Tue, 30 June 2009 On this fiftieth episode of Master Plan, Ryan talks with Paul Tevis about text production and his new book, A Penny For My Thoughts. Given that Ryan worked with Paul on the game by developing and editing it, it’s not a standard interview -- they talk about it as insiders sharing a bit about creating the project with fans, especially over some of the pitfalls and issues they ran into together. After the interview, a few people wish Ryan well on achieving his fiftieth episode, and he shares his thoughts on the future of the show. A Penny For My Thoughts:
Running time: 32:04 / File size: 22.0M Discuss this episode on the forums |
Fri, 19 June 2009 Ryan sits down for another episode, this one kicking off a series about pacing mechanics. To start off, he talked about there being some broad, different types of pacing mechanics, and focuses on one in particular: the "refresh scale" mechanics -- those that happen then resources are expended in order to regain them. This idea traces back to old school D&D, but people have done interesting things with it since -- including the recent edition of D&D and Dirty Secrets. To end, he talks a touch about a pitfall with designing these mechanics that he ran into when working on Mythender and urges others to consider avoiding. Games Mentioned:
Running time: 25:45 / File size: 17.7M Discuss this episode on the forums |
Thu, 4 June 2009 On this episode, Ryan sits down with Chad Underkoffler about designing setting (and, in some respects, writing in general) with his latest release, Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies. They touch on how the setting for this setting-rich book was conceived, fleshed out, and trimmed down to aim the right information at the play group. Afterward, Ryan tells you to check out Paul Tevis' A Penny For My Thoughts, because he's frankly damned proud of the work and thinks it makes for a great case study for one school of thought in design. Chad Underkoffler: Other Mentions:
Running time: 29:59 / File size: 20.6M Discuss this episode on the forums |
Tue, 12 May 2009 After an unintended hiatus, Ryan's back with an episode about something near and dear to his heart -- thinking about the tangible qualities that mechanics have. He talks about how people should be looking at what their mechanics are causing players to do with their hands, because it's in that space where some people are better able to connect with the game. After giving an overview of the idea, he discusses four games and how they use this idea in their mechanical design. Games Mentioned:
Running time: 26:40 / File size: 18.4M Discuss this episode on the forums |
Wed, 25 March 2009 On this episode, we continue the discussion with Josh Roby about making epic-scale games, with the third of three points: respect, from the point of view of a game respecting its own epic conceit and NPCs respecting epic-scale PCs. Josh also gives an interesting answer to Ryan asking about how his previous master plan is coming along. Afterward, Ryan talks about "the power of names" -- exploring an idea that the names we give terms in our games have a dramatic impact to how well they're understood, illustrated by two counter-examples he's recently come across in other games and one in Mythender. Josh Roby:
Running time: 21:44 / File size: 15.0M Discuss this episode on the forums |