Many systems have shifted to using Ancestry in place of what used to just be Race. I understand the why, I've decided to use Lineage instead. I'm making a further distinction between Culture and Lineage. [...]
How Minimalism and Rules-Light Design are Defining the Future of TTRPGs TTRPG Design Discourse: Article 6 of 14 We've explored narrative-focused design and its emphasis on story over simulation. A natural companion to this philosophy [...]
A Note: I very much dislike math, calculations and fiddling with averages or ratios. Please forgive any glaring mistakes. In the last post we broke down some fairly basic combat mechanics. Now let's explore the [...]
Narrative-Driven Design in TTRPGs TTRPG Design Discourse: Article 5 of 14 Having explored the narrative versus tactical divide, we now deep-dive into narrative-driven design. These are systems where story isn't just flavor text for mechanics—it's [...]
Conflict is a very broad term for the intersection of opposing goals. Yes, it's often reflected as flashing swords, sizzling spells and plain old kill the opposition. Role-playing games have to emulate the chaos of [...]
Narrative-Driven vs. Tactical TTRPGs TTRPG Design Discourse: Article 4 of 14 In previous articles, we've examined actual play's cultural impact, the centrality of player agency, and cognitive load as a design constraint. Now we address [...]
Continuing with our quest for a crunchy but minimal mechanic system, let's establish the base for a character that will interact with the rules. Character creation is usually a pile of randomly generated or assigned [...]
Understanding Cognitive Load in TTRPGs TTRPG Design Discourse: Article 3 of 14 We've explored how actual play brings people to the hobby and the unique power of player agency that keeps them engaged. But there's [...]
AxiomRPG is a passion project. A group of old gamers trying to build something to share with the TTRPG community at large. Welcome to my weekly blog about developing a game system. The active diary [...]
Exploring the Power of Player Agency in TTRPGs TTRPG Design Discourse: Article 2 of 14 In our previous article, we examined how Actual Play has transformed TTRPGs into mainstream entertainment. But what draws millions to [...]
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