Ludus Novus 011: Written in Blood
In this podcast, I discuss the player-author contract. An interactive work sets up a trust between the player and the work’s author. This takes the form of a contract which, when violated, can cause...
View ArticleExploiting the Rules
There’s a certain class of player behavior in tabletop RPGs and LARPs that often causes issues. It’s when a player notices a way to be really good at something. There are two ways this is done, and...
View ArticleGames As Simulation
Games are simulations. Games take a set of rules describing how things work, and they apply those rules to a world state to determine how that world changes over time. Sometimes the rules are very...
View ArticlePO(r)TA(l)T(w)O
Valve Software advertised their release of Portal 2 using an Alternate Reality Game, or ARG. A series of puzzles led to a game that encouraged players to play a set of indie games in order to release...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Unsettling Uncertainty in the Stanley Parable
Years ago I wrote a piece on the original mod version of The Stanley Parable.1 It’s since been remade and released as a for-sale title with very high production values, which I got just after release....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Helping RPGs Play Themselves
A big secret of tabletop RPG design is that roleplaying games play themselves. Get the right group of people together and they’ll have fun telling a good story, regardless of which edition of which...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hopping Numbers in Pocket Frogs
I love it when games wear their math on their sleeves. I also like when games are based on real-life systems, even when those systems are twisted or simplified for the purposes of smoother design....
View Article
