Inverse Dice in Practice
Sometime within the last few years, while playing with Hostargo’s Inverse Dice Mechanic, I realized it wasn’t working as intended. Players were having troubl...
The Mysterious Blog
This is where I try to record my best thoughts. I welcome all comments or inquiries through e-mail!
- design 28
- mechanics 18
- rpg 16
- theory 14
- uncertainty 11
- helpful-links 4
- health-eating 4
- fitness 3
- dice 2
- equipment 2
- proactive 1
design
A Minimalist Definition of an RPG
A role playing game (RPG) is a scenario of drama, and a mechanic for acting in that drama. RPGs are an exploration of what it’s like to be somewhere, someone...
Uncertainty in Games: Meaning
Poorly written rules are frustrating. Ambiguity can lead to disagreements or confusion. But the meaning of specific terms or abilities isn’t always a detrime...
Uncertainty in Games: Schedule
“Something’s come up.”
Uncertainty in Games: Development Anticipation
Building characters is sometimes one of the best parts of a game. You get to explore the game’s mechanics, prepare your best for what is to come, and set off...
Uncertainty in Games: Narrative Anticipation
There’s nothing like a good nail-biting story. The excitement one feels in the pit of their stomach keeps them on the edge of their seat, anxious to know mor...
Uncertainty in Games: Hidden Information
Knowing is half the battle. Knowledge of where your objective is simplifies getting to it by eliminating any possible false paths. But hidden information is ...
Uncertainty in Games: Analytic Complexity
It can be difficult to convince an older RPG player to try any other game than the one they’ve been playing for the past 20 years. And it’s really no surpris...
Uncertainty in Games: Players
Competition has been a part of human civilization since the earliest days of man. Whether struggling over food, wrestling for ruling power, or just participa...
Uncertainty in Games: Solver’s
“Will they solve the puzzle?” can be a great dramatic question for a roleplaying scene. The party might uncover a secret clue, find hidden treasures, or save...
Uncertainty in Games: Player Performance
A “hardcore” game might be described as one with only a single source of uncertainty: player performance. No random factors. Complete information. Only how w...
Uncertainty in Games: Randomness
One of the most important uncertainties for role playing games is randomness. That might seem obvious, but randomness is only one of the eleven sources of un...
Uncertainty in Games: A mini-series
The unknown, unsolved, and unpredictable nature of games is exactly what makes them intriguing. As soon as you know that tic-tac-toe or Candy Land are determ...
Have Fun Designing: The Rule of Cool
Getting excited to work on your project shouldn’t be hard, but sometimes it’s not at the forefront of what you want to do. For professional game designers, I...
Three Axes of Outcomes
A swing-and-a-miss just doesn’t cut it anymore. Every roll in a tabletop RPG should be interesting. Our hobby now has more mature systems, like FF’s Genesys,...
The problem with Varied Character Reset Times
Using your character’s powerful spells now may solve your current problem, but what future challenges will you then be missing that magic for? Resource manag...
Give Players Tools, Not Roles
Sitting down at a table with some of your friends, bullshitting around with a story, and making badass characters thrive is only a shallow perspective on wha...
Mechanics for Both Sides of the Table
Game Masters do a lot of work. They are the ones doing the prep, adjudicating fairness, and roleplaying a whole world, while players show up to game day wit...
Simplicity vs Depth
Over the New Year holiday I got a chance to run a couple games that I’ve grown to love: Dr. Magnet Hands and All Out of Bubblegum. These are excellent party ...
Encourage Role-playing while enjoying Roll-playing
Despite the experience of running D&D for over ten years, there are still simple things about the game that trip me up. This has been especially true as ...
Revisiting Advantage
I love the Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic in D&D 5e. It's so simple and elegant, and it works perfectly with how the players interact with the ...
A Better Stab at Armor
In my last post about armor, I discussed the possibility of a system where we introduce different types of attack damage, and therefore different types of a...
Armor vs. Padding
Even the chainmail bikini usually gives an RPG hero a boost in “armor”: that generic value of how protected a character is. In a lot of games, there’s no re...
What is your style of fun?
When gamers mesh well with each other, it’s not just because they’re gamers. On the contrary, a lot of us can get on each other’s nerves, simply because we ...
The Worst Game Mechanic
Your friends have all gathered to play a game. There are five of you, but the game is only 4 players. Someone has to sit out, and it’s randomly dec...
Addressing Min-Maxing
“We’re starting at level one for my campaign.” - GM There is a low grumble from the group of players, who reluctantly start to fill in their character sheet...
The Inverse Dice Theory
The first step to creating a role playing game, for me, was to get a dice mechanic that I was happy with. Ignoring the actual ‘game’, you have to start with...
GM-Player Trust in an Open Roll System
Games like D&D have the game master (GM) secretly think of a target number (TN) for the player to roll against. In traditional RPGs, the hidden informati...
mechanics
Inverse Dice in Practice
Sometime within the last few years, while playing with Hostargo’s Inverse Dice Mechanic, I realized it wasn’t working as intended. Players were having troubl...
Uncertainty in Games: Meaning
Poorly written rules are frustrating. Ambiguity can lead to disagreements or confusion. But the meaning of specific terms or abilities isn’t always a detrime...
Uncertainty in Games: Schedule
“Something’s come up.”
Uncertainty in Games: Development Anticipation
Building characters is sometimes one of the best parts of a game. You get to explore the game’s mechanics, prepare your best for what is to come, and set off...
Uncertainty in Games: Narrative Anticipation
There’s nothing like a good nail-biting story. The excitement one feels in the pit of their stomach keeps them on the edge of their seat, anxious to know mor...
Uncertainty in Games: Hidden Information
Knowing is half the battle. Knowledge of where your objective is simplifies getting to it by eliminating any possible false paths. But hidden information is ...
Uncertainty in Games: Analytic Complexity
It can be difficult to convince an older RPG player to try any other game than the one they’ve been playing for the past 20 years. And it’s really no surpris...
Uncertainty in Games: Players
Competition has been a part of human civilization since the earliest days of man. Whether struggling over food, wrestling for ruling power, or just participa...
Uncertainty in Games: Solver’s
“Will they solve the puzzle?” can be a great dramatic question for a roleplaying scene. The party might uncover a secret clue, find hidden treasures, or save...
Uncertainty in Games: Player Performance
A “hardcore” game might be described as one with only a single source of uncertainty: player performance. No random factors. Complete information. Only how w...
Uncertainty in Games: Randomness
One of the most important uncertainties for role playing games is randomness. That might seem obvious, but randomness is only one of the eleven sources of un...
Uncertainty in Games: A mini-series
The unknown, unsolved, and unpredictable nature of games is exactly what makes them intriguing. As soon as you know that tic-tac-toe or Candy Land are determ...
Three Axes of Outcomes
A swing-and-a-miss just doesn’t cut it anymore. Every roll in a tabletop RPG should be interesting. Our hobby now has more mature systems, like FF’s Genesys,...
The problem with Varied Character Reset Times
Using your character’s powerful spells now may solve your current problem, but what future challenges will you then be missing that magic for? Resource manag...
Mechanics for Both Sides of the Table
Game Masters do a lot of work. They are the ones doing the prep, adjudicating fairness, and roleplaying a whole world, while players show up to game day wit...
Revisiting Advantage
I love the Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic in D&D 5e. It's so simple and elegant, and it works perfectly with how the players interact with the ...
A Better Stab at Armor
In my last post about armor, I discussed the possibility of a system where we introduce different types of attack damage, and therefore different types of a...
The Worst Game Mechanic
Your friends have all gathered to play a game. There are five of you, but the game is only 4 players. Someone has to sit out, and it’s randomly dec...
rpg
Inverse Dice in Practice
Sometime within the last few years, while playing with Hostargo’s Inverse Dice Mechanic, I realized it wasn’t working as intended. Players were having troubl...
A Minimalist Definition of an RPG
A role playing game (RPG) is a scenario of drama, and a mechanic for acting in that drama. RPGs are an exploration of what it’s like to be somewhere, someone...
Three Axes of Outcomes
A swing-and-a-miss just doesn’t cut it anymore. Every roll in a tabletop RPG should be interesting. Our hobby now has more mature systems, like FF’s Genesys,...
The problem with Varied Character Reset Times
Using your character’s powerful spells now may solve your current problem, but what future challenges will you then be missing that magic for? Resource manag...
Give Players Tools, Not Roles
Sitting down at a table with some of your friends, bullshitting around with a story, and making badass characters thrive is only a shallow perspective on wha...
Mechanics for Both Sides of the Table
Game Masters do a lot of work. They are the ones doing the prep, adjudicating fairness, and roleplaying a whole world, while players show up to game day wit...
Simplicity vs Depth
Over the New Year holiday I got a chance to run a couple games that I’ve grown to love: Dr. Magnet Hands and All Out of Bubblegum. These are excellent party ...
Encourage Role-playing while enjoying Roll-playing
Despite the experience of running D&D for over ten years, there are still simple things about the game that trip me up. This has been especially true as ...
Revisiting Advantage
I love the Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic in D&D 5e. It's so simple and elegant, and it works perfectly with how the players interact with the ...
A Better Stab at Armor
In my last post about armor, I discussed the possibility of a system where we introduce different types of attack damage, and therefore different types of a...
Armor vs. Padding
Even the chainmail bikini usually gives an RPG hero a boost in “armor”: that generic value of how protected a character is. In a lot of games, there’s no re...
What is your style of fun?
When gamers mesh well with each other, it’s not just because they’re gamers. On the contrary, a lot of us can get on each other’s nerves, simply because we ...
The Worst Game Mechanic
Your friends have all gathered to play a game. There are five of you, but the game is only 4 players. Someone has to sit out, and it’s randomly dec...
Addressing Min-Maxing
“We’re starting at level one for my campaign.” - GM There is a low grumble from the group of players, who reluctantly start to fill in their character sheet...
The Inverse Dice Theory
The first step to creating a role playing game, for me, was to get a dice mechanic that I was happy with. Ignoring the actual ‘game’, you have to start with...
GM-Player Trust in an Open Roll System
Games like D&D have the game master (GM) secretly think of a target number (TN) for the player to roll against. In traditional RPGs, the hidden informati...
theory
Inverse Dice in Practice
Sometime within the last few years, while playing with Hostargo’s Inverse Dice Mechanic, I realized it wasn’t working as intended. Players were having troubl...
Uncertainty in Games: Meaning
Poorly written rules are frustrating. Ambiguity can lead to disagreements or confusion. But the meaning of specific terms or abilities isn’t always a detrime...
Uncertainty in Games: Schedule
“Something’s come up.”
Uncertainty in Games: Development Anticipation
Building characters is sometimes one of the best parts of a game. You get to explore the game’s mechanics, prepare your best for what is to come, and set off...
Uncertainty in Games: Narrative Anticipation
There’s nothing like a good nail-biting story. The excitement one feels in the pit of their stomach keeps them on the edge of their seat, anxious to know mor...
Uncertainty in Games: Hidden Information
Knowing is half the battle. Knowledge of where your objective is simplifies getting to it by eliminating any possible false paths. But hidden information is ...
Uncertainty in Games: Analytic Complexity
It can be difficult to convince an older RPG player to try any other game than the one they’ve been playing for the past 20 years. And it’s really no surpris...
Uncertainty in Games: Players
Competition has been a part of human civilization since the earliest days of man. Whether struggling over food, wrestling for ruling power, or just participa...
Uncertainty in Games: Solver’s
“Will they solve the puzzle?” can be a great dramatic question for a roleplaying scene. The party might uncover a secret clue, find hidden treasures, or save...
Uncertainty in Games: Player Performance
A “hardcore” game might be described as one with only a single source of uncertainty: player performance. No random factors. Complete information. Only how w...
Uncertainty in Games: Randomness
One of the most important uncertainties for role playing games is randomness. That might seem obvious, but randomness is only one of the eleven sources of un...
Uncertainty in Games: A mini-series
The unknown, unsolved, and unpredictable nature of games is exactly what makes them intriguing. As soon as you know that tic-tac-toe or Candy Land are determ...
Why Tabletop?
Advancements in video game technology have given us unlimited possibilities for high quality entertainment. The drive of the AAA tech giants and the hearts o...
What is your style of fun?
When gamers mesh well with each other, it’s not just because they’re gamers. On the contrary, a lot of us can get on each other’s nerves, simply because we ...
uncertainty
Uncertainty in Games: Meaning
Poorly written rules are frustrating. Ambiguity can lead to disagreements or confusion. But the meaning of specific terms or abilities isn’t always a detrime...
Uncertainty in Games: Schedule
“Something’s come up.”
Uncertainty in Games: Development Anticipation
Building characters is sometimes one of the best parts of a game. You get to explore the game’s mechanics, prepare your best for what is to come, and set off...
Uncertainty in Games: Narrative Anticipation
There’s nothing like a good nail-biting story. The excitement one feels in the pit of their stomach keeps them on the edge of their seat, anxious to know mor...
Uncertainty in Games: Hidden Information
Knowing is half the battle. Knowledge of where your objective is simplifies getting to it by eliminating any possible false paths. But hidden information is ...
Uncertainty in Games: Analytic Complexity
It can be difficult to convince an older RPG player to try any other game than the one they’ve been playing for the past 20 years. And it’s really no surpris...
Uncertainty in Games: Players
Competition has been a part of human civilization since the earliest days of man. Whether struggling over food, wrestling for ruling power, or just participa...
Uncertainty in Games: Solver’s
“Will they solve the puzzle?” can be a great dramatic question for a roleplaying scene. The party might uncover a secret clue, find hidden treasures, or save...
Uncertainty in Games: Player Performance
A “hardcore” game might be described as one with only a single source of uncertainty: player performance. No random factors. Complete information. Only how w...
Uncertainty in Games: Randomness
One of the most important uncertainties for role playing games is randomness. That might seem obvious, but randomness is only one of the eleven sources of un...
Uncertainty in Games: A mini-series
The unknown, unsolved, and unpredictable nature of games is exactly what makes them intriguing. As soon as you know that tic-tac-toe or Candy Land are determ...
helpful-links
The Right Diet
We want to get away from the Standard American Diet (SAD) of nutrient-robbed grains, artery-clogging meat, and fat-building drinks. Don’t be SAD.
Keep it up!
The only way this is going to work is if you form good habits. This means making exercise a part of your life. You don’t have to be a fitness buff, you just ...
Medical Advice
If you’re looking for real medical information, please don’t just google your symptoms. Speak with a real doctor, if possible. Otherwise, visit familydoctor....
Where do I start?
Head over to ahealthiermichigan.org to get started on your new vitality education. These folks are doing a great job, and have more honest material than I co...
health-eating
Sugar
is as addicting as cocaine. It is as harmful as cocaine; it just takes decades to kill you. I might be exaggerating, but this is the mindset you need to over...
Macronutrients
Getting enough, and getting only enough, is the key to the “balanced” diet. To do this, we need to understand what our bodies actually need.
Proper Proportions
To cut down on eating, we’re going to back off slowly, hour by hour, with “one easy trick”: Serve yourself your normal portions. Drink a huge glass of w...
The Right Diet
We want to get away from the Standard American Diet (SAD) of nutrient-robbed grains, artery-clogging meat, and fat-building drinks. Don’t be SAD.
fitness
Keep it up!
The only way this is going to work is if you form good habits. This means making exercise a part of your life. You don’t have to be a fitness buff, you just ...
Keep it off!
Get strong.
Burn it off!
How exactly do you lose fat? Through your sweat and breath! The more you sweat, the more you breathe hard, and the faster your heart pumps, the more weight y...
dice
Inverse Dice in Practice
Sometime within the last few years, while playing with Hostargo’s Inverse Dice Mechanic, I realized it wasn’t working as intended. Players were having troubl...
The Inverse Dice Theory
The first step to creating a role playing game, for me, was to get a dice mechanic that I was happy with. Ignoring the actual ‘game’, you have to start with...
equipment
A Better Stab at Armor
In my last post about armor, I discussed the possibility of a system where we introduce different types of attack damage, and therefore different types of a...
Armor vs. Padding
Even the chainmail bikini usually gives an RPG hero a boost in “armor”: that generic value of how protected a character is. In a lot of games, there’s no re...
proactive
Priority Scheduling: Big Buckets
When you actively seek out to do the dishes instead of sitting down to work on your game, you know you’ve lost a little bit of something. But that something ...