The Gaming Den

Hi guys. What exactly ARE the mathematical and statistical analysis techniques that we're talking about? What is the procedure for going about each of them? How much academic knowledge of statistics is required? What kind of computational and software resources are needed? How much playtest data, a...

Long-time lurker, first-time poster here. So, I'm working on some homebrew material, and right now I'm grappling with mechanics. Mostly, I'm considering whether I can bend an existing system to suit my needs, or if I want to hack something together from scratch just for the mathematical rush. I'm l...

I could try. Suppose you want to play a character that is really good at tracking (maybe something like a D&D ranger). If there are no solid rules for how tracking works in the game you are playing, such as what you roll, what the DCs are, or what character resources you spend (eg feats, skills...

As a separate issue, rules are empowering even if Mister Cavern isn't a dick. If the rules say I can do something then I can. If they say I can't I can't. If they don't address the issue then it depends on whether Mister Cavern thinks it is a reasonable thing for me to do. This means that my charac...

As of 2012, there's a new attempt in Scandinavian academia to create a community of scholarly exchange on RPG theorising that mostly ignores Ron E ever existed. They even have their own peer reviewed journal. I find the material very pedestrian, but it's certainly off to a promising start. I've rea...

How its played is irrelevant for such an analysis. What matters is how its meant to be played, which is solely informed by the game text and rules. I my view the analysis of game should take into consideration of what it was supposed to do versus how it all ended up to be. This can be found from de...

There is plenty of discussion and work on games and theories of gaming. I've read more than few as part of my day job. A good example of early Scandinavian work about these issues (eclectic mix of RPG enthusiastics and academics pondering these issues) is in here: http://www.ropecon.fi/brap/ I am no...

Few weeks back I was chatting with one game designer and question of immersion came up so I thought out this is something worth discussing. Role-playing games do not have rules that make players to role play. Role playing is a voluntary activity that comes from immersion of Player to game being play...

And I bet you that more people have heard of DnD then about Warhammer, even though Warhammer (GW) is much more successful then DnD in the last 10-15 years. D&D has suffered dearly from the problem that its movie rights are contested (and probably will be for few more years as the related court ...

How can we measure if a RPG has failed or succeeded in the industry ? What are the indicators ? Is it popularity ? Critical acclaims ? Making money ? Abit of each ? Another factor entirely ? Ultimately any company exists to make profit for its owners. This means that monetary success is the core co...

I do not see The Gaming Den offering any useful service to anyone planning to become a game designer. Any person actually interested in such a job should read instead good books on the subject (there are plenty) and visit forums filled with skilled professionals (such as gamasutra.com and gamedev.ne...

I don't get it. 5e is a prominent market player and effectively a market leader. They have so far done everything right. They got tons of cheap publicity on initial release. Now they got everyone talking about them (creating free marketing) and staggered release supports this perfectly (whetting ap...

Any adventure can be set as a conflict that characters must solve. Determination whether or not do anything depends on players' free will. Thus all adventure design need to take into account motivation of players to carry out adventure. Thus it is important to get players interested in going to adve...

One possibility I have often seen is to use something like 1D20 or 3D6 as RNG and then add that a natural die roll of 1 and 20 or 3 and 18 are always failure and success.

I believe that most RPG publishers are not certain enough of their manhood that they dare to give out actual sales data, especially sales volume.

It would show true pettiness of business side of this hobby and thus reduce their importance to nothingness.

There is one game designer who is well worth reading if you wish to think game theories: Greg Costikyan. While he has not put up any formal theory as his own (he works as consultant) he has put a lot of thought to what games are about and mechanisms that make them work. If you really wish to have a ...

I agree, Nikita. I just would like to see how the Bartle theory relates to roleplaying games, and specially how it compares to roleplaying-originating theories like the threefold model, for example. Most of the real player theory work always seems to match Bartle's work and and Keirsey's temperamen...

The reason why player types are important is that they form basis of commercial game design. In essence you need to choose who you cater and then make the game rules to please that group (or multiple groups). They are also important in determining which group(s) are NOT to be targeted. The target au...

I would say that serious player type theory thinking is all based on Bartle and his work. It is the one I use in my teaching. Interesting. Could you point me to some online source of info ? Ive found very little through google. Thanks. You have not heard of Richard A. Bartle? I am VERY surprised. H...

Thats interesting, Nikita. But notice that even (roleplaying) gaming theory itself may change from crowd to crowd. Ie: whats your crowd preferred one ? Robin Laws stances (73% method-actor, 10% tactician, etc), rec.advocacy Threefold Model (Gamist, Dramatist, Simulationist), Ron Edwards Big Model, ...

silva wrote:I think acknowledging there are clearly different gaming styles and mindsets is the first step. ?

Well, the gaming theory is quite well defined since early 1980's and current studies agree that we have 4 major player stereotypes.

I made following race when I was quite young (this was in 1990's). They looked a bit like swans (I see them every year in a nearby lake). My idea was that they were birds who had evolved to a higher intelligence. Subsequently they had learned to write (they used words which were actually signs build...

I was quite surprised to learn that since my character comes from one of the five giant interstellar empires (Lyran Commonwealth) locked in eternal war she is also either coward or someone who can be punched out with a couple of blows. Additionally all nobles in background are soft and have same pro...

ATOW's first problem lies in fact that game works on principle that you pay points for equipment and status/wealth/rank. Thus you have a noble woman or assault mech pilot with tremendously poor stats while they are nominally best and brightest of the lot... and this in a game where you are supposedl...

First and foremost surprise should be highly effective because most street fights are over in first few punches. Thus hit points are probably not an issue either in melee combat system. I also think that hit points in general do not really work as those people I've spoken to about sword play think t...