Thread by @strasa, Wanted to take a moment to talk about designing RPGs inside a [...]

Wanted to take a moment to talk about designing RPGs inside a set of very tight constraints. In this case it was geared towards a high traffic channel, with players not being familiar with RPGs. (Thread) https://twitter.com/SpenserStarke/status/1336403189164199937

https://twitter.com/SpenserStarke/status/1336403189164199937

For some context: @SpenserStarke works for a brand company that deals with esports players, streamers, etc and focuses on content generation. We were working on something else together (there are robot dinosaurs involved ^_~) when this came up.

I think @SpenserStarke can talk more about what it took to convince them to make a custom system, but at the point that he talked to me he already had a set of creative constraints, and had come up with some excellent ideas.

Here's a few things that were boxed out:

The system had to use a full set of dice (d4-d20)

Must take < 10 mins to teach/start playing.

Cannot require previous RPG knowledge

Can't use many components (for filming purposes)

Requirements (cont):

Rules should be comprehensible to audience

Should be Cyberpunk themed for SEO reasons

Should be hackable for future themes/games

I also took a moment to figure out what the company was about (took a look at their apparel and add lines) and added some of these elements to the requirements. If you're making a cyberpunk game style can play a big part. ^_~

This is where things get interesting. There are things we as gamers consider "quick" that aren't when you're on the clock for filming. There are things we consider relatively simple that aren't—as rpg players we've simply internalized the details by repetition and practice.

For example: PbtA playbooks with all the info you need to make a character are quick compared to having to digesting a 300 page book with chapters of talents in order to make one. But reading 2 pages of text in silence to make characters, is not great on camera.

Our mantra became:

Make it simpler, but still rewarding and meaningful.

Make it faster.

So let's talk about a few choices in that context.

One of the things we decided early was to cheat (welcome to game design). Info dumps are hard for audience and players to parse ... but if you make setting creation is part of the game, it becomes fun and interactive on stream ^_~ (credit goes to @SpenserStarke here)

Rather than do moves (more reading, context specific) we went with a core system that has to only be taught once. We converted the Blades Controlled/Risky/Desperate into bands (akin to PbtA) and I ran the numbers for each of the die-sets you could assemble.

This actually required a few things. The d20 is a bad die for bands like that when used as a "step" from the others (the jump from d12 to d20 is too big) so I found reasons to have it in the game, but move it off of the relative position of the other dice.

I tied it to GM tables (GM support is important when you're on camera) and a special player "big move" which then generated the fiction about masks (tiny bit of world backstory).

Once we had the core system down (you roll a move and an applicable edge, and try to hit a band) we had to go back to our criteria and mantra (how do you teach the game) and the answer here for us was graphic design. (Special apologies to Spence who learned inDesign mid-process)

Early on we realized that complex math is bad. You don't want to roll+37 on something. People learning dice notation (2d6+1d8+3) and staring at the ceiling doing math on camera isn't great. So we agreed to keep it down to 2 dice at the core (I'll talk about BRAVE dice later).

To teach the players what to roll we used visual tricks. To prompt the players on which dice to use (credit to @SpenserStarke who came up with this) we put the dice ON THE PAGE during play. You literally match die shape to a space, and pick up the dice from the page.

So you don't need to know which die is the d8, if you're rolling MOVE and the d8 is next to that word, you grab that die, and put it back.

There's probably also some room here to talk about edges, and how we use fictional terms to let people pick up dice (classic indie-rpg tech like Lady Blackbird) which means that without memorizing powers folks are bringing in the fiction and style of their characters.

Ok. Next up. Let's talk about probability, viewership, and fickle dice.

Reality #1: people tune in to see their favorite streamers do cool stuff.

Reality #2: Sometimes you just roll a bunch of bad rolls, and it's tough to look cool.

Reality #3: Folks watch movies. They're used to the Hollywood danger->hardship->overcome->success model.

So one other system element here is BRAVE dice. They're similar to fate chips, or tokens in Dream Askew style games. If you roll a miss you get a d6 to bank, which you can add to any roll. This is also how you "help"—you can donate these to other folks.

So if things go somewhat poorly, you also get this reservoir of edge you can add to succeed post-roll. It also taps into that blades "oh no, something bad happened, but wait I can resist" mojo.

It plays really well on stream. Watch how tense things get on a miss and how everyone leans in as that extra d6 is rolled and folks are hoping it'll make the difference.

These became ENERGY dice in the cyberpunk variant for product placement, which made me laugh because that's also the most cyberpunk thing I can think of.

Let me wrap this specific thread by saying, working on this was super interesting, but seeing new gamers pick it up quickly, and the amazing animations and stuff their channel added was awesome.

I'm sure @SpenserStarke probably has TONS of potential writeups on stuff I wasn't privy to—like filming, editing, those cool animations they added, working with talent etc. ^_~ So make sure to follow him if you aren't already.

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