Your RPGs should be about somewhere or something, not anywhere or anything.

First, thanks for the game design videos.  This one is particularly timely for me as I was really kind of second guessing myself with my current project and you confirmed that I was on the right track.

Second, make videos as long as the video needs to be.  Dig in as much as you need and then tie a knot in it and let it lay where it is.  Because shorter videos are an easier commitment, they are easier to watch right now whereas your longer videos I sometimes have to set aside until later when I can focus on them longer.  I like both though.

Cute kitty. 

"Our setting, is the known multiverse.  Where do you want to go, and what do you want to do?"; is a bit too broad.

Quote from: Man at Arms on January 18, 2025, 05:06:48 PM"Our setting, is the known multiverse.  Where do you want to go, and what do you want to do?"; is a bit too broad.

Having run a lot of games in homebrew worlds, though, I appreciate having a well-designed core system that can be tailored to the specific setting. This is a built-in part of most generic systems like Savage Worlds, D6, Index Card RPG, and others.

For example, there are a lot of games made for Middle Earth - including ICE's Middle Earth Role-Playing (MERP), Decipher's Lord of the Rings RPG, Free League's The One Ring, and Cubicle 7's Adventures in Middle Earth (AiME).

I've been using Savage Worlds for my Middle Earth games, though, because I didn't like any of those rule sets. I feel like SW is a stronger core rule set, and I can adapt material specific to Middle Earth to it.

On the one hand, generic systems can potentially feel bland - but creating all-new mechanics for each setting can feel gimmicky.

Listened to the video while I was running...oddly enough you mentioned Catan and Axis & Allies, which are the two that I thought of immediately when I saw the title.

I have a bunch of Middle-Earth eurogames, and I like them for the most part, but the original SPI War of the Ring puts them all to shame. Same with all those old AH wargames. The American style feel designed, the eurogames always sort of feel forced to some degree.

I like the short form, though I wouldn't have minded another example or two of how to fit the rules to the setting, or at least a detailed example of how you might fit a specific rule to your setting.  But otherwise, I like this video a lot.

I'm not sure if Memoir '44 is a good example.  It's one of the more abstract iterations of the core Commands and Colors system.  The core system has been adapted to several different eras.  Off the top of my head, I have seen it used for Ancients, Medieval Europe, feudal Japan, American Revolutionary War, Napoleonic Wars, World War I, World War II and generic sci-fi space battles.  They all have their own wrinkles but they all use the same abstract card system with Memoir '44 being the most abstract of the ones I have seen.

Still works though. And the gameplay isn't some random abstract thing, it's a recreation of specific WWII battles.

Quote from: RPGPundit on January 21, 2025, 02:44:14 AMStill works though. And the gameplay isn't some random abstract thing, it's a recreation of specific WWII battles.

I wouldn't say that they recreate these battle in any significant way.   

Quote from: yosemitemike on January 21, 2025, 05:05:25 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit on January 21, 2025, 02:44:14 AMStill works though. And the gameplay isn't some random abstract thing, it's a recreation of specific WWII battles.

I wouldn't say that they recreate these battle in any significant way.   

They make a broad approximation of the forces and the terrain, and sometimes have special rules for individual battles.

I think there are some exceptions to this for sure

If a universal gaming system can accommodate different genres and settings, and can be slightly modified to work with those settings, it can be excellent. It doesn't mean the system takes precedence over the setting, genre, or concept.

Masterbook is a good example, which uses modified rules for Necroscope and Indiana Jones.
The Wretched RPG (I have limited experience with this) seems to accomplish this as well

Quote from: jhkim on January 18, 2025, 06:23:53 PMOn the one hand, generic systems can potentially feel bland - but creating all-new mechanics for each setting can feel gimmicky.

I think a good compromise is making a slightly less generic system that focuses on a particular genre, like zombie apocalypse (All Flesh Must Be Eaten), science fiction (Alternity), or vampire conspiracy thriller (Night's Black Agents), with support for multiple possible settings.

I'm sick of games that limit themselves to a single setting because they inevitably write themselves into corners and become boring and low quality after the first continuous decade of production, assuming they get that far before being cancelled. The de facto monopolistic first mover advantage in the ttrpg industry means their fat asses prevent any other games from being able to establish niches in the same genres.

All the settings I liked or could've liked are either cancelled or have been driven into the ground.

While I generally agree with your conclusions, I want to emphasize that saying, "Euroboardgame" to board game designers typically means games where you don't eliminate other players until the end of the game, and not that the mechanics are designed to do anything.

The problem I have is teaching people to think in terms of mechanics generating flavor. It's very easy to think of mechanics which cover every situation in the universe. It is quite difficult to teach how to create emotional responses with game mechanics, and being blunt, no one ever really masters the idea of generating emotions with mechanics so much as finds specific ways to generate specific emotional responses.

This is why I tend to advise would-be RPG designers to start studying game design with something like video games. There are a lot of video game design discussion channels out there, and you can find video games out there which use mechanics to generate very powerful emotional responses. This does exist in RPGs, but these systems tend to be one-trick ponies. There are so many blandly generic or universalist systems out there that if your gaming experience is predominately tabletop RPGs, you will have a hard time visualizing an emotional response as your true end-goal, and not simply making a core mechanic which does everything, everywhere, all the time.

Quote from: MerrillWeathermay on January 23, 2025, 12:05:40 PMI think there are some exceptions to this for sure

If a universal gaming system can accommodate different genres and settings, and can be slightly modified to work with those settings, it can be excellent. It doesn't mean the system takes precedence over the setting, genre, or concept.

Masterbook is a good example, which uses modified rules for Necroscope and Indiana Jones.
The Wretched RPG (I have limited experience with this) seems to accomplish this as well

Yes. If you have a company the size of SJG or Chaosium, and can produce variants for specific settings and genres, it can work.  Most game designers don't have the resources or the patience to do that. A lot of the ones I'm talking about believe that such a thing "isn't necessary because the game is already perfect".

M'thinks you are mixing up groups here.

Euro board gamers are all about the cereberal. They gravitate to strategy games like chess and utterly despise anything random.

NordicLARPers are closer to your target as they push the idea of little to no rules and everything is about the feelings and "muh immershun!" A game should be anything is what some push. Others push "realism" as an excuse to exclude the undesirables.

EuroRPGers are, least till recently, fairly bog standard roll dice, kill stuff have fun. But like with RPGs theres been some infestation of "nordicLARP" mentality.

So far the worst is still mostly infesting board games and LARPs. BGG is one glaring example and used to be really bad.

And as usual your "uh"ing dies off as you get revved up on a subject.