xenoglyph - Forum: game design studio

joshua on OK, doors shut!

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:23:56 +0000

It looks like everyone's got plenty to work on. Dan, it's too bad you didn't get answers to your final questions, but it looks to me like you've got enough stuff to work on for a while, some of which you might find arms you for the very things you were asking about.

Thanks, everyone!

Dan Maruschak on [Final Hour of a Storied Age] Is this chart helpful or confusing?

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:04:41 +0000

I have the same "helpful or confusing" question about another flowchart: pdf

This one is describing the mechanics in Part III: Starting a New Chapter from pages 27 to 29 in the rules (this chart would go on page 30).

Does the "parallel boxes" thing make sense? Should I just collapse the "roll ___ dice" boxes into a single box?

Dan Maruschak on [Final Hour of a Storied Age] Is this chart helpful or confusing?

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:02:58 +0000

Here are some attempts at charts with different fonts: PDF

Page 1 is a smaller, narrower font. Page 2 is just smaller, not narrower. Page 3 is the same as the first post, for comparison.

Is the text still readable in the smaller sizes? Do the more verbose explanations work better?

I'm also realizing that the charts aren't rendering exactly the same when I paste them into OpenOfffice Writer from OpenOffice Draw -- the text is nicely contained in the boxes in Draw, but is creeping outside the boundaries in Writer, and therefore the PDF I posted. Hopefully I can work that out.

Dan Maruschak on [Final Hour of a Storied Age] Is this chart helpful or confusing?

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:11:13 +0000

Have you tried using smaller text

Only one box at a time, when I was trying to cram the text in, and then I would usually give up because the smaller text would look strange relative to the rest of the chart. Until now it hadn't occurred to me to experiment with shrinking all the text, but I will try some experiments.

How much do you find players “grubbing for traits” in play (i.e. narrating spurious or unsatisfying things into the fiction in order to gain dice)?

In the previous version I actually had the opposite problem -- the old action dice mechanic made it so risky to use multiple traits at once that it rarely ever happened. I haven't tested the new action dice exhaustion mechanic yet, but I'm hoping that it incentivizes people to use 1 or 2 or maybe 3 traits at a time -- the idea is that rolling more dice will make you more likely to win (i.e. that you'll have at least one very high die) but that you'll do less "damage" if you do (because if you roll multiple dice odds are also good that you'll have at least one very low die, which is less likely to exhaust an opponent's traits). This is the biggest mechanical change in this new version, so it's the thing I'll be paying closest attention to on my next round of testing.

Simon C on [Final Hour of a Storied Age] Is this chart helpful or confusing?

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:22:57 +0000

Helpful! That makes the process pretty clear to me. Have you tried using smaller text and giving more fulsome descriptions of some parts. Specifically, the "Char intro" box, and the final diamond at the end were the least self-explanatory.

How much do you find players "grubbing for traits" in play (i.e. narrating spurious or unsatisfying things into the fiction in order to gain dice)?

Dan Maruschak on [Final Hour of a Storied Age] Is this chart helpful or confusing?

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:47:19 +0000

I'm working on a new revision of my rules for Final Hour of a Storied Age. My current working draft is: here. I know based on previous feedback that people have found the procedures in Part IV: Playing Out a Chapter confusing. I've tried rewriting them to make them more easily comprehensible. I was also planning to add a flowchart that summarizes the procedures -- a working draft of that chart is: here. Now that I'm looking at my finished chart I am worried that it might be more confusing than it is helpful, because it might make the procedures seem more complicated than they really are.

I could use some feedback on whether the text in Part IV makes sense, and whether adding this flowchart into that section would help (or any other feedback, like ways to make the chart better, areas where the organization of the rules is making them hard to digest, etc.).

Dan Maruschak on [Final Hour of a Storied Age] New Intro

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:46:13 +0000

Simon,

Thanks.

It's also (I hope), a perfect introduction to what your game is about. I hope the rest of your game's rules fulfill that promise, because it's a good promise.

I hope it delivers, too. I'm not 100% confident that I've got the game I want yet, but I know I'm at least fixing problems in the draft I'm working on, which I'll hopefully be done with soon.

Simon C on [Final Hour of a Storied Age] New Intro

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:30:00 +0000

1f29

Dan,

That introduction is a really clear, engaging, articulate essay on why you love fantasy. It's also (I hope), a perfect introduction to what your game is about. I hope the rest of your game's rules fulfill that promise, because it's a good promise.

What you love about fantasy isn't what I love about fantasy, but it is a coherant visions, well communicated.

Dan Maruschak on [Final Hour of a Storied Age] New Intro

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:09:21 +0000

I also have a revised Part 1 in my rules (here's a PDF with both the new intro and the revised part 1).

The biggest change in Part 1 is that there's now a running example that follows a set of imaginary players through the procedures as I explain them. Do the examples help? I'm a little concerned about the "running" nature of them may be confusing, so feedback on that point will be helpful for me.

Also, throughout all the examples in the text I'm using the same four imaginary players (Susan, Fred, Peter, and Annie) although the context for the different examples changes, as if they were all excerpted from different sessions of the game. I am trying to establish a sense of familiarity by reusing the same names, and also convey the idea that you could play the game again and again to generate a different story each time, but I worry that not keeping the players and the fictional situations synchronized may cause confusion. Any thoughts on that?

Also, is the diagram on page 5 helpful or confusing?

Dan Maruschak on [Final Hour of a Storied Age] New Intro

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:34:13 +0000

I'm working on a new draft of Final Hour of a Storied Age. One piece of feedback I've been getting from a number of people is that they weren't getting a sense from the game of what I love about the epic fantasy genre. I'm hoping that a new intro I'm working on will help address that: New Intro.

Thoughts or feedback on either the form or the content?

I know I've got some layout issues (my goal is to make it as nice as my skills and resources will allow so that I can attract interest and playtesters as I try to move closer to a publishable game) such as the second quote splitting the page. I'm trying to keep this as a two-page digest spread (essentially a two-column landscape letter-sized page) but I'm having a hard time making the text I'm trying to use fit inside that constraint, so layout suggestions (I'm using OpenOffice right now, so my capabilities may be limited) or editing advice will be appreciated.

I'm also a little concerned about the tone. I don't want people to feel that the game is stodgy or stuck in the "roleplaying is very serious business" vein -- the game is supposed to be a celebration of the genre, and I imagine that a lot of the play time will be spent enjoying high adventure rather than deep soul searching.

Simon C on [Dungeonfuckers] Dungeon Moves

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:01:27 +0000

One of the things I'm trying to do with Dungeonfuckers is to present an alternative way of encountering and experiencing dungeons in roleplaying games. I want to make them feel like dangerous, liminal spaces. People go in them and come out changed.

After talking to Dan in that other thread, I had a kind of breakthrough and re-wrote my rules for dungeons. They're here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/116449.....0Moves.pdf

I think that they're a pretty accurate presentation of how I've been running dungeons when I playtest the game. What I need to know is if other people can follow these instructions. I'm also not at all sure I've got the Dungeonmaster's agenda right.

joshua on OK, fine, doors open!

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:06:56 +0000

Yeah, that would work OK, though if I wanted to print it out (this is about 16 pages of text, remember), it would be incumbent on me to figure out how to print 2-up. Since the purpose is easy reading of the person doing critique for you, that might not be great.

On the other hand, if you can get the PDF to generate 2-up, I think it would be fine!

Dan Maruschak on OK, fine, doors open!

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:00:14 +0000

Google Docs does let you modify the page size, although it doesn't seem to work for all of the dimensions they offer (File -> Page Setup -> Paper Size). Setting that to Statement 5.5" x 8.5", exporting to PDF, and then viewing the PDF in 2-up sort of approximates a two-column-landscape format (or a single-column digest size, which is a popular indie format). Joshua, would that be good enough for what Bret is trying to do?

joshua on OK, fine, doors open!

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:45:27 +0000

Great! Get it looking readable, then start a thread about it!

Bret on OK, fine, doors open!

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:33:46 +0000

I fixed it with Word. Someone else is going to be doing my layout for me, I just want it good enough for critiquing.