[English] RPG essentialism – and further explanation

Hundreds of Systems and Engines! Thousands of games! How to play them all? How to understand them; to learn them? Sounds impossible! Also, but why even do this? There are people, who says that all TTRPGs are similar to each other. Perhaps even more! That "everyone has their own roleplaying style, but somehow it isn't … Czytaj dalej [English] RPG essentialism – and further explanation

[English] Meta channel in RPG – Metagaming

I've met several definitions of metagaming for TTRPGs. The sum of all of them is incoherent to say the least. They actually relate to different circumstances and phenomena. Take an example from Wikipedia: „Metagaming is a term used in role-playing games, which describes a player’s use of real-life knowledge concerning the state of the game to determine … Czytaj dalej [English] Meta channel in RPG – Metagaming

Meaning of choices and outcomes in „Stranger in a Foreign Land”.

Oracle-like conflict resolution - like present in PbtA games - tend to show interesting outcomes, which may lead to unforeseen consequences. It's no different in my future game, "Stranger in a Foreign Land". I'll present you an example from my playests: a dire situation, where Player Character ("Foreigner") had been put into distress and made … Czytaj dalej Meaning of choices and outcomes in „Stranger in a Foreign Land”.

[English] Scrambled Eggs Play – TTRPG without heavyweight and burden

egg omelet photo by Amirali Mirhashemian (Unsplash) Some people do enjoy listening to someone's story. They prefer to act in character for the entertainment. Here were challenges, dungeons' and dragons' explorations, dramas and tragedies. But we calmed down and decided to take a rest. We put aside the GM's story about struggles. We carved out … Czytaj dalej [English] Scrambled Eggs Play – TTRPG without heavyweight and burden

[English] Resolution types in TTRPG

"Task vs Conflict Resolution" dichotomy aged badly. Original discourse from Big Model RPG referred to, how back in 25+ years ago various TTRPGs looked like. Back then, many mechanics and procedures indeed were mostly used to resolve one single thing, for one singular purpose ("Task"). Alternatively, an entire scene or encounter was framed into a … Czytaj dalej [English] Resolution types in TTRPG

[English] What PbtA Moves actually do resolve?

What Moves in games inspired by Apocalypse World ("PbtA movement") actually do? What's their goal? Do they resolve things or situations? Some time ago, Avery Alder discussed the topic by comparing Moves to "Task/Conflict Resolution" dychotomy. This made me think, however, in regard of "resolution" topic itself. After some discussions in my inner circle, I've … Czytaj dalej [English] What PbtA Moves actually do resolve?

[English] RPG Design #2 – Heist in October Rust

In this "RPG Design" part, I'll discuss how adventure structure for "October Rust" had been designed and changed throughout the project. It was due to playtest, over and over again, until I've found a one-shot model with worked kinda OK. I've mentioned couple bits of this topic in my previous article, about "Rust" in October … Czytaj dalej [English] RPG Design #2 – Heist in October Rust

[English] Six months of publishing games.

I've decide to share some thoughts about my venture into game design. Specifically, tabletop rpgs. Six months looks like a little adventure, but at least during this period I've released four small games in PDF. "It's not much", you may say. Three one-page RPGs and one 25-page one (with two supplements) can be still considered … Czytaj dalej [English] Six months of publishing games.

[English] Kingdom 2e – review

In the recent winter, Kingdom 2e (by Ben Robbins) had my interest. I've played four sessions. I considered this game as a personal challenge: This game really plays different. Not just how random-less framework works, but also what do you really do during your scenes... This is a review of Kingdom 2e - but of … Czytaj dalej [English] Kingdom 2e – review

[ENG] How FitD Engine makes the session via rolls?

Although Blades in the Dark does belong to the "Powered by the Apocalypse" movement, I think that it's an example on how much certain solutions might differ from original ideas of Apocalypse World. In this blogpost, I've analized type of rolls in BitD: how they work and why they're interesting. How do they work differently … Czytaj dalej [ENG] How FitD Engine makes the session via rolls?