Thread by @Astonishng_Hero

#rpgs #dnd

1/ Imagine a style of game where you can create a character in 5 minutes and the DM can generate an NPC, town, lair, trove, encounter, merchant caravan - whatever is interesting - in 5 minutes. Requires a light but broad ruleset. (Think 2 sentence rules for foraging.)

https://twitter.com/JohnsonJeffro/status/1481066749520973825

/2 By necessity there is no expectation of balance. To the degree that anything is balanced, it's because you can (usually) run away.

PC's die a lot. Much of what DM generates doesn't get interacted with very much. It's fine. The next thing can be generated in 5 minutes.

/3 And yet things do stick around. Over time you develop attachment to certain characters, NPCs, locations, enemies, items - whatever. Character arcs / conflicts form over time, organically, arising in response to emerging situations - not scripts.

/4 Still, though, players come and go as their schedules and life circumstances change. Or maybe they're not having fun. But it's a more or less open table so there's always a new player.

Players don't mind dying. DM doesn't mind wasted prep. Because generation takes 5 minutes.

/5 You don't need to sell anyone on your game or make lists. No more than a sentence to describe the game world. "Muddy Greyhawk with laser guns." That's your session 0. Ruleset and 1 sentence setting. Specifics hashed out as players interact more with whatever interests them.

/6 No ruleset or contract gets around the problem of shitty or incompatible players. But the game is so easy to join so the table has fluidity. Eventually you settle on the right group for that game.

/7 Sorry, but contracts can be gamed. "Oh... I love Warharmer but blood and guts makes me cry." Congrats, you replaced a direct shitty person with an indirect shitty person. Only solution is table fluidity. Easy to join. Easy to adjust. Easy to leave.

/8 Worried about "team composition?" In a game like this, you are usually overmatched and play by wits most of the time. Otherwise, characters die a lot, and like monkeys typing on typewriters, you eventually settle on a composition that works - for a while!

/9 Worried about character arc? Start your character idea from the simplest thing possible - overtalkative wizard. And let it evolve in response to everything that happens in play. New game materials are generated easily - so it's easy to steer towards weird goals.

/10 Remember, you are overbalanced all the time. You run away a lot. That means the DM generates new stuff all the time. You play by wits a lot - that means asking the DM for clarification on small details - its player-directed world building IN PLAY. "Is that fungus poisonous?"

/11 Mechanics of the game, stacked against you, so compensate with IMAGINATION. Can't be planned. Trust yourself, humans natural meaning finders. Whole game is an ink blot - you you keep finding compelling images. This is how you "WIN AT RPGS." Power gaming via imagination.

/12 Rapid generation. Seek and ye shall find - in play, not planning. Character arc, storylines, memorable enemies. Only thing that needs to be nailed down ahead of time is the ruleset. (Your themes are whatever you have rules for, btw.)

/13 People rightly react to creepy contracts. There's beauty, no substitute for people who can shake hands and agree they don't play well together. Creepiness ensues when insist on ongoing involvement with someone you are incompatible with.

/14 Can't list everything. Try, no mystery. Art / meaning / love / friendship by formula always fails. Only works in business. You commodified your triggers. A product now, a brand. Not full human person. No room for growth or adaption. Inert object acted upon by outside forces.

/15 Life, true life, what art moves towards, has to seek its own form past the veil of artistic distance, not on our side. Must stumble, misstep, risk, regain equilibrium. Life is vector, movement, not static formula. Hence visceral reaction to trigger contract. It's death!

/16 To the degree that you need bowling alley bumpers, keep the DM out of it. Players can form side deals to pursue threads. We pull on your thread today, my thread tomorrow. No substitute for players who know how to share toys in the sandbox. Helicopter DMs get out!!!

/17 Play full of life, fluid will, as Conan said: "Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content."

/18 Remember, every step of the way, every problem, solved if players can walk away and DM / players can generate a new thing in 5 minutes or less. Consider your refutation against this reality each step of the way.