Skip to main content

Exercise Results: Sucess! For Amberlodge

A short post today as it’s been a long-ass week and I’ve got a packed schedule for tomorrow so I’m trying to conserve energy.  EDIT: I didn’t get this written in time, and now it’s somehow Sunday again.  Hooray for Time, #1 Bastard Extraordinaire.

I did indeed attempt what I set out to do in my last post: I sat down (on the floor!) with my iPad hanging off a chair above me, all my utterly un-matching example components before me, and last month’s playlist in my ears, and I talked to myself and played, building as I went, for a couple of turns, which took about 40 minutes, though my attempt to record myself only captured about 23 minutes of that, because iPad stupid.  It was weird, it felt foolish, and it was still kind of fun, and definitely useful in terms of showing me where the gaps between presumption and reality were.  Some key takeaways:

  • Four actions per turn does not feel like a lot, particularly if you have to spend an action to move things, which feels profoundly unsexy.
  • On the flip side, 12 full months to every round feels very long.  Is there a world where I increase the length of each turn / decrease the breakdown? Four seasons is easy, but feels TOO simplified.  How about… Instead of the twelve months, do six two-month sections? Heart of Winter, Early Spring, Late Spring, Height of Summer, Early Autumn, Late Autumn
  • The processor cards need to have their [input accepted amounts] updated to accommodate the proper amounts.  Specifically, a brewing vat that requires 20% sugar needs to be able to accept a lot of 1 sugar and 4 water, because if it specifically requires 2 sugar and 8 water, but a maple tree only ever gives out 1 sugar and 9 water per production, you have to refine AND combine lots in order to meet the processing requirement.  Simplify the ratio, least common denominator.
  • Slots need to be further elaborated on.  Because time should be as much of a challenge as it currently is, but also more of an ally.  I need to have slots that can only be filled in by actions (this unexplored land won’t discover itself), slots that can only be filled in by time (you can’t make wine age faster), and slots that can be both (water evaporates slowly over time, but can be sped up if you expend the energy on an evaporator)

Not a bad amount of data to come out of such a simple exercise.  And I’m certainly glad that I didn’t build everything before making these realizations.  What a fuck in the face that would have been.  I need to adjust my to-do lists accordingly, and keep building as I go.  A very useful and fruitful reminder.

So much for a short post! That’s it for this week, see you in the week that starts in five and a third hours.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TTRPG Tuesday: Three Means Of Resolving

Hi it’s another TTRPG Tuesday! First of the year.  Let’s get right into it. Saw a challenge on Twitter to make some resolution mechanics.  I can do those! Here we go: Hand to Hand The player performing the action and the person running the game or otherwise opposing the action both put their dominant fists toward one another, bounce them three times to get a rhythm, and reveal a number with their fingers, 0-5.  Sum the two numbers, and if the number is greater than 5, subtract six, so that the final number is always between 0 and 5.  On a 0, the action fails catastrophically, on a 1-2 it fails, 3-4 it succeeds, on a 5 it succeeds spectacularly.  The player taking the action starts the game with all five fingers up on their non-dominant hand; after an attempt, they may lower fingers on that hand to add to the sum of the attempt. Ex. Alice attempts to seduce Cat’s character over to the coup conspirators.  They put their dominant hands together (right for ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Building My First Deck in Tabletop Simulator

Well well, a new week.  How original.  I had an idea for a possible Mechanic Monday but it turned out to just be Stratego.  C’est la vie! (Although maybe it could still work if the forces weren’t all set in stone, and player’s had a limited number of reserve forces that they could secretly commit prior to each combat, and also instead of larger forces wiping out smaller ones, they would deal the difference in force sizes as damage) (Also note to self: Each player starts with a different hidden amount of VP/Currency that they have to pay (plus interest) at game’s end, as a way to truly hide who’s in the lead.) Anyway it’s Wednesday, so there’s no time for any of THAT stuff.  Today, I’m going to kvetch informatively about Tabletop Simulator. So, TTS is, near as I can tell, an incredibly powerful and useful tool.  It’s also absolute ass to parse, as someone coming to it cold.  The official guides are largely unhelpful for the designers whose experience is limi...
Post a Comment
Read more

TTRPG Tuesday: The Secret Calendar

Welcome back to TTRPG Tuesday! Have I done any this year? Looks like no! On pace to be a pretty low-posting year I guess. Today I actually have a full-fledged one pager TTRPG to share.  I was listening to a Ludology with Camilla Zamboni as the guest and was inspired by her collection Roll for Learning.  The Secret Calendar came to me pretty much fully formed as I walked and listened to the episode, though I do want to acquire RfL to get layout inspo. Anyhow, the first draft can be found HERE .  I think this could be a fun activity for students (was also thinking of Wolfenoot) and maybe I’ll publish it or submit it at some point. Okay I’m out of practice so that's it buh bye!
Post a Comment
Read more