting overlaps with RPGs!
I've used player cheat sheets for a mathematically complex rpg and it worked wonders. Everyone knew what abilities they had and when they could use them with little to no explanation.
I do think games and gamemasters need to be more aware of the cognitive load of their games. As you said, the number of rules, mechanics, powers, and abilities available to a player have an impact. But the mechanics aren't the only thing that have cognitive weight. The world, the scenario, the politics, NPC relatinoships, myseries, and other aspects of a game also have cognitive weight. I would like to see a little more intention on focus for a game, and ways to simplify things that aren't the focus of a particular game.
Another question ^^ You say in the FAQ that NEST is a "wide linear" game, like Dishonored. I have never played Dishonored, but is it safe to assume NEST is like a video game with nodes? Meaning the objectives and resources are fixed and finite, but the players still have agency in how they use the resources and, say, interact with the environment?
Kind of! Each mission is a discrete location with specific objectives. But each mission is loosely defined beyond that, allowing each one to be a sandbox for the agents to explore and accomplish the objectives how they see fit.
