Design Doc

Questlandia 2 is a campaign game with no Game Master. Without a designated person in the GM role, that responsibility must be distributed among all players. We talk about how the Junk Poets can support every player in the GM role.

Questlandia 2 has been delayed. Now, we're releasing an entirely different RPG first. We talk about—and try not to apologize for—how timelines and business have to adapt to design difficulties. Design Doc intro/outro theme: by Pat King

We asked on Twitter what you wanted to know about running a roleplaying game Kickstarter. Now, we're answering your questions. From self-promotion to self-care, what to say when there's nothing to say, and pretending we know anything about taxes. Show notes: Design Doc Intro/Outro theme by Pat King Additional music: New Ages 1 by Little Dog Big Ears

We try redesigning Noirlandia, one of our other roleplaying games, in one hour!

Who are the Junk Poets and what do they add to Questlandia? We go over what we know, what's still missing, and how they could make a GMless game easier to play!

We've finished the first two playtests of Questlandia and something is still missing. In this episode we talk about how to hone in on the emotional core of the game. What stories does this game want to tell and how do we make sure it tells them?

After playtesting Questlandia's new kingdom and character creation, it's time to test some scenes! Bartholomew the anxious city planner and Quincy the cast out justice-bringer will have to make some hard choices. Choices that begin with a cat and end with a geological anomaly. Intro/Outro theme music - by Pat King

Welcome to Kingdom Knot, where our people keep vigil over the void at the edge of the world. Something has emerged from that void—a creature for which we have no words, of which we have no memory. For now, we will call it...a "cat." Music credits: Design Doc Intro/Outro theme written by Pat King Also featuring New Ages 1 by Little Dog, Big Ears

Alanna Shaffer joins us to talk about how, even when telling made-up stories, we can be aware of biases in the way we talk about history. Whose stories get told? Whose get left behind? And what's our responsibility to our fictional worlds? Mentioned reading: Charity and Sylvia by Rachel Hope Cleves The New Map of Empire: How Britain Imagined America before Independence by Max Edelson The Cheese an...

Why are our worlds turning out horrible? After playtesting at Metatopia, we talk about how the framing for worldbuilding can exaggerate societies to cartoonish levels. Maybe we can learn from the original Questlandia?

It's Trans Awareness Week. A short bonus episode about trans allyship, education, and creating better gaming spaces. Trans Awareness Week: https://www.glaad.org/transweek The Trans Language Primer : https://www.translanguageprimer.com/

We talk about acknowledging—and embracing—the inherent politics of game design. Intro music credit. New Ages 1 from Little Big Dog Ears. http://opsound.org/artist/littledogbigears/ http://opsound.org/info/license/

In September we met for a mini Questlandia retreat. We talked about how our intentions for the game have shifted in the current political landscape and introduced an unfolding guidebook that will sit at the center of play.

How do you keep making things when life throws the unexpected your way? We're learning what that looks like now.

A good GM can step up to manage social dynamics at the table. But in Questlandia 2, there is no GM, so the rules we write need to do that work. How can we keep the excitement and ideas flowing without leaving quieter players out of the fun?

What happens if a player achieves their big character goal in the very first scene of the game? We found out.

With no GM, players in Questlandia 2 are responsible for framing their own scene types. As a result they animate objects, make holy voyages, and befriend a sentient wall.

Good games are often built on an avalanche of bad ideas. We talk about the worst ideas we've had so far, and how to turn them into something useful.

We talk about deadlines, and the whooshing noise they make as they go by.

The first playtest that takes us all the way through character creation. Meet beasts of burden, puppeteers, and the queens who inhabit Mosslicker Alley.

We experiment with a customized alethiometer to explore stories and build new worlds.

The Make Big Things team talks about making games as a cooperative.

With one playtest down, we talk about what went right, what went wrong, and what we'd like to change.

We attempt to put theory into practice as we prep for Questlandia's first playtest.

What makes for a good RPG toolkit? We explore dice, cards, dactylomancy, and some of the weirder tactile tools you can bring to the table.