In which Eddy, Dixie, and Matthew throw together an emergency extra-long episode using listener questions and a game design panel from Save Against Fear!
* EMERGENCY EPISODE
* Introductions from the panel
* What’s the process when you start to design a game?
* When do you reinvent the wheel or reskin something else?
* The X-Card and other safety mechanisms
* How do you merge theme and mechanics?
* Handling feedback
* Favorite mechanics
* How would you design a game for players new to tabletop RPGs?
* One thing that starting game designers should know
* Imposter syndrome: “Shut up Stamford!”
* Designing for disability and impairment
* Instead of outro banter, we do an ad-hoc Q&A!
* Questions from iceblade44: Sothic turns, relationship with vampires, and the Spilled Blood book
* Apollo is unhelpful
* Question from George Lemke: Can we get a Storypath deep dive?
* Eddy has seen a lot of pictures of birds with arms
* Question from Yoidan: What are our dream games?
* Leave us your questions on the blog at theonyxpath.com!
Links:
* Save Against Fear: https://www.thebodhanagroup.org/about-the-convention
* Retrostar: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/168254/Retrostar-Rulebook
* Kids on Bikes: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/231938/Kids-on-Bikes-Core-Rulebook
* Pugmire: https://realmsofpugmire.com
* Project Biomodus: http://www.projectbiomodus.com/
* Onyx Pathcast blog: https://theonyxpath.com/category/projects/onyxpathcast/
Nice panel guys, Eddy I think you and the others have had gave some good advice, even though the audio quality was something to be desired. Still though as a guy who muses on whether I should take one of the multiple fantasies that goes on through my head, all I can say is that you guys have some useful tips and I can say I appreciate it. Overall it sounded great
Especially Standford, definitely Standford. That was hilarious.
Also wasn’t expecting you guys to answer my questions on the air, that was a surprised small feeling of embarrassment when I saw my username among the bullet points. Overall you answers to it makes sense so thanks. I do agree that debating how much of a footprint Vampire puts on Arisen is definitely a good thing to do, this is a mummy game, not a vampire game after all. We dont need more of Geists being half Spirit half Ghost weirdness. That said a bit of crossover is to be expected, even if subtle like the connection between Werewolves and Inferno, if Mummy is expanding its examples of Immortals there is no better place to look then the curse of Vampirism. Also you guys brought on a good point on what if a mummy do make a vampire a cultist, would they stay a vampire of Requiem or would they be something else. Because say if they act like a normal cultist that be fine, loyalty to the god-like perfect immortal that is a mummy. If they were to act like a Requiem Vampire tho, well you just gave a taste of the power of a god to one of the most untrustworthy and power hungry creatures of the night. Even if a vampire can’t diablerie a mummy, you could have gave a few a very big motivation to at least figure out a way to do something similar, Bloodlines are great like that after all. This is something that I think would be great to explore in a supplement book of some kind, because again this is a mummy game. But still this is something that intrigues me.
Anyway though let’s finish this up since this is getting long. Yeah I think you guys answering the communities questions is cool thing to do. Even if taking out all the mechanic questions in it, seeing how swamped the Ask the Dev thread in the Exalted thread is regularly I can say that the fanbase do have a very healthy curiosity. It’s a pity I dont see more people take the initiative to ask you guys more questions here but I do believe that a back and forth between creator and fan is a good thing, Creator and developer openness is great. As for me, well I will just have to take your guys up on that offer and try to figure out some more questions so I could ask you guys another time. Man this got annoyingly long but in the least I did want to express my thoughts and feelings to you guys, sorry that it became a little ranty.
I’d be interested in a “troupe group” creation example.
Eg, the hosts all create a Changeling/Werewolf/Bound/etc, and then, flesh out the respective motley/pack/krewe in the stream; generating side characters, creating connections, etc. More and more 2nd ed gamelines encourage this kind of protagonist group creation, and having an example of our three hosts (and their distinct voices) walk through creating one would be a lot easier to digest than pure text examples, juggling dozens of names.
Hey, Onyx Pathcast,
Thanks for answering my question! Happy you liked it. And if you do make an episode from it, I will be a happy camper. Just this 10 minutes here were very interesting.
Also, the panel was fascinating! Loved listening to a bunch of game designers talk about their passion like that. Thanks for sharing that with us.
FYI, Dixie, you did gender me correctly, so, don’t worry about it. You also pronounced the username correctly as well. 🙂
Hi there,
I love to hear you out.
At the end of the Podcast Matthew seemed to be interested in historical RPG. Here’s an excuse to get back to French lessons as there are some historical RPG in French :
* Te deum pour un massacre (diving into France in the XVIth century)
* Miles Christi (diving into Templar history during the XIIthe century)
* Pavillon Noir (diving into the Pirate history from XVth century to XIXth century).
All this to say, historical RPG may not be a huge commercial success, but I’m sure people would love to have some historical RPG to play with (just look at the interest in Chronicle of Darkness : Dark Eras).
Well, your dream may come true !! 😀
For anyone interested, the DnD game for kids that Rich mentioned at the panel has a Kickstarter going for the second adventure (it comes with the rulebook as well):
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/778640200/sidekick-quests-mystery-of-the-moon-stone
Excellent! Thanks for the link!
Questions for future Q&A episodes:
How do you prioritize which supplements to first print?
What resources do you have access to when writing?
Do you have a relationship with the White Wolf wiki or thoughts on it?
Do you ever look to or purposely avoid looking at what community content is to see where things are going/avoid taint when coming up with novel ideas?
Are large plot arc items does by individual authors or as a group or by White Wolf?
I’m not sure what you mean by “what resources do you have access to while writing?” Can you clarify what you mean by “resources?” Are you talking about software or books or what?
I just want to echo George Lemke’s request for a Storypath deep dive. In my personal opinion a brilliant topic.
I’m personally very interested in hearing more about your in-house system, & intrigued to hear what kind of games you would like to see developed with it.
I’m dying, you kids are wonderful!
It’s been a long time since someone called me a kid. 😉
Eddy – The Sherlock Holmes RPG was done a couple of years back (2016) by Bryce Whitacker and Fearlight Games under the name “Baker Street: Roleplaying in the World of Sherlock Holmes. (Endorsed by the Conan Doyle Family).
Go check it out – it’s quite a cool system / mechanic base.
I said this on Podbean (which I’ve just noticed doesn’t have the latest episode yet!) but I’d love you guys to take on the fan-work of Genius: The Transgression as an official book. I love it the best out of all the WoD/CoD lines I’ve played! (With Exalted topping them all)
Keep up the great work, I need you all as a weekly podcast now The Deliberative has faded! :/
Bifford
I’m totally aware of Baker Street. It still doesn’t fit my criteria, but it’s still a cool game!
The latest episode went up on Podbean on Saturday at noon as usual. Check it out!
And I think Matthew answered this on Podbean, but we won’t be covering fan works. We have plenty of our own games to talk about! 🙂
Er, Friday, not Saturday, I mean.
Ep23 dropped onto Podbean early Sunday morning. Will listen on the way to work tomorrow morning 🙂
And yes he did, but it doesn’t hurt to keep asking! 😀 (Other people might take up the war-cry)
FYI I am finding the discussions on publishing great – even though I’m unlikely to ever write for your company (I’d happily proofread mind you) I do have plans for a Legend (Mongoose) setting write up. So thanks! 🙂
Nah, the only fan-made products we’re going to talk about is Matthew’s BioShock games. 😉