#42: I used the X Card!
I. Dear Reader,
So this week, I used the X Card for the first time. It wasn’t a bad moment so I’m mostly happy that it happened. Let me explain: We were playing For the Queen and one of the players, who was playing a cook, described how the Queen didn’t have a mouth and he didn’t understand her biology. Now, I could’ve said “yes” to this detail but I called for the X Card. This was for two reasons:
1. There were players who had never played a roleplaying game before and I wanted to normalize using safety tools.
2. I imagined that this detail would lead to the Queen becoming more and more alien to our characters - and I just wanted a simpler game where she was easy to love. Or easier, at least.
I think it was for the best. We had a great game! But that said, the highlight of the game is also an incident that I think I could’ve handled better. One player described how the Queen had someone she loved put to death - the story was tragic and we were all horrified by the Queen at the end of it. Then, on the next turn, the next player (she was playing an RPG for the first time) described the same incident from her point of view - she described how the person who was killed had been a parasitic creature in disguise. To destroy it, the first player’s character had to really believe that their loved one was dead …and could never be told otherwise to avoid reinfection. The table was delighted. It was a hell of a twist!
But I think I should’ve - ideally - done a quick check-in with the player whose fiction had been reframed in this way. I felt like she was onboard but I should’ve explicitly asked. Because even when safety tools are on the table, it’s sometimes hard to take up that space and use them. And even if she was completely onboard, she might’ve appreciated the check-in none the less.
Figuring this stuff out,
Thomas
II. Listen of the Week
Girl by Moonlight is a Forged in the Dark game that’s still in development. Ever since I heard that its actions were things like ‘Forgive’ and ‘Empathize’, I’ve been fascinated. What does it mean to roll to ‘Forgive’? I have no idea. So I hunted down an actual play and there’s one run by the game’s designer. It’s a campaign about magical girls who pilot mechs and it’s absolutely excellent.
So what did I figure out? Girl by Moonlight’s design relentlessly puts the focus on the characters’ inner lives even as they do their action and adventure. In this specific AP, ‘Confess’ ends up being as important as ‘Sway’ would be in Blades in the Dark.
III. Links of the Week
Two jams that caught my eye this week: the 3 month Solarpunk and Utopia jam and Yojambo, a jam to make an adventure inspired by Yojimbo for your system of choice. Yojambo is specifically a way of creating a resource for people branching out from 5e and seems like a really cool idea.
Vincent Baker answers crowd-sourced questions about PbtA games and design. If you have a question, it’s probably here - or forthcoming in the second part. I know all of mine were!
Jay Dragon blogs about playground theory and there’s lots to delight in: “I love it when game design theory proposes an alternate mindset for thinking about what game design can be like, and encourages the designer to put on the mindset like it’s a hat in order to view their creative work in a new light.”
The Edinburgh Indie Gamers club have released their Zinequest-funded gaming zine for free on itch. Gaming clubs are cool. Check it out!
A review of the Story Engine, a card-based tool for making story prompts.
On his blog, Rob Donoghue talks about bringing Blades in the Dark-style consequences into Fate.
IV. Small Ads
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Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. I’m half-man, half-beast, half-journalist, half-game designer.
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Excellent reading and links, as always.
I am psyched particularly to check out Girl by Moonlight - I'm working on my own Forged in the Dark game where I intend for there for be no violence, and for large parts of the focus to be on the inner lives of the characters with a focus on their approach to obstacles as well as rich in-character relationships with NPCs.
Otherwise, hope you're keeping safe. My thoughts with the people of India recovering from this nightmare.