RPG Design Panelcast

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.

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Bill White and Avery Rosen

This panel discusses the theoretical, pedagogical, and practical implications of trying to teach people to run tabletop RPGs as GMs. We're interested in understanding the best practices, the pitfalls, and the contexts in which "teaching people to GM" in any kind of formal way is even possible. We survey the role-playing landscape in order to understand how the technological and cultural shifts of recent years have affected the way people learn to run games.

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Jay Dragon and Amanda Valentine

Every game has a voice, from the biggest trad book to an indie zine, and this narrative voice helps a game teach itself and stand on its own. In this round table held by award-winning game designer Jay Dragon we'll talk through a number of examples of games that utilize narrative voice to articulate their game-worlds, and rewrite our own mechanics in ways that emphasize how different perspectives can change the nature of the game on a deep level.

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Tristan Zimmerman, Meghan Jaffe,  Sean Jaffe

The Indie Game Developer Network (IGDN) is an all-volunteer trade association for tabletop publishers, designers, and freelancers. We offer booth space at conventions, share knowledge, and work to improve the industry. Come ask questions and learn whether the IGDN might be right for you!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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?

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?

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.

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?

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

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.

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?