I’ve been thinking about the way combat runs in most of the RPGs I’ve played, and while pretty good, isn’t quite what I want. This leaves me thinking about when it’s time for throwing out a good game element for a better game element.
The majority of roleplaying game systems I’ve played use a game mechanic for resolving combat that’s built on the general rules presented in the original Dungeons & Dragons. Combatants take turns rolling “to hit” their opponent, if they roll higher than the defence value of their …

Yesterday’s post about Designing Game Addiction in the 21st Century brought up some interesting discussion around ways in which people find games enjoyable and when something is fun, work, or just a mind-numbing distraction.
This got me thinking about why game designers choose to add elements to a game. What makes someone decide adding some new rule, system, or component will make a game better than it currently is?
Here are some of my thoughts on the topic. Despite the format, I’m sure there are other reasons I haven’t included and …

In a recent interview with The Escapist, Andy Collins and Liz Schuh from Wizards of the Coast talked a bit about how their game designers looked at a variety of other types of games for lessons, the “most obvious” being online games like World of Warcraft.
This seemed like a reasonable approach to take, after all a lot of people who’re playing a D&Desque MMORPGs might enjoy a D&D RPG as well. Doing things to make the game more familiar to someone with a background in playing online games would seem …

Thanks to everyone who entered our Design A Dungeon Room Contest, and a special thanks to all the people who helped out with the judging!
It was a lot of fun seeing the different entries come in, and the wide variety of approaches to a “Dungeon” adventure that they represent. Some people focused on Traps & Tricks, others interesting NPCS, and some on challenging combat scenarios. We had entries for a range of different types of games from “Old School” D&D and Tunnels & Trolls, to 4th Edition D&D.
With more …

Before I head out with my homemade RPG book to read in public, I wanted to remind everyone that today is GM’s day. This means that a lot of RPG publishers are having sales, like RPGNow which has 25% off hundreds of different titles. I think I might get the PDF of The Dungeon Alphabet which I’ve been hearing very good things about.
Of course the reason for today being GM’s day is that it was two years ago that Gary Gygax passed away.
In addition to all the books …