Discover Top Posts Tagged with #roleplayingame

Monster Care Squad new Expansion Behind the Waterfall released!!

Explore the Sunken City, meet new monsters, more mechanics, a lot of cool stuff, including more art from incredible artists and me. =)

Get it here:

An official expansion to Monster Care Squad, with new monsters, locations, moves, and more!

#ttrpg #tabletop rpg #tabletoprpg #rpg #roleplayingame #pixelart #gamedev #monstercaresquad #monster care squad #sandy pug games

Savage crossover!

Bobby the barbarian conquers Eternia, and does a lot of friends!

Dungeons and Dragons classic cartoon. Amazing work by Hasbro!

#heman #boobythebarbarian #dungeonsanddragons #cartoon #80cartoon #motu #mastersoftheuniverse #shera #swiftwind #marvel #barbarian #roleplayingame #rpg #marktaylor #alfredoalcala #michaelreaves

Familiriaty, Novelty and Game Design.

Hi, welcome to another random talk by me, Raul, the game designer that never released a game... but I worked as a artist on a fair ammount of them. =) I made a poll on Twitter (never going to call it X) about what the people want if they are going to play on a new setting, some familiar, that uses tropes estabilished by other settings and ip or an attempt of novelty, subverting ideas and trying to estabilish new ones. I made a mistake using a example of familiriaty with Elves doing Elvish thing and some people end up being hyperfixating on the Elves like if they were the main part of the poll, but they were just a example to illustrate what I meant for something Familiar.

But going back to the poll my question was to know the preference of the people related to games in general, but I always interesting in the designer take since they are the ones generating the setting, and by designers I mean the creative force working on the game. And unsurprising a staggering 81,8% said that they want something new when playing a new setting, what was surprising was that 88 people answer the poll and seeing how bad I am at social media and reaching other people this was a massive success, but a expected result, I knew that the majority would answer they want something new, but I also know that this answer is not the truth, at least not the whole truth.

But why make a poll when I know the result and say that it's not truth? THose people are lying? No, of course they are not, but if you are a designer that had to work with research you know that this kind of poll, or in some cases focus group, generally don't work, first because you boil down a complex subject into 2 distinct answer that simplify what is actually not a easy answer, which was more evident when some people answered like it was only a correct way to do it set in stone. But to point how and why the answer might not be the correct one we need to talk about social desirability bias, a idea that people have to answer not the answer they feel honest about, but the one they feel it's correct to do in public, like James Stephanie Sterling pointed in her video 'Damn Fine Coffee", people when asked what coffee they like would generally answer black coffee, but when looking at the sales, the attention generated through kickstarter and even the language used for marketing, they all go for familiriaty, be it using a pop culture reference as the forefront of what the setting is, using srds that convey how the game plays despite if the setting is radically different from what the original game is, and even by looking the biggest Kickstarter success, like Avatar, One Ring and so on, we can see it clear the familiarity is what the designers most do and what the players most put their money into it. So why choose the New as the answer? FIrst I dont believe all the 81,8% choose new but prefers Familiar and I don't believe any of those who wants familiar makes that choice consciously, because our landscape of enterntainment is having a fatigue of familiriaty and we are all feeling it, Marvel, Star Wars, Classic fantasy, all of them are saturating our entertainment with the different shades of the same approach of everything, and there is a genuine desire for something new,might not be the majority but it's there, and inside the indie scene this is more prevalent since we suffer from the sheer power of the big industry and all their familiar products and games, so the indie is poised to be the place for new things, and people might internalize that thought even tho they just want to work on their take of a familiar genre and setting that they love.

So here is the take of it, the answer is something new but analizyng the scene we see that most designers and players goes for familiarity. And at least at first there is nothing wrong with that... well, homogenity of settings aside, but both approachs have pros and cons. Starting with something New, the difficult of them all, you already start with the challenge of have to explain your setting to players, and more aliens ideas, characters, cultures, mechanics will require a good writting by the designer side, and having no pre estabilished setting for the players to set their mind and understand your ideas, this can create some issues, but this shouldn't be discouraging, since the designer job is already to presente their ideas and mechanics is a easy to understand, fun to read and immersive way, you only add the challenge of not having some familiar terms for players to instantly recognize. This drives another criticism I have about the idea that some desigenrs have that players don't understand, or are incapable of enjoy if they can't the reference or know the setting through the lens of familiarity, first I think this is a very pedantic way to see your players, like their mind only works through easy estabilished names and pop cultures references, they are intelligent people from all around the world, treat them with respect, second if you don't believe your writting will make players understand the novelty of your setting and/or rules without any pre estabilished concepts, you should work on your designers and writting skills, because it's your job to make a book people can read and understand, not relying of them to have watched some american tv show to know what you mean on your setting.

For familiar setting/rules, I believe the challenging is even bigger, because if you do something that can compared to another pre estabilished game that's already there, the first question is, why players should play your game instead of the other that's already there if they have similar worldbuilding and/or mechanic? And for ttrpg this is a big valid question since it's a big undertake be able to gather friends and play through even a small campaign. Familiarity can carry a lot of concepts and legacy that you the designer might not want in your game but can have the players to think it's already there, making a reverse challenge of the Novelty designer writting, while with a new idea you need to write in a good way for players to understand the new concept, in the familiarity you need to write in a way for players to see that some pre defined ideas they had for the setting in mind is not there. One case I saw about this was with Fabula Ultima, where I saw one player expecting a combat system that was more in line with the Jrpgs that Fabula Ultima draw inspiration, it wasn't their fault, as far as I know Fabula Ultima is a great game, but it's the risk of working with pre estabilished concepts can create that the designer might take in consideration.

Another point to talk about is the Designer work on all this, on the act of making games itself, and how it at least in small ways, should push for something new on everything it do, don't need to be big new strange and aliens settings or trying to change the entire rules of play, but to drive even if it's a detail of their game, to something different, something that they feel it's better. Because the job of the designer is not to make something that players want, players have a limited idea of how a game could operate and how new games should be because game designer is not their job, so the designer need not to make what players want, but definitely works on something that the players like. To show this I want to add a story about Shinji Mikami, the director and producer of Resident Evil 1,2,3 and 4. During the development of Resident Evil 4 the team stucked with a lof of different directions for the game, with the series gaining fatigue and selling less and less, and having to deal with a lot of survival horror competition releasing due to the immense success of RE series, Shinji and it's teams knew that the next RE need to be different, to be something new. BUt marketing research always ended with players saying that for the next RE they want it to be just a natural evolution of the same game, fixed cameras, few dangerous enemies, resource management, but what they got was a very different experience that not only was a big succes for Residente Evil, delivering a fresh take on the game but also end up changing the game industry as a whole with it's third person over the shoulder camera and control scheme for movement and shooting. All this not because they listened to the surface fans ideas of what they want, because they couldn't imagine this new approach for RE, they didn't have any reference or familiar concept for it, but the new idea worked. And this is how I feel a designer should think, might not be in such a radical way, but as another example, if you ask any player, and even designers, about core elements that make a ttrpg rules and I believe almost all of them would say that dice is a core part of the ttrpg rules, but we have people like Spencer Campbell from Gilarpgs moving away from dices and making a very clever system of it. This is a designer approach, to strive to something new, even if it's little, to always make the scene moving forward.

One point that I also needs to add is how the familiar most time is tied to elements created by white, catholic, american/european man and that holding your ideas close to those you can risk to have some of their problematic ideologies tied to your game. I love Dune, I love Lord of the Rings, I like Dungeons and Dragons, I like Lovecraftion Mythos, but you need to understand that they carry a very problematic concept beneath them, and those are the main examples I have in my mind, and since ttrpg is more and more global, using our own interpretations of concepts estabilished by people from another country can be a good way to add another lens of it, to get rid of it's problematic views and add more value to it.

And for people that might be afraid of trying something new, don't be, Gubat Banwa was awarded best setting yesterday during Indie Game Developer Network, with its Southeast Asian fantasy setting, and that's great, the fact that the scene is dominated by familiar themes also means that there is a ton of space for novelty ideas, be it by analysing already estabilished settings and break it into something new, or by make something you feel it's truly unique, we always need something new, as the familiar setting will never fade and will always be popular, the New ideas is the drive for innovation, so don't be afriad, be bold!

This thoughts and ideas are not pre-written, and I don't think they will ever be, so that's why they might feel crazy and don't make sense to you, im not here to tell what other designers should and shouldn't do, even tho sometimes it seems that I am, but in the end you're the one that should know best how to proceed.

Thank you.

Raul.

#rpg #ttrpg #roleplaying game #roleplayingame #tabletop rpg #tabletoprpg #gamedesign #game design #ttrpg design

@kiara-nocturne Night once again finally rested itself against the twelveswood as they finally made it to the cave. “A street performer eh? Now that’s interestin. Ya’ll can use those. . .what are they called eh? Death-frisbies yeah?” Taking himself a shot of rum he would sit on the ground, lighting a fire with liquid fireshard--a ingredient that the thaumaturge guild gave him for a mission not too long ago. “Well lucky you, to have met such a dashing, daring, and one of thee best Captains around eh? I’ll tell’ye what: Asummin we make it out’of here alive, fer I would like that VERY much: and assumin this map gets us what we want, how’s about I show you me’ship hm?” Rustling the fire with a stick, he looked at it, the flames flickering against his face. “A street-performer running around with a good-fer-nothin pirate. Lucky you eh?” Handing her his tin incase she wanted a shot of rum, he continued speaking as well. “So you thought of that nad-bit all yerself, that’s pretty impressive! I might steal some of yer tricks in the future eh?” Giving another chuckle, he rustled the fire once more, taking off his bandana, exposing his raven locks with white tips, and leaning back to look up at the stars. “They’re beautiful aren’t they? Up in the sky, glistening and shimmerin like pearls in the sea. Not’a care in the world they have, no sir-e! They just sit in the sky, every-night, just waitin fer the sun to come back, and chillin with the moon.” Reaching his robotic hand up into the sky, he could see his hand covering the moon, blotting it out for a second before closing his palm. As if he was trying to steal the very moon itself. “Or maybe, stars are just--tears, from the moon, because she misses the sun eh? And sky pirates like me chase after’em selfishly like hounds to the bone. She just shakin her head every-night saying “Silly, silly sky pirates, chasen after-me tears. Silly, Silly sky pirates.’ “ His eyes drifted back over to his hand, opening and closing it once more. “About last night, I’ve been thinkin, y’know we pirates don’t care much about being rude but--fer what it’s worth, if I hurt’cha. . . /feelings/ or something? I’m. . .it’s just, I wasn’t--I didn’t--” Trying to figure his words out, he ran his flesh hand through his hair, giving a frustrated grunt, now laying on the ground, plopping his back against the grass, looking up at the stars. “Life is cruel. It pisses on whatever cards it deals you in one way or another. Bloody hell the after life probably isn’t any different. People be hungry on the streets straven, little mouths dry as thanalan dirt, but the city-states not carin about anyone but demsevles. That’s why I’m a sky-pirate, to take whatever I can from those bastards in erozea, Garlamald, they have different flags fer sure but they just the same in de end. That’s why I have this” Showing his arm once more to her, looking at her in the eyes, moving his digits. “This is what I got fer chasin tears."

#closedstarter #roleplayingame #c'est la vie #momentiwantedtoshare #gallery #ffxivoc #ffxiv rp #apologyforkiara