Clarity Flowers
@clarity.flowers
🌸 a strange sort of fairy 🌱 makes things 👭 trans lesbian, 32 🏞 portland OR 🌐 https://clarity.flowers
more active on https://xoxo.zone/@clarity but I'm here too I guess
more active on https://xoxo.zone/@clarity but I'm here too I guess
It seems like there's a thing here where you have a tendency to invent your own Gameplay when tackling things, and then struggle with how unenjoyable that ends up being for you!
December 31, 2025 at 7:37 PM
It seems like there's a thing here where you have a tendency to invent your own Gameplay when tackling things, and then struggle with how unenjoyable that ends up being for you!
Your experience with RPGs is alien to me, but that's fine! Everyone seems to have wildly different experiences so that's normal.
December 31, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Your experience with RPGs is alien to me, but that's fine! Everyone seems to have wildly different experiences so that's normal.
It's a game that has no punishment for abandoning a mission that isn't fun, and can be entirely beaten just by doing "easy" missions. I find it puts me in a really zen headspace in a way that few "challenge-oriented" games ever have. The play isn't a door+key, it's just play. All IME, of course!
December 31, 2025 at 7:37 PM
It's a game that has no punishment for abandoning a mission that isn't fun, and can be entirely beaten just by doing "easy" missions. I find it puts me in a really zen headspace in a way that few "challenge-oriented" games ever have. The play isn't a door+key, it's just play. All IME, of course!
Heat Signature meanwhile, is honestly what I think about first when I think about my personal definition of "Kill Gameplay", because the game's reward structure is completely meaningless, and as such the difficulty curve is "make the game as hard as you want it to be, just for the sake of it."
December 31, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Heat Signature meanwhile, is honestly what I think about first when I think about my personal definition of "Kill Gameplay", because the game's reward structure is completely meaningless, and as such the difficulty curve is "make the game as hard as you want it to be, just for the sake of it."
thanks for the summary! yeah I think you definitely came into A Short Hike and Heat Signature both with mindsets that the games have no interest in supporting. ASH is, as you say, meant to encourage a sense of whimsy and really rewards aimless meandering.
December 31, 2025 at 7:37 PM
thanks for the summary! yeah I think you definitely came into A Short Hike and Heat Signature both with mindsets that the games have no interest in supporting. ASH is, as you say, meant to encourage a sense of whimsy and really rewards aimless meandering.
god, Peel's questions here are so leading ("the city council is…") and Jordan is consistently trying to pull the conversation back towards civility ("we all need to…")
December 30, 2025 at 9:09 PM
god, Peel's questions here are so leading ("the city council is…") and Jordan is consistently trying to pull the conversation back towards civility ("we all need to…")
I will not let these bastards take my tarot cards away from me lol but I get it
December 30, 2025 at 8:30 PM
I will not let these bastards take my tarot cards away from me lol but I get it
I find that, in a well-designed game, rather than being frustrated by the systems telling me what I can and can't do, it's like having a really interesting friend in the room sparking my imagination in directions that my habits and biases would never have let me wander
December 30, 2025 at 8:22 PM
I find that, in a well-designed game, rather than being frustrated by the systems telling me what I can and can't do, it's like having a really interesting friend in the room sparking my imagination in directions that my habits and biases would never have let me wander
"submit" and "dictate" are noteworthy word choices, since I use "lean on" and "assist" when I'm talking about the same thing! I find I don't actually like the more freeform stuff because I think pretty slowly and am bad at improv, but with my tools on hand I get really interesting results
December 30, 2025 at 8:21 PM
"submit" and "dictate" are noteworthy word choices, since I use "lean on" and "assist" when I'm talking about the same thing! I find I don't actually like the more freeform stuff because I think pretty slowly and am bad at improv, but with my tools on hand I get really interesting results
I'm always trying to imagine more ways to feed the player's imagination back into the game when thinking about video game design… the literalism of the computer system tends to be an imagination-killer ("that's not a village, it's a graph of doors and text boxes") but I don't think that's essential
December 30, 2025 at 7:54 PM
I'm always trying to imagine more ways to feed the player's imagination back into the game when thinking about video game design… the literalism of the computer system tends to be an imagination-killer ("that's not a village, it's a graph of doors and text boxes") but I don't think that's essential
It's mostly a tool for identifying that which mechanics are real→real ("deal 2 damage if you roll a 6"), real→imagined ("at 4+ harm, you're bleeding out and need help"), imagined→real ("when you cross the portal, take 2 damage"), and imagined→imagined ("if you ask Jim a question, he always lies")
December 30, 2025 at 7:51 PM
It's mostly a tool for identifying that which mechanics are real→real ("deal 2 damage if you roll a 6"), real→imagined ("at 4+ harm, you're bleeding out and need help"), imagined→real ("when you cross the portal, take 2 damage"), and imagined→imagined ("if you ask Jim a question, he always lies")
oh, the fiction becomes "real" when you write it down in an RPG too, interestingly! It's "real" if it lives anywhere that isn't your head.
December 30, 2025 at 7:51 PM
oh, the fiction becomes "real" when you write it down in an RPG too, interestingly! It's "real" if it lives anywhere that isn't your head.
but "ball" is definitely more real than "points", so this implies a gradient to me
December 30, 2025 at 7:35 PM
but "ball" is definitely more real than "points", so this implies a gradient to me
interesting! "real" vs. "imaginary" are terms that come up in ttrpgs a lot, but interestingly "points" are considered "real" (because you will tend to write them down and track them on a sheet of paper somewhere), and "imaginary" is reservi for your understanding of "the fiction" during play.
December 30, 2025 at 7:35 PM
interesting! "real" vs. "imaginary" are terms that come up in ttrpgs a lot, but interestingly "points" are considered "real" (because you will tend to write them down and track them on a sheet of paper somewhere), and "imaginary" is reservi for your understanding of "the fiction" during play.
I like this one a lot
December 30, 2025 at 7:29 PM
I like this one a lot
here's a definition of "game" by @lumpley.bsky.social lumpley.com/index.php/an.... The series of posts that follow it about "objects" definitely made me rethink my perspective in some interesting ways.
anyway: Procedure, Components, Object, Strategy, Style
lumpley.com
December 30, 2025 at 7:29 PM
here's a definition of "game" by @lumpley.bsky.social lumpley.com/index.php/an.... The series of posts that follow it about "objects" definitely made me rethink my perspective in some interesting ways.
also only tangentially related to this thread, there's a few things I'd love to know if you've engaged with and have thoughts about:
- A Short Hike
- Heat Signature
- the ttrpg "Apocalypse World" or one of its direct descendents
- A Short Hike
- Heat Signature
- the ttrpg "Apocalypse World" or one of its direct descendents
anyway: Procedure, Components, Object, Strategy, Style
lumpley.com
December 30, 2025 at 7:26 PM
also only tangentially related to this thread, there's a few things I'd love to know if you've engaged with and have thoughts about:
- A Short Hike
- Heat Signature
- the ttrpg "Apocalypse World" or one of its direct descendents
- A Short Hike
- Heat Signature
- the ttrpg "Apocalypse World" or one of its direct descendents
hmm, what is a "state"
December 30, 2025 at 7:22 PM
hmm, what is a "state"
(West Marches is a campaign style by @lamemage.com where you have a large pool of players who are responsible for recruiting each other for sessions in a shared open world with a central hub. arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/78...)
Grand Experiments: West Marches
West Marches was a game I ran for a little over two years. It was designed to be pretty much the diametric opposite of the normal weekly game:
There was no regular time: every session was scheduled ...
arsludi.lamemage.com
December 29, 2025 at 11:57 PM
(West Marches is a campaign style by @lamemage.com where you have a large pool of players who are responsible for recruiting each other for sessions in a shared open world with a central hub. arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/78...)
posting in the group chat "today's the today we finally get revenge on the Red Sashes. I've got the plan, I just need the muscle. Who's in?" Getting annoyed because someone killed your favorite NPC on a score that you weren't a part of.
December 29, 2025 at 11:51 PM
posting in the group chat "today's the today we finally get revenge on the Red Sashes. I've got the plan, I just need the muscle. Who's in?" Getting annoyed because someone killed your favorite NPC on a score that you weren't a part of.