Enhancing Tabletop Gameplay with Tropes and Archetypes

Transcript

This week, Sam talks with Michael Elliott about Composure, a player resource mechanic from Ash McAllen’s game Antiquarian Adventures.

Michael is currently Kickstarting his game Nasty Brutish and Long, a simple RPG about lives complicated by revolution.

Some topics discussed today:

* Failure and conflict, why they're great, and mechanics that encourage players to embrace them

* Genre and mechanics that support it

* Simplifying mechanics when hacking, with Blades in the Dark as an example

* Passing the spotlight at the table

Games mentioned:

* Antiquarian Adventures

* Blades in the Dark

* Fiasco

Sam’s blog post whether conflict is necessary in RPGs

James Mendez Hodes’ website and blog

Pam Punzalan’s blog post “The Unbearable Otherness of a Global South Creator”

Asians Represent podcast on Twitter

Michael’s on Twitter, dice.camp, itch.io, and other places @NotWriting 

Sam is @sdunnewold on Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io

The Dice Exploder logo is by sporgory, and the theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey

Join the Dice Exploder Discord to talk about the show!