Rule of Carnage - Designing Better Miniatures Games

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk cognitive load and complexity budget. Complexity budget being the mental strain that learning your game puts players under and cognitive load the mental strain that playing it puts them under. They talk about good ways to lessen both and why you should care about them. Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gas...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk about representing damage in your game, whether forces should degrade with damage, how to note it and whether you should even have it at all. Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns and here they talk about how, why and sometimes if to design tabletop miniatures games with...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk about synergy and emergence in games, hopefully with a few tips on how to engineer them into your designs. They suggest that synergy is something you want players to see so that they can engage with and enjoy building it and that emergence is an unseen bit of story building for players. Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games suc...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk about whether there are some things that absolutely must be true about miniatures games design, or designs. A lot is up for grabs here and there's not a lot that they conclude is sacred. Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns and here they talk about how, why and sometimes...

In this episode Glenn and Mike answer questions from comments left by viewers of their YouTube channel. More of it is about D4s than is probably usual in life, but that's just how the pyramid tumbles. Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns and here they talk about how, why and sometimes if to design tabletop...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk dice mechanics, how dice can be controlled, moderated and modulated in your game. They even talk about some of the odd and interesting uses dice can be put to other than just random number generation. Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns and here they talk about how, why...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk about some rule that often come as assumptions in the world of miniatures gaming but that probably shouldn't be assumptions anywhere, or even anything anywhere. Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns and here they talk about how, why and sometimes if to design tabletop min...

In this episode Glenn and Mike get quite philosophical and ramble on about the line between game and process, what makes something one or the other, when a game is a puzzle and when a puzzle is a game. They try to relate it back to narrative miniatures games and the difference between sit forward and sit back gaming, but they might not really have succeeded. It might all just be an example of proc...

In this episode Glenn and Mike chat about activation and initiative systems, beginning with the differences between IGOUGO and alternating activations. They discuss the many, varied and fascinating ways to decide the order of player activations and that of their units. Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns...

In this episode Glenn and Mike chat about psychology effects in miniatures games, fear, terror, disorder, panic, frenzy and all sorts of methods for simulating the psychology of troops on the tabletop and removing control from players.  Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns and here they talk about how, why...

In this episode Glenn and Mike investigate how to make something out of nothing in your designs. Chaos over control and turning everything up to eleven rather than shutting down the fun.  Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns and here they talk about how, why and sometimes if to design tabletop miniatures g...

In this episode Glenn and Mike take a deep dive into dice pools, methods for controlling the spread of probability within a game's design. They talk about how pools work and the different dice that might be used in them.  Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns and here they talk about how, why and sometimes...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk about victory conditions, what form they might take, what they're for and if you really need them or not.  Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns and here they talk about how, why and sometimes if to design tabletop miniatures games with discussions, tips, reviews and inte...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk about bloat in games, what it is, how to recognise when its creeping into your games and how to stop it.  Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns and here they talk about how, why and sometimes if to design tabletop miniatures games with discussions, tips, reviews and inter...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk about flaws in games, how to recognise them, when to accept them and the ways in which they can become some of the best and most popular features in your game.  Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns and here they talk about how, why and sometimes if to design tabletop min...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk about some recent tinkering and testing that they've been doing in relation to some possible alternative version rules tweaks for Gaslands, in this case for the making cards more resilient and able to finish races more consistently.  Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk the recent release of a new set of contracts for A Billion Suns, the Warzone contracts, built to encourage massive battles with gargantuan spaceships.  Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns and here they talk about how, why and sometimes if to design tabletop miniatures g...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk about some recent tinkering and testing that they've been doing in relation to some possible alternative version rules tweaks for Gaslands, in this case for the Evade rule.  Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns and here they talk about how, why and sometimes if to design...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk about some recent tinkering and testing that they've been doing in relation to some possible alternative version rules tweaks for Gaslands, in this case for the Wipeout phase.  Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns and here they talk about how, why and sometimes if to des...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk about luck in games and how it aligns, or sits contradictory to, skill.  They discuss types of randomness, and to a degree types of skill and chat a little about why tabletop miniatures games are so obsessed with luck.  Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns and here...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk about Mike's project Hobgoblin, particularly the design principles that have been developed for it since their last conversation on the subject.  They talk a bit about design principles in general, while applying them in practice to a live design.  In the second half of the chat they engage in a live development discussion for the game.  Glenn and...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk about designing list building for tabletop miniatures systems.  They discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a faction system, why people like asymmetry in the options and the thorny issue of netlists.  They then go on to get into the world of Metas and tournaments, how to keep the meta of your game healthy and what the important points to get right fo...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk about designing campaign systems for tabletop miniatures games.  They talk about linear, branching and map campaigns with or without a strong narrative.  They also talk about progression systems, their problems and a range of solutions and whether or not your game needs them. Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as G...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk about catch up mechanics, popular in board games but traditionally absent from tabletop skirmish miniatures games.  Why is this the case, and should you consider changing it for your design?  They talk about the very clear catch-up mechanic in Gaslands and the possible presence of one in A Billion Suns. Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer res...

In this episode Glenn and Mike talk about the results of their various attempts to meet a challenge that Mike set back in Ep 06.  Glenn designed a game based on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson while Mike based his on City of Glass by Paul Aster. Glenn and Mike are the developer and designer respectively of games such as Gaslands, Gaslands: Refuelled and A Billion Suns and...