Velocimancer Games

Today’s Mechanic Monday is about Conflict Chips! I’ve always made fun of opposed rolls in RPGs, specifically d20’s and the natural 20 auto-succeed. Like I always picture someone standing in front of a skyscraper and going, “I want to jump over this thing, and there’s a 5% chance I will.” It’s a bonkers implication, and also, 20 sides is just SO MUCH variance, especially when 90% of that variance could mean the difference between meeting or falling short of a static target, and 10% of it represents a complete departure from how the other results compare to the target. It’s also guilty of a sin that’s very much under the popular microscope right now: output randomness. You do all your decision making, and then you roll the die to see if you succeed, fail, super-succeed, or super-fail? Good luck, I guess? I think there’s a reason so many mechanics have sprung up to mitigate die rolls - key points, luck points, guaranteed re-rolls, etc. But luck mitigation only goes so far, and the...

What a laughably ambitious title.  A new regular segment, for my regularly updated blog! Although this is my third post of the year, with two whole months yet to go.  What progress! What brilliance! Where am I these days with games? Hmm.  Well I just submitted Birch Crown , Cowl & Mask , and Oases to the Board Game Workshop's Design Contest.  Things didn't go quite as planned (none of the three moved past the first round, and I'm a trifle salty that the judging criteria weren't quite what I expected them to be) but the feedback was mostly useful, and it was a learning experience.  I don't begrudge the entry fee.  But those three, plus D.I.E. Interceptor , are pretty much in a solid state, if kind of shelved for the moment.  I'm happy with where they are, and in no rush to do the concentrated playtests that would be the next stage of development.  Also, they're all a bit fiddly, and not necessarily that fun to actually play.  Which is obv...