quakefultales

doctor computational theater snek

indie game dev, AI and narrative design researcher, playwright


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posts from @quakefultales tagged #hard wired island

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FreyjaKatra
@FreyjaKatra

The elements of a singular trait of any kind in a tabletop game should be as essential and simple as possible while evoking as much of its inspiration as possible. This entry is notable for what it has, but also what it omits, such as love of the lämpe which is hard to write any kind of interesting useable game rule for but which I can rely on people to bring to the table if they are interested in playing a moth person in the first place. It should evoke the lore of being a moth, which should become relevant in play so that players can feel narratively satisfied that they are a moth in this universe. It needs to do this while dancing on the tightrope of traditional tabletop game problems regarding fantasy species, i.e. that fantasy is racist as fuck. It should optionally tie into the normal resources and mechanics of play (in this case, Potentia is like Prep, but for magic).

If you take this I want you to feel the experience, within the confines of my game system, what it is to be a moth person in an almost tactile way, an experiential way. I don't want to lean purely on the mental aesthetic of "I am a chef because it says so on my character sheet even if it never, ever comes up." I want players to have a chance to tell others, "I am doing this, because I am a Moth, and this is what that brings to this table."

It means omitting longform descriptions, detailed histories, setting cruft, and all the detritus of traditional tabletop game design, the biggest concessions to which I literally leave as footnotes. All those things are fun, but I focus on the result of those, the experience of it. I have found this far more satisfying than giving you detailed breakdowns of moths and where they live and originate from. I want you to feel my game mechanics. You are the lore of your table, not me; I'm just an enabler, the theatrical prompt to get you thinking and feeling.


quakefultales
@quakefultales

the point here I think is important across digital and analogue games is tactility of mechanics, which is a very broad category of things but it's about being both evocative for and giving feedback to your players