[Delve] Shopping, Romance & Dark Fantasy
Discover how to remove a system to add narrative opportunities. Then, what makes a good NPC appears to also be what makes a good lover. Plenty of good-looking art in-between.
I started using Note and Twitter a bit more. You can check either if you like them, but don’t worry, the newsletter is still the main place where you are certain to see all my content.
Since I shared my resolution system, I integrated some feedback and made a proper layout to submit it to the “remix reuse recycle” Game Jam. You can get my One Deck RPG here, and I’m now working on a scenario to clarify how you can leverage it.
Art Showcase
Let’s turn this page into an art gallery with a curated selection from the TTRPG Art Asset Jam. Illustrations, Icons, Typeface, … there is plenty to discover. I decided to focus on black and white disturbing illustrations. Click any of them to reach the itch.io page of the artist.
Random Table of NPCs
Make love not war… because the passion will surely bring interesting conflict to your stories. This article exposes the value of romance and how to create opportunities the right way.
That being said, the part that really got me hooked is a not even related. It’s about what makes good NPCs:
Really good at some important sub-section of human life: socially adept, physically powerful, learned and intelligent, empathic and emotionally intelligent, rich and well-connected, whatever.
Really bad at some other, and equally important, sub-section of human life: socially clueless, physically frail, ignorant, lacking in self-control, poor and vulnerable, etc.
Also, it finishes with a list of 16 vivid archetypes you can easily integrate to your world.
Narrative Design Article
You have Hooks you are not using!
This article gives insight on how to leverage shopping time as quest opportunities.
It got me thinking on how it affects the typical balance of game economy. The coin is the great converter that transform any player actions → any goodies. Removing it means they can't rely on previous achievements anymore. Your prestige will surely help over time, but every new town can provide the thrilling first call to adventure.
Podcast
“Tabletop talk” is an interview podcast that promotes TTRPGs by asking designers about their creative process. It comes as a light-hearted, slice of life with insights emerging from the conversation.
Regarding the guest, it’s good to hear about a fellow Québécois. I can relate to the difficulty of being especially concise in a language that is not your mother tongue.
Also, I dig the concept of TTRPG balance being about pacing. I’m currently trying to define the optimal number of tests to create the right tension in my system. The designer highlight the potential of programming a simulation to automate part of the playtest. Maybe it’s finally time I get back to JS!
Public Domain Art
This post is definitely of public interest. Let me add on top some additional resources I’m using (Photo, Icons, Textures and more museums!)
While I was writing that, I also stumbled upon this Google Doc that does a good job at listing different resources and providing tips and tricks on how to use them properly.
Video on RNG
For those who have access to the GDC Vault, I recommend this talk on RNG. Hopefully, it will be available on YouTube at some point. Let me share the insights I’ve got from it, in the meantime:
Overall, it is a great synthesis of consideration around randomness.
List of tools to mitigate/control it and make it feels fair:
Aggregate randomness (e.g., Dice Pool)
Player choice (Accepting the risk)
hierarchies of failure (e.g., HP sink before death)
Manipulating die rolls (Additional layer of rules happening after the roll which leads to…)
Output vs. Input randomness (action with random result or random context in which you take action)
Input is better suited to strategize, while Output puts the surprise at a more interesting place
Randomness purpose:
Equalizer against skill difference
Generate surprise, drama
Give a planning horizon, avoid analysis paralysis and relaunch interest
Additional consideration:
Cards are great to generate pseudo-random
Randomness is not the sole ways to avoid perfect planning, a combination of large number of options and time constraints also works.