Welcome to Design Abstract
I’m a designer (professionally in the video game industry, as a hobbyist on TTRPG).
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The full Story
I’m a professional video game developer with a side passion for TTRPG (and Sci-Fi writing, and Photo, and Procgen, and… I have a hard time to focus, but this newsletter might just be the recurring deadline I need.) You can find me on other social media here, although I’m not really active anywhere else, you already are at the right place!
I went through the typical: playing DnD when young (3.5 since you ask) → dark age of my RPG life → Rediscovering this medium and find out it grew into something way more “elegant” (I meant BitD since you ask). This time, however, more than playing them, the center of my interest became the craft. Maybe just to have an infinite puzzle to play with, I started making my own RPG.
Part of that journey is to read many systems, many settings. Gather information from book to blog posts, podcasts or any other sources I can find. I enjoy the process in itself, but I feel I’m getting even more out of it by slowing down to write and reflect about my discoveries, so, why not share them at this point. Hence, the design notes begun.
Bonaventure (my Rpg)
This following section will be a living one, where I update some key features of my RPG as it evolves.
The setting is framed by the game master equivalent called “la Diseuse”
It takes place in our world, 50 years from now
It connects to another world adjacent to the dark fantasy style
The game simulates realistic human behavior embodied by players
The Character creation is the simplest you ever saw
The main strategic aspect comes from resource management
Time is built in the resolution system as one of the main resources
Energy is another that depletes when you take or resist actions
A meta currency enables players to flesh out their character during play
Attributes
Mental - Focus
Charisma (Any social impact, whether it’s to bluff or terrorize)
Intellect (Logic, memory and wisdom)
Perception (Sensory functions and reflexes like quick reaction and empathy)
Physical - Endurance
Dexterity (Hand-eye coordination, using tools with precision)
Mobility (Athletic capabilities and agility)
Constitution (Strength, robustness and balance)
Resolution
You just need a deck of cards for up to 4 players (2 decks for up to 8).
Each player takes 12 cards that represent their aptitude and current state.
There are 2 kinds of energy that compose the deck
Black cards are the ability to Focus (Perception, Resilience, Social skills).
Red cards are the Stamina (Dexterity, Mobility, Robustness).
When players want to do an action, the teller (GM) defines:
The associated energy (Black or Red).
The level of challenge (Normal=1 card, Difficult=2 cards, Extreme=3 cards).
Players can leverage their traits, equipment, … to ease the challenge.
The player can choose how many cards they want to spend from their deck to find at least the required number of cards from the right color.
The action is resolved, and the cards revealed are put on a discard pile.
Whenever the characters are resting, the teller (GM) defines a number of previously revealed cards that can be shuffled back into the deck.
If players don’t have enough cards to do an action, they can shuffle and pick from the discard pile. The cards revealed this way are given away, representing a wound.
A wound takes a long time to heal, and you won’t recover the related cards when you rest.
There are other sources that can generate wounds, if players don’t have enough cards in the discard pile, they pay from their deck instead. If there isn’t enough cards in both, they perish.
Additional consideration
Typed wounds: You can describe wounds as Physical if you give away Red cards, Mental they are Black, or a mix of both.
Flow: The fewer cards you have, the more accurate you can predict the odds, simulating the state of flow and the adrenaline that comes with high tension.
Useful metrics: Since players have 12 cards, and it takes 2 cards for decent chances of success (75%) on a normal test. You can evaluate a high-tension encounter, generating around 6 of them per players.
Flexible Timeline: There is a correlation between rest time and energy that can change the dynamic of the game.
If it takes a long time to rest, you might create a sense that players progressively accumulate the burden of their actions.
If breathing just a moment instantly gives back all cards, it feels like a high-pacing chain of challenges instead.
Easy test: To succeed or resist something simple, the teller can ask players to discard a single card without having to get any specific color.
Group test: The teller can ask a number of cards per players, but let them freely choose how they invest cards as a group to find them. It creates a sense that one character compensate for another.
Devil Bargain: You can lower the challenge level by accepting an undesirable side effect.
