if you don’t make a deal with a hag, is it even a play session

I try to be pretty welcoming of any and all character premises, but my hot take is that “doesn’t want anything” and/or “doesn’t care about anything” are characters that are almost 100% doomed to drag down both that player and the whole table

This may be controversial, but I’m a huge fan of yellow paint everywhere! Help me get to the next point! Don’t assume I’m not horrifyingly lost! But I’m also a gamer who has bounced off countless games because it’s not really clear what I’m supposed to do next…

am i…am i looking at dragon eggs

This is a really great retrospective, thank you for writing and sharing it!

laurie, this is so amazing! thank you for making this (and sharing it)

you’ve gotta start somewhere?

“so far only one beheading” is such a phrase

eagerly following this, i constantly am thinking/worrying about this

Ooh, I’d really be interested in that!

always!!! 💓💓💓

ugh, that’s really frustrating

I imagine a piece of this is discoverability; there are plenty of companies that don’t care how bad it looks, they go after small creators all the time, but if they can’t easily find proof of your infringement (eg a social media post of your sold Pikachu art), they are less likely to take action.

um

I think this is totally true, but I still have anxiety that I’m in some way shutting a door on someone by not starting from the very beginning with everything, which I know is counterproductive (it would add a ton of pages to every single game I make!).

This is a balance I wrestle with a lot as a writer and designer. I consider it critical to not even implicitly gatekeep by assuming understanding that would stymie first-timers, but I don’t want to lose the richness and depth that many players and GMs (rightfully!) expect from a game.

evergreen post