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TTRPG Tuesday: Clarity on the DOLLIE Extraction

Hahaha what up Google search results.  It’s me, something not relevant to your query, degrading your SEO. You most likely do not want to click this! Anyway, buckle up no one, it’s time for another TTRPG Tuesday.

So as I alluded to a couple of days ago, I finally scheduled a meeting with one Mr. Logan Dean, the designer of The Company RPG (and an all around good guy rough all around the edges).  It was an excellent chance to get some real clarity and re-calibration considering the wheels I’ve been spinning on this particular project.  I was heartened to learn that a lot of the work I’ve done so far is usable for the kind of scenario he’s looking for, and pleasantly surprised to learn that the target scope of the project is more manageable than what I’d been planning out.  If anything, it’ll behoove me to scale down a little, and I won’t have as many gaps to fill in.  Here’s my big takeaways from the meeting:

  • Scenario Target Scope: 2k words, 1.5hr – 2hr 
  • Think about how the scenario would play out if the players weren’t there
  • How is Drive incentivized? Challenges should have solutions for multiple roles
  • Err on the side of fun and beatable, and then layer unbeatable odds on top
  • Should not be TPK
  • Should be frustrating for people with executive dysfunction, but not frustrating for all audiences
  • They inevitably split up; What creates inter-team conflict?
  • Bog down one person and the team will naturally split up
  • When the hacking challenge is complete, the acknowledgement includes updated mission objectives or wrinkle
  • Break the map into six real sections, with each section tied to one Shepherdess

With all of that in mind, I think I can start work on a first draft, and I’ve got an October deadline, so I’m going with EOM September for the first draft.  Man am I glad I did all these TTRPG Tuesdays though; while I was approaching the point where I may have gotten lost in blind alleys, the work I did leading up to this point eliminated a lot of subpar or non-functional possibilities, and raised the stakes on the possibilities I’ve chosen to explore.  Thank goodness, for instance, I reached that crossroads on tone and genre, and hit on the coup as the unanticipated circumstances the players find themselves in.  That’ll help me flesh out what would happen if the players weren’t there, and that basic skeleton will help me to sketch the rest of the mechanics, chiefly the Signal Triangulation bit and the Turn in the Action that will put the players on the run.

Now, not everything I’ve written is going to fit or be applicable/necessary to a 2k chunk of text, but I think it will ultimately all serve a purpose, and cutting the reams of my freewrite down will be its own useful exercise.

All of this may kick off this week or next, but I mustn’t lose sight of the priority for these two weeks: Rehearsal Drafts of Other Rockpools.  So, now that I’ve got this taken care of for the week, I’ve got to go focus back in on that.  Til next week!

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