#85: Traversing The Void
I. Dear Reader,
There’s an experience that’s almost universal to playing RPGs. You’ve probably experienced it. But I don’t think there’s a word for it. It’s the moment when you’re playing a game, enjoying all its rules, and then, suddenly, you step into a space and there are no rules to guide you anymore.
Sometimes these spaces without rules are intentional. You might’ve heard the phrase “fruitful void” (or in Levi Kornelsen’s words , an“uncrowded centre”) - a space intentionally left black in the middle of the game where play happens uncrowded by the rules, each table filling that gap with their own ideas. The OSR mantra of “Rulings Not Rules” is a part of a playstyle that celebrates that uncrowded space.
There’s a nice post on Augury Ignored blog that says it well:
B/X D&D has no sophisticated mass combat system. Apocalypse World has no custom move for what happens if you imbibe the Grog Juice of Nockadock before a duel. The core Traveller rules has no in-depth system for generating the heirloom assets of a character of noble birth. Yet all of these system have room in their incompleteness to expand the game in that direction in ways that feels congruent with the established rules engine.
But often, finding a space that aren’t covered by rules can feel… wrong. It can feel like falling. Like you’ve lost your handhold and you have to scrabble to maintain your grip on the game.
The problem is that, like I said before, it’s a pretty universal experience. It happens all the time. It’s a vital (but obscured?) skill of playing TTRPGs - how smoothly you transition between parts of the game where the rules are clear to you and parts of the game where rules may not exist at all. When you have a GM, the table usually just lets them decide. But it’s not so simple in a GM-less game…
In a Firebrands style game I was playing recently, we wanted a scene to happen but found there wasn’t a really mini-game for it. It didn’t fit in any of the existing ones. But it was a dramatic scene. It felt like it “deserved” more than us tentatively talking it out and deciding together what should happen. But that’s what we had to do. And it was messy … but it was also fine. And I get the sense that if we did it a couple more times, it would’ve gotten smoother and smoother till, hey, it was no trouble at all.
Freefalling,
Thomas
II. Listen of the Week
On the latest episode of Yes Indie’d Podcast, Kalum uses a very interesting analogy for GM-less games: football (soccer, for americans) versus baseball. In football, the play is free-flowing and responsibilities are loosely-defined. Whereas baseball is regimented and a player usually has a strict responsibility at every point in time. I think a lot of people usually have a preference for whether they prefer one type of GM-less game or another.
On the Gnomecast, a fun discussion about getting players to try new games.
And on +1 Forward, an interview with Karen Twelves, author of the upcoming 2nd edition of Improv for Gamers.
III. Links of the Week
Feels like every week brings some Kickstarter news: the company’s CEO has now stepped down. It’s not clear why this happened and if the company will change its blockchain plans.
Designers from New Zealand / Aotearoa are forming a banner to draw attention to their game design scene. It’s called KiwiRPG and I’m really glad to see it.
On the Play Fearless newsletter, Mad Jay Zero talks about “Core VTTs” and “Smart VTTs” and how you pick the tools for the job.
The Ugly Monster blog has a fun, sarcastic series on character creation in roleplaying games. Here’s a nice one about playing a politician in Moonpunk (PbtA game of fighting nazis on the moon) and a literal priest of money in Spire.
Reviews
A review of award-winning solo roleplaying game, The Magus
A review of mech-heist storygame, Stealing the Throne
A review of Lost Omens: The Mwangi Expanse, a Pathfinder sourcebook that seems to have done something new.
Bones of Contention is an OSR-focused review blog that is doing all sorts of cool formats for their written reviews.
IV. Small Ads
All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section contains sponsored links and advertisements. If you’d like your products to appear here, read the submission form.
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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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