Thread by @frasersimons

My name is Fraser Simons and I think I’m generally known for designing the cyberpunk tabletop roleplaying games The Veil and Hack the Planet, as well as blogging about the sub genre @cyberpunkblog
#AprilTTRPGmaker

My games tend to focus on emergent play, have a rich dice component (where a roll conveys more than just a target number), and often lean into suggestive designs rather than prescriptive. They’re also usually cyberpunk, or have cyberpunk themes (not always tho)
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3) Key to my making process? I guess, figuring out what I think or feel about something and then make the game that I want to play, hoping others will identify with it as well. I’m a very visual thinker and take a lot of notes, sitting with my thoughts
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4) my favourite type of game scenario is one where the players have input. Investment is key for me. It better be really amazing if it’s a railroad (and rarely is). I prefer designs that facilitate emergent play and scenario elements as ingredients.
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5)I like worldbuilding through playing to find out with my character. That’s a part of the conversation where the facilitator and players ask questions of one another and the world. I like questions that target the world and my character. Worldbuilding is play.
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6)long or short rpg texts. It really depends. Short is more accessible and can fulfill a design as easily as long. I play and design both. Veil 2020 is a couple pages, Hack the Planet is clocking in at 340ish. I don’t mind designing or reading either.
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7) increasing accessibility for me has been making my products available cheaply but I need to also be more mindful other accessibility concerns, like small text. Good layout goes a long way. One column, no walls of text is still a standard we haven’t reached.
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8) I haven’t had a bad experience with a collaborator but have worked most often with @thestraykiwi, Jason Cordova, @Kiranansi, and, of course, my Samjoko partner in crime, @kylejsimons

9) My games distribute power in a couple ways: they all have safety tool mechanic and tone discussions in the text. They all feature a facilitator, but make it clear that everyone is working together to craft the fiction everyone wants. They’re all fiction first.
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10) None of my games position protagonists as heroes or have colonial aspects. Often times they’re part of an oppressed group or on the losing end of immense stratification of class, as most of my games are cyberpunk. Young at Heart is about toxic masculinity.
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11) @thestraykiwi has done some awesome game design, and she’s prolific as fuck, these days. She’s got a hack of Hot Guys Making Out, Girl Underground, a new game in The Gauntlet Codex issue with @wiegraf_ and a game about birds. Follow her n ask about her games
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