Stepnix

I'm not particularly fond of the "Tyrant GM," the idea that the GM should be invested with total social and fictional authority and the same should be denied to every other player at the table. I love this post that really digs into how D&D built this up over time and how this can lead into some really nasty dynamics if the table doesn't catch itself, and I'm glad that a lot of recent games are more conscious about distributing authority around the whole table instead of putting it all on the GM. go play Wanderhome it's in a $10 bundle as I'm typing this.

But,

My collection of mecha tabletop games on Itch has reached one hundred entries! Mostly RPGs with a couple of skirmish games. ta-da~

among the reasons Flying Circus is the World's Bestest Plane Game is the fact that it gives you the wide green landscape and mysterious spirits AND the horrors of war and the industrialization thereof, and also planes. so many planes. and it just got a 300+ page expansion, to add tanks, to the plane game.

i recently learned of this article from discussing agency with other people in forums and on chat. in particular, i like this section on Grasp:

When the rules you’re grasping line up nicely with the narrative – when the player’s gameplay motivations are congruent with the player-character’s fictional motivations – you’ve got motivational alignment, immersion. You don’t have to choose whether to do the gameplay-rewarded thing or the Good Roleplaying thing: they’re one and the same. That’s powerful magic. That’s the feeling of a grating, rattly bike gear finally slipping into place, suddenly making power easy. That’s agency in a big way.

i'm stealing "motivational alignment" for future writing and designing. this is what i usually joke about when i say "ludokino". i love it when i feel 1:1 with the characters, whether they are suffering or achieving. this to me is what makes games "unique" to me because my interactivity is their path to success.

(i wouldn't use immersion though.)

oh hey TTRPG people can use this one as designers and as GMs