Common design element for me: no combat, just conflicts & action sequences. Not a lot of difference between a stare down & a gunfight. In many of my games, even the same down to taking stress/harm. It makes even outright fights flow so differently.
#TTRPG #GameDesign #IndieDev
Openness of action [including combat] as just a zoomed in version of universal mechanics is key. Battles often end with intimidation rather than a killing blow. Even regularly outright interrupted by talking to enemies, distractions, & other "non-combat" actions. It's open play.
I believe a lot of it is more player framing than mechanical. The mechanics guide the framing but its' the framing that does the heavy lifting imo. Intimidating an enemy being as effective as punching them is a rule but it changes player framing. There's also another layer too.
Borrow from 80s & 10s designs to separate actions in the flow. Almost all my games divide action sequences into 2 or 3 phases per round. First Talking, Doing, or both. Talking is just that. Doing is any non-conflict action. Then Conflict, which is any conflict or opposed action.
Important to note everyone gets an action in each phase. That creates a situation where even combat-focused players are looking for opportunities to take their "full" actions, which includes their talking and/or doing actions.
So overall we have:
open play/open conflict + universal harms/effective options + non-conflict options & resolution preference.

Mechanics matter, but the key factor is how they influence player framing. How players see the game & make choices, above what rules strictly require.

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More from @ThoughtPunks

Apr 25
behold, my amazing artistic talents.
draw a comic if you're not a squirrel, they said.
fine.
I bring you, "i am not a squirrel".
the most incredible webcomic you'll ever read.
speaking the most powerful truths. Left text: episode 001 top ...
As a fine artist of great refinement, I give you the advice of the important difference between drawing a squirrel and cat being to make the tail bushy for a squirrel.

YOU ARE WELCOME.

Follow me for this and other deep insights.
Behold, as a bonus I even give you episode 2 with an animal drawing guide. Top text: i am not a squirr...
Read 4 tweets
Apr 25
Bit more about The Yearning, the vampire #TTRPG template coming for Scope Core.

The initial template will come with the full details for the 4 most populous Lineages.

And I'll jump into one of the most obvious questions [and common ones received so far]:
How do they compare?
So let's start with the big 7.
Drop the Warlocks first. 1) No wizard vampires here. 2) Depending on POV, blood magic available to all or all vampiric magic is blood magic here.

It was an easy choice that wasn't even a choice. They just never got an analogue as it built.
The closest 1-to-1 is The Shattered for the Seers/Kooks. One major contrast is they're not about insanity and there's no gamified mental illness. They just actually see layers of reality and threads of fate. Also illustrates the overall vamp vibe aimed for with weaknesses. THE SHATTERED Long ago know...The Shattered have little i...They seem distractable, wea...SHATTERED BOONS •	Support: ...
Read 17 tweets
Apr 24
Me: I've been really out of the loop, what's going on in #DnD land?

*five minutes later*

Me: Nope.
We got Pinkertons being sent after people for unboxing videos, streaming fandoms going to war, and several instances of massive accounts sending harassment after relative nobodies.

And that was just my glimpse. Please for the love of all things holy tell me indie #TTRPG is OK.
Because I'm seriously afraid to look after the D&D peek.
Read 4 tweets
Apr 17
OK, so people saw the dice pools in Scope, the main stat + skills in Scope SRD, and know there's a vampire game template. And so people have some questions about similarities and differences to the obvious comparison. Let's explore in a thread! 🧵
#TTRPG #IndieGameDev #Vampire
Starting off at the top, there is a functional character concept as you would expect in a Cypher or Fate. This is part of the basic Scope SRD.

Also player-facing with a PC-relative scale. No "objective" stats. NPCs instead have modifiers for PC rolls.

Two big differences! CHARACTER CONCEPT Concept i...
Some other concepts & design perspective covered in the Scope SRD, along with the core mechanic and basic character structure. Give it a read if you're into #TTRPG #GameDesign and want a "modernized retro" framework inspired by 80s/90s RPGs. [🧵 continues]
open.thoughtpunks.com/library-text/s…
Read 26 tweets
Apr 16
Gen X "Elder" here.
1) Shorter life expec due to a wild variety of factors. Note OVER HALF of the Traditionalist LGBT population vanished.
2) Note the 2020 dip and bounce back for Boomers. Peer pressure to stay closeted.
3) LGBT Gen X *more than doubled*. The biggest in-gen gain. Laura Powell: "If the ...
4) And related to #2 and why #3 isn't even larger, and a really serious community issue: Many spaces are extremely ageist and hostile to older LGBTQ folks. There's a fair number of us elders still around. We ain't all dead. I fare better but it's a real problem for many peers.
Someone directly asked me why I think I fare better. Lots of factors, tbh. But the two biggies, imo:
1) I still listen to more recent music. Easier to connect with a cultural Rosetta Stone.
2) My LGBTQ subculture Venns are relatively intergenerational. More of a mix.
Read 5 tweets
Apr 15
By complexity, I mean there's 3 separate tracks and players have to track them & their penalties individually. There's also stuff about accumulating permanent flaws, what happens when you go over, etc. But this is all the main Stress/ladder rules right here. Not overwhelming. STRESS Typically, one ladde...STRESS MULTI-TRACK HARM Som...SCARS Most often accrued th...STRESS LADDERS Stress ladde...
While it works on its own as tested, it's also intended to provide direct hooks and examples for design levers. That negative spiral could invert into heroic grit, getting stronger the more you are hurt. Recovery can be tuned grittier/nastier or more action/episodic.
Similarly, the choice to use multiple ladders is meant to provide an obvious example of how that aspect of Scope can be built out. The choices can get considerably more abstract and apply to a wide variety of concepts.
Read 5 tweets

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