Worlds of Design

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Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Drought!
I’ve written about plague in world-building, now it’s time to discuss droughts. Extended drought, and consequent famine, is a common major reason for the failure of empires and civilizations.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: The Plight of the New RPG—Quality of Writing
Some small publisher/self-published RPG rule sets suffer from poor grammar and syntax. Some RPG creators need someone to edit their writing for quality of communication as well, especially for clarity—rules are no good if the reader cannot understand them.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Quality vs. Quantity of RPG Play
I tend to evaluate games beginning with the assumption that most published games are played only one to three times before gamers move on to the next game. This is a consequence of the thousands of new tabletop games published every year - among other things.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Making an Adventure “Believable”
How believable is your world? Or to put it another way, how much must players suspend their disbelief to enjoy the game?
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Improvising the Adventure
When it comes to gamemastering, are you focused on improvising the world or making it believable? Let’s discuss the first.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Playtest Your Games
It’s one thing to write for RPGs and another to write RPG rules. And one of those differences is playtesting.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Peaceful Solutions to Violent Problems
How can we provide non-violent means of resolving conflicts with monsters and NPCs in RPGs?
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: The Destination, Not the Journey?
Leveling is an integral part of fantasy role-playing games in all its forms RPGs, but it wasn't always that way. How did we get here?
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Plot Twists vs. Deux Ex Machina
Plot twists in a story can surprise the reader, but they need to be believable, to derive from what came before. Deux Ex Machina, on the other hand, is poison, breaking immersion and possible annoying the players.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Stages of Your Hero's Journey
In RPG campaigns the characters often move through several stages of life as they increase their capabilities (and responsibilities). We don’t see this in one-shot adventures, yet distinct stages generally improve game designs.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Heroes … Made or Born?
Where do heroes come? Some are destined from birth to be heroes, while others rise to the occasion. Your RPG system of choice likely determines which you get to play.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: To Design or Publish?
Tabletop game publishing is a big step to take, but the reality is it's very difficult for an unknown designer to get a game accepted by an established publisher. So what’s a designer to do?
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: 5 More Military Strategy Tips for Your PCs
This is a continuation of a discussion from last time. Remember, strategy is what you do long before a battle takes place, and tactics is what you do in and during a battle. But I'm not going to differentiate between those two as we talk about the various gameplay tips because it's not necessary in this context.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Tough Times at the Top
I’ve always thought that combat-oriented Dungeons & Dragons-style tabletop role-playing games become less fun to play as characters reach double-figure levels of power. Here’s why, and how to fix it.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Same Humanoids, Different Forehead
Fantasy role-playing games, like the Star Trek television series, can sometimes suffer from a lack of differentiation between humanoid species with only slight tweaks to their appearance.
Worlds of Design 
Worlds of Design: Human vs. Superhuman
The second season of The Mandalorian helped me realize that functional versus emotional modeling applies to both Star Wars and tabletop role-playing games.

This Week in TTRPG

Reviews

OSR  Reviews 
The Knave And The Bold
Knave 2e offers great resources for any OSR style game.
OSR  Reviews 
Take The Long Way Round To Ragged Hollow
A great small sandbox for old school gaming.
Other Games  Reviews 
My Favorite Picks From Unnatural Selection For Shadowdark
Increases the magical nature of Shadowdark.
Other Games  Reviews 
Distress Signals Highlight Why Space Is Trying To Kill You
Space stations, pirates, and fungi make a mix of horror and adventure.

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons 
Royal Mail D&D 50th Anniversary Stamps
The UK's Royal Mail is following the US Postal Service in releasing 50th Anniversary D&D stamps.
Dungeons & Dragons 
Your Money Or Your Life
Tell him no if you like—just be ready for the unexpected if you do.
Dungeons & Dragons 
D&D Historian Benn Riggs On Gary Gygax & Sexism
D&D historian Ben Riggs delved into the facts.
Dungeons & Dragons 
2024 Player's Handbook reveal: "New Monk"
"Largely a new class!"
Dungeons & Dragons 
3 Puzzles Ready For The Table
Give your players some puzzles they can really get a grip on.
Dungeons & Dragons  Other Games 
Moria Through the Doors of Durin Pre-Orders Open
Free League’s campaign for The One Ring and Lord of the Rings 5e coming in August

Industry News

Industry 
Applications Open for GAMA's Horizons Fellowship
DEI grants for publishers and retailers open for applications
Industry 
Moonbeam Seeks to Take on Twitch as TTRPG Streaming Service
Backerkit crowdfunding for new community streaming service is live
Industry 
2024 ENNIE Nominations
The ENNIE Awards are pleased to announce this year's nominees.
Industry 
Roll20 Hacked, Customer Information Possibly Exposed
A third party may have accessed customer names, emails, IP addresses, and last 4 digits of CC#s

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