Quarterling’s Corner

I’ve come up with what I think is an interesting and useful way of thinking about RPGs, but the seeds of it were planted in my head by an unlikely source. I was watching this GDC talk by Mick Gordon about how he created the music for Doom (2016). In it, he describes how his main instrument for the game was a simple sine wave — what he describes as the purest form of sound — filtered through four channels of machines that distort the “pure” sound into something industrial, noisy, and full of character. In a previous post , I described all RPGs as the product of different kinds of “creative constraints” upon play-pretend, which you might call the “purest form” of RPG. I listed various kinds of constraints, but this GDC talk made me think — what if I reorganized those constraints into four channels of distortion? Four channels through which you distort and shape the raw energy of play-pretend into something with a particular character? It turns out it maps pretty well to four channels. S...

I wrote this little White Box: FMAG hack over the course of the past few hours. I like how Spwack  posts little hacks straight to their blog, so I figured I'd try something similar. I basically just stripped down how Worlds Without Number does ability checks and simplified attacking to one roll. The non-standard attributes, combat order, and Difficult Movement rules come from my big WIP, Goblets & Grues . I might try using this to run OSE adventures and the like, who knows. Character Creation Roll 3d6 for your six attributes: Strength . Climb, swim, jump, push, pull, lift. Dexterity . Keep your balance, perform simple acrobatic stunts. Charisma . Persuade ambivalent NPCs, put on a charming or convincing performance. Craft . Create, tinker, repair, or operate. Stealth . Sneak, hide, perform sleight-of-hand. Survival . Hunt, track, forage, handle animals. Then, roll on whatever table the GM has handy for starting items. Task Resolution If your success at an action is uncertain a...

I. I've been working for a while now on a new game. Confusingly, I'm calling it G&G ( Goblets & Grues ), which is what my failed project from over a year ago was also called. What can I say? I really like the name. This is just a short post about a new mechanic I just added to the draft rules that I'm really excited to try out. So, the idea of this new G&G is to combine a focus on exploration and problem solving with a light emphasis on tactical combat. I miss 5E and how the differentiation of roles in combat makes every player feel important. How to marry these two things? The two approaches seem irreconcilable... "Combat as war" gameplay positions the uncertainty of combat as something to be mitigated or avoided entirely. "Combat as sport" gameplay positions the uncertainty of combat as the heart of the game: the fundamental thing you're supposed to have fun with. II. I would argue that there's a popular game series that has bee...