Gaming Theory – Split Horizons

TTRPG Map - The Duchy of the Mists - My Homebrew Setting

How Big is the World?

Published by MichelV69 on January 11, 2021

Post Views: 628 Hi, am after a little help from #DungeonMasters. Looking to run an online game for friends during lockdown and wondered how many of you created your own world, and how deep did you go creating it? #ttrpg #DnD #dungeonsanddragons #RPG #DnD5e @Chinn3rsTV on Twitter That is an excellent question, and it comes up often from new GMs watching my live-stream. The short answer for Twitter is cruxxed around a primary question; what is the fastest that power and news can move? The speed of military power and regional news is what restricts the speed of decision making and governance. In a very broad sense, everything else exists within that framework. If you put a map of Europe & the USA side by side, you’re going…

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Thoughts Against Gas-Pedal Pacing in TTRPGs

Published by MichelV69 on March 3, 2020

Post Views: 1,533 “It is a fast [plot]? // It’s fast enough for you, old man.” “Pacing” is one of those nebulous issues in story-telling. Generally, it refers to how fast a story progresses through the arc of events of the plot. In an era of non-stop-action movies, it’s easy as a GM to feel that things need be a rolling boil at all times in our Table-Top Role-Playing Games (TTRPGs). I personally think that’s a mistake. “Just Write” on YouTube does an interesting talk-about “Rise of Skywalker” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD5mLw0A8vI) . One of the remarks he makes is that the director’s trademark style is to push the plot ahead at a frenetic pace by virtue of exposition sequences that drive action sequences. There are no scenes as a common…

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Failing to Meta-Game Causes Problems

Published by MichelV69 on February 25, 2020

Post Views: 689 Wait, what? Isn’t “meta-gaming” bad? Not usually. Firstly, we need to pin down what I mean by “meta-gaming”. The way I see it commonly used, it means “cheating”. But cheating doesn’t mean meta-gaming. Meta (from the Greek meta- μετά- meaning “after” or “beyond”) is a prefix meaning more comprehensive or transcending — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta So, “meta-gaming” then, is “actions or knowledge which are more comprehensive or transcend the game space“. It’s on that second qualifier, that I want to focus. Transcend (verb) “to rise above or go beyond the limits of” — https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transcend Imagine what you might know if your full time job involved climbing a hill twice a day, hunting for glowing mushrooms of energy that, under the right conditions, cured a nasty and fatal…

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What’s To Be Done About TTRPG “Murder Hobos”?

Published by MichelV69 on February 18, 2020

Post Views: 644 One of those questions I see go by on Twitter from time to time is a new Game Master (GM) asking for help in reining in their players whose characters are operating under the “Murder Hobo” trope. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, no, I don’t mean https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo_with_a_Shotgun . Essentially, the reference comes from the fact that most Adventuring Groups / Teams, irrespective of genre / game system, are constantly on the move. If they use that rootlessness to be a “why not” rationale for killing random bystanders, or anyone who annoys the group, or the merchant that wants to haggle, etc … that’s being a “Murder Hobo”. Firstly, this is a problem at the meta-game level. I’ll talk more in detail about…

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When Sub-Optimal Is Better in TTRPGs

Published by MichelV69 on February 12, 2020

Post Views: 2,280 For those of you who haven’t heard “Due Respite Media” (https://durespite.com/) have started a Table-Top Role-Playing Game (TTRPG) focuses VODcast / Talk-show that runs every Monday night, 9pm Mountain time. It’s titled “Story Teller’s Studio” and you can catch it live at https://www.twitch.tv/duerespite or the next morning on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIiBBusPG1DoXelX3lIUNLg . The driving force behind Due Respite Media (DRM) is Erik Taylor, who you can catch up with on Twitter as @Shrimpiclese . He’s clearly passionate about TTRPGs and stories, as well as the tight group of awesome people he’s got working with him in his vision for DRM. Thus far, the show has hit episode six. The conversations are consistently smart and thought-provoking. It’s done in a curated-table format, with Erik putting questions…

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Puzzles and Points of Failure

Published by MichelV69 on May 16, 2019

Post Views: 611 How not to stall your game with stuff other than hitting monsters I was asked recently on my Discord server how I handle puzzles in my games. Do I use them, how do I make sure they aren’t too hard, and what do I do if they party gets stumped? A fellow Game Master (GM) dropped the following snark: “You want to put a puzzle for your players to solve? Easy, just look up ‘puzzles for toddlers’ on the Internet, and then spend the evening tearing your hair out as they fail to solve it.” — Annon GM This perception, while funny, is at the heart of why so many GMs do not use puzzles or tricks in their table-top role-playing game (TTRPG) sessions. The…

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D&D5e – Thoughts On Balancing Encounters

Published by MichelV69 on August 24, 2017

Post Views: 828 In a recent video, prominent YouTuber and Dungeon Mastering evangelist Matt Colville (Twitter: @mattcolville) suggested that new Dungeon Masters should likely not use the DnD5e “Challenge Rating”, or CR, system as it was designed. The video is here: https://youtu.be/xANZTijbrw8 I like Matt Colville’s video series, titled “Running the Game“, an awful lot. He has some smart insights. In many cases, he is articulating stuff I have always done, or have had tumbling in the back of my head but do not have words for. In some other cases, though, he says something I Spock-Eye at him about. My take-away from this particular video was that he suggested Dungeon Masters use the “Challenge Rating”, or CR, system as a guideline to find a group of likely monsters to…

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“My Team Sucked” — Denying Good Play In MMOs

Published by MichelV69 on February 17, 2017

Post Views: 1,304 The other evening I was playing one of my favourite MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online game), “World of Warships“. Over the dozen or so matches I played, there were three really outstanding games. Everything on my team went well — good communication, skillful play, good sportsmanship and smart tactics. In all three matches, someone on the other team made a statement like along the lines of VBG. My team sucked. They played about as well as a bunch of potatoes. “VBG” is online short hand for “very bad game“; it’s the polar opposite of the ubiquitous “GG”, or “Good Game“. “GG” is like shaking hands with the other team at the end of a bowling match or a hockey game. It’s being a gracious winner and…

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Category: Gaming Theory