Tag: game design

February 6, 2010

Monsters as Terrain

Long ago, I wrote about the problems of fighting big monsters. Part of this came from watching my housemate at the time play through Shadow of the Colossus. In that game, you have to climb giant monsters in order to attack them at their (few) vulnerable points. D&D, with its recent emphasis on a two-dimensional grid, has a huge problem...

January 21, 2010

Destined: Too Many Spells?

My working title for my FATE/d20 mashup ruleset is Destined. Why? Obviously because it’s derived from FATE and it has two Ds in it. My current game design conundrum, like my last one, focuses upon the nature of the magic system. I have a few options: A ton of spells of various power levels. This is the D&D option. A...

December 22, 2009

Limits on Magic Use

As I may have mentioned, I’ve been working on a FATE-inspired, d20-informed gaming system. I’m designing it with D&D-style fantasy (loosely speaking) in mind. One of the problems that I’m running up against is that spellcasting is open to abuse. In the system I’m designing, spellcasting is a skill. It effectively gives you the the ability to use rituals and...

October 15, 2009

Using Google Wave for RPGs

I just got my Google Wave invitation today. Is anyone thinking about ways of using it related to gaming? I can think of some possible uses. Using it to run online games is obvious. There is even already a dice-rolly-thing. For people (like me) who prefer to play around a real table, it would still be a great way to...

September 10, 2009

It all comes together

I’ve mentioned that I’ve been mulling the idea of a FATE/d20 hybrid. Today, I had a breakthrough. It was one of those things that seems obvious in retrospect… In FATE combat, you can use a maneuver during an attack. Instead of inflicting stress (damage), a successful maneuver allows you to place a temporary aspect upon your target… or generate an...

June 4, 2009

FATE 20?

I love Fate. I think that it is one of the better RPGs out there. Why? Because of the interplay between Aspects and Fate Points. They give you a tremendous ability to define your character and play the character that you want to play. The rest of the system, though? It’s OK. I don’t love the skill system or the...

May 7, 2009

Great GMing Advice

Sometimes the best GMing advice isn’t directed at GMs. Applied Game Design is a blog about game design in general. It rarely (if ever) focuses on tabletop RPGs. Today’s post, though, provides advice on level docs for a computer RPG. Most of it is spot on for designing tabletop RPG encounters (and dungeons). Read it. It’s worth it.

April 28, 2009

Inspiration: Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory

I just finished reading Daryl Gregory’s first novel, Pandemonium. Pandemonium is a story set in a world much like our own, but for the presence of body-hopping demons that embody archetypes of the collective unconscious and human imagination. The demons usually have fairly restrictive goals, and they possess people (usually people who fit a particular profile) in order to fulfill...

April 11, 2009

Free Online Game Design Class

Interested in learning more about game design? Head over to Game Design Concepts, where Ian Schreiber (who teaches college-level game design) will be offering a free on-line course in non-digital game design. The class will run from late June through early September. There are some costs associated with it if you want to get the full experience – namely a...

December 29, 2008

What I’ve been up to…

Not too much, gaming-wise. I mentioned that I thought Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series would be great for gaming. I’ve been toying with some ideas about it. One of the interesting things about the books is that the main characters essentially change their roles and careers somewhat regularly. This got me thinking about a Warhammer FRP – style system. Of...