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House rules! You know you have them. You know some games don't work without them. Here are some of ours! Presumably. I wasn't on this one, and there are no show notes, so who knows what the hell this episode is actually about. A regular feature on Flail Forward by now.

Concepts > mechanics > numbers Start with basic concepts of what you want the game to be about. Mechanics then describe these concepts in a way that they can actually be used and interacted with. The numbers are the specific, fine details of exactly how the mechanics work. Most major problems happen at the conceptual level, or mechanics that don't work towards that concept, or not having a concept really at all. The numbers are basically the last thing you worry about, basic placeholders are fine, don't try to balance your game first pass, just get the concepts down solid and try to build basic mechanics that enact those concepts. Kavoir suggested we try to show this in practice and... well, we decided to make up a stupid game on the spot, and it actually didn't come out too bad as an idea. Go figure. Game about a podcast! Why? To gather together conspiracy theorists to form a cult!

I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE AND I BRING YOU FIRE IN RPGS

Lenny Balsera joins us to talk about how games that seek to do more than 'fun'. What's that mean in this case? Listen and find out at the same time we do!

We discuss GM agency. Is there a correct amount? What does it mean for certain games to constrain it? How?

Tonight we talk about games we don't like but things about them we do like! ...Yeah it's gonna be neurotic. It does go better than last week, though, so we got that going for us. Of course you'd only know that if you listened to it. Which really, I don't think it's fair to subject yourself to that but maybe you feel guilty about something and want to punish yourself so I dunno, go ahead and listen if that's what you're into.

Tonight we talk about games we don't like but things about them we do like! ...Yeah it's gonna be neurotic. It does go better than last week, though, so we got that going for us. Of course you'd only know that if you listened to it. Which really, I don't think it's fair to subject yourself to that but maybe you feel guilty about something and want to punish yourself so I dunno, go ahead and listen if that's what you're into.

April Fools special! by Flail Forward

How meta does our meta currency talk get? Find out or don't because you can't because it's too meta to be understood within it's own delineated context, so there's no point to listening. Enjoy.

Short episode about pacing in ttrpgs! This is also a half episode because the recording bot, the back-up, and the back-up back-up all shit the bed in the same episode.

Cat's not here this week, so the blurb is short. Fred rejoined us for the first time in long while and it was cool! We chatted about how games pass around narrative. And a lot of other tangents. linktr.ee/flailforward

Tonight we talk about how games sometimes fail their players in a way that make the players feel dissatisfied. Is it the game itself? The mechanics? The GM's fault? Who's at fault? How do you prevent this? Who framed Roger Rabbit? Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar? Was it you? If not, then who? I think I lost track of what I was talking about, but that's normal here so whatever. Don't expect the episode itself to be any less meandering. Join our discord and talk about the ways we failed you with this episode: https://discord.gg/MAUshMJ

The game within the game! Wait, no, this is the game without the game. Or the game in between the game. Anyway, we're covering design focused around doing stuff in between sessions, from mechanical stuff like leveling up, to side role playing, you name it! Does it make sense to build this for everyone or is this a more niche concept? This and more on this episode of Flaaaaail foooorwaaaaarrrrrrddddd linktr.ee/flailforward

Tonight we talk about THE BIG THREE. Yes, that is what she said, don't think too hard on it though. Specifically though, the concept of the three big questions that Jared Sorensen thought RPGs should be able to answer, and why they're pretty good questions. Want to see us pick apart some basic concepts until everything's on fire? Well we do that every week, but we did it really good this time and brought lots of extra stuff to burn for the dumpster fire this time so sit back with a chair and get a nice tan from it! Never know, you may even find it useful, too! Linktr.ee/flailforward

"I repeat, we have normality. Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem." Yep, we're talking about what's normal tonight. I know, I know, we're probably the group least aware of what the concept of normal even is, but we're doing it anyway so deal with it. Specifically though, we're covering normality in terms of establishing what is considered to be normal in a TTRPG, from mechanics to setting features, and how to convey this information to the players, and why you would even do this in the first place. So yeah, go ahead, listen to us rant about "normality" for about an hour and a half, because we TOTALLY know what that even is.

This episode, we discuss visual appeal in RPGs. What games we think demonstrate strong visual appeal, and which we think missed the mark somehow. Usual banter ensues. https://linktr.ee/FlailForward

Tonight we delve into the mysteries of generating narrative through mechanics... TWO! Because we've covered this before. But that was a long, long time ago, in a gal...a... nooo not going to get sued, you thought we would, but no, we're just going to bypass that. No, we're taking another look at it after a few years of experience and development of our skills, and I think we laid it out much more cleanly this time around! And didn't even get sued doing it. Though I almost did. But I didn't. SO THERE. https://linktr.ee/FlailForward

https://linktr.ee/FlailForward

Adapting to and from RPGs by Flail Forward

We talk about small games and how we look at their frame works. Our links are here! https://linktr.ee/FlailForward