Sage LaTorra
The Rules Are Not a Thermostat
When talking about defaults in rules in his Legends and Lore column, Monte Cook used the analogy to a thermostat (my corresponding Indies & More post is here). I’ve seen that term used as a shorthand a bit now, and I’m not sure it’s actually a great analogy. For reference, Monte’s thermostat analogy: I was chatting [...]
Uniting the Editions, Part 1
As always, I’m posting some thoughts on this week’s Legends and Lore post for my Indies & More series. This week: uniting the editions, part 1. This week will, by necessity, be a little different. Normally I try to spend the majority of my post looking at how other games tackle the design issues Monte [...]
Dungeon World Beta 1
Beta 1 of the full Dungeon World text is now available to the Adventurer’s Guild. Check your inbox for the full scoop.
The Genius of D&D
In this week’s Legends and Lore Monte talks about The Genius of D&D, more specifically the elements of a character: class, race, abilities, and so on. This Indies & More post will take a look at what makes a character in some other games and how they approach it differently. As Monte points out, class [...]
Fluff
This came to me by way of a few different avenues, most recently via this great post: there’s a poll about mechanics and story in D&D Next. This post is basically an Indies & More post on the issues brought up by the poll (when the D&D designers are this vocal it gives me a lot [...]
Modularity
Modularity is the hot word right now, what with the D&D Next announcement. I’ll be interested in what that actually means for D&D next as the word has pretty specific meaning to me. The difference between a modular system and a customizable system is the interface. With a modular system you can swap out two [...]
Looking at the Past and the Future
This week’s Legends and Lore doesn’t really give me much to talk about. It’s a rehash of the D&D Next announcement, so I’ll just take this Indies & More post to discuss the ways this whole thing could head. There biggest question on my mind: Is D&D all about one thing (fantasy adventure, say) or is [...]
You Are Already A Game Designer
I mentioned this parenthetically in my big ol’ D&D Next post, but it deserves more: You Are Already A Game Designer. The whole idea that game designers are different in any way from the average game player just needs to die. You are already designing games, and your work as a game designer isn’t fundamentally [...]
Things Which Are Actually Just Remakes of Seven Samurai
Demon Knights Crime and Punishment The Hangover Twilight Star Wars Star Trek Babylonian creation-mythology The Little Mermaid TRON Catholicism Bhagavad Gītā Cats! Glee Dungeon World On the Origin of Species Charlie Brown My college Calc textbook Unified Field Theory The Treaty of Versailles The War of 1812 Hello Kitty Power Rangers Yojimbo Robocop (actually a [...]
How I’d Make D&D Next
I’ve debated quite a bit if a post like this, where I make a hypothetical stab at designing something that someone else is already making, is worthwhile. The fact that you’re reading this is proof I think this adds something to the discussion. If nothing else it’ll be interesting to look back and see in [...]
