#28: Group Size and the Conversation
Good day, readers!
Okay, now you say it back.
And then, I say, well, you know how it goes…
I. Game Group Size and the Conversation
I’m playing CrashCart, a card-based Forged in the Dark game about cyberpunk parademics, this weekend. I’ll GM for two players. And I was thinking of adding maybe one person to that group. I put the word out and didn’t get any bites. Which was honestly a little bit of a relief. I don’t particularly like large game groups anymore.
I think the image in our heads of what the traditional gaming group looks like - one GM, four players, all sitting around a table - is starting to look to me like the "nuclear family with 2.5 kids". It’s a cultural norm that’s far less common that you might think. But regardless of experience and data, we still talk about it as if it’s the norm.
In the modern storygame tradition, it’s standard to declare that “RPGs are a conversation”. But if that’s the case, the assumption that the normal conversation is the one with five people is really weird. The simplest form of a conversation - and probably the most common - is one with two people. It has a clear rhythm - like the back-and-forth of tossing a ball in the park. I think it would be reasonable to assume that under this new paradigm, two-person games would be the norm. But that’s of course not the case (for many reasons) . These games are called “duet games” and four person games are just called “games”.
Continuing with the conversation metaphor, I think the 3 person group also has a great dynamic especially for games with a GM. You lose the one-on-one relationship between the GM and player. But you gain a one-on-one relationship between the two players. In the fiction, every interaction between the PCs is a conversation - which is simple and great.
Beyond that, games that describe themselves as “conversations” but are meant for 4 or 5 people - that’s brave. Tossing the ball in large groups can get complicated. I’ve had good conversations with 4 or 5 people but not that many. The social etiquette overhead is high - especially for someone like me who can easily get hung up on stuff like that. You have to watch out for the quiet person, for the interruptions, for the miscommunications - these are so much easier to handle in smaller groups.
All of this gets multiplied if you’re playing in-person - especially play-by-post. One-on-one over text works very well. It can feel less “social” than other forms but it works. Large group games scratch that social itch for me but they also tend to fall apart faster than a prop on a comedy set.
I think it’s fine for a game to lean on existing social dynamics. It’s okay to say, “Hey, you know how to have a conversation, you handle that part. These are the rules for the game side of things.” But personally, I’m more interested in Vincent Baker’s style of designing games where the form of the conversation is at the forefront of the game’s design. The game imagines how you’ll go from fiction to rules to moving a physical token to fiction and then tries to make that as easy or as interesting as possible.
II. Media of the Week
If you like roasts (it’s mean humour, you have to be onboard), Spacejob on tiktok has three videos of roasts based on your favourite RPG. Some of it’s really funny. Part One, Part Two, Part Three. (Fun fact: TikTok is banned is India and I had to used a proxy to watch these. 🙃 )
On the GMS Magazine youtube channel, there’s a nice comparison between Kickstarter and GameOnTabletop, a crowdfunding platform specifically targeting tabletop games that is accessible in a lot of countries where Kickstarter doesn’t operate.
III. Links of the Week
Reviews
On Liber Ludorum, a review of Kingdoms, an old school-inspired game of domains and dynasties. “The first player to kill a monster becomes God-King and gains access to Light powers. (It’s good to be the God-King.) Other players can claim the throne for themselves by killing the reigning ruler or by waiting for a monster do the dirty work. (It’s hard to be a God-King.)”
On Pod of Blunders, a review of the solo game, Escape from Demon Castle Dracula. “Why should you put the effort into gathering your cards, candles, dice, etc. to play this game when you can go grab a copy of Castlevania and have a great time without all the setup? Well…because it is fantastic.”
Articles
A redditor lists their favourite articles from the Fate Codex, an excellent free resource for fans of Fate who want to learn some tips and tricks. All hosted on the Fate SRD site.
Another really useful summary of one year of self-publishing in indie games. This time it’s from the Uncanny Spheres blog. These acts of transparency are going to add up at some point.
Good advice for GMs when players run into “dead ends”.
Resources
Machine Age Productions delved into the art of budgeting for commercial RPG projects and created a free spreadsheet tool for anyone interested.
IV. Small Ads
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