Thinking about how my board game experience creates design assumptions that I can/should question, including the use of upkeep phases in games. Also: a holiday solo game sale!
I think upkeep is sort of the natural ebb and flow of events. Sort of baked into life in general right? Even day to day events have rising action, resolution, then falling action. Maintenance and upkeep sort of go hand in hand.
I'm not sure you could eliminate upkeep entirely from a game. Even if it is a simple, you can accomplish X things today, today still ends, the character sleeps. Does the character push on through today into tomorrow? How long can they push it? When do they crash and force even that brief stage of upkeep. Sleep refreshes X number of tasks they can perform. Would the scavenging for resources to power something count as a folded upkeep/exploration loop?
I guess the question more turns to is the upkeep a needed step? What does it add to the game? Is it just a numbers thing? Can it be jazzed up? Does it need to be? Can it be simplified? If it's taken out of the loop, how does that alter the flow and feeling? Is it noticeable? What differentiates Upkeep from Maintenance? Is there one in this case?
I don't know if I'm being pedantic or not, but it's things that I think about and chew on when I'm working on things. My brain likes crunchy, but not overly complicated systems. Like peanut butter. Added layers of texture does wonders for an otherwise boring thing.
Sorry, DM brain really took a hold of this and ran for the trees. It's made me sit back and look at how I run my campaigns and hold them up to the light and really think about it.
Thanks for this comment! It helps me think through this topic. The whole "should upkeep phases exist" isn't a clear question/answer for me. So I'm really enjoying hearing other opinions.
The poll, if that's any indication, is showing that most people don't mind upkeep phases at all. By that, it's not even a problem to be solved!
I've always viewed upkeep in STTRPGs as a form of world building. For me, they tend to drive immersion rather than detract from it. Almost every story that's not written in the first person has breakaways from the main story that deal with "upkeep" of the world. And even a lot of first person stories still contain that.
Example: any scene that does not explicitly contain Harry Potter in a Harry Potter book could be considered a (factional) upkeep scene. Or Ender Wiggin in Ender's Game. Or Paul in Dune. Or James Holden in the Expanse.
As far as gear upkeep goes, Mad Max Fury Road is rife with gear upkeep scenes. Most horror and survival movies indulge in gear upkeep as a general rule of thumb.
Even outside of factions and gear, emotional upkeep scenes can be said to be the foundations of drama and romance stories. Emotions and morals are constantly reevaluate and re-examined. "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio" is a wonderful example of an emotional upkeep step as a scene.
Upkeep...from board (cardboard construction) games, upkeep was 'supply' a way to tag wear/tear, effects of time, loss of fighting strentgh. In role play, upkeep functions much the same way. Torchs burn out. Food gets eatened. Blades get dulled. Drink skins empty. If it were just a single battle, supply is not an issue.
Howevere in multiple battles, such as a war, supply needs (upkeep) does matter.
Hence in a role play game, you are the man/woman that fights or explores dangerous places. As such some upkeep items do not apply whilst others still do.
I think it shows up less in TTRPGs that are less procedural than some solo TTRPGs. In a game like D&D that’s led by a GM and more free form, I’m not sure there’s an explicit upkeep phase. That said, I like your idea and example! That might count as upkeep in this context.
Sharp observation about the tension betwen upkeep and immersion in solo games. The Medusa approach is interesting because it treats upkeep not as inherently broken but as a designdecision worth interrogating. I ran a campaign last year where upkeep bloat killed momentum, players would finish intense scenes and then spend 5 minutes updating resources and tracking effects. Folding that maintenance into the actual decision space makes sense, it turns busywork into strategic load. The real test will be whether eliminating upkeep actually improves flow or just hides the same cognitive overhead elsewhere in the loop.
i think it makes sense that "start-of-turn" upkeep feels less like upkeep than "end-of-turn" upkeep; in my mind at least, it feels more like immediate setup for you to react to, in a sense? at least that's my intuition on it ^^
kind-of like "baking the upkeep into the action, having it be a part of it, perhaps?
as for other design assumptions... i'd say that a common one is that eg TTRPGs have to have some kind of random element, be it dice, cards, or what have you. of course, that has already been challenged by say Belong Outside Belonging-games, but it's still a dominant assumption i'd say :) and also not a bad assumption! both can be good, and make for different kinds of fun :)
great article, always fun and interesting to think about things like these :D thank you <3
I agree, but not I'm sure sure why! :) In Eleventh Beast the upkeep happens at the top of the turn and it doesn't seem like upkeep. In fact, I when writing this I was wondering if I should/could even include that as an example.
So weird that the positioning of it (top or bottom of turn) makes a subtle difference.
I think upkeep is sort of the natural ebb and flow of events. Sort of baked into life in general right? Even day to day events have rising action, resolution, then falling action. Maintenance and upkeep sort of go hand in hand.
I'm not sure you could eliminate upkeep entirely from a game. Even if it is a simple, you can accomplish X things today, today still ends, the character sleeps. Does the character push on through today into tomorrow? How long can they push it? When do they crash and force even that brief stage of upkeep. Sleep refreshes X number of tasks they can perform. Would the scavenging for resources to power something count as a folded upkeep/exploration loop?
I guess the question more turns to is the upkeep a needed step? What does it add to the game? Is it just a numbers thing? Can it be jazzed up? Does it need to be? Can it be simplified? If it's taken out of the loop, how does that alter the flow and feeling? Is it noticeable? What differentiates Upkeep from Maintenance? Is there one in this case?
I don't know if I'm being pedantic or not, but it's things that I think about and chew on when I'm working on things. My brain likes crunchy, but not overly complicated systems. Like peanut butter. Added layers of texture does wonders for an otherwise boring thing.
Sorry, DM brain really took a hold of this and ran for the trees. It's made me sit back and look at how I run my campaigns and hold them up to the light and really think about it.
Thanks for this comment! It helps me think through this topic. The whole "should upkeep phases exist" isn't a clear question/answer for me. So I'm really enjoying hearing other opinions.
The poll, if that's any indication, is showing that most people don't mind upkeep phases at all. By that, it's not even a problem to be solved!
Thank you!
I've always viewed upkeep in STTRPGs as a form of world building. For me, they tend to drive immersion rather than detract from it. Almost every story that's not written in the first person has breakaways from the main story that deal with "upkeep" of the world. And even a lot of first person stories still contain that.
Example: any scene that does not explicitly contain Harry Potter in a Harry Potter book could be considered a (factional) upkeep scene. Or Ender Wiggin in Ender's Game. Or Paul in Dune. Or James Holden in the Expanse.
As far as gear upkeep goes, Mad Max Fury Road is rife with gear upkeep scenes. Most horror and survival movies indulge in gear upkeep as a general rule of thumb.
Even outside of factions and gear, emotional upkeep scenes can be said to be the foundations of drama and romance stories. Emotions and morals are constantly reevaluate and re-examined. "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio" is a wonderful example of an emotional upkeep step as a scene.
Good points. Thank you!
Upkeep...from board (cardboard construction) games, upkeep was 'supply' a way to tag wear/tear, effects of time, loss of fighting strentgh. In role play, upkeep functions much the same way. Torchs burn out. Food gets eatened. Blades get dulled. Drink skins empty. If it were just a single battle, supply is not an issue.
Howevere in multiple battles, such as a war, supply needs (upkeep) does matter.
Hence in a role play game, you are the man/woman that fights or explores dangerous places. As such some upkeep items do not apply whilst others still do.
What are some examples of upkeep in ttrpgs, like is it in DND 5e after a long rest where spell slots and HP are refilled and new spells are chosen?
I think it shows up less in TTRPGs that are less procedural than some solo TTRPGs. In a game like D&D that’s led by a GM and more free form, I’m not sure there’s an explicit upkeep phase. That said, I like your idea and example! That might count as upkeep in this context.
Thank you!
Sharp observation about the tension betwen upkeep and immersion in solo games. The Medusa approach is interesting because it treats upkeep not as inherently broken but as a designdecision worth interrogating. I ran a campaign last year where upkeep bloat killed momentum, players would finish intense scenes and then spend 5 minutes updating resources and tracking effects. Folding that maintenance into the actual decision space makes sense, it turns busywork into strategic load. The real test will be whether eliminating upkeep actually improves flow or just hides the same cognitive overhead elsewhere in the loop.
Which game/campaign was that?
i think it makes sense that "start-of-turn" upkeep feels less like upkeep than "end-of-turn" upkeep; in my mind at least, it feels more like immediate setup for you to react to, in a sense? at least that's my intuition on it ^^
kind-of like "baking the upkeep into the action, having it be a part of it, perhaps?
as for other design assumptions... i'd say that a common one is that eg TTRPGs have to have some kind of random element, be it dice, cards, or what have you. of course, that has already been challenged by say Belong Outside Belonging-games, but it's still a dominant assumption i'd say :) and also not a bad assumption! both can be good, and make for different kinds of fun :)
great article, always fun and interesting to think about things like these :D thank you <3
I agree, but not I'm sure sure why! :) In Eleventh Beast the upkeep happens at the top of the turn and it doesn't seem like upkeep. In fact, I when writing this I was wondering if I should/could even include that as an example.
So weird that the positioning of it (top or bottom of turn) makes a subtle difference.
Thank you for this comment!