Game-Prep Alchemy

Welcome back, Game Masters!

Today I’m bringing you another snippet of foundational campaign design. Truthfully, I have a lot to say about the humble quest. Quests have changed a lot over the years, I’ve played in and GM’d a lot of games that focused on narration more than crunching numbers- and that’s increasingly normal!

There is a push in the community to drop the crunchy structure of strategy games in favor of more narrative-focused systems. Exploring new systems is a great way to discover the breadth and variety that creative indie designers have to offer! But, I also hesitate to suggest that story and strategy are mutually exclusive. Narrative progression is just as formulaic as the numbers we all crunch on. When you view things like quests through the lens of pure numerical success rather than narrative progression then your dungeons can feel hollow. Likewise, when you view narrative progression as some incalculable vibe without tangible goals, nothing is ever really “accomplished” and the game is not… actually a game.

One of my goals here is to outline steps that Game Masters can use to keep gamified storytelling in mind, no matter what system they end up using.

Today the lesson is pretty simple- One-Step Quests are a narrative tool to measure progress. Whether you’re making the most out of a one-shot, or building up progress towards a larger goal, it’s important to set out achievable goals as often as possible; And it’s just as important to know the difference between a challenge and an impossible task.

Greetings, Game masters!

I have another snippet to share from one of my projects- It’s Quests.

Quests are huge topic, and one I’ve been coming at from a few different angles. First, I plan on covering the true basics- writing a quest is a little bit like planning a vacation and then handing someone else the map. You charted the course, but you aren’t then one in control of the wheel anymore!

Greetings, Game Masters, and welcome back to the table!

I’ve been futzing around with pages like this, where I take a close look at the foundational concepts of combat, encounter balancing, and villain creation. I’m really leaning into the 101 of TTRPG Game design- the GM’ing For Dummies approach. I find that a lot of resources out there sort of assume that new GM’s already know what things like “Action economy” is or how it effects a combat encounter. But also, even if an experienced DM already knows all about action economy, I still don’t see a lot of resources that talk about the mathematical theories that fuel things like 5e’s infamously flawed and poorly understood“CR” system. I think that’s a shame, because understanding how something is supposed to work can really go a long way towards deconstructing a flawed system in order to make it work for you.

I’d like to see if I can really break my own process down in way thats both easy to digest and leaves room for variety. As I go through the writing process, I’m finding it hard to put some of my little “cheat sheets” into words that make much sense.

This here is a first draft- and since this is both a first draft, and also my first release on this blog, I’d love to know whether you agree with me that these metrics are the pillars of combat balancing.

I've been poking around the mobile version of this blog a bit today. I've selected some generic images for the header and icon as a placeholder, for now. Eventually I'll replace it with images that I create and own.

Allow me to break the ice for this new blog. Recently, I've been having a lot of fun recording my personal designs for formulaic game prep. I've been encouraged to begin sharing that, and, what the hell. Why not?

As of this -very first- post, I don't yet have a concept for how I might standardize any of my publications, so please expect an eclectic style of presentations. Hell, most of what I've been writing is being stored on scrap paper and Excel Sheets. I'm sure I'll find a reliable voice and style over time but until then I suppose I'll just have to take you on this ride with me.