RPG Design Panelcast

Episode 371: Adapting Someone Else's Sandbox

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Cam Banks and Amanda Valentine

Licensed RPGs are a minefield of conflicting interests, stakeholders, and opinions. With the assumption that you've done the hardest part of securing a license, actually designing, developing, and producing the game is often much harder than expected. We'll talk about the process of faithfully adapting someone else's work to a new game project.

Episode 370: Ten Things Wrong With Your Game

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Sydney Engelstein and Geoffrey Engelstein

Sydney has taken close to a thousand pitches for Indie Game Studios. Geoff has taught game design and helped designers improve their prototypes for over a decade. Between them they see the same issues with designs over and over again, particularly with newer designers. In this seminar, they will share with you the top things that are wrong with your game, based on this hard won experience. They guess there's a slight chance you've avoided a few of these issues, but probably not. And let's face it - you won't know unless you attend.

 

NOTE: An insufficiently edited version of this panel was posted earlier, but this is the corrected version for your enjoyment.

Episode 367: Staying In

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Cam Banks and Amanda Valentine

You've had a successful Kickstarter, you've been hired by a game publisher, you've released your work on Itch or DriveThru. You've done it! But now what? We're here to discuss the aftermath, the fallout, and how to survive that and stay doing what you love to do.

Episode 358: Ethical AI Usage?

Presented by Jason Pitre, Ash Kreider, Vivian Young, Eric Whalen, Tristan Zimmerman

AI is a hot topic. Authors are suing over their content being used to "train" AI without their consent. Platforms and publishers are taking hard anti-AI positions. Or coming out publicly to declare that they are using AI and nobody can stop them. People who want to use AI for idea generation or to simplify and automate boring tasks are at odds with peers who maintain that there is no ethical way to use AI. We're going to start by defining "AI" and then we'll have a respectful, thoughtful conversation on the topic.

Episode 355: Math Essentials for Designers

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Jason Pitre, BJ Recio, Mags Maenad.

Math is often a barrier for analog game designers of all disciplines. This panel is meant to help lower that barrier by teaching you some basic, versatile tools you can use to solve most problems. How do you figure out probabilities of success when rolling dice or drawing cards? What is a bell curve, a mean and a median? How do you figure out combinations and permutation? We are here to give you the tools to thrive.

Episode 350: Shipping is on FIRE

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Mel D'Amato

Anyone who makes or sells consumer goods has been watching the news about shipping and logistics in horror. The cost of freight is up. There are no shipping containers to put goods into. Products are sitting on docks in Asia. Full ships can't get to port to unload on this side of the ocean. Our expert, Mel D'Amato from ShipBob, talks to us about what's going on, why everything is terrible, and what we can expect over the next several months.

Episode 347: Reading Contract Boilerplate

Recorded at Metatopia 2021

Presented by Eric Whalen.

Lawyers secretly know that you do not read the big chunks of standardized text in your contract that have nothing to do with your obligations and how much you are getting paid / paying (called "boilerplate" text). Worse - many lawyers forget to read the boilerplate in their own contracts! Whether you love or hate these reader-unfriendly text walls, join the panelist as he reminds us to intellectually grapple with the important provisions everyone has likely agreed to, but may never have read or fully understood until now. Chatters will be encouraged to link their own boilerplate samples so that panelists may demonstrate how to dissect organic boilerplate specimen live.

Episode 338: Keepsake Games

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Jason Cox, Shing Yin Khor, Jeeyon Shim.

Keepsake Games, Art, Education and Equity. Keepsake games, which generate material objects as a result of play, are a fascinating tool for classroom use. What if the experience of educational games was visually shaped by the students? How would this affect their engagement and retention of content? How can a game like this thrive in the quantitative systems that dominate education?

Episode 334: Gaming as Experiential Learning

Recorded at Metatopia 2021

Presented by Gabby Swab, John Harris, Ian Mercer.

Role Playing as Experiential Learning: How Dungeons & Dragons Assists in Teaching Management Concepts"

In Fall 2020, students across three universities participated in building a character based on their Ideal Entrepreneur, Human Resources Manager, or Leader. Using the format from the popular Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game, the students' chosen character used their characteristics, skills, and knowledge to perform in three different course-related scenarios. Students were then asked to reflect on their character, their decisions, and the subsequent outcomes. In this forum, we discuss the activity and the management topics (e.g., decision making, individual differences, resources) it allowed us to teach using games as experiential learning techniques.

Episode 331: Designing and Publishing with ADHD

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Jay Dragon, Robert Donoghue, Rabbit Stoddard, Darla Burrow.

Game design and publishing are complex tasks at the best of times, and particularly so for those dealing with ADHD. Many creatives struggle with maintaining their attention and concentration on their design and publishing work. How do you track your accomplishments and keep track of what you need to do next? How do you manage multiple deadlines and juggling priorities? How can ADHD be harnessed to help you with your creative work? In this panel, four experienced designers will share their hard-won secrets

Episode 328: Basic Copyright for Writers and Designers

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Eric Whalen.

This panel is a brief discussion of the basics of copyright law (and some other aspects of intellectual property law) as they pertain to writers and game designers. Members of the panel include game designers, publishers, writers, and former attorneys who have dealt with these issues themselves

Episode 319: Feminist Worldbuilding

Recorded at Metatopia 2020

Presented by Misha Bushyager, Elsa Sjunneson, Kristen Roberts

Explicitly feminist world-building will consider all the ways that traditionally domestic tasks and arts enrich your setting and shape your characters. From textiles to food, child-rearing to death rituals, considering the ways these details fit together will make for deeper, richer game experiences. These principles apply across all game forms

Episode 315: Jewish Games

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Dr. Jessica Hammer, Christopher Hall.

What does it mean to design games from a Jewish perspective? We have recently seen several games that center on the Jewish experience, like Rosenstrasse, Keeping The Candles Lit, Dream Apart and Mud. In this session, we'll look at key Jewish texts to see how themes and ideas from Jewish culture can inform your design. All texts will be provided in English; please come prepared for a vigorous conversation.

Episode 312 - Economics and Trade as Design Elements

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Jason Pitre, Rob Donoghue, Emily Dresner, Kenneth Hite

The 100 GP Pearl: Economics and Trade as Design Elements. Economics and trade have long been foundational elements of game design, from the hyperinflation of dungeon pillaging to the free traders of Traveller. In this panel, we discuss how these aspects can be used as the foundation for game mechanics and procedures. Don't make me quote the rules of acquisition at you

Episode 307: Contract Literacy 101

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Eric Whalen, Rob Hebert, Steven Long, Debbie Moynihan.

"Contract Literacy 101: Whereas & Therefore & Beyond" The majority of game designers will need to sign at least one contract prior to completing their game. This panel will improve your literacy and familiarity with the structure of contracts, as well as explain some of the standard contract terms you ought to be prepared to encounter. The information should be relevant to designers, artists, and publishers alike.

Episode 296: RPGs for Therapy

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Heather O'Neill, Timothy Grant, Brian Quinones, Jack Berkenstock.

This panel of game designers and therapists will discuss their journey to design RPGs for use in therapy as well as the overall benefit of using roleplaying games as a therapeutic tool. What games have they used in the past? What worked, what didn't? How did they modify games for therapy sessions? 

Episode 295: Integrating the Natural World

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Jeeyon Shim, Meguey Baker, Jason Morningstar.

 

Understanding the natural world as an active participant in games and design shifts our engagement with environmental justice and enriches every aspect of our work. Join this panel of game designers with backgrounds as adventure guides, outdoor educators, and naturalists as they discuss the various ways integrating the natural world positively impacts their design and community work in games. Attendees will learn tools to understand the more-than-human community around them in ways they can weave into their own participation in games, whether as players, designers, or organizers.

Episode 294: Applying Education Theory in Games

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Gabriel de los Angeles, Sen-Foong Lim, Brian Quinones.

Using concepts from education theory is a natural and obvious way to improve game design practices. Our panelists will talk about how to apply an understanding of how people learn and engage in play to your design process to create more immersive, satisfying designs.

Episode 291: Play With Your Food

Recorded at Metatopia 2020 Online

Presented by Anne Ratchat, Sharang Biswas, Bronwyn Sperling, Kristen Roberts.

 

Food is fundamental to survival and yet serves as so much more, building communities and relationships, serving as an artistic expression, connecting us to ideals and memories. We will explore our diverse relationship with food, cooking, and eating and, in turn, show how such simple acts can be very powerful mechanics in games, most notably LARP.

Episode 289: The Intersection of Roleplaying and Medicine

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Rach Shelkey, Jacqueline Bryk, Sidney Icarus, Jen Dixon.

Has the current global health crisis inspired a new game idea? Considering writing a game about healthcare workers? Join our panelists as they discuss what role playing games can learn from the field of medicine and how to thoughtfully address the medical profession in your designs. Questions encouraged!

Episode 238 - Xenobiology and Speculative Zoology

Recorded at Metatopia 2018

Presented by Jason Pitre, Rob Donoghue, Darren Watts and Joshua A.C. Newman.

Alien Worlds - Xenobiology and Speculative Zoology.  Fictional alien biology and ecosystems are fascinating. From the implied phylogeny of James Cameron's Avatar to the Alien's Xenomorphs, exploration of alien biology is a fascinating topic worth exploring for your science fiction, post-apocalyptic or even fantasy roleplaying games. On this panel, we will discuss the principles of speculative zoology and artificial ecosystems from xenophillic perspective.