For those of you following my posts on my Dawn of Cities prototype on LinkedIn or Blue Sky I plan to write this up along with a design document, but I wanted to sketch out the basic gameplay for th…| Gaming the Past
Back in the 2010s there was a rash of daughters in games. The generation of developers from the turn of the century were getting older, went the rationale, and having kids of their own, who emerged…| Death is a Whale
…I don’t think that every class should get a raft of soldiers. The cleric should get less soldiers and more zealots and believers, but probably this was a bit creepy for the 1979 company [that published Dungeons & Dragons]…. I can cheerfully allow an “evil” cleric player character to gain eighty or so deranged, murderous […]| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
I dont know if people particularly remember this, but Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was a weird, slightly hateful game. Developed by 2K Australia in 2014, the game is set on the moon of Elpis between the events of Borderlands 1 and 2. It featured moon monsters, space lasers, low gravity, and all the characters were Australian. […]| Death is a Whale
There’s an Iain Banks novel, I think possibly The Bridge, with a line that goes something like “Her breasts were a pair of ( )s.” It’s some tortured postmodern thing about d…| Death is a Whale
I have never been a fan of the chromatic and metallic dragons of Dungeons & Dragons, even when ignoring the Alignment aspect. Great variety but otherwise lacking both depth and need, in my opinion. Red dragons are the closest to traditional European mythology: flying fire breathers. That seems sufficient—with one exception. Regarding Alignment, something recently […]| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
Over the past four years I’ve been writing on this blog, I’ve published many posts about Parsantium: City at the Crossroads but this material has become increasingly hard to find. Although the Wor…| Richard Green | Game Designer
Excerpts from books, films, television, and other websites to inspire your role-playing. Also original fiction, game design ideas, and commentary.| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
The Labyrinth Worldbook, the massive project I worked on for Kobold Press last year, has now been released, and I am really happy with how it’s turned out. I never get tired of seeing how characters, places, and monsters I’ve described look when they are illustrated by Kobold Press’ talented artists, and the art inContinue reading "Game Design News – The Labyrinth and Parsantium"| Richard Green | Game Designer
With the Labyrinth Worldbook recently released by Kobold Press, I thought I would publish a few posts and share some more information about my campaign setting, the Lands of Parsantium, one of the core worlds featured in the book. This all-new post describes Surivata, an important city in Sampur. Surivata The tropical port of Surivata is the capitalContinue reading "Lands of Parsantium – Surivata, the Green City"| Richard Green | Game Designer
With the Labyrinth Worldbook releasing this week from Kobold Press, I thought I would publish a few posts and share some more information about my campaign setting, the Lands of Parsantium, one of the core worlds featured in the book. This all-new post describes Ferez, a major city in Aqhran, and a portal to the Labyrinth. Ferez LocatedContinue reading "Lands of Parsantium – Ferez and the Gates of Sunset"| Richard Green | Game Designer
With the Labyrinth Worldbook coming soon from Kobold Press, I thought I would publish a few posts and share some more information about my campaign setting, the Lands of Parsantium, one of the core worlds featured in the book. This all-new post describes the city of Rezana, former capital of the Bathuran Empire. Rezana, City of Ruins FoundedContinue reading "Lands of Parsantium – Rezana, City of Ruins"| Richard Green | Game Designer
Last weekend was UK Games Expo at the NEC in Birmingham and, as always, we had a fantastic time playing games, hanging out with lovely friends, and buying stuff. Friday was all about D&D Adventurers League and the new adventures I’ve been working on with David Wright, Ian Hawthorne, and Colin Tweddle from Polyhedral Adventures,Continue reading "D&D Adventurers League & More at UK Games Expo 2025"| Richard Green | Game Designer
This weekend I received my final package of Dungeons & Dragons Adventurer magazines, containing issues 75 – 80. These issues include the last two adventures I wrote for the magazine: Gateway to…| Richard Green | Game Designer
South of the Circle is a 2022 narrative game from State of Play, the team behind Lumino City and Kami. It’s about the relationship between two academics, Peter and Clara, in 1960s Cambridge, and deals with themes of feminism and nuclear disarmament in the context of the Cold War. The game plays in two parts. […]| Death is a Whale
I had never watched Bob Ross’s Joy of Painting series until that magnificent twitch run back in 2015. The thing that really stuck with me (other than the fact that Bob Ross was a saint now but had clearly been through some shit) was how much he emphasized that paintings were entirely optical illusions. It’s […]| ars ludi
I've seen some game creators say that if you don't agree with their politics or their worldview -- or frankly just hold hateful or bigoted opinions -- they do not want you to play their games. And I get it. I get wanting to punish bad people, to tell them they don't deserve to enjoy the art you m| ars ludi
My sabbatical is coming to an end and my video game, Nebula Hunter, is not finished yet. Making a game by yourself takes a lot of time! I’ll write an update of my work soon. But I have been distracted for the past couple of months with a side project inspired by a conference that […]| Desert of My Real Life
I am about half-way through my sabbatical and I estimate that my sabbatical project is a bit more than half done. But, of course, the last 20% of any project like this is the hardest so maybe I’m less than half done. I have learned a ton about using GML, GameMaker’s built-in language to make […]| Desert of My Real Life
It has been a while since I wrote a blog post. I’m on sabbatical this academic year and I am working on a game for my sabbatical project. I’ve been posting some updates about my progress to my social media accounts but this is the first post that I have felt compelled to write documenting […]| Desert of My Real Life
Traveller is an endlessly fascinating game to explore in the 2020s. Its first release was only three years after Dungeons & Dragons, but unlike D&D, which really is just a name and a couple of archetypes attached to a number of very different games, the revised 2nd edition Traveller from Mongoose has changed very little … Continue reading "Traveller is Retro-Futuristic"| Spriggan's Den
Illustration by Emiel Boven under CC BY 4.0| Musings from Fanterland
A longer version of my entry two 2018 words RPG challenge submission. Submission link here. 4 or more players (at the moment), pen and paper needed. Every player creates a spirit inspired by an animal or a natural element. Write... Continue Reading →| designdrill
Dopo un lungo periodo di pausa, ho dato una forma al gioco che mi era venuto in mente partecipando al seminario di design organizzato nel forum, ormai defunto, di gentechedesign. Il gioco prende ispirazione da telefilm come Star Trek e... Continue Reading →| designdrill
Il buon Matteo Suppo ha aperto questo forum, Gente che Design, che trovo molto interessante e ha lanciato questo primo workshop che trovo altrettanto interessante! Si tratta di un forum di game des…| designdrill
Vicki Tan is a seasoned product designer whose work spans Lyft, Headspace, & Pinterest. With a background in behavioral psychology, she brings a unique lens to decision-making and design. Join us as we explore Vicki’s journey, how she turned curiosity into a powerful creative tool, & why her new book "Ask This Book a Question" reimagines cognitive bias as a pathway to insight. The post Vicki Tan appeared first on Game Thinking.| Game Thinking
Ryan Douglas is the co-founder of DeepWell DTx, a digital therapeutics venture lab dedicated to creating immersive experiences that address mental health challenges. Recently, DeepWell DTx achieved a major milestone: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared five mental health apps, including DeepWell's software development kit (SDK). This marks the first time digital therapeutics have been approved for medical use, paving the way for games to be reimbursed through medical insurance. The ...| Game Thinking
Julie Dirksen is an author and learning strategy consultant, renowned for her expertise in creating impactful learning solutions. She blends behavioral science with innovative learning design to craft transformative educational experiences, and her insights are reshaping learning strategies across various sectors. Listen to Julie as she delves into these insights where she uncovers the science behind effective learning and behavior change. The post Julie Dirksen appeared first on Game Thinking.| Game Thinking
July 11, 2024 – Niels Floor | The ninth annual learning experience design conference LXDCON’24 took place June 11 to 14. With this year’s theme “Let’s play!” we had fun exploring how play, gamification, and game design can boost learning experiences. Here are some of the lessons that I learned! LXD and game design are family Learning experience design (LXD) ... Het bericht Lessons learned from LXDCON’24 verscheen eerst op Learning Experience Design.| Learning Experience Design
February 3, 2020 Zofia Einhorn Learning is playing, playing is learning. It’s obvious when we think about kids. It’s how they learn new stuff, which makes games their way of developing. But then we grow up, and for some reason, “forget” how to play. We might even hear some adults say, “I don’t like to play games.” I have some ... Het bericht The Magic to Learn – Motivation of Learners verscheen eerst op Learning Experience Design.| Learning Experience Design
Grab your six-shooters and dust off your boots as we explore different ways to bring elements of the Wild West genre into your fantasy TTRPG experience. This time, we look at making fantasy classes feel at home in a Western setting. For the Tales of the Valiant game, D&D, or any RPG!| Kobold Press
I’ve been working on a new number puzzle game, on and off, for the past year. It’s somewhat of a spiritual successor of Destructomath+. I have a longer post drafted about its origins, but today I w…| Steven Ritchie
As I’ve been working on Microscope: Chronicle, I’ve been revisiting all the core principles of Microscope, taking the watch apart and re-examining each gear under a (don’t say microscope)… magnifying glass to see what could be improved. And now we have these codified Ground Table principles laying out the kind of games we want to […]| ars ludi
All the hammering and pounding and forge-labor is done (for now). The first draft of the Ground Table principles has been nailed to the door. But how do you test a thing like that? How do you know you got it right? Well one test is the basic gut-check: does it *feel* right. Another is […]| ars ludi
it's basically the "animal" of "hollywood" (??)| videodante
Tra il serio e il faceto, Indika racconta una storia molto intensa criticando l'attaccamento alle tradizioni. Quali? Tutte.| Frequenza critica
Felvidek è un fiero omaggio alla cultura JRPG, ma che tra il serio e il faceto ha sicuramente anche qualcosa di suo da dire.| Frequenza critica
That’s right. No VCs, no seed rounds, no flashy LinkedIn flex. Just hard work, creativity, and a relentless belief that building something meaningful is still| Sugar Gamers
Grab your six-shooters and dust off your boots as we explore different ways to bring elements of the Wild West genre into your fantasy TTRPG experience. This time, we look at specializing adventure designs for a western feel. For the Tales of the Valiant game, D&D, or any RPG!| Kobold Press
This may sound kind of weird, but once one of my games is done and released, I don’t really think of it as something *I* made. I mean, of course I know I made it. I spent ages on it. But I also see it as an independent thing that has a life of its […]| ars ludi
A while back I was talking with Tom Kemp, designer of Dead Minutes, about a new game he's working on. We were discussing some possible rule changes, but bumped into a very familiar question: If you made this change to the rules, would that cool thing that happened in a previous playtest still hav| ars ludi
A volte fa bene guardare ai videogiochi da una prospettiva diversa. Proviamo a farlo usando la chiave di lettura del fumetto.| Frequenza critica
“Our ground is level and our table is round” What do we want out of role-playing games? What do we think they should do? What do we value? Our crew has been talking about this stuff for ages, in person, in posts, and through the games we design. But I realized we never put all […]| ars ludi
It occurred to me that even though our crew has all these ideas about how we think games should be -- all these principles and conclusions from years and years of play, including eight years of Story Games Seattle -- they are not all together in one nice, neat, easy-to-read place. So we decided t| ars ludi
Siamo partiti dai wargame, ora passiamo per Aristotele per arrivare all'identità queer e al suo rapporto con la politica. Un viaggio solo apparentemente storto.| Frequenza critica
I was going to hold off on these until the book comes out next year, but there has been enough recent interest on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/gamingthepast.bsky.social/post/3lfkff3yow22a) that I decided to put my most recent rubrics up. Please share widely and credit me when you do so I can help more people get into powerful experiential and […]| Gaming the Past
Some writers track word count to see how much work they’re getting done. I spend as much, if not more, time erasing things I’ve already written. And then *maybe* rewriting them. Maybe.| ars ludi
Look at all those Follow quests people are making! Farms and Feasts and Prison Breaks and more! I released the Red & White system reference document so people could take whatever mechanics they liked from Follow to build their own games. But as our pool of quests keeps growing, it occurs to me th| ars ludi
Il modo in cui la stampa parla dei videogiochi è ancora limitato, quasi a non riconoscerne il loro valore culturale. Come possono cambiare le cose?| Frequenza critica
La vicinanza fra guerra vera e giochi risale all'Ottocento, ma ultimamente sta riprendendo forza: cosa sono di preciso i wargame?| Frequenza critica
Just posted the most recent prototype (A1.8) for Cursus Honorum, a Roman Republic political competition game in the form of a Roll-N-Write. Needs a few player markers (4 per person is fine) and dice but other than that, print out the player sheets and go to it! I have playtested it with student groups of […]| Gaming the Past
Why 5e? Discover how D&D's 5e system uniquely enhances our Stone Age RPG, 'Born from Ice'.| Born from Ice: Stone Age Role-Playing
...and that the free PDF version has been downloaded nearly 14,000 times since it was "re-released" back in 2011?| Save Vs. Dragon
You might find yourself in the same fortunate situation I found myself in, perhaps without even realizing it, where more players want to exp...| sirlywhirly.blogspot.com
As we bid farewell to 2023 and welcome the possibilities that 2024 holds, it’s a fitting time to look back … More| Sylvester Arnab
If everything is predictable in a game, that isn't much fun. RNGs, or Random Number Generators, are a way to introduce a touch of randomness and causality you need to spice it up. In this article, we'll learn how random number generators work. How an...| freeCodeCamp.org
There comes a point in any genealogical backtrace when you realise that everyone in the world is now an ancestor of whoever you are studying. Generally, the researcher, politician, or random nutjob on YouTube then slides the window forward a few generations so that they can continue to make arbitrary claims like being of African descent (like everyone else), from native-born English stock (except for all those Anglo-Saxon immigrants that were born in Denmark and Germany), or that their oppone...| Nagora's Corner
Hello all! I've been away for a little while over the summer. This summer is the one that came right after my Freshman year, and so I wasn't able to get an internship. This means that this summer is likely going to be the last one I'll ever have to really just relax. So I took a month or two off from programming and did some other things. I've been working a lot at hotkeyit.com creating content.| Randy Gaul's Game Programming Blog
Not too long ago I created my own first game from scratch in pure C. I struggled most with program design. I'd like to share what I've learned about a proper game state manager.| Randy Gaul's Game Programming Blog
Many years ago, one of the games I created was a space opera re-imagining of Everway. Yes, that Everway, the game with all the gorgeous art cards, 3 completely separate action resolution systems, a…| Mental Propinquity
Fables of Camelot is a roleplaying game I wrote with Sami Koponen this last summer; Sami had been thinking of the problem of introducing roleplaying to new people in a convention environment, so when he came to visit me for a week we put our heads together and cooked up a game to fulfill his […]| Game Design is about Structure
As discussed earlier, I started a Gloranthan Solar System campaign recently, which obviously means that I needed to put together at least a preliminary crunch landscape for the thing. This is actually massively indimidating job – Glorantha is a deep setting, and better minds have spent a lot of time figuring out how to represent […]| Game Design is about Structure
Würm by Chaosium and Born from Ice: Comparing their unique approaches to prehistoric RPGs, highlighting 5e's versatility and adaptability.| Born from Ice: Stone Age Role-Playing
Monsters of the stone age: Explore creatures that haunted our ancestors, and discover how myths like the Wendigo fit into prehistoric life.| Born from Ice: Stone Age Role-Playing
No magic, no problem! Dive into Born from Ice, a unique 5e setting, and explore how the absence of magic creates new storytelling avenues.| Born from Ice: Stone Age Role-Playing
Historical accuracy or gameplay? Why not both? Learn the fine art of balancing in the creation of Born from Ice, a Stone Age RPG.| Born from Ice: Stone Age Role-Playing
I’ve been very quiet at Gamesbrief for a while. As many of you may know, I caught Covid in May 2022, and I have had Long Covid ever since. In January 2023, I was lucky to be able to have a shower and eat three meals – the rest of my day was spent in... The post I’m back, and I’ve launched a Kickstarter! appeared first on Gamesbrief.| Gamesbrief
I don't like HP for a number of reasons, and I'd like to replace it with something better. Abstracted as 'hit points' it could mean almost anything, but most people tend to read it as 'health' or 'life,' which makes turn-based battles feel like everyone is standing in place, just hacking away at each others abdomens until one of them finally drops. But that's not really how fights work, and it leaves you with what I think is a pretty weak conceptual and mechanical foundation to combat.| Words for Yellow
The Soulknife was my favorite class concept when I only knew about the 3.x games. I emphasize concept there because the actual mechanics of the class were hot garbage. It was described by some as a straightjacket that would ruin any build (I know), it was purely combat based with poor stats for combat and a core ability that neither meshes well with any other class nor outperforms the magic equipment you should technically be getting as you level, according to RAW. So I redesigned it with GLO...| Words for Yellow
The point of combat| Words for Yellow
Perhaps my favorite part of any character sheet is the 'appearance' section, especially if it has an area for drawing a character portrait.| Words for Yellow
Last week I posted about running a grown-up RPG session that included some kids, and the insights I gained from that experience (insights that didn’t always mesh with the conventional wisdom about kids’ games). In the three days between that game session and writing the post, I had a second interesting kids-and-RPGs experience: I played […]| The Fascinating World of Charles Ryan
I had an interesting gaming experience over the weekend: I ran The Strange for a group that included several children. This isn’t really anything new: I’ve run games for my kids several times over the past three or four years. But those were always adventures I prepped and ran specifically as family or kids’ games. Slightly […]| The Fascinating World of Charles Ryan
If you follow gaming news, you probably saw the Origins Awards nominations late last week. I’m very pleased that Monte Cook Games’s own Numenera is in the running for Best RPG. (And let me be clear: Credit for this lies in no way with me. The game was almost completely finished before I joined the company.) […]| The Fascinating World of Charles Ryan
Game mechanics are the operating system of your campaign. And like computer operating systems, they are built from thousands of lines of code that interact with one another in complex ways. Kit-bashing your system can be a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. And it can lead to unpredictable results or the […]| The Fascinating World of Charles Ryan
In Sleeping Beauty (the Disney versions, at least), a princess is caught up in a conflict between two fey forces: 1. Good fairies, who lavish blessings on the newborn princess, and then raise her i…| The Fascinating World of Charles Ryan
Tracked is a large-scale role-playing game designed especially for MozFest 2018 with its theme “Your Data and You” that puts you in the shoes of different actors in the internet’s surveillance economy. Players will model the data tracking ecosystem, demonstrating how the data that platforms collect about us is used to personalize, target, or recommend new content […]| 22.8miles
Sandboxes tend to imply factions, but faction play is sometimes a boogeyman for open world games. Should it be subtle, just a thought? Shoul...| d66kobolds.blogspot.com
Most of my games and prototypes lately are very board gamey and almost always involve dealing random “cards” to create a hand of cards. For example, in Subterfuge players have the choice of one of three specialists every few hours, which is similar to dealing 3 random cards and having the player pick one.| Games from Within
There’s nothing like writing down all the rules for a game to keep yourself honest. You can quickly see if complexity is spiraling out of control, and, most importantly, you get to see if your expectations of the design match the reality of the game.| Games from Within
In the early stages of developing a game, once I have the idea and the feelings of the game down solid, my approach is to throw everything I can think of at the game and see what sticks.| Games from Within
I haven’t written purely about tech in a long time, but this is a particularly interesting intersection of tech and game design, so I thought I would share it with everybody. Be warned though: This is one of those posts that’s just about the thought process I went through for something and the solution I reached. I’m most definitely not advocating this solution for everybody. Think about it and pick the solution that works for you the best.| Games from Within
When I start working on a game, one of the first things I decide is how will the game make the player feel. Different designers have different ways of driving and focusing the design of their games: some will use a short elevator pitch, some will use key pieces of art, some will let the mechanics dictate the rest. I prefer to use the way I want players to feel to anchor the design, and I flesh out the rest of the game around it.| Games from Within
Note: I’m mostly summarizing what JackMule taught me over a series of PMs. He figured out nearly all of this on his own. 868-HACK is an unapologetically opaque game. For some this is a charm,…| vivablog
Last September I decided that I wanted to learn how to build a VRChat world. I had never made a VR project before, but I’ve been working in and around interactive entertainment since before t| Plausibly Deniable
There are a lot of essays I want to write within the field of How D&D Is And Why, but before I even begin, framing it that way has some problems. The concepts and patterns of thought I want| Plausibly Deniable
I recently re-read Roland Barthes' essay "The World of Wrestling," in which he draws a distinction between a sport, which is an event based on the "demonstration of excellence," and a spectacle, which| Plausibly Deniable
Online skill ranking was one of the big features added to the Deluxe edition of INVERSUS and building it was uncharted territory on my part. It required a bunch of learning and is one of the systems players ask about the most so I’d like to share some behind the scenes details regarding how it works.| Hypersect
Design, photography and code by Hang Do Thi Duc.| 22-8miles.com
Game-unit path-finding is something that most players never notice until it doesn’t work quite right, and then that minor issue becomes a rage-inducing, end-of-the-world problem. During the development of StarCraft there were times when path-finding just didn’t work at all. As the development of StarCraft dragged on it seemed like it would never be done: […]| Code Of Honor
The first-ever multiplayer game of Warcraft was a crushing victory, an abject defeat, and a tie, all at once. Wait, how is that possible? Well, therein lies a tale. This tale grew organically during the writing to include game AI, the economics of the game business, fog of war and more. Read on if you […]| Code Of Honor
In my previous article about StarCraft I talked about why we rebooted the project and changed it from a follow-on to Warcraft — derisively called “Orcs in space” in 1996 — into the award-winning game that we were finally able to deliver after two more years of hardship. But one noteworthy source of inspiration didn’t […]| Code Of Honor
Inspiration taken from Goblin Punch , Whose Measure , and Various Others Well of Bolonchen, by Frederick Catherwood At times my brain enters...| shadowandfae.blogspot.com
