Stealing mechanisms from TTRPGs
Sold out at PAXU, Input/Output Randomness, Stealing from TTRPGs, Expeditions
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TL;DR Summary
💀 Sold out at PAX Unplugged
🃏 Input vs. output randomness
🎮 Stealing mechanisms from TTRPGs
🎲 Recently played: Expeditions
💀 Sold out at PAX Unplugged
I’ve always had a good time at PAX Unplugged, but this year was particularly special.
Meeting people who have played Exclusion Zone Botanist, chatting with other creators, and seeing Exeunt Press games in haul photos was just amazing! Hearing from people who enjoy the games and read Skeleton Code Machine is the absolute best! Thank you!
If you tried to purchase Exclusion Zone Botanist at the Plus One Exp booth, it might have been sold out. I had no idea the demand would be so high!
Copies are still available online! You can get Exclusion Zone Botanist, Eleventh Beast, and You are a Muffin zine editions at the Exeunt Press Shop. This includes the deluxe bundles with dice, maps, tokens, and other extras.
Use discount code SOLDOUT23 at checkout for 5% off any games through 12/12.
I was also to get a copy of A Cruel Month by MÖRK BORG illustrator Johan Nohr. It’s a compilation of his drawings from MÖRKTOBER 2023. Not only is there a very nice shoutout to Exeunt Press on the back cover, he was also kind enough to sign my copy!
Oh, one more thing…
Apparently Exclusion Zone Botanist (trifold edition) received a mention as a “Tiny Titan” in the most recent Senet Magazine!?
Shop: Exeunt Press Shop
🃏 Input vs. output randomness
Recently Skeleton Code Machine had a two part series on randomness in games, specifically looking at input vs. output randomness.
We explored the differences between input vs. output randomness, gave some examples of each, and thought about how they might be used in board games and TTRPGs:
Don’t miss the comments on the posts! Lots of good insights there.
Also, get yourself a Skeleton Code Machine shirt at the shop!
Read: Skeleton Code Machine
Skeleton Code Machine is a weekly publication that explores tabletop game mechanisms in board games and roleplaying games. It’s been called a “Seemingly endless source of gaming ponderings” and a “Goldmine.” Check it out at www.skeletoncodemachine.com.
🎮 Stealing mechanisms from TTRPGs
I watched another GDC talk and took some notes. This week I watched The Best and Most 'Stealable' Mechanics from Tabletop RPGs by Evan Hill at GDC 2023.
Here are my notes:
Characters and Time
Blades in the Dark Flashbacks allow for solutions beyond the immediate gear and actions of the player. Stress/Trauma provides for long term consequences, and isn’t “just a second health bar.”
Clocks, like those in Blades in the Dark, can measure anything and not just time based events. Actions by players can advance multiple clocks allowing for complex interactions with minimal rules.
Burning Wheel and Mouse Guard use Beliefs and Instincts. Beliefs are a “tangible, concrete understanding and stance” and players are rewarded when acting in accordance with them. Instincts are less about player control and is something you do automatically. Fate points not discussed.
Vice and Nature stats (e.g. greed, anger) can be used to help with certain tasks, but each time they are used they are modified. The stat moves up and down based on usage. This creates a resource and stat all at once which leads to dynamic characters.
Weird Resolutions
Dread and Star Crossed given as examples of systems that use a Jenga stacking block tower vs. traditional dice or cards.
Mention of the growing roll and write genre of games, and how Citizen Sleeper could be an example of this type as “essentially cyberpunk Yahtzee.”
Short and Sweet
Basic introduction to one-page TTRPGs including Sexy Battle Wizards, Honey Heist, and Everyone is John.
Ancient Knowledge
Introduction to OSR games and their focus on:
High lethality
Low power characters
Resource management
Knave, Maze Rats, and Into the Odd given as examples of OSR games with fast character creation.
Disco Mist Apocalypse
Apocalypse World and the subsequent games built as Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA), such as City of Mist.
PbtA games “use story logic as mechanics.” If you have a bullet-proof cape, then it aids where that makes sense.
Brief mention at the end of the mind-map style quest log in Pathologic 2.
While the focus of this talk was stealing from tabletop games to put their mechanisms into video games, I think it’s just as helpful when designing tabletop games.
There is an infinite number of ways that game mechanisms can be modified and remixed into new and novel systems. Being exposed to as many ideas as possible seems like a good start!
For similar concepts, check out Stealing ideas from board games and Stealing boss fight mechanisms.
Watch: The Best and Most 'Stealable' Mechanics from Tabletop RPGs
🎲 Recently played: Expeditions
I never get as many games played at PAX Unplugged as I hope, but I was able to try some new ones. This includes Expeditions (Stegmaier, 2023), a tile-exploration game set in the Scythe universe.
Although Scythe isn’t one of my favorites (mostly because I’m bad at it), I do like the art and setting, so I was interested in trying Expeditions. Glad I did!
Expeditions is a little lighter (3.03 vs. 3.44) and perhaps a little more random. I enjoyed it quite a bit at 5-players and think I’d enjoy it even more with a shorter 3-player game.
Curious to try this one again!
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- E.P. 💀
Your notes write-ups from the various panels and videos you watch are so valuable, especially to reference back to after watching!