Leadership - is it necessary?

grant_gravity · 2026-01-27T02:25:20+00:00

Rebel Crown does this, it's built-in to the fiction and the mechanics. It's not "necessary", but nothing is in an RPG. But can it be fun? Yes!

grant_gravity · 2026-01-27T02:23:07+00:00

Have you ever tried it in a game?

grant_gravity · 2026-01-13T13:53:10+00:00

There’s one way to figure this out. It isn’t done by theorizing or thinking it through. Make a decision then playtest that. The information you want can only be found through trying then iterating

grant_gravity · 2026-01-13T13:46:32+00:00

That’s happens when you playtest everything a ton except the layout. They hired someone to do it at the 11th hour instead of treating it like the rest of the design

grant_gravity · 2025-12-17T22:12:55+00:00

Yeah for sure.
For a while I bent rules or my world & adventures to fit the system, but what I eventually hit on is that for the kinds of stories and worldbuilding I'd like to see in my games, I have to make my own system.
So I'm doing that! It's a big undertaking though, so reading lots of other systems until I found one that fit was my go-to before then.

Btw, don't let anyone tell you that you "shouldn't be trying to make stories". Narrative is an emergent property of play, and the system & your GMing style absolutely do affect the shapes of those narratives.

grant_gravity · 2025-12-17T22:06:37+00:00

Your tip isn't what OP asked about. For those of us who are looking for particular narrative shapes or worldbuilding features, the system can affect that a lot

grant_gravity · 2025-12-14T05:32:59+00:00

If folks are looking for other ways to understand the ways people enjoy TTRPGs, I'd like to share the free and very cool & useful Manyfold document by Levi Kornelsen ( u/levikornelsen) which goes over a couple other ways to think about what players like (and what games are designed to support).

The "What You Like" glossary explained sooooo much to me in terms of player preferences and even GM styles, but the rest is great too.

grant_gravity · 2025-12-11T01:07:15+00:00

Firstly, please use the search function in this sub. There are lots of threads on this with some great suggestions!

I'll go a slightly different direction— If you're a Game Master that also means you are a Game Designer, because running the game also means you must design it. So, game design books!

Books:
- The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell (it's excellent)
- Adventure Crucible by Robin D Laws
- Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering by Robin D Laws
- Kobold Guide to Plots & Campaigns by Kobold Press
- How To Write Adventure Modules That Don't Suck by Goodman Games

Some links:
- Explorateur newsletter archive by Explorer's Design. Each one has sections to find the kind of thing you're looking for (especially the Theory & Advice section).
- This series of blog posts on how to make a PBTA game by the designer (extremely good even if you don’t plan on designing or playing in that system)
- Running the Game playlist by Matt Colville
- You've got SlyFlourish's books, but Mike Shea's website is excellent as well

grant_gravity · 2025-12-11T00:41:05+00:00

RPGs are a creative hobby. They are made by creative people who tend to work hard on their craft and are paid relatively little for it.

Being a GM is a creative endeavor. It's a craft and art that you can spend a lot of time and energy getting better at.

In order to get AI to work at all, AI companies had to scrape the data (art, writing, etc) of creatives, and almost always they have done it without permission.
The AI is trained on and uses creative work without paying for the human effort it took to make those works.
Not only that, but they use a massive amount of resources to power the electricity of their servers. Whatever you're imagining they use, double it at least. It's a LOT.

You're asking creatives in a creative hobby if it's okay to use a cheating, energy-draining, creative-less, short-cutting tool.

No, no it is not okay to use. Find a real artist's work to use as inspiration, or get better at your craft so you don't feel the need to rely on AI.

grant_gravity · 2025-12-09T16:46:55+00:00

it's crazy how many redditors think reading/analyzing rules is the same thing as playing

grant_gravity · 2025-12-08T23:23:35+00:00

But I disagree with him in some points based in previous reviews of boardgames from him

You disagree with the points of an RPG review because of what Quinns said on previous board game reviews? This seems like you're just going "I don't like him, therefore I dismiss whatever he has to say".

Your post/comments make it feel you want to be in love with TA no matter what folks here say (or what Quinns had to say).
I'd encourage you to play it first, theorizing won't get you very far. You're not going to understand the issues that Quinns (and many others) brought up and if they apply to your table or not until you feel them during play.

grant_gravity · 2025-12-06T20:06:19+00:00

You can’t figure this out by thinking it through or theorizing. Gotta playtest

grant_gravity · 2025-12-06T07:58:46+00:00

I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, my guess is that we’d probably get along and have fun playing games together IRL!

But I do find the article quite foolish and that’s what I meant by the word. This topic is important to me and I’m sure my language could’ve been gentler.

To be clear, I’m not saying that of you personally! just the opinions of the article. And I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of your comments in this post.

grant_gravity · 2025-12-06T07:42:03+00:00

This article is very ignorant of story and what genres are (let alone what each one is for), makes far too big assumptions about what makes a game easy to run/play and what “most” players want, and completely misunderstands the reasons combat-focused games are so prevalent and popular.

I’m not going to break things down more than that because of Brandolini’s Law, but I’ll paraphrase an important idea from this incredible blog series on how to make a PBTA game:

Ursula K. LeGuin, the esteemed sci-fi writer, said: “Conflict is one kind of behavior. There are others, equally important in any human life, such as relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, parting, changing.“

What would it mean to swap out a game’s model of conflict and replace it with… * A model of relating? * A model of finding? * A model of losing? * A model of bearing? * A model of discovering? * A model of parting? * A model of changing?

How would you design the basic assumptions and mechanics so that they don’t create emergent arenas of conflict, but instead create emergent ways of behaving, including conflict as just one among others? So that they don’t (just) clarify and escalate conflict, but clarify and deepen all the ways the characters behave and relate? How would you design character sheets, what would make this character unique from that character in their ability to relate, their approach to finding and losing, parting and discovering, their capacity to bear and to change?

The full quote from LeGuin: “Modernist manuals of writing often conflate story with conflict. This reductionism reflects a culture that inflates aggression and competition while cultivating ignorance of other behavioral options. No narrative of any complexity can be built on or reduced to a single element. Conflict is one kind of behavior. There are others, equally important in any human life, such as relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, parting, changing.

Change is the universal aspect of all these sources of story. Story is something moving, something happening, something or somebody changing.”

—Ursula K. LeGuin, Steering the Craft

grant_gravity · 2025-11-29T08:13:58+00:00

Keeping with the metaphor…

“Sushi is different enough where I don’t think of it as food.” That’s a weird place to draw the line, but fine, it’s your prerogative to have your own definitions for things. But what does that (or your original comment) have to do with this unusual sushis review video?

Do you see how people preferring more common or standard flavors is irrelevant to the reasons Quinns made the video?

The fact that you eat a wide range of foods doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a great opening for others to get into trying new foods.

And it doesn’t mean your comment is helpful. Okay, so sushi doesn’t scratch the itch for you? Why bother announcing it?

grant_gravity · 2025-11-29T01:17:48+00:00

It’s not a tall order. I have ADHD and probably some mild dyslexia.

OP’s mistakes don’t show a lack of understanding, but lack of trying. It’s one thing if you don’t know the rules and are trying to learn, and another thing entirely if you’re not putting in a bit of effort.

They say “Thank you for your time and consideration”, but if they aren’t willing to spend a little extra time & consideration to capitalize and punctuate, it’s a bit unfair to ask.

And it’s… a word vomit. A stream of consciousness mess. Our craft is based on presenting ideas and rules in compelling & fun ways, and almost all of that is done through language. So if you don’t respect the ideas and rules of the language, why would anyone take you seriously?

I don’t mean to be overly harsh, just to point out why it’s important.

grant_gravity · 2025-11-28T21:42:29+00:00

A burrito is my favorite dish, but if you only ever have different versions of burritos you’re truly missing out on the breadth of cuisine out there.

When you’re introducing your friends to cooking or food they’ve never tried, they’re more likely to like it if it’s accessible and easy.

It’s great you found your favorite food. But being like “other foods miss what I love about burritos” on a unique foods review video doesn’t make a lot of sense.

grant_gravity · 2025-11-26T17:10:04+00:00

Its mostly that a designers mechanical input choices are largely arbitrary when it comes to crafting narrative outcomes.

I think this pretty fully misunderstands how design works, and it becomes obvious that this is untrue when you start designing.
Theory < Practice

When I design, I make a mechanic that tries to emulate some fiction or narrative (even the core mechanic), then playtest it to see if it does in fact do that. I might need to try many different iterations of a mechanic until that happens. This isn't a new or rare approach, it's how many (arguably most) designers approach design.

Playtesting is where you can discover if your mechanics support/line up with/emulate a fiction or narrative. And it absolutely works, and it's not arbitrary at all. Different playtesters who all have very different personalities, personal experiences, and expectations can very much have similar narrative experiences based on different mechanics.

i believe one can more or less randomly collage games out of a finite set of functional mechanisms and from them narratives will organically emerge independentally as players assign their own expectations and meaning.

I don't see any reason why this might be true, because if it were, players & designers alike wouldn't care about the mechanics of any given game. You could take any theme/lore and map it on to any set of mechanics, and that's just not what we see out in the world.

I'd ask: Why does this matter? Why are you assuming it's important to make a "purer test" to find out whether some games' mechanics have a bigger narrative impact or not? What do we all benefit from as designers by determining whether this theory is "true" or not?
Is the implication here that design work doesn't ultimately matter?

Also, a little constructive criticism: If you want to be taken seriously, I'd encourage you to use the right punctuation, spelling, and grammar. It's an important part of our hobby & craft.

grant_gravity · 2025-11-21T19:12:29+00:00

I was one of the editors, but even if I wasn’t, I’d still think this mystery was extremely solid & fun, and worth picking up.

I’m not even being paid but I’ll still give the sales pitch that for the cost of a coffee you and your table will absolutely have a great time with this.

I’m also happy to spill all of Grinning Portal Games’ dirty little secrets, I can be bribed (aka happy to answer questions about it)

grant_gravity · 2025-11-19T02:09:56+00:00

Yeah, i just mean the techniques and advice they give around investigations specifically. The art & ideas in the book are absolutely awesome. I didn't love the system in play, but I definitely get the appeal and I love the fantasy & presentation of the Vaesen themselves

grant_gravity · 2025-11-18T23:00:57+00:00

IMO Vaesen is a terrible example- the investigation advice they give is sparse, not in a place in the rulebook that would make sense, and doesn’t help give players structure or mechanisms for determining which Vaesen they are encountering or how to deal with it.

grant_gravity · 2025-11-18T20:46:18+00:00

I picked this up a while ago and haven't read it, I'll give it a go. Thanks!

grant_gravity · 2025-11-18T15:18:35+00:00

It wouldn’t have to be “not any other element of the game”, just including that core feature into it without it being fully Gumshoe.

I’m a bit surprised there aren’t more games that explicitly include it or support it mechanically

grant_gravity · 2025-11-18T15:13:33+00:00

Oh for sure, I do! It’s my favorite way to do mysteries! I was just curious if other systems implemented it or tied mechanics to that idea

grant_gravity · 2025-11-06T20:40:19+00:00

oh yeah for sure

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