It’s super fucken late, but I’m gonna try (day of, nothing pre-written!) to get out a M-M-Mechanic Monday! Thanks for tuning in loyal listeners, despite my radio silence last week. It was the opening night of my theatre’s latest show, and to say that I had my hands full is putting it laughably mildly. But that sucker’s open, time to turn my thoughts back toward game design. Been working hard pretty much every free moment I can steal at work (where I have access to Microsoft Word, because ghetto fab baby) to work on refining the rules for Fantasy GM Squared and getting a prototype ready. I’m gonna burn my damn eyes out, what with tryna do that ON TOP OF the massive amount of files I’m reviewing as the busy season hits at work. But c’est la vie! I’m trying to get some mindless copy-paste-formatting stuff done here at home tonight (although it would have been better to have had the mouse and both screens for this task), and the last thing I’ve been fiddling with is special abilities (remember, from a couple weeks back? I think?), and I figured today I’d write a little something about a design lesson that hasn’t stuck, but I keep learning it so maybe it’ll eventually take up permanent residence in my brain.
Situational vs Ubiquitous Powers
In Fantasy GM Squared, your cards have special abilities. A few of them trigger only under certain circumstances, but most give you a great deal of leeway as to when and how to use them.
Yeaaaaah, there’s a lot that’s weird about this week. For one thing, I said I’d stop writing about Fantasy GM Squared for a bit; for another, that’s not your typical rule description. But like I said, it’s something I always forget until I’m forcibly reminded of it: Open up the player decision space, instead of creating situational effects that make the decisions for them.
I was super bad about this from jump; in Cowl & Mask, I originally had powers that read something like “if x, then y”, and I’ve been making the same mistake ever since. Up until recently, a FO ability in Fantasy GM Squared read “When you win the MASK category, steal one VP from another player”. There were an entire set of such abilities, all following the “When you win the [type] category, [thematic reward]”. The trouble is, that having so many cards like that dictated strategy too much. If an ability is super-situational and only grants you a reward if you meet certain conditions, particularly early on if it’s your only ability, you’ll most likely live or die based on whether you can set up those conditions. Whereas a card that says “Once per Season, you may [take special action]” allows you to choose which circumstances you wish to be favourable. Now, that original FO ability reads “Thief Mastery: When you win a Category, steal 1VP from another player”. Now the situational parameters have opened up; and for the record, I did leave the situational language on ONE of the Mastery cards, because it’s fine to have a *few* situations you can try and work toward. It’s more when the ENTIRETY of your decision space gets dictated by your reward path that that becomes a problem. When it’s just a moonshot extra point to go after? Maybe you’ll try to work it into your plan, but it won’t be your entire plan.
Alright, it’s gotten late, and I didn’t quite articulate everything I wanted to say, but it’s a start and I dinnae have time to edit. Posting this thing and then wrapping up my work for the night. Christ almighty I need to get some sleep.
Til next time! Thanks for stopping by for another - M-m-mechanic Monday!
Situational vs Ubiquitous Powers
In Fantasy GM Squared, your cards have special abilities. A few of them trigger only under certain circumstances, but most give you a great deal of leeway as to when and how to use them.
Yeaaaaah, there’s a lot that’s weird about this week. For one thing, I said I’d stop writing about Fantasy GM Squared for a bit; for another, that’s not your typical rule description. But like I said, it’s something I always forget until I’m forcibly reminded of it: Open up the player decision space, instead of creating situational effects that make the decisions for them.
I was super bad about this from jump; in Cowl & Mask, I originally had powers that read something like “if x, then y”, and I’ve been making the same mistake ever since. Up until recently, a FO ability in Fantasy GM Squared read “When you win the MASK category, steal one VP from another player”. There were an entire set of such abilities, all following the “When you win the [type] category, [thematic reward]”. The trouble is, that having so many cards like that dictated strategy too much. If an ability is super-situational and only grants you a reward if you meet certain conditions, particularly early on if it’s your only ability, you’ll most likely live or die based on whether you can set up those conditions. Whereas a card that says “Once per Season, you may [take special action]” allows you to choose which circumstances you wish to be favourable. Now, that original FO ability reads “Thief Mastery: When you win a Category, steal 1VP from another player”. Now the situational parameters have opened up; and for the record, I did leave the situational language on ONE of the Mastery cards, because it’s fine to have a *few* situations you can try and work toward. It’s more when the ENTIRETY of your decision space gets dictated by your reward path that that becomes a problem. When it’s just a moonshot extra point to go after? Maybe you’ll try to work it into your plan, but it won’t be your entire plan.
Alright, it’s gotten late, and I didn’t quite articulate everything I wanted to say, but it’s a start and I dinnae have time to edit. Posting this thing and then wrapping up my work for the night. Christ almighty I need to get some sleep.
Til next time! Thanks for stopping by for another - M-m-mechanic Monday!
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