Comments on: Mechner’s Lists

By: Jeff Tidball

Jeff Tidball — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:05:15 +0000

Wow, numbers 14–20 in the second list are good advice for all artists.

In particular, it took me a long-ass time to realize that the voice of criticism is always right (#14), and to trust my own internal voice of criticism instead of telling it to shut up and just see if [whatever project] could be successful even given whatever shortcoming internal critic was berating it for.

By: Will Hindmarch

Will Hindmarch — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:53:36 +0000

I certainly agree that the illusion of more is vital to a good F2F/tabletop/paper RPG campaign, Nick. I hear where you’re coming from, with regard to the frustration of discovering a game is smaller than it appears on replay, but I prefer that to feeling as if a game’s world and characters are utterly exhausted by the first play-through.

The illusion of more isn’t just the notion that there’s untapped play to be had in one particular title, but the sense that the setting continues on beyond the edges of the game level. (Plus, this is good design for modern games intent on becoming franchises — HALO created a universe with room for ODST and HALO WARS and so on, e.g.)

By: Nick Wedig

Nick Wedig — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:19:10 +0000

#11 in “designing Story Based Games” might actually be more applicable to rpgs than to video games. I know that I hate it when I feel like I finished a video game but only saw half the stuff, and I hate replaying to find additional content and discovering there’s less additional content than I thought.

But in a tabletop game, creating a sense of a larger world (and making it seem like the GM is far more prepped than he really is) can greatly add to player buy-in and immersion and such.

By: Will Hindmarch

Will Hindmarch — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:57:45 +0000

Item #6 in “Tips for Game Designers” (”It’s harder to sell an original idea than a sequel”) may be the tip that doesn’t translate. In my experience, gamers are more eager to play in an original, or somewhat independent, setting than in something like a mock-sequel to some beloved property. RPG campaigns, in my experience, are also more likely to swell like long-running series (of TV episodes or novels, eg) than they are to “sequelize” like features do.

Maybe my experience is unusual.