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Mike Mearls Profile picture
Mike Mearls
@mikemearls
Game design and other stuff. Created D&D 5th edition. Blame/praise/ignore me as you see fit for that one.
Sep 15, 2018 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
It’s a big topic that I will now try to unpack in a series of Tweets. t.co/1TRQh19OTk 3.5 and 4 were very much driven by an anxiety about controlling the experience of the game, leaving as little as possible to chance. They aimed for consistency of play from campaign to campaign, and table to table.
Sep 10, 2018 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
The only question in game design that really matters is, “Why does a player care about this?” Yet, it’s something I rarely see designers bring up. Most RPGs never answer it. D&D 5 aims to make you care about your character as something that is your personal creation, and the ties between your creation and everyone else’s (DM or player).
Aug 3, 2018 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
My earlier tweet about language and spoken bandwidth is prompted by some thinking I have been doing about dungeon design. I'm using this image as an example. Let's assume the party is standing at point M with a torch. Image As a DM, you have to describe both the room and the hallways depicted. That includes the location of four doors and three corners. That's a fair amount of info to juggle. How much of that can the players actually process?
Aug 2, 2018 • 25 tweets • 5 min read
I'm developing a new style of DMing for myself, riffing off my earlier tweets about railroading. It boils down to this - in a game of D&D, the DM provides the foundation of energy and action for the session, but NOT the direction. I'll explain using combat as an example. I've been putting a lot of work into my combat management and presentation over the last few months, especially as streaming is something I do more of and, honestly, really love doing. It has made DMing into a true skill you can watch grow. I love that.
Jul 31, 2018 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Railroading has gotten such a bad rap in RPG circles that we forget it is one end on a continuum. The opposite end is aimless drifting, with a DM who sits back and throws no hooks, injects little or no action. I’ve played in these games. They are THE WORST. Too much choice is an empty wasteland. No choice is just the DM talking while the players listen. My experience is that most DMs tend toward railroading when they start, then back away when/if they gain exposure to other styles.