Adept Play
Adept Play
Category: Combat rules
These posts examine the variety of procedures and the variety of meaning or story-operations for violent confrontations.
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Monday Lab: (AA)IIEE 2!
Zac has not retreated from his call that IIEE (intent, initiation, execution, effect) is the “beating heart of the activity,” and Manu – the very soul who prompted this discussion at the Forge fifteen years ago – is still on task. Armed with these stalwarts, we embark upon another Monday Lab to investigate best practices.…
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Dice: the love, the hate, the fear, the need
Prompted by our discussions in the comments across posts here, Lorenzo Colucci brought the relevant mechanics of his game in design, Crescent (working title), for some high-focus work with me. His concern is perfectly clear: if you are playing chess, then there’s a reason why dice aren’t involved, particularly dice rolls whereby a contestant can…
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Dynamic movement and tactical dept in post-D&D4 design.
I’ve started a conversation with Ron in the comments of a Seminary post and he suggested to bring the subject to its own post. A small foreword: Ron suggested I use this chance to talk about a game I’m working on (and as, he correctly points out, I can’t seem to stop talking about it) but…
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Movement and maps
Sometimes people email me with questions. Since I don’t know them, and don’t know the (sometimes) complicated process that led to them deciding to ask, I have to ask dense-seeming questions back in order to know what they’re talking about before I can answer anything, or know if I can answer at all. In this…
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LotFP Dark World Session 1: “Pilot”
Previously: Planets Collide. We played a Dungeon World campaign for 30+ sessions over about two years. We started with nothing but the playbooks, and I used Dungeon BINGO to generate some ideas at the table for the first session. Session after session, we developed a thrilling world and saw the characters repeatedly cheat death, undertake…
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Champion’s Now Beta v0.5 Playtest, Seattle
We’ve played two sessions of the Beta playtest rules. I currently have three players. Only one has any extensive experience with Hero System. I’ve GMed Champions and Hero System, so I have a lot of math chops for the power design. We’ve had an initial character development by email, a face to face session of…
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Design Curriculum 3: Talk/Roll
Justin Nichol and I continue our discussion, or training, regarding game design. This session (in 5 videos) delves into the way we talk / the way we roll. The topic shifts quite logically from whether & when describing things colorfully works, to gaudy and painful consequences of moment-by-moment decision-making. I have never thought the fiction-first/mechanics-first…
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![Monday Lab: [AA]IIEE[EE]!](https://adeptplay.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/beating-heart.jpg)
Monday Lab: [AA]IIEE[EE]!
Intent, Initiation, Execution, Effect – fictional things, probably the single most direct fictional content to be interfaced with real-people speaking and using rules, in the hobby. In a recent dialogue with Zac Porcu, he called it “the beating heart of role-playing.” Briefly: design zone 1 is to establish a linear order and then to carry…
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Champions Now: Strength, Blocks, Martial Blocks
A question on Strength and Blocks (or Martial Blocks) What is the minimum a character’s Strength have to be to perform a Block or Martial Block? Specifically, how low can a character drop his or her Strength and still block an attack? This is a tactical issue in terms of Endurance use. For example, a…