So, I played @momatoes' solo journaling RPG The Magus. It's fantastic. (A Thread)

momatoes.itch.io/the-magus

It's not just prompts. It's a system and procedures that are an actual game of choices and risks and dice outcomes, but entwined... ... with the player's creativity and story desires. It's great.

Frequently when it wants to establish something about your character or an event in the story it gives you a table to roll against, but it also almost always says you can pick instead of rolling, or...

Want to know the most common design problem I see in the small RPG scene?

It's mentally separating the design work of being inspiring from the design of systems and procedures. It's games with great, compelling concepts but that don't proceduralize collaboration and authority and character play in ways that create human connection, that don't prompt players to be engaged and inspired with their contributions, that don't...

@BlckCatBlckSky So, let me tell you about Traverser.

I kind of hate dystopias. I hate that somehow they're credible, and utopias aren't.

Dystopian thinking drives human alienation. We go through life fearful/frustrated/angry at others among us, doubting what we can achieve if we try. Even... @BlckCatBlckSky ... the idea that we can create utopia from out of dystopia reifies dystopian thinking.

I think optimism is punk. Not that we will emerge from catastrophic dystopia into a difficult, but hard-fought utopia, but that we will simply create utopia because the best in us is...

How about some #RPGtheory?

I think by far the hardest thing for RPG gamers is being able to look at a game's mechanics and procedures and perceive if they're inspired and good. Mostly we fall back on trying to perceive if they're functional. We compare them to other games we've played, and try to make a decent guess about if they're functional.

1/ Have you seen people talking about the tabletop storygame and RPG scene on itchio, but then weren't impressed with any of the games? Then this thread is for you. 2/ It's clear to you that a lot of #ttrpg games published on itchio haven't been playtested? Maybe your unconscious gamer reaction is, "I don't buy ideas."

How about some #RPGtheory? Great. Are you designing an RPG? They are fragile social constructs. They fail to deliver on your envisioned play experience for them all the time. If you want the best for your RPG you need to inform your decisions by knowing how you expect it to deliver on your envisioned play experience.