Psychopomp is another of the many initial/proto game designs that Justin is musing over and playtesting, and he wanted to make sure it got into the scorching too. I had to think pretty hard about how to go into it, because it fits so strongly into a particular aesthetic and an existing set of variables, that I couldn't see any way to address it "on its own." So I took a risk, setting the whole conversation as a series of comparisons with existing games.
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Consulting
Here's where I post about my current role-playing game design consulting, with the permission of the clients. Sometimes it's a text piece, sometimes it's video or audio. Sometimes it's a discussion, and sometimes it's a playtesting session.
I do not insert my own design, writing, or editing into others' games. I engage with your goals and your aesthetic priorities to help you see your way through the questions or struggles you may have, to provide new information or perspectives, to play a little bit, to listen, and to ask the tough questions. Check out any of the posts and videos to see how it goes, and whether you'd like it.
- If you want to become a client, please click on the "Come into the Lab" link at the top right of the page to contact me for initial discussion.
- If we agree it's a good fit, then the fee is 1000 SEK + VAT (250 SEK) for three sessions.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
03 Mar 2019
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I rarely get the chance to dig right into one of my most favored and preferred role-playing mechanics, the dice pool. Notwithstanding that I have yet to discover a reasonable description of what any such thing is, meaning, in a defining sense, applicable to various versions.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
19 Feb 2019
Games: Origin, Heavy Gear, Pandemonio, Sorcerer, Capes, The Mountain Witch, Reign
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Justin and I shifted over to one of his other designs in progress, Origin, which has a nice values-based resolution idea and lends itself to "but that wouldn't be right" play among superheroes.
Part 1 (embedded below) goes right into my critique of one of his values-axes, i.e. a polarized spectrum, to address the perceived many/few or Trolley question as it applies to superhero stories.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
09 Feb 2019
Games: Origin
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You’ll see a mention in the video as well as in the comments to one of Robbie’s playtesting posts that I am staying a little hands-off with the Weighting Rooms consulting, which may seem like a “but isn’t getting hands-on the point” question.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
30 Jan 2019
Games: Weighting Rooms, Best Friends, The Shab Al-Hiri Roach, InSpectres, Annalise, Zombie Cinema, Kagematsu
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Three of us gathered to play the newest rev
Posted by: robowist
23 Jan 2019
Games: Weighting Rooms, For the Queen
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Weighting Rooms
This has been a great consulting experience. Watch the way Dustin considers what I say about using the overall game/realm conflict as the rating for the power for replacement characters, internalizes it, but then completely makes it his own (and much better) by using the adversary's current "win" score instead.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
17 Dec 2018
Games: Heroic Dark
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Here's another discussion of Quella Volta Che, aimed at the nuts and bolts of "what happens" in play, due to player choices and statements. We couldn't have done this without the previous session which focused so intently on content.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
17 Dec 2018
Games: Quella Volta Che, Spione, Circle of Hands
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Dustin was intrigued by my statements in our first consulting session about character improvement, as well as being suspicious that I would start maundering about relationships as reward enough. I was able to surprise him a little, and the discussion was able to expand quite sensibly into his more general design regarding character death.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
01 Dec 2018
Games: Heroic Dark, Trollbabe, The Shadow of Yesterday, Zero, The Mountain Witch, Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition
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Dustin isn't a naive game designer, having produced Synthicide and generally navigated modern publishing. He asked me how to promote a game which did not fit neatly into "trad or indie," "OSR or story game," or any other dichotomy which people presented to him. Which is a perfect opportunity for me to stomp upon those dichotomies with my hobnailed boots, both for him and as a general PSA.
Posted by: Ron Edwards
24 Nov 2018
3 comments