RPG Design Panelcast

Episode 363: Budgeting for Art

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Jack Parra, Lissane Lake, Nicole Amato

Getting high-quality art is key to making a product look professional. Our panel makes with the tips and tricks to controlling costs and Funding the Project.

Episode 362: How to Work with Artists

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Jack Parra and Lissane Lake

The panelists will touch on the process of how to find and approach artists, negotiate the contract, and then successfully work together. It's important that publishers get an artist's-eye-view of things so they can better understand what we do, the process, and the time involved and plan projects accordingly.

Episode 361: Crowdfunding in 2023

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Nicole Amato

Join Kickstarter's Games Outreach Lead, Nicole Amato, as they discuss best practices for running a crowdfunding campaign. There will also be plenty of time for a Q&A for any questions you might have.

Episode 360: How to Run a Great Playtest

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Melissa Lewis-Gentry and Curt Covert.

Receiving feedback is hard. Running a successful playtest is even more complicated. Our experts will share their tools for getting the most out of a playtesting table.

Episode 359: How to be a Great Playtester

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Kat Millar and Curt Covert

Giving good feedback is a skill. Come learn more about how to provide feedback to game designers in useful, productive ways.

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 357: Spinning Relationship Webs

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Jason Pitre, Jenn Adcock, Brennan Taylor, Olivia Montoya

Larpwrights and tabletop game designers have long relied on the power of complex relationship webs to drive dramatic play. Crafting effective characters and their interconnections allows for a living, breathing, and often conflicted world. The panel speakers will share best practices and techniques for designing these webs.

Episode 356: Challenges and Triumphs of Community-Based Game Publishing

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Jon Cole, Oscar Biffi, Katherine Shane, Misha B, Olivia Montoya, Chiara Locatelli.

Some small game projects are created by an auteur, who controls every aspect of production. These panelists rejected that approach to create projects working with a team on behalf of their community. How did they balance the community's needs with their ambition? Is it possible to represent a community via anthology at all? Panelists will discuss the nitty gritty processes behind their projects, revealing what worked and what didn't, answering questions, and sharing their hard-won tips for publishing in community.

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 354: Spirituality Check: Spiritual Growth, Exploration and Healing Through RPGs

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Menachem Cohen, Ryan Cagle.

Because of the fictional distance between player and character, TTRPGs, even D&D, can be designed and used to facilitate spiritual growth, exploration, and healing. Mechanics, role play, and setting/story also factor into this and GMed, GMful/less, and solo games work in this context. Panelists will discuss how they have designed and used games for spiritual discovery and address theoretical underpinnings of why it works, such as bleed and alibi. There will be time for questions.

Episode 353: Bad Design Habits We Love

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Jason Morningstar, Tim Hutchings, Jeeyon Shim.

Join us for a rollicking discussion of our worst habits and how being lazy, careless and hard-headed is often the best possible approach to game design. Do you design in layout? Is your playtest process a little shambolic? Do you cut corners and assume the math will all work out? If not, come and be outraged as we take a somewhat jaded approach to conventional wisdom you've heard a thousand times. 

Episode 352: Problematic and Taboo Topics

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Anne Ratchat, Jason Morningstar, and regrets from James Mendez Hodes.

 When writing games, a lot of topics are taboo simply because as a community, we are worried how people might take the intentionality of the design to the worst possible places. The issue created by not writing these games, we erase the experience of so many creatives and players who also deserve to have their voices heard. We will be discussing the thought process of how to tackle these controversial topics so that games can be a place for all experiences.

Episode 351: Secrets and Powers Larps

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Olivia Montoya, Acata Felton.

In some circles, Secrets and Powers LARPs are dismissed as outdated or "too obscure." Our panelists flatly reject this mindset, and invite you to join them for a discussion about what Secrets and Powers games have to offer. Come learn more about this specific type of LARP, which has a focus on pre-written characters, hidden information and roles, and ability mechanics. Learn about why secrets and powers games are cool, get a crash course on how to write and GM them in the modern day, and consider how to make a better future for communities that run them.

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 349: The Many Meanings of Diceless

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Jon Lemich, Chance Feldstein, Alex White.

There are many diceless RPGs, but their mechanics and design objectives vary more than most designers realize. What do you need to consider when designing a diceless RPG? Do you simply want to replace dice with cards or hidden information wagers, or do you want it to be randomizerless, gameless, or pure collaborative authorship?

Episode 348: Pass-Fail vs Open-Ended Play

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Joan Moriarity, Darren Watts, Beth Rimmels.

Which is better, a game that concludes when somebody wins, or a game that concludes when the story is deemed to be complete? It's a trick question, obviously; both styles have their benefits and drawbacks, but what are those exactly? Why do certain kinds of players tend to gravitate toward one or the other? What can devotees of one type gain from playing the other, and how can we make it more enjoyable to cross that divide?

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 346: RPGs Without Obvious Combat Mechanics

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Moe Poplar, Michael Low, J Gurantz.

Now kids, stop fighting! RPGs are intensely emotionally engaging, deeply moving experiences - and they're fun! Much attention has been paid, recently, to their application in therapy, helping people navigate complex emotional change. This creates a question - how does the violence often built into the system - and setting - of an RPG affect players, and how can we create games where tension, drama, and struggle don't have to be wedded to destruction?

Episode 345: Making Trash Games for Love

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by presented by Jack Rosetree, Olivia Montoya, Taylor LaBresh.

Perfection is a toxic concept. The pressure to make our games elegant, innovative, replayable, marketable, pitchable, attractive, and trendy can be exhausting. Don't be afraid to make ugly, unmarketable, uncomfortable, or downright bad games. Making trash is liberating, exhilarating, and cathartic.   Full Slide Deck at https://tinyurl.com/htnw669s

Episode 344: International Co-Publishing Agreements

Recorded at Metatopia 2021

Presented by Jason Pitre, Rae Nedjadi and Sean Nittner with regrets from Jay Dragon.

 

Countless brilliant analog game designers are creating innovative games around the world. Unfortunately, creatives from many countries face harsh barriers in terms of crowdfunding access, banking regulations, shipping challenges, or other factors. That is why international co-publishing agreements have come on the scene. In this panel, Filipino Designer/Publisher Jamila Nedjadi joins North American publishing partners to discuss the different business models that have worked for them.

Episode 343: Printing and Shipping Where You Are

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Jonathan Lavallee, Alastor Guzman, Moe Poplar.

Do You Want to Build a Snowman? Printing and Publishing Where You Are.  In this panel we'll be looking at the current state of printing and publishing RPGs from Canada, the US, Europe, and Mexico. Where are there new opportunities for small publishers to produce physical books without breaking the bank?

Episode 342: Details for the Devil

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Richard Ruane, Pam Punzalan, Brian Yaksha, Zedeck Siew.

 

In METATOPIA 2020's "Devil in the Details" panel, we explored microsettings; settings that focus closely on a specific area, region, or location. This year, we'll discuss how microsettings challenge traditional assumptions about game mechanics, focusing on character creation, magic, technology, and GM procedures. How can the concrete specificity of microsettings open up other design opportunities beyond just the setting details?

Episode 341: Questions as Mechanics

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Thomas Manuel, Logan Timmins, Rae Nedjadi, Aaron Lim, momatoes.

Asking and answering questions seems really simple but at the same time, it's a powerful tool in the game design process. Watch a group of storygame designers talk about the role of questions in their games and how they can help you get the best out of play at the table.

Episode 340: The Data is in, now what?

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Tanya Pobuda, Sarah Stang, Erika Chung, Eric Lang.

We know where we stand - gaming, specifically analog gaming in this case, has a sexism and racism problem. We've proven that through our research. Now that we have the data to back up our lived experiences, what can we do to fix the problems?

Episode 339: Designing Rewarding Game Experiences

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Beth Rimmels, Sen-Foong Lim, Gwendolyn Marshall.

As a GM or game designer, you can produce a rewarding or disappointing experience for players. Regardless of genre, game or goals, what your design focuses on and how it conveys that determines how it will be received. We'll discuss how to create satisfying experiences whether you're trying to scare players, create thought-provoking frustration, or make players feel like heroes