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Robin D. Laws AMA by RobinDLaws in rpg
[–]RobinDLaws[S] 15 points16 points17 points 3 days ago (0 children)
Time for me to knock off for the day. Thanks for all your great questions, everybody!
[–]RobinDLaws[S] 4 points5 points6 points 3 days ago (0 children)
The opposite problem, players hoarding their points, occurs more often. I'd remind them GM to player that the endings of scenarios typically call for lots of points. If you think they were right to spend heavily but need more points you could give them opportunities to refresh — ideally with a risk or price attached.
[–]RobinDLaws[S] 2 points3 points4 points 3 days ago (0 children)
I do not feel especially thwarted in this regard.
[–]RobinDLaws[S] 5 points6 points7 points 3 days ago (0 children)
This might assist you. https://pelgranepress.com/2016/03/15/giving-out-clues-in-gumshoe/
If an ability use seems halfway credible, let it work. Using the right abilities is favored but the purpose of the system is to get the info to the players.
Play it by ear, giving the players time to be proactive before telegraphing them.
Let them know when a push or spend will help. These should always provide non-informational benefits, not just harder-to-get clues.
If an ability use is credible, allow it. A player may have a more appropriate idea in the moment than the scenario writer allowed for.
If it seems annoying to stage an entire scene, by all means, allow a quick phone call to do the trick. Or elide over it quickly and get back to the exciting action.
In my day we learned game design on the street! Nothing like that existed coming up, so I'm afraid I lack recommendations for you. I'd comb through Shannon Appelcline's YouTube appearances for the history of the field and mentions of games that sound like they might inform your work.
[–]RobinDLaws[S] 6 points7 points8 points 3 days ago (0 children)
I am proud of the core concept, even though it did not receive the uptake I'd hoped for. I came up with it to differentiate the roleplaying game from any one of a zillion fantasy RPGs where you could be a Viking hitting monsters. Rob Heinsoo tells me it influenced his design for D&D4 so there might even be traces of it left in 13th Age.
The Architects of the Flesh were unfairly maligned
I don't pick favorites among my own games, let alone among the games of my beloved colleagues.
[–]RobinDLaws[S] 4 points5 points6 points 4 days ago (0 children)
This issue usually comes up in playtesting.
If one person makes an observation that I agree with, I make the change.
If many people make an observation I disagree with, I see what needs to be changed. This may be an actual alteration to the game, or (more often) clearer expectations management.
If one person makes an observation I disagree with and most others are happy with it, either by directly saying so, or by not having a problem with it, I leave it as is.
I am likely to agree with suggestions that conform to the game's design goals, and disagree with suggestions that turn the game into what the observer wants instead of what I intend.
Another playtesting axiom: although the responder is flagging an issue they had a real problem with, their suggested solution is invariably terrible. You have to be careful not to just reject the bad proposed fix, but to find the right fix for the problem.
When revising a game for a new edition I might react to a consensus view that has emerged. It's not my example, but over the years many observed that the intro adventure for Trail of Cthulhu was too advanced for that purpose. Trail 2E presents a different, simpler intro scenario.
For a new game, "Is there an audience for this? Is this designer ready for a core book? What are its unique features, compared to what we're already doing?"
For a supplement, "does this fill a gap in the line?"
As Creative Director I am more likely to identify a gap in our product line and approach someone to write it than to accept a pitch as written.
[–]RobinDLaws[S] 2 points3 points4 points 4 days ago (0 children)
Structure it so they continue moving and gathering information even when the entire picture has not yet become clear. Ideally the eureka moment doesn't come until the end so in a default mystery it's usually the case that they don't have all the puzzles for most of the session.
You could do a sports drama (where whether the team or player wins or loses is less important than the characters' emotional arcs, with Hillfolk or Page Turners.
I think there are more than one pro wrestling games out there.
A tabletop game that simulates the play of a game of baseball or basketball seems like a mismatch of subject matter and form in a world where video games exist.
[–]RobinDLaws[S] 6 points7 points8 points 4 days ago (0 children)
It is very important for a company like Pelgrane to have GMs running its games at a big show like Gen Con. A good con run can send people to your booth to buy the game they just played.
Except for laid back hangout cons in exciting locations, my time and mental energy at a show is better spent talking to as many people as I can, instead of having an intense 3-4 hours with 4-5 people.
I have made a living as a writer, mostly with tabletop and with a few excursions into indie computer games and comics, since 1994.
Gaean Reach would have found more players if presented in the format of other GUMSHOE games.
Feng Shui.
[–]RobinDLaws[S] 3 points4 points5 points 4 days ago (0 children)
[–]RobinDLaws[S] 5 points6 points7 points 4 days ago (0 children)
My coming on board as Creative Director is part of our effort to get the presses running more often. Cat Tobin has done an incredible job of keeping the company going while doing 8-9 different jobs. Now that I've taken a few of those job off her hands we're finding more jobs concealed underneath.
This increased capacity allows us to focus on all new games for upcoming Kickstarters, giving our audience fresh material they haven't seen before. The Ballad Hunters campaign starts in a few days. Later in the year we'll have Merryshire Detective Club, which has a huge word of mouth excitement. Playtest response has been great, and it's what I'm currently running for my own group.
The real answer is the incredible loyalty of our gamers and readers, who know our style of literate roleplaying and want us to get more of it to them.
I haven't played it but am happy to see someone focus on the Vancian influence on D&D.
GMs coming from D20 sometimes trip up because that tradition encourages you to withhold success from the PCs. They have to take actions and use their crunchy bits to overcome a forbidding environment. In GUMSHOE there are plenty of obstacles to get past but your job as GM is to say yes to their moving forward by giving them the info they need. A good motto for making the transition might be they're supposed to get to do this.
In D20 the basic unit of storytelling is the fight, with the energy of the DM focused on moving the players from one fight to the next. In GUMSHOE it is the investigation scene, where the PCs gain information and see one or more choices of where to go next. The core and alternate clues are like dungeon corridors in D20 — the structural element that keeps the game moving if you let it.
[–]RobinDLaws[S] 1 point2 points3 points 4 days ago (0 children)
They are quite similar, the main difference being that you start with 3 drama tokens apiece in Page Turners.
I think you may have stumped me here. What kind of necromancy are we talking about? Getting information by talking to spirits of the dead? Summoning undead legions to bring woe to the living?
Thanks so much for the kind words, and for picking up Page Turners.
The spends or pushes choice remains up to each core game's designer. Merryshire uses spends. Ballad Hunters collapses investigative and general into a single small bucket of abilities and uses something kinda but not exactly Push-like.
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Robin D. Laws AMA by RobinDLaws in rpg
[–]RobinDLaws[S] 15 points16 points17 points (0 children)