#86: Bumps and Stumbles
I. Dear Reader,
Building on last week’s post on “traversing the void”, I want to talk about two new terms I’ve started to use: bumps and stumbles.
My last post was about what we do when we suddenly find ourselves in a part of the game with no rules to guide us. In my experience, when you’re caught unaware, it’s a bit like you’re reaching out your hand for some kind of railing or support and it’s not there. So I’m calling these moments “stumbles”. Usually, when you stumble, you just take a moment and right yourself and continue.
And over on his slack, Paul Beakley of the wonderful Indie Game Reading Club pointed out to me that there’s also the *opposite moment* to what I described. It’s when you’re playing and you often find ourselves bumping up against a rule where you didn’t expect or need one. You think you know what to do and, oops, you bump into something.
I’m just naming these moments so when I’m next playing a new game, I’ll keep an eye out for bumps and stumbles. Hopefully, it’ll make me a better playtester as well!
In name only,
Thomas
PS. Usually, my posts are always a bit half-finished because I try to limit the time I spend on this newsletter. I try very hard not to let it eat my weekend up. So I’m always glad when I get to talk about the newsletter with other people and think through these things a bit more. So thanks to Paul Beakley and everyone else who reaches out and chats with me about them!
II. Media of the Week
Over on the Plus One Exp channel, an introduction Deimos Academy, a high-school horror game that in the form of a colouring book.
Also, the latest episode of the Gauntlet Podcast was fun with them discussing Bluebeard’s Bride, Pictures in an Exhibition (a larp), and Monster Care Squad.
III. Links of the Week
News
Cortex have clarified some aspects of their non-commercial community license after some criticism when they first released it.
Crowdfunding platform Gamefound is now out of closed beta and open to everyone.
Articles
On the Gauntlet blog, an overview of setting or settlement creation mechanics in RPGs: “My holy grail remains a system which supports collaborative creation at the start– with a focus and prompts– but also contains mechanics to let the players interact with and meaningfully develop that location in play.”
The results of a small survey of players from RPGGeek with data about the kind of games they buy and play
A reivew of the Root: the Roleplaying Game from Cannibal Halfling.
Also, from the same source, a written interview with Jay Dragon and M Veselak about Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast
Rise Up Comus does an overview of 10 games that evoke “Tolkienesque” fantasy.
On the Save vs TPK blog, a nice post from an OSR player talking about how you make decisions in storygames: “In an OSR game, failing to choose left or right when there’s no real info to go on will just stall the game. In a dramatic game, similarly failure to decide whether you hate your mother or whether you want to poison or sleep with your rival will stall the game. The GM has tools to push things along, but the game doesn’t really “go” until the players take strong positions on those things.”
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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