Long-form analysis on tabletop RPGs, video games, sports, politics, and culture
Social Enmeshment TTRPGs: You Think Social Mechanics Are Flavor. They Aren’t. This is part of my ongoing series on system structure and pressure models—see also: Consequence Routing: When Getting Stronger Doesn’t Make You Safer.) You think social RPGs are just flavor layered on top of the real game. So if a social mechanics TTRPG has … Read more
Consequence Routing TTRPGs: When Getting Stronger Doesn’t Make You Safer This is part of my ongoing series on system structure and pressure models—see also: Horror TTRPGs: The Rules Are the Monster) This post isn’t about what deadly games look like, it’s about how TTRPG risk and reward design works at the system level. When people … Read more
What D&D 2e Got Right About TTRPG Endgame Design Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition is where I started in the tabletop roleplaying hobby. I was in college at the time, I found a great DM and a good group, and we had a lot of fun. As a professional RPG mechanics auditor I decided to … Read more
Horror TTRPGs: The Rules Are the Monster This is part of my ongoing series on system structure and pressure models—see also: Survival TTRPGs: The Real Test (And Why Most Games Fail It) Just as in my previous posts, this isn’t about what horror looks like. It’s about what it does at the system level. Most player … Read more
Survival TTRPGs: You Think Survival Is Scarcity. It Isn’t. This is part of my ongoing series on system structure and pressure models—see my previous: Heroic Fantasy TTRPGs: The Real Test (And So Many Games Fail It) This post looks at what survival games do on a system level. If you’re designing a survival TTRPG, tracking … Read more