Rodney Thompson Profile picture
Senior Design Lead at Bungie. Member of 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, Lords of Waterdeep, Destiny 2 design teams. Creator of Dusk City Outlaws & Spectaculars.
Jan 6, 2021 18 tweets 3 min read
Just finished running what was probably my best session of Star Trek Adventures yet. Definitely learning some interesting lessons about the game, its systems, and perhaps more importantly, the challenges of running a game in the Star Trek setting. Short thread. Tonight's episode revolved around the ship's Klingon doctor & Trill ensign being recruited to fly a cloaked Bird of Prey deep into Cardassian territory to retrieve a defector. There was deception, cultural conflict, and a moral dilemma that saw the doctor go against his beliefs.
Mar 15, 2020 11 tweets 5 min read
So a couple of weeks ago I posted about the homebrewed Star Wars roleplaying game I designed for my gaming group. It...got a lot of attention. I wanted to talk about some of the game design tech I am testing out as a part of it. Another thread! So, lots of games have resources that players can spend to mitigate randomness or, in select situations, provide them with a boost. In Spectaculars, this is hero points. Legend of the Five Rings has void points, Fate has fate points, and Star Wars Saga Edition had Force Points.
Mar 4, 2020 16 tweets 5 min read
Tonight, I ran a Star Wars RPG for the first time in over 5 years. But I didn't run the edition I worked on (Saga Edition), the edition I cut my teeth on (WEG), or the newest edition (FFG). No, I decided to design my own Star Wars RPG.

Long thread incoming. I'm just at a place in my life where my tolerance for rules complexity is at an all-time low. I want to spend my effort on what happens in the game. So, I adapted mechanics from Dusk City Outlaws and Spectaculars to make my own homebrewed Star Wars game.
Aug 6, 2018 17 tweets 4 min read
As I sit here in my hotel, which does not have hot water due to someone reporting smelling gas last night, shutting down the boilers, I have some time to reflect on what I learned from this year's Gen Con, my first time back since leaving WotC to take a job at Bungie. Thread! First: I have never felt old until this convention. I was exhausted every day, both physically and mentally, my feet were killing me at the end of the day, and I felt every late dinner and drop of alcohol keenly the next day. 22-year-old freelancer me would be ashamed.