Sam Seer's Blog

Add the new RSS feed:  https://samseer.substack.com/feed Or subscribe on Substack:  https://samseer.substack.com *** This blog has been migrated to Substack. (It made sense to consolidate on a platform where you can send emails to subscribers, instead of relying on the RSS feed. Also, the text editor on Substack is just great.) I won't email new posts unless it's a special announcement. See you over there!

Have you heard  Tim B's interview with Dreaming Dragonslayer ? I've listened to it twice . Here's what Tim said that I can't stop thinking about (slight edits for clarity): "With an RPG, you have to think, okay, the players are going to be moving through space— what is the experience of one person in this story? Whereas with a social matrix game, you can think more about the story as a whole. Lull Astir  started in my head as a D&D scenario. There’s this exiled revolutionary and he’s being protected by this monastery. The monastery doesn’t want to give him up, but if they don’t give him up, then there could be this big war. And at first I was thinking: then I throw some adventurers in, right? And they have to go solve the problem. But I started to think: why are the adventurers here at all? Because the interesting conflict is not the conflict between the player characters and whatever monsters they’re going to fight in the dungeon. The interesting conflict is b...

Chris McDowall's Bastionland Podcast  is back and man is it good. If you haven't tuned in yet, here's the pitch in Chris's own words: "Each week, I'll talk to a new guest about three games that are important to them." I was thinking, "Man, I'd love to talk to Chris about this."  Haiku is now available in print, The Iron Coffin just got its second printing, and Planet Pulp— a "lost world" pulp adventure for Mothership—is in the works. But I have more design work to do before Chris will invite me on the show. So, I thought: why not make a blogpost about it? And why not invite everyone else to do the same? So, inspired by the ostrich-lord himself , I cordially invite you to join... a blogwagon: *** Blogwagon: [Your Name]'s Rule of Three Talk about three games that are important to you. The game can be anything: RPG, board game, video game, LARP, etc. Note that it's "important" to you, not necessarily your favorite o...

To cast a spell, you must have its text. Each spellbook is unique. There are no duplicates. Should you wish to cast Fireball (for example) you must find its current owner and, by force or guile, take it. * The origins of spells are medlied, their texts recorded in innumerable ways.  A spell might be carved on a piece of birch-bark by a long-dead druid.  Annotated across a dozen pages of vellum by an order of monks. Inscribed on a chunk of stone in pictographs by some ape-sage, pre-language.

I love the idea of rations in a survival fantasy RPG. A lone hunter on a mountainside, buffeted by the wind, turning a goat on a spit. A train of adventurers, retainers, and pack animals trekking across the badlands. So good. But, after playing Knave and Shadowdark for the last year and a half, carefully tallying rations, I’ve found it… not fun. And I'm bummed. I’m an OSR head! I’m supposed to love this gritty survival stuff! Yet, when I look down at my character sheet, I only have three experiences: Bored ("Yep, got rations.") Annoyed ("Nope, don’t have rations. Time to sideline this fun quest to go  forage .") Exasperated ("We have two mules loaded with rations. Do I really need to cross out 97 rations and write 92? Who TF cares?) How can I redesign rations to fit my beautiful, muddy, OSR dream? Rations, when designed well, should do the following: Create a sense of realism.  (Your Character is a living person— they have to eat.) Create more “surface ar...

When you meet someone for the first time, make a Reputation Check : roll 1d100 equal/under your High Score. On a success , they've heard of you. On a failure , they've never heard of you. On a critical success , they've heard of you—and they feel positively towards you. On a critical failure , they've never heard of you—and they feel negatively towards you. For example: Han Solo (High Score 35) walks into a cantina on the outer rim. He approaches the barman and rolls 1d100: 33. A critical success. "The Han Solo? Aren't you the madman who made the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs? I've got something special for you..." *** I think it's pretty delightful that High Score, as written, is totally non-mechanical. It's this wonderful, open socket waiting for you to plug something in. It also reinforces the entire tone of the game. When I Warden, I've started ending every session with this line: "And that's where we'll end for tonight. Everyon...

This is an OSR Pattern. If you haven't read one before, scroll to the bottom for some context! One, Two, or Three Exits A room with one exit is a dead-end; with two exits: a waypoint; with three exits: an interesting choice. Four or more exits is fatiguing, yet may have its place. Sometimes, you'll see a dungeon room that has way too many doors: The Temple of Elemental Evil (1985) This is uncomfortable for both the Referee and Players. The Referee has to communicate too much information at once. The Players have to comprehend too much information at once; they will ask for clarification now or later. People can hold 1-3 pieces of information in their mind at once. This is true for NPCs . It is true for quest hooks. And it is true for dungeon rooms. When placing exits, do so deliberately to manage cognitive load and pacing. A room with one exit is a dead-end . This is... A cognitive break, as the Players have reached a terminus. A tactical nightmare (no escape) or a fortifiable...

Running my first gold-for-XP game (well,  gold-or - XP  game) has me thinking about incentives. Specifically, what does gold-for-XP incentivize? Acquiring loot Doing jobs for pay Stealing Running a profitable business Avoiding things that don't pay Avoiding things that kill you Is this what I want my game to be about? No. I want my game to be about: Exploring the World ¹  Engaging with the World Following your interests By using XP, how might one incentivize this kind of game? Exploring: Give XP for locations visited and locations fully explored. Engaging: Give XP for completing quests, partnering with factions and NPCs, slaying beasts, developing your skills, doing daring and ambitious things. Following your interests: Give XP for completing personal quests. Do I  want  to  dictate  what my game is about? Of course. I don't want to play a game about running a business or managing a kingdom or waging war between armies. I don't mind if they're an el...

Rather than gold for XP, the Players choose: gold or XP.  That is, hauling the grave goods back to civilization and liquidating them is not enough to earn XP. You must then spend the funds. The only stipulation is that the way you spend the money cannot benefit you materially in anyway. You can't buy land, build a fort, or fund a powerful mercenary faction. You can do that, you just don't earn XP for it-- you earn those things. To squander the wealth and earn XP, you might: Carouse about town Give to a religious or educational institution Donate to museum Distribute it amongst the poor Bury the goods with a dead Player Character (Why is there so much loot in the earth? XP) Anything. You just can't benefit materially. The point is the Players must decide between advancing their Character (HP, stats, etc.) or advancing their assets (gear, reputation, relationships). Heroes of Might & Magic 3

I ran a one-shot of The Warren this weekend for my Dad and two of my sisters. It was my first time playing (or running the game) and, overall, it was a success. Here's the two big takeaways: The Worst Thing: Presenting the Mission These days, I think one-shots are best when there's a clear goal. So I presented a mission right away. Here's what I said:  Dusk is coming on when you hear a voice over the hill. 'Tu-lip! Ja-ack!' It's the Widow Opal, looking for her two lost rabbit kits. What do you do? Immediately, I felt the misstep. I presented it like a choice, but for the Players, it didn't feel like a choice. They felt they could either (A) accept the quest, or (B) derail the session I had planned. In an effort to course-correct, I told them it really was a choice and—because the map was robust and the Players were generous— they immediately chose a different action (steal cabbage from the garden). It turned out OK, but it was a valuable lesson. If I could ...

Next time you're running a combat encounter, try telling your Players this: A creative stunt will always do more damage than your weapon. A stunt is anything: cutting a chandelier, collapsing the roof, pushing off a ledge, choking with a grappling hook, etc. It just has to be creative. As for "more damage", it doesn't have to be game-breaking. Just increase their weapon die a step (d8 -> d10) or, if it's a wound-based system, increase damage by 1 wound. The important thing is that Players know they will be quantitatively rewarded for their creativity.  Are those doubts I hear? Now, I hear what you're saying: why would a chandelier do more damage than a tool literally made for bloodletting? Where's the goddamn verisimilitude ? And to that I say: I don't give a fuck! It's more fun this way! This is a way purer expression of the tabletop RPG medium because it capitalizes on tactical infinity. Plus, it reminds me of another unrealistic rule that...

As a design exercise, I've been messing around with a tabletop RPG of Skyrim. It's been really productive to get away from my preferences (d20, a few good rules, story-focused) into stranger design territory (d100, no attributes, many skills).  Along the way, I got thinking about a rule for Armor— Armor Pool You have a pool of HP and a pool of Armor. When you take damage, you lose Armor.  If your Armor is 0, you lose HP. Some damage— like critical hits, fire, and magic— bypass your Armor and you lose HP directly. During a rest, you can recover HP. But your Armor can only be repaired in a settlement. I like this because it's piecemeal, degrades, and dead simple to track. It also gives Players another reason to leave the dungeon (or wilderness) and visit town. That's it. It's a new idea to me, but I'm sure systems already use it. Let me know below.

As promised, we’re exploring Stamina as a dynamic alternative to HP. Stamina Instead of HP, you have Stamina. When you take damage, you can choose to spend any amount of Stamina to negate an equal amount of damage. Any remaining damage is subtracted from your CON score*. If your CON is 0, you die.  Burning Stamina In addition to negating damage, you can also burn stamina to: Do Something Extra. Carry extra weight, take a bonus action, perform a stunt. Gain Advantage. Before you make a roll, you can burn Stamina to add an equal amount to the die roll. Mitigate Failure. When you fail a roll— but before any damage is rolled— you can burn Stamina to add an equal amount to the failed die roll. If you succeed, there is a cost. Recovering Stamina & Constitution Stamina is your energy level and restores quickly: Short Rest: +d6 Stamina Eat Ration : +d6 Stamina Constitution (CON) is your physical health and restores slowly: Long Rest: +d6 CON / day Magic: As specified (Cure Wounds, et...

I’ve been thinking a lot about this post about stamina . You should read his entire post, but in short: stamina is a substitute for HP. You burn stamina to take actions— not just soak damage. I love the idea of HP as a resource pool that Players can choose to spend. After all, if HP is defined as “the ability to avoid injury”, then there’s an implicit choice every time a Player loses HP— they have chosen to spend their HP and avoid injury. What if we made this choice explicit? Revised HP (Stamina) A Player can choose to spend 1 stamina to do one of the following: Let’s see this in action with some examples of play: Examples of Play 1. Avoid Injury GM: The wild boar charges at you. Make a DEX save! PC: (Rolls DEX) Damn, I fail. GM: The boar has you down on the ground. It’s going to gore you with its tusks— roll on the Injury table. PC: Wait! I’m going to exert myself and roll into the undergrowth. GM: OK, you spend 1 stamina and avoid the Injury roll. 2. Do Something Extra GM: The sun ...

Some big changes to  Sellsword , a one-page OSR ruleset, recently and none of them necessitated by a playtest (though I’m eager to get it to table). In brief... 1. Overhauled the layout.  Old Butterick said Minion is a bad font choice because it’s an automatic font choice. As Calibri is to Word, Minion to Adobe. Except Adobe users are supposed to have their aesthetics about them, so it’s a graver sin. So, inspired by the 24XX games I went for a condensed sans serif, similar to Futura, but a little rounder. It’s Proxima Nova, and I’m sure Butterick would have his qualms.  I also replaced the Souvenir headings (another automatic font, pulled straight from classic D&D) with something more Western-tinged. But hopefully not too Western tinged. It’s a delicate, challenging, and fun balance between maximum readability and theme/flavor. At times like this, I’m jealous of Mothership. A game that’s set in the future feels like it has endless graphic design choices. And, ba...

This week I ran the second-ever session of  Sellsword , a one-page OSR ruleset. For an adventure, I used “Incident at Torn Throat Gorge”, a work-in-progress one-page adventure with an Old West flavor. In no particular order, here are my dominant takeaways: 1. Extend the “noob” stage. When I started playing Runescape in 2005, the most fun I ever had was playing on a free account, fishing for shrimp in Lumbridge and trying to get enough gold to buy a green cape. I was a noob. And the smallest things— like selling an inventory load of mined iron, or picking up 10 gp from a dead guard— mattered. That changed as I leveled up and gained more gold. As I leveled up, the percentage of the game that posed a challenge and offered value— that delivered joy — decreased. How might a game designer avoid this? I’ll be reflecting on this for a while I imagine. But off the top of my head, two things come to mind... First is Dark Souls. I’ve never played a Souls game, but my impression is that even t...

On Thursday night, I ran the first playtest of Sellsword , a one-page OSR ruleset. For an adventure, I used The Undying Flame of Gal-Bog , a one-page dungeon I wrote, inspired by this all-time classic illustration. In no particular order, here are my dominant takeaways: 1. Scenario drives Player behavior. Starting out dirt poor: the Players murdered an NPC for his hand-axe and sling. Starting out as strangers: one Player led two other Players into known danger. Playing as swords-for-hire: the Players were inclined towards chaotic-evil levels of violence. Is this a problem? Not necessarily. The game should incentive multiple types of problem-solving. If the ruleset makes Players feel they have choices, it works. The PvP conflict is an issue if the Players feel incentivized to kill one another endlessly; this brings the story to a standstill. 2. Action and resolution were in lockstep. It felt like the story was happening at the same speed as the game. Often, roleplaying games can feel ...

As I prep a one-shot of The Warren (the PbtA game about a colony of rabbits: yes, rabbits) I got to thinking about making a place "gameable".  What works in fiction does not work in tabletop RPGs. I can describe a meadow, sun-struck and brimming with bee buzz. It's unbearably green and the smell of the honeysuckle here at summer's peak is almost erotic. That's fun to read and fun to imagine. But try giving that to your RPG table: "OK, sounds nice. I lay down in the grass." "You lay down in the grass. It's green and itchy." "OK... I smell the flowers." "You smell the flowers. They smell so sweet." "Let's leave." What's missing is a game-able element. Why would a Player want to come here? Why would a Player not want to come here?  Every location needs both an opportunity and a threat. With these two elements, you create a push and a pull — tension— and promote meaningful risk-taking. Let's see som...