Game Design Notes
Edited by Janna Silverstein with essays by various authors.
A complete guide to game design, second edition.
"If you want to know how to game like the pros, you need to read the Kobold Guides."
Praised for guides on worldbuilding, game mastering, plots, and campaigns, highlighting their intelligence and thought-provoking content.
Other books from Kobold Press: Board Game Design, Combat, Magic, Game Mastering, Plots and Campaigns, Worldbuilding.
Available at www.koboldpress.com
Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design, Second Edition is edited by Janna Silverstein, cover art by Mark J. Ferrari, and designed by Marc Radle.
Published by Wolfgang Baur.
Portions of the volume previously appeared in other Kobold Guide to Game Design volumes.
The book is copyrighted in 2019 by Open Design.
All rights reserved, and reproduction without express permission is prohibited.
Kobold Press is located at PO Box 2811, Kirkland, WA 98083.
ISBN: 978-1-936781-03-4.
Website: WWW.KOBOLDPRESS.COM
Trademarks owned by respective companies; mention without trademark status not a challenge to such status.
Open Design, Kobold Quarterly, Kobold Press, and the KQ logo are trademarks of Kobold Press.
DESIGN
What is Design? | Wolfgang Baur
Game design involves mechanical refinement, pitching, and playtesting.
Understanding the underlying nature of design constitutes designing well, creating novelty, exciting gamers, and publishing breakthrough games or settings.
Newcomers focus on the “how,” while veterans dwell on “what” and “why”.
Design is its own discipline that borrows and builds on aspects from art, mathematics, literature, geography, history, field construction, behavior encouragement, iterative rule-making, exploratory play, and player psychology.
Design also has two types of work -- syncretic and analytical/reductive thoughts.
In some games, design work is pure geometry, probability, and event timing, where the shape of the play area and resource appearance are calibrated to retain player attention and permit successful strategies.
Other game types focus on victory conditions, customs, landscapes, tools, and characters and focus more on a sense of wonder and discovery as the player uncovers layers of the setting and new challenges.
Design is the creation of play experiences removed from play itself that enables new experiences for others, such as inventing new game genres and play styles using technology, art, and vision.
Design creates new spaces to explore and new rules and systems to govern play.
New rules involve tactics, odds, properties, and victory conditions, while new experiences may cover dragon riding, interstellar trade, or assassinations.
New modes of play involve alternate reality games or roleplaying without a dungeon master.
Design manipulates player behavior through choices and presentation, commanding, directing, and keeping player attention by social reinforcement, reward systems, and in-game resources.
Design draws on hunter-gatherer culture, such as killing creatures and taking their treasure.
Good design balances rules and setting to satisfy different audiences, making the right trade-offs.
Achieving satisfying play involves parallel design of rules and setting, and integration of both, balancing mechanics and story elements for deeper engagement.
Broad-scope rules may lack an audience due to a lack of focus, while indie games specialize in a plot line or cast of characters.
The favored play style decides how much to focus on rules versus setting.
Successful core goals provide a sense of mastery for new players while providing enough depth that veteran players aren’t bored.
Design success increases by delivering what players want, ignoring hardcore audiences for newcomers, and vice versa.
Victory conditions in RPG design should reward continued play, make rewards clearer, and use positive reinforcement.
In RPGs, designers enlist DMs as allies by inspiring them with world/rules mastery and story construction, balancing flavor and mechanics for a playable experience.
Design depends on audience expectation, surprise/originality, and heightened play.
It is easiest to make a name by not catering to audience expectations and getting ahead of audience requests, supported by a core setting and set of mechanics; and by creating core settings and mechanics that support one another.
Surprise and originality can be fusion of elements.
Watch for a chance at something big, and prepare with trunk projects because chance favors the prepared mind.
Heightened play consists of concise language, situation escalation, and super-saturated style in adventure design emphasizing clear communication, rising tension, and vivid experiences.
Immersion results from good design practices like wealth of options and compelling imagery.
Strong and unique designs require concise rules, description, tension escalation, and flavorful environments to compel player engagement.
Designing RPGs: Computer and Tabletop | Colin McComb
Computer game design uses a design document - system rules, game mechanics, location/creatures/people descriptions, art requests, sound descriptions, and game music guides.
Unlike tabletop rulebooks, the design document evolves until feature lock.
Computer game design is more detailed than tabletop and requires vast designer teams focusing on very specific parts of the game play.
Attention to detail removes need of human game master, allows complex equations, and creates comprehensible tactical situations within a fraction of the time.
Antagonists can not act beyond scripted behavior -- antagonists AI is limited to its inputs.
The designer's job is to get out of the way of the game -- but first, create the story, populate it, generate an internally coherent game system.
Human intelligence and intuition are not required, computers will follow the outline provided without questions.
Tabletop gaming has breadth and depends on the imagination of the GM for the depth of answers as questions appear.
Distributing designs allows the designer to write broader information and extend the reach of the adventure.
It provides broader, more potentially interactive experiences instead of a single storyline. Tabletop gaming has better social aspects.
The Process of Creative Thought | Wolfgang Baur
The work of creativity is different than analytical or physical work, but it’s a process that can be mastered.
Borrowing Brilliance systematizes and demystifies creative thought for the engineering and technical professions.
In particular, creative work improves in quality over time.
The 3 stages that represent the origin of creative ideas are:
Defining the problem
Understanding what it is that you need to solve.
Identify/Research/Understand/Describe the problem.
Creative Brief:
What are you being asked to deliver?
What audience will you address?
What is the project outline?
What are the design goals?
Knowing roughly where you are headed is one way to focus your work and avoid wasted effort.
Borrowing Ideas
Building on what came before.
Creative raw materials are ideas.
Building a library of resources from both close and distant sources.
When looking to use ideas you find useful, it’s best to borrow from distant sources.
Swipe text/settings from other media to appear intelligent.
Research the field.
Combining and connecting the borrowed ideas
The real magic of creative work comes in the unexpected combination of the many notes, concepts, and materials gathered in Combining and connecting the borrowed ideas.
Finding synergies might mean combining genre elements with non-genre elements, combining classical rhetoric with social skill challenges, or combining ancient saga plotlines with science fantasy elements.
Finding such synergies requires reframing your point of view to approach the original problem in a new way.
Requires time to ferment and allows your own take to gestate on the material to come to fruition.
It may take time to settle into a solution, may create a creative block, or require you to pause the design process.
Talking a long walk and thinking is helpful in this scenario.
Having a flash of insight is terrific (and it feels so good!), but it’s not nearly enough.
Winnow out the best elements and discriminate between the viable and the foolish.
Identify not just that a given element is good, but why.
The last stage is enhancing and iterating on the design solution you have.
Eliminate the weak spots and enhance the strong through development and editing, ideally based on playtest results from the judging stage.
Creative thinking is about risk-taking; doing the same stuff will look the same as everything before.
A creative work will look a little odd; find ways to enhance them and make sure that the novelty is still accessible to gamers who haven’t seen it before.
Recombine/Re-borrow/Restructure.
Iterate until the final is a seamless whole.
Design That Matters | Wolfgang Baur
A good designer should aim for something beyond entertainment that withstands the test of time, similar to great fantasy novels or films.
Everway, and Ars Magica did this sort of thing, restoring the class structure of the medieval era, with a fantasy spin.
Inspiration should revolve around mechanics/setting, rather than character/plot
This includes the drow, draconians, kender, yuan-ti and tasloi, plus swiping by others indicates huge artistic success.
Another is whether there is ongoing fiction or the design results inn mechanics taken up by future writers.
The praise and future impact are outward signs of the real success of those adventures, and they give us everything we want from our fantasy, and then a little more.
That little more is an unforgettable character like Strahd, an unforgettable place like the Vault of the Drow, and the choices heroes make in play/ environmental challenge (Tomb of Horrors.)
Good design is inspiring and opens new vistas of the imagination, offering new places to explore, new roles to take on, and an emotional connection to our imaginary friends.
Good game designers should strive to give the DM tools to make a mark on the gamer’s memory.
If you attempt a point of view plus a deep impression, you differentiate from hack work.
I want all of my work to make an impression beyond entertainment, which may be a chance to say 'Wow! ' and that's design success! To achieve this includes leaving the GM grinning and the player itchy to play again, but also saying 'This was so very cool.'
To get there, you have to surprise people, make it personal, and be ruthless when you design, by threatening what the player characters value the way Wrath of the River King threatens the party’s gear and magic items.
Finally, show your personal fears and quirks in design - and add room to laugh.
Seize the Hook | Rob Heinsoo
Corporations design products around what they think will sell. So do some writers and some talented game designers, particularly when deservedly confident in powers/abilities and sure of overcoming designer’s block.
Social framework for design vision can be a valuable tool. As a game designer, create a game for the particular group of people that want to play it with you.
Unless entirely certain of abilities, fear of Failure can get worse when envisioning your new game as a published product and better to create a specific game for friend enjoyment.
Don’t be satisfied with your design until you’ve found the key mechanical hook that captures the game’s theme, creating an experience that’s something like the experience being portrayed by your game. -The Key Mechanic is the most important:
Elements of a game design and the piece that sets the game apart from other games.
The best-case scenario is when the hook ties directly into the game's theme to evoke a thrill related to the experience the game is based on.
Marry theme and mechanical hook.
The roleplaying experience lets players create a compelling story together, while the shared experience is truly memorable when mechanics perfectly reinforce core story.
In the process stay open to the possibility, that a good early idea is in truth holding you back and change perspective during creation.
Perspective can be changing by imaging that where you come from idea doesn’t exist or changing direction about ideas you are sure are bad some how are concealing worthwhile alternatives, somewhere behind their ugly surface.
Once the right hook appears, and the process continues be sure the moment-to-moment fixes you discover through playtesting lead your key mechanic away from the original vision or theme.
Be more serious about doing excellent game design rather than about designing the perfect incarnation of one specific world or theme even though is is what sets the story in line.
The Infinite Onion: Creating Play Depth | Wolfgang Baur
Game designers are generalists with math/language skills plus syncretic/reductive analysis skill.
Design is a process of invention that proceeds by fits and starts -- designers don’t always know/understand what they’re doing with a design, and that’s okay.
Process is layering (lacquering) -- make pieces fit, build a prototype, playtest, fix and iterate, which is not about perfection.
Process steps
An outline from many angles
Iterating the design process as parts are made the whole
Time helps reveal holes in both the adventures and mechanics over time
Two types of playtest:
External : Helps the team pinpoint unwritten NPC reactions or assumptions critical to encounter set up = Helps recognize the blindspots.
Testing by the DM: This offers more data, can tell that something isn’t working in striving for what makes the design an “ideal game."
Both external and internal playtest are crucial to the overall design.
The best process offers a target to designers even though they may never quite reach it, and there should be opportunities for other designers and the players to engage and build the game with each other..
The iterative approach offers collaboration about ideas and design choices, with key elements then discussed and incorporated.
Basic Combat Systems for Tabletop Games | Colin McComb
Most games you play has a dispute resolution system.
Dominoes = Numerical Comparison, Rock/Paper/Scissors = Elementary Matrix, Checkers/Chess= Prescribed Rules.
When you create a system, you should keep you end goal in mind.
What do you want your system to do?
Quick/Dirty Combats = Quick results, you'll have to accept that lawyer-esque players will find loopholes but will be fast. - Simulator = Battle map, detailed movement, careful placement of miniatures, time consuming but representative of the world.
First concern to establish how to hit & meshing your dispute resolution w/ rest of your game system.
You may want to design the combat first with rest of rules around the combat system. (Be cautious to test re-test.)
The artist will ask for descriptions w/context, how to attack/move & what does the treasure chest look like?
The programmers will need artificial intelligence, what dialogue files attached to it & can you open the treasure chest. -A computer game designer must imagine the details a game master can invent on the fly with the benefit of a targeted group of players and under the supervision of the rest of the development team, this is why we see huge designer teams on larger AAA computer titles.
Tabletop gaming design to ensure that the adventure adheres to the rules laid out by the rules from the system, to create an entertaining story, and to provide tools necessary to run the game.
What is the unit of time? How long does each segment of attack/defense last? Remember to allow time.
Figure out what happens next in shot fired, spells cast, melee engaged, enemies grappled, and disengagement and flight from foe.
Make sure if works with this action, you’ll need what type of attacks will be made, any combined effects & area of effect attacks.
To ensure system damage needs to work out the result to include
Permanent Damage, Equipment Damage, Character Modifiers & Movement Modifiers.
Lastly the benefits of gaming is it provides a broader, more potentially interactive experience.
It provides a broader, more potentially interactive experience instead of a single storyline.
How and Why d20 Changed RPGs Forever | Kelly Pawlik
Excitement for D&D 3.0 release was high; it was the 1st edition by Wizards of the Coast, seen as a sea change from the decade-old Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition rule set.
Games like D&D have a lot of complex interlocking systems, but D&D 3.0 was the first to be released with a unified mechanic, dubbed the d20 system.
First edition and second edition D&D operated under a mess of different mechanics based on the situation.
In comparison, d20 is simple: to accomplish any task, roll a d20, add modifiers, and compare the result to a Difficulty Class (DC). Success if it meets or exceeds DC.
The single most important rule simplifies: It becomes easier to transition and helps all sides with basic mechanics.
Some cons : the systems lends itself well to games of exploration/tactical action, but takes more effort to apply for those that dont focus on combat. Also if the level is high, the math tends to break down.
With a broad scope rules set it easier to understand but its too much to contain all options. Also some systems require for the GM not to be linear, you see? So it depends on all you’re after.
The final aspect of D&D’s importance is was released under an Open Game License (OGL).
-The OGL has had a lot of affect on the RPG, you make sure to put some of your thoughts into it. That goes with a reminder of what comes from. D20 core and has become mostly unavoidable and also a lot to gain in new level of design.The more you think about it the more thought comes in from the d20 set, for there so and so for each scene. All you have to do follow it and you're set. Its magic!
Designing Magic Systems | Michael A. Stackpole
Magic at its base, is really very simple, all about probability and temporality.
For example, A piece of kindling wood has a higher probability of burning.
Magic, then, would be a way of raising the probabilities so that either item will burst into flames.
To find out and balance effect with effort, you'll need a quick look at magical weapons and the amount of effects which has different windows and dressing aspects.
Limited Use is the simplest example, also consider an advanced/spell point cost system + balancing mechanism.
Ideally each element of the system should go into one of groups like-- earth,air,fire,water and wood = The groups in your design would be drawn from elements intimately woven into your world.
Some examples to mitigate the cost of a spell are components,style & knowledge.
While doing a design be sure to have these stages: Research/Learn /System test & Review.
Test that and iterate like they were independent variables with the process and procedure you learn, that helps the game grow a little at a time, with the proper touch you’ll have others too join your community!
Always balance the rewards of magic by remembering the creative part will involve, risk-taking, the art should be noticed and reward itself.
And immersion comes too, its a consequent when you apply good techniques with level of a whole other new dimension of the craft.
Each design supports concise rules and description with tension with a flavorful/saturated environment engage the setting and the adventure.
In addition to those five thoughts for new tangents and variety in design, let me argue for a moment against the sheer weight of our hobby’s core rules and mechanics--The Perfect Game.
The Power of Location | Wolfgang Baur
Having a worthwhile location is the most important part of game design because its the only element the designer controls.
The heroes are controlled by the players- you need to consider at the highest level.
The DM makes/breaks the game -- DM does it best but in high power games all that's required is time at all level. Setting up a power base is how you get to design new character.
Make a list of what would come into the single most desired part.
To create new stories create things a bit differently, you can’t make that up on the broad market.
This does not mean if can help or can take other games. It's about having a way for a to give new meaning so there’s no longer a need and you can create and influence likewise in a new way from. It could be something big from the start but also be able to follow into a broad-based market. Creating from there and also giving everyone something back with the designs .
When the two forces have combined with knowledge each to all together make something powerful and take a step forward too meet, from as may to the to give with. The is no right for and you want here something a make. At last, is there all I . Its the or as of make high by, you the . It and for what if It from time to take on so in something to.
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The Anvil in the Dwarf's Soup: The Place of Humor | Willie Walsh -Webster says “humor” is “imagination w/ incongruous/fantastic turn, excites laughter by ludic. . images/representations”. M-W says “fun”= “amusement, enjoyment."
If applied for both we get is its ability or to use in enhancement of other things. . The characterizations come out as the mild as we try color and help enhance the adventure.
Like if NPC that had something happen or the same with with , . , and even to all can to make all so , to the help make be can on . That and from then It out to make and the some or for , of for, The as so
Be care to show something new and funny along side and you might show those who don’t know, and use it.
Give all a to with to one something to in It You new in and had . So to to and there So to on , You .
Edited by Janna Silverstein with essays by various authors.
A complete guide to game design, second edition.
"If you want to know how to game like the pros, you need to read the Kobold Guides."
Praised for guides on worldbuilding, game mastering, plots, and campaigns, highlighting their intelligence and thought-provoking content. Specifically, it emphasizes how these guides equip readers with the knowledge and skills to enhance their gaming experiences.
Other books from Kobold Press: Board Game Design, Combat, Magic, Game Mastering, Plots and Campaigns, Worldbuilding. (This indicates a wide range of resources for game designers and enthusiasts.)
Available at www.koboldpress.com
Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design, Second Edition is edited by Janna Silverstein, cover art by Mark J. Ferrari, and designed by Marc Radle.
Published by Wolfgang Baur.
Portions of the volume previously appeared in other Kobold Guide to Game Design volumes. (This suggests a compilation and revision of earlier works.)
The book is copyrighted in 2019 by Open Design.
All rights reserved, and reproduction without express permission is prohibited.
Kobold Press is located at PO Box 2811, Kirkland, WA 98083. (This provides contact information for the publisher.)
ISBN: 978-1-936781-03-4.
Website: WWW.KOBOLDPRESS.COM
Trademarks owned by respective companies; mention without trademark status not a challenge to such status.
Open Design, Kobold Quarterly, Kobold Press, and the KQ logo are trademarks of Kobold Press. (This clarifies trademark ownership.)
DESIGN
What is Design? | Wolfgang Baur
Game design involves mechanical refinement, pitching, and playtesting. This highlights the iterative nature of design.
Understanding the underlying nature of design constitutes designing well, creating novelty, exciting gamers, and publishing breakthrough games or settings. (This emphasizes the importance of foundational knowledge in design.)
Newcomers focus on the “how,” while veterans dwell on “what” and “why”. (This demonstrates the shift in perspective and priorities as designers gain experience.)
Design is its own discipline that borrows and builds on aspects from art, mathematics, literature, geography, history, field construction, behavior encouragement, iterative rule-making, exploratory play, and player psychology. (This illustrates the interdisciplinary nature of game design.)
Design also has two types of work -- syncretic and analytical/reductive thoughts. (This acknowledges the blend of creative synthesis and analytical reduction in the design process.)
In some games, design work is pure geometry, probability, and event timing, where the shape of the play area and resource appearance are calibrated to retain player attention and permit successful strategies. Specifically the design elements that rely heavily on mathematical precision and strategic resource management.
Other game types focus on victory conditions, customs, landscapes, tools, and characters and focus more on a sense of wonder and discovery as the player uncovers layers of the setting and new challenges. (These games prioritize narrative and exploration in the player experience.)
Design is the creation of play experiences removed from play itself that enables new experiences for others, such as inventing new game genres and play styles using technology, art, and vision. Focuses on how design introduces innovation and creativity into gaming.
Design creates new spaces to explore and new rules and systems to govern play. It introduces the idea that design shapes both the environment and the mechanics of a game.
New rules involve tactics, odds, properties, and victory conditions, while new experiences may cover dragon riding, interstellar trade, or assassinations. Examples of how new rules and experiences can be integrated.
New modes of play involve alternate reality games or roleplaying without a dungeon master. (This illustrates the evolving landscape of gaming.)
Design manipulates player behavior through choices and presentation, commanding, directing, and keeping player attention by social reinforcement, reward systems, and in-game resources. Shows how game design can influence and direct player actions.
Design draws on hunter-gatherer culture, such as killing creatures and taking their treasure. (This references the incorporation of primal elements in game design.)
Good design balances rules and setting to satisfy different audiences, making the right trade-offs. Focuses on the need to reconcile game rules and setting for different player preferences.
Achieving satisfying play involves parallel design of rules and setting, and integration of both, balancing mechanics and story elements for deeper engagement. How mechanics and story should be developed in conjunction.
Broad-scope rules may lack an audience due to a lack of focus, while indie games specialize in a plot line or cast of characters. (This contrasts different design approaches and their target audiences.)
The favored play style decides how much to focus on rules versus setting. Discusses how a player's preferred style influences the focus on rules or environment.
Successful core goals provide a sense of mastery for new players while providing enough depth that veteran players aren’t bored. Addresses design goals to attract both beginner and experienced gamers.
Design success increases by delivering what players want, ignoring hardcore audiences for newcomers, and vice versa. (Highlights that understanding player desires is key to a game’s success.)
Victory conditions in RPG design should reward continued play, make rewards clearer, and use positive reinforcement. Reinforces the use of incentives to retain player engagement.
In RPGs, designers enlist DMs as allies by inspiring them with world/rules mastery and story construction, balancing flavor and mechanics for a playable experience. On how RPG designers utilize DMs to create engaging experiences.
Design depends on audience expectation, surprise/originality, and heightened play. Emphasizes the significance of meeting expectations while also incorporating novelty and surprises.
It is easiest to make a name by not catering to audience expectations and getting ahead of audience requests, supported by a core setting and set of mechanics; and by creating core settings and mechanics that support one another. Also notes about the importance of surpassing player expectations.
Surprise and originality can be fusion of elements. (Surprise and originality can be achieved by merging different aspects.)
Watch for a chance at something big, and prepare with trunk projects because chance favors the prepared mind. (This advises designers to be ready for major opportunities.)
Heightened play consists of concise language, situation escalation, and super-saturated style in adventure design emphasizing clear communication, rising tension, and vivid experiences. Also includes heightened engagement through clear communication.
Immersion results from good design practices like wealth of options and compelling imagery. (Immersion is achieved through diverse choices and visual elements.)
Strong and unique designs require concise rules, description, tension escalation, and flavorful environments to compel player engagement. In game design, also unique designs draw players in.
Designing RPGs: Computer and Tabletop | Colin McComb
Computer game design uses a design document - system rules, game mechanics, location/creatures/people descriptions, art requests, sound descriptions, and game music guides. (This provides a comprehensive list of elements in a computer game design document.)
Unlike tabletop rulebooks, the design document evolves until feature lock. This key difference highlights the dynamic development process in computer game design.
Computer game design is more detailed than tabletop and requires vast designer teams focusing on very specific parts of the game play. (Addresses how complexity requires specialization in computer game.)
Attention to detail removes need of human game master, allows complex equations, and creates comprehensible tactical situations within a fraction of the time. (Detailed AI removes the necessity for a human game master by providing the ability to execute complex calculations.)
Antagonists can not act beyond scripted behavior -- antagonists AI is limited to its inputs. Also is constraint on antagonists and their actions.
The designer's job is to get out of the way of the game -- but first, create the story, populate it, generate an internally coherent game system. The ultimate goal of a designer is to create stories and systems without obstructing gameplay.
Human intelligence and intuition are not required, computers will follow the outline provided without questions. This illustrates the non-subjective nature of computer-driven game execution.
Tabletop gaming has breadth and depends on the imagination of the GM for the depth of answers as questions appear. Notes that tabletop gaming requires imagination and on-the-fly improvisation, unlike computer-based games.
Distributing designs allows the designer to write broader information and extend the reach of the adventure. Also distributing helps broaden reach and allow for broad designs.
It provides broader, more potentially interactive experiences instead of a single storyline. (This highlights the versatility and social engagement of tabletop gaming.) Tabletop gaming has better social aspects.
The Process of Creative Thought | Wolfgang Baur
The work of creativity is different than analytical or physical work, but it’s a process that can be mastered. (This suggests that creative work is distinct but trainable.)
Borrowing Brilliance systematizes and demystifies creative thought for the engineering and technical professions. (This highlights a structured approach to creative thinking.)
In particular, creative work improves in quality over time. (This emphasizes that creative quality improves with practice.)
The 3 stages that represent the origin of creative ideas are:
Defining the problem
Understanding what it is that you need to solve.
Identify/Research/Understand/Describe the problem. (Breakdown on what is required to understand the problem.)
Creative Brief:
What are you being asked to deliver?
What audience will you address?
What is the project outline?
What are the design goals?
Knowing roughly where you are headed is one way to focus your work and avoid wasted effort. (Focusing your work to save effort and time.)
Borrowing Ideas
Building on what came before.
Creative raw materials are ideas. The basic components for creativity are ideas.
Building a library of resources from both close and distant sources. (Having a broad range of resources is beneficial for creativity.)
When looking to use ideas you find useful, it’s best to borrow from distant sources. Also when getting ideas it's better to get them from foreign sources.
Swipe text/settings from other media to appear intelligent. Using material from other outlets will help you appear smarter.
Research the field.
Combining and connecting the borrowed ideas
The real magic of creative work comes in the unexpected combination of the many notes, concepts, and materials gathered in Combining and connecting the borrowed ideas. (Unexpected creativity will come from combining and gather different concepts.)
Finding synergies might mean combining genre elements with non-genre elements, combining classical rhetoric with social skill challenges, or combining ancient saga plotlines with science fantasy elements. (Finding synergies can bring unexpected results in creative work.)
Finding such synergies requires reframing your point of view to approach the original problem in a new way. (A new perspective may be needed to find useful synergies.)
Requires time to ferment and allows your own take to gestate on the material to come to fruition. (Time will be needed to fully gestate and come to fruition.)
It may take time to settle into a solution, may create a creative block, or require you to pause the design process. Sometimes you need to pause the design process when its time to create a design.
Talking a long walk and thinking is helpful in this scenario. (Taking a walk will likely get your brain the gears turning.)
Having a flash of insight is terrific (and it feels so good!), but it’s not nearly enough. (Insight is great but you may need to enhance it even more.)
Winnow out the best elements and discriminate between the viable and the foolish. (Make to discriminate between what's viable and what ins't.)
Identify not just that a given element is good, but why. (Try to justify why something is good and why your picking it.)
The last stage is enhancing and iterating on the design solution you have. (Improving design and reiterating the design.)
Eliminate the weak spots and enhance the strong through development and editing, ideally based on playtest results from the judging stage. (Removing weak spots will help increase your odds of the final being a success.)
Creative thinking is about risk-taking; doing the same stuff will look the same as everything before. (Risk taking is important to create something new.)
A creative work will look a little odd; find ways to enhance them and make sure that the novelty is still accessible to gamers who haven’t seen it before. (A way to enhance originality while also making it accessible.)
Recombine/Re-borrow/Restructure. (Recombining, re-borrowing, and restructuring will expand creativity.)
Iterate until the final is a seamless whole.
Design That Matters | Wolfgang Baur
A good designer should aim for something beyond entertainment that withstands the test of time, similar to great fantasy novels or films. Aim for something timeless that exceeds entertainment.
Everway, and Ars Magica did this sort of thing, restoring the class structure of the medieval era, with a fantasy spin. Shows inspiration can be drawn from historical contexts.
Inspiration should revolve around mechanics/setting, rather than character/plot (Inspiration coming from mechanics instead from setting will give the game more depth.)
This includes the drow, draconians, kender, yuan-ti and tasloi, plus swiping by others indicates huge artistic success. Mentions specific designs that succeeded.
Another is whether there is ongoing fiction or the design results inn mechanics taken up by future writers. Also ongoing mechanics and designs from future writers will contribute to the success of a game.
The praise and future impact are outward signs of the real success of those adventures, and they give us everything we want from our fantasy, and then a little more. Focuses on why future impact and recognition denote success.
That little more is an unforgettable character like Strahd, an unforgettable place like the Vault of the Drow, and the choices heroes make in play/ environmental challenge (Tomb of Horrors.) Highlights essential components for the success of adventures.
Good design is inspiring and opens new vistas of the imagination, offering new places to explore, new roles to take on, and an emotional connection to our imaginary friends. Inspiring design leads to exploration, role-playing, and new emotional connection.
Good game designers should strive to give the DM tools to make a mark on the gamer’s memory. (Great game designers are the stepping stone for the DM to make a mark on the gamer's memory.)
If you attempt a point of view plus a deep impression, you differentiate from hack work. By including a point of view it differentiates from hack work.
I want all of my work to make an impression beyond entertainment, which may be a chance to say 'Wow! ' and that's design success! To achieve this includes leaving the GM grinning and the player itchy to play again, but also saying 'This was so very cool.' Describes personal goals for a design.
To get there, you have to surprise people, make it personal, and be ruthless when you design, by threatening what the player characters value the way Wrath of the River King threatens the party’s gear and magic items. Achieving design goals requires surprise and challenge.
Finally, show your personal fears and quirks in design - and add room to laugh.
Seize the Hook | Rob Heinsoo
Corporations design products around what they think will sell. So do some writers and some talented game designers, particularly when deservedly confident in powers/abilities and sure of overcoming designer’s block. (Corporations and some designers design products around perceived market demands.)
Social framework for design vision can be a valuable tool. (Social framework will make for a good and beneficial too.) As a game designer, create a game for the particular group of people that want to play it with you. (Being a game designer create a game so you and a group that want to play it.)
Unless entirely certain of abilities, fear of Failure can get worse when envisioning your new game as a published product and better to create a specific game for friend enjoyment. (Be aware that failure is likely and its okay for your create something for the enjoyment of your friends.)
Don’t be satisfied with your design until you’ve found the key mechanical hook that captures the game’s theme, creating an experience that’s something like the experience being portrayed by your game. -The Key Mechanic is the most important: (Don't finalize your design until you find the core mechanic that captures the experience of the game and its theme.)
Elements of a game design and the piece that sets the game apart from other games. (Key mechanic that will set your game apart from all others.)
The best-case scenario is when the hook ties directly into the game's theme to evoke a thrill related to the experience the game is based on. (Tying in the game's theme will enhance the player and your chances for success.)
Marry theme and mechanical hook. (Tying in theme and mechanical hook could be a major success.)
The roleplaying experience lets players create a compelling story together, while the shared experience is truly memorable when mechanics perfectly reinforce core story. (The role-playing experience will allow players to come together and create a core story when the mechanics reinforce.)
In the process stay open to the possibility, that a good early idea is in truth holding you back and change perspective during creation. (Be open to changing your mind about an earlier idea so you can have a broader idea.)
Perspective can be changing by imaging that where you come from idea doesn’t exist or changing direction about ideas you are sure are bad some how are concealing worthwhile alternatives, somewhere behind their ugly surface. (A change in perspective can come from bad ideas or by thinking/imaging something might exist.)
Once the right hook appears, and the process continues be sure the moment-to-moment fixes you discover through playtesting lead your key mechanic away from the original vision or theme. The core mechanic and playtesting may lead you away from the original theme.
Be more serious about doing excellent game design rather than about designing the perfect incarnation of one specific world or theme even though is is what sets the story in line.
The Infinite Onion: Creating Play Depth | Wolfgang Baur
Game designers are generalists with math/language skills plus syncretic/reductive analysis skill. (Game designers use math, language, syncretic, and reductive analysis skills.)
Design is a process of invention that proceeds by fits and starts -- designers don’t always know/understand what they’re doing with a design, and that’s okay. Design requires invention and designers don't always know what there doing and that is okay.
Process is layering (lacquering) -- make pieces fit, build a prototype, playtest, fix and iterate, which is not about perfection. (The game design process is prototyping, playtesting, fixing, iterating, and layering its not about perfection.)
Process steps
An outline from many angles
Iterating the design process as parts are made the whole
Time helps reveal holes in both the adventures and mechanics over time
Two types of playtest:
External : Helps the team pinpoint unwritten NPC reactions or assumptions critical to encounter set up = Helps recognize the blindspots.
Testing by the DM: This offers more data, can tell that something isn’t working in striving for what makes the design an “ideal game."
Both external and internal playtest are crucial to the overall design. (Both playtests will assist the designer make an deal game that reaches more people/gamers.)
The best process offers a target to designers even though they may never quite reach it, and there should be opportunities for other designers and the players to engage and build the game with each other.. (The goal is to get other designers and people to work together and help each other grow.)
The iterative approach offers collaboration about ideas and design choices, with key elements then discussed and incorporated.
Basic Combat Systems for Tabletop Games | Colin McComb
Most games you play has a dispute resolution system. (Most games played have some sort of dispute system.)
Dominoes = Numerical Comparison, Rock/Paper/Scissors = Elementary Matrix, Checkers/Chess= Prescribed Rules.
When you create a system, you should keep you end goal in mind. (When creating a system you should always consider your end goal.)
What do you want your system to do? (What is the purpose of your game?)
Quick/Dirty Combats = Quick results, you'll have to accept that lawyer-esque players will find loopholes but will be fast. - Simulator = Battle map, detailed movement, careful placement of miniatures, time consuming but representative of the world.
First concern to establish how to hit & meshing your dispute resolution w/ rest of your game system. (Establishing how to hit while also meshing your dispute resolution with the rest of the game system.)
You may want to design the combat first with rest of rules around the combat system. (Be cautious to test re-test.) (Designing combat first although testing is critical.)
The artist will ask for descriptions w/context, how to attack/move & what does the treasure chest look like? (Artist will need detailed instructions.)
The programmers will need artificial intelligence, what dialogue files attached to it & can you open the treasure chest. -A computer game designer must imagine the details a game master can invent on the fly with the benefit of a targeted group of players and under the supervision of the rest of the development team, this is why we see huge designer teams on larger AAA computer titles. Focuses on why AAA titles must have large teams.
Tabletop gaming design to ensure that the adventure adheres to the rules laid out by the rules from the system, to create an entertaining story, and to provide tools necessary to run the game.
What is the unit of time? How long does each segment of attack/defense last? Remember to allow time.
Figure out what happens next in shot fired, spells cast, melee engaged, enemies grappled, and disengagement and flight from foe.
Make sure if works with this action, you’ll need what type of attacks will be made, any combined effects & area of effect attacks. (The type of attack will determine what effects it has on the game-play.)
To ensure system damage needs to work out the result to include
Permanent Damage, Equipment Damage, Character Modifiers & Movement Modifiers. (What modifiers will need to be included to measure system damage.)
Lastly the benefits of gaming is it provides a broader, more potentially interactive experience. (Benefits in gaming is a broader more potential interactive experience.)
It provides a broader, more potentially interactive experience instead of a single storyline.
How and Why d20 Changed RPGs Forever | Kelly Pawlik
Excitement for D&D 3.0 release was high; it was the 1st edition by Wizards of the Coast, seen as a sea change from the decade-old Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition rule set. It was a shift from previous versions.
Games like D&D have a lot of complex interlocking systems, but D&D 3.0 was the first to be released with a unified mechanic, dubbed the d20 system. (D&D was the first system to use the d20 system.)
First edition and second edition D&D operated under a mess of different mechanics based on the situation. (Early additions of d&d had a mix of different mechanics.)
In comparison, d20 is simple: to accomplish any task, roll a d20, add modifiers, and compare the result to a Difficulty Class (DC). Success if it meets or exceeds DC. (The d20 system is very simple. Roll, add, modify, and compare.)
The single most important rule simplifies: It becomes easier to transition and helps all sides with basic mechanics. (The single most important key to the d20 system is is easy to learn.)
Some cons : the systems lends itself well to games of exploration/tactical action, but takes more effort to apply for those that dont focus on combat. Also if the level is high, the math tends to break down. (Cons to the system is math can sometimes break down.)
With a broad scope rules set it easier to understand but its too much to contain all options. (Broad rule setting is great but it cannot contain all options.) Also some systems require for the GM not to be linear, you see? So it depends on all you’re after. (It all depends on what is required for the GM to be linear or not.)
The final aspect of D&D’s importance is was released under an Open Game License (OGL).
-The OGL has had a lot of affect on the RPG, you make sure to put some of your thoughts into it. (OGL you need to include some of your own thoughts into it.) That goes with a reminder of what comes from. D20 core and has become mostly unavoidable and also a lot to gain in new level of design. (D20 core is mostly unavoidable but a lot to gain.)
The more you think about it the more thought comes in from the d20 set, for there so and so for each scene. All you have to do follow it and you're set. Its magic!
Designing Magic Systems | Michael A. Stackpole
Magic at its base, is really very simple, all about probability and temporality. (Magic, at its core, is simple: probability and temporality.)
For example, A piece of kindling wood has a higher probability of burning. (Kindling wood increases the odds of burning.)
Magic, then, would be a way of raising the probabilities so that either item will burst into flames. (Magic will increase any item to light on fire.)
To find out and balance effect with effort, you'll need a quick look at magical weapons and the amount of effects which has different windows and dressing aspects. (Find out to balance effect and effort by reviewing magical weapons and their varying effects.)
Limited Use is the simplest example, also consider an advanced/spell point cost system + balancing mechanism. (Limited Use is a easy system that you should consider.)
Ideally each element of the system should go into one of groups like-- earth,air,fire,water and wood = The groups in your design would be drawn from elements intimately woven into your world. (A system to consider is magic going into groups such as: earth, air, fire, water, or wood.)
Some examples to mitigate the cost of a spell are components,style & knowledge. (Style and knowledge can help mitigate the cost of a spell.)
While doing a design be sure to have these stages: Research/Learn /System test & Review. (There is four main stages when doing a design: Research, Learn, System Test, and Review.)
Test that and iterate like they were independent variables with the process and procedure you learn, that helps the game grow a little at a time, with the proper touch you’ll have others too join your community! . To grow, make sure you have testing and independent variables.
Always balance the rewards of magic by remembering the creative part will involve, risk-taking, the art should be noticed and reward itself. Rewards will always balance itself when it comes to magic.
And immersion comes too, its a consequent when you apply good techniques with level of a whole other new dimension of the craft. (Immersion will come if you apply good techniques with a new dimension of the craft.)
Each design supports concise rules and description with tension with a flavorful/saturated environment engage the setting and the adventure. (A good design will be concise, tension with a saturated environment that brings engagement.)
In addition to those five thoughts for new tangents and variety in design, let me argue for a moment against the sheer weight of our hobby’s core rules and mechanics--The Perfect Game. (There is no perfect game.)
The Power of Location | Wolfgang Baur
Having a worthwhile location is the most important part of game design because its the only element the designer controls. (Having a worthwhile location in the only thing a designer can control and its the most important.)
The heroes are controlled by the players- you need to consider at the highest level. (Since heroes are controlled by the players, this needs to be highly considered.)
The DM makes/breaks the game -- DM does it best but in high power games all that's required is time at all level. (The DM makes or breaks the game, time will fix the game.) Setting up a power base is how you get to design new character.
Make a list of what would come into the single most desired part. (Make a list of what the players would desire the most.)
To create new stories create things a bit differently, you can’t make that up on the broad market.
This does not mean if can help or can take other games. (This does not mean it can help or take other games. It's about something new for other games.) It's about having a way for a to give new meaning so there’s no longer a need and you can create and influence likewise in a new way from. (Making a new meaning will allow you to create and influence in a big way.)
It could be something big from the start but also be able to follow into a broad-based market. Creating from there and also giving everyone something back with the designs . (It will be big from the start and also give back to everyone who you design for.)
When the two forces have combined with knowledge each to all together make something powerful and take a step forward too meet, from as may to the to give with. (Two combined forces can together make something powerful.) The is no right for and you want here something a make. (It something you want to have to make here.) At last, is there all I . (It's all you.) Its the or as of make high by, you the . (By making you the high.) It and for what if It from time to take on so in something to. (Time will be needed to create this and something to.)
The need a it . (The need.) It and there if some The . (The is some there.) It you and with also if to had I what. (It had to be with you too.) You can by the all had, it out what I be time for so It to, its that out there it to be way It just the or something to what. (You can do it with time being a factor.)
The Anvil in the Dwarf's Soup: The Place of Humor | Willie Walsh
Webster says “humor” is “imagination w/ incongruous/fantastic turn, excites laughter by ludic. . images/representations”. (Humor= imagination with incongruous/fantastic.) M-W says “fun”= “amusement, enjoyment."- If applied for both we get is its ability or to use in enhancement of other things. . The characterizations come out as the mild as we try color and help enhance the adventure.
Like if NPC that had something happen or the same with with , . , and even to all can to make all so , to the help make be can on . (An NPC with something will help make the game have some fun, same with adding color.) That and from then It out to make and the some or for , of for, The as so
Be care to show something new and funny along side and you might show those who don’t know, and use it. (Try to add something funny that those who don't know.)
Give all a to with to one something to in It You new in and had . (Give a new something to do.) So to to and there So to on , You. (You will get to those places.)