Bringing imagination to the game table.
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Join Vince and Travis as they discuss playing and making games without combat. Why is combat in games so compelling? Why would you want to avoid it? What’s the right mix and how do you keep a game interesting if there is no fighting? What types of games could we imagine without combat? All of this and less will be answered within!
Join Vince and Travis as they map out everything about maps. Drawing maps and creating a world can be an amazing thing to do, but does it have downsides? When should you create your maps? What parts of the world should you seek to map? Why is blank space so important? All of this and less will be revealed within.
Join Vince & Travis as they dig into Random Ability sore generation. For games like D&D, this is how we all used to generate our scores “in the old days” - but is it a good system? Why? What does this have to do with Soccer? Why is Vince in Hot Take mode? All of this and less will be revealed within.
Join Vince & Travis as they discuss piddly monsters, the yard trash that have plagued video games, MMOs and table top games for years. What value do these rats, bats and non-threats have? How can you best use them in your game? How can you best use these fights in a positive way to add color to your game? All of this and less will be explained within.
Join Vince & Travis as they discuss the nature of NPCs in the world and how they get defined through standard character levels. The classic conundrum of how much you should define the NPCs in the world and how much is it important that we know the shopkeeper used to be a 5th level fighter? All of this and less will be defined within.
Vince and Travis dive into the history of D&D video games. There have been so many video games set in the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons, but which ones were the best? Which ones still hold up after all these years? What were the the most faithful to the experience of D&D? All of this and less will be answered within.
Vince & Travis get into the nitty and the gritty with discussion about how to set your game’s design to the lowest common denominator of your audience (and no lower). What does any of this mean? What’s the lowest common denominator in this case? All of this and less will be explained within.
Join Vince & Travis as they get weird! It’s time to talk about the player that always wants to being the curveball to the table as a character. They want to play a modron in Dragonlance or a vampire in dark sun. How should a GM think about the weirdo character? What makes such a character valuable at the table? How many weirdos should be allowed? All of this and less will be answered within!
Vince and Travis get into backstories. The character was someone before they sat down at the table, but how much someone should they be? How much is too much backstory for a new character? How much should the game system itself dictate their background versus their own story telling? All of this and less will be answered within.
Vince & Travis sit down to talk about the value of crafting unique and bespoke rewards for your players. It’s time to move past the magic items section of the DMG and think about making something truly memorable for your players, regardless of their game. What is a special reward? How do you make it special? When do you give them out? All of this and less will be answered within.
Vince & Travis sit down to discuss how you get a new character into an ongoing game. Whether a new player at the table or someone making a new character after an untimely death, bringing someone in mid-stream can be real tricky. How do you best introduce them? How do you make sure they gel with the group? How do you prevent them from being the eternal outsider? All of this and less will be answered within.
Join Vince & Travis as they discuss how Bad Luck in games can ruin the time for both players and GMs. We play diced based games and sometimes the dice turn against you. How can you as the GM mitigate or even use this bad luck? How can you as a player utilize bad luck for your own story. All of this and less will be answered within.
Join Vince & Travis as they discuss everything related to Priority in character generation. These systems were used by things like mechwarrior and shadowrun. They make you force rank your character creation items for things like ability scores, skills and so on. What are the advantages and disadvantages to these systems? Why would you want them in your game? All of this and less will be discussed within.
Vince and Travis sit down to discuss that most elusive of beasts, rarer than the unicorn, the regular weekly game. How do you keep your players on track and arriving at your game every week? Do you have to be a harsh task master? What if you just can’t keep all the players showing up? All of this and less will be answered within.
Vince and Travis get crunchy! They sit down to discuss upper limits games - the impossible things and tasks that define the change your characters and players can have on the world. Why are these so important in games design? How do they help define the feel of a world? Why should you think about about them as a GM as well and when you should break them? All of this and less will be answered within.
Vince & Travis sit down and discuss their favorite 2nd Edition D&D books. It’s time to drip in the waters of nostalgia and discuss how 2nd edition D&D gave us so many books by printing themselves out of business. What were the books they loved? Why are there so many books? What can we use of them today? All of this and less will be answered within.
Travis and Vince are back and they are discussing the mine field of romantic couples at the gaming table. What risks happen when a couple sits down at the table? How do you navigate these choppy waters? Is it ever a good idea? All of this and less will be answered within.
This week Vince & Travis are breaking down one of their crunchiest subjects ever - sub-systems in design vs. unified mechanics. Some games rely on bespoke individual systems to resolve everything, different systems to build a thing, attack a thing, do a thing, other games use a singular unified system to do everything. Which is better? Is there a better? Why is better? All of this and less will be answered within.
Join Vince & Travis for another episode of Undesign. This week they are talking about what happens when a game company advances timelines and kills characters in their games. When the world moves on, does it leave gamers behind? Should timelines move and big changes happen? What makes a good change and what makes a bad change? Tune in and find out.
Vince and Travis are back and discussing the differences between fantasy and sci-fi. This time, they are talking through the idea that fantasy is just more restricted sci-fi. Sci-Fi seems like it can be anything, but fantasy is often decried as “not fantasy” if it steps outside the line of medieval Europe. So is fantasy just boring played out sci-fi or is there more to this story? Tune in and find out!