Tag: Game Design

Thac0 with Advantage 48. Languages in D&D

Thac0 with Advantage 48. Languages in D&D

Posted on by Christopher Sniezak

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time, and podcasting for two years as of this episode! While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D speaks our language.

Many fantasy stories revolve around lost and arcane languages, or characters that can speak for their party when they encounter creatures that don’t share a language with anyone else. One of the most consistent elements of character creation in D&D has been determining what languages a character knows, but what does that mean at the game table. We’ll be talking about language and seeing if we share a gaming dialect.

Thac0 with Advantage 47. Workshopping Vecna. Eve of Ruin

Thac0 with Advantage 47. Workshopping Vecna. Eve of Ruin

Posted on by Christopher Sniezak

Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, the multiverse may come unraveled if we don’t play D&D.

Published adventures are often juggling a lot of objectives. The adventure may be trying to illustrate a specific style of campaign, it may be highlighting a certain type of creature or opponent. And sometimes, it may be trying to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons. In this episode, we’re going to look at Vecna: Eve of Ruin, and see what kind of fine tuning you might want to explore when engaging with this plane hopping epic adventure.

MM Plays 47 - Consequences & Damage

MM Plays 47 – Consequences & Damage

Posted on by Christopher Sniezak

Does your game have consequences or damage, or both? Does it affect how you GM and Play the game? How does it affect the flow of the game itself? We examine those questions and more on this episode of Misdirected Mark Plays.

BXP 6x11 - Monica and Heather Consider Ways to Keep Players Playing

BXP 6×11 – Monica and Heather Consider Ways to Keep Players Playing

Posted on by Senda Linaugh

Today Monica gets together with Heather (her wife) to discuss one of their mutually shared core principles of game design: participation makes the game. If you remove players from play, you are denying them the chance to experience your game. We break down what this means as well as provide good and bad examples of designing for character creation, incapacitation, elimination, and replacement. We also discuss constructive self-entertainment vs. disruptive behavior and techniques for different designs and different styles of play. 

BXP 6x10 - Monica and Alex Break Down Setting Design Using Video Games

BXP 6×10 – Monica and Alex Break Down Setting Design Using Video Games

Posted on by Senda Linaugh

Today I’m joined by friend and colleague Alex Guerrero to discuss how video games utilize narrative and setting design to create a sense of wonder and mystery – and how you can bring that to the table in your own tabletop RPGs!