I know… it’s disappointing to see an update instead of an article. Especially because you know full well that an update means an explanation as to why an article is being delayed. Well, yeah. But also, other stuff too. Some of it is good.
First, I hope all you Americans managed to enjoy your Memorial Day weekend. Even those of you who had to settle for quiet, limited affairs and flinging hamburgers to each other across six feet of social distance.
This year, because the topic of the sacrifices people make for the liberties that make our lives meaningful and fulfilling is so near the surface, Angry Games decided to recognize those people who fought and died for the liberty I prize so highly by helping those who are still actively fighting with a donation to Operation Supply Drop. OSD uses gaming as a way to support our servicemembers mental wellness and to help them transition from their service life to being thriving members of their local, civilian communities. It’s a really great charity. I encourage you to check them out and consider making a gift yourself to share your love of gaming with the people whose blood and sweat pay for the privilege we all enjoy to spend our nights gaming safely with friends and loved ones.
Second, you might remember from my last update that I was going to capture some video as supplemental material for the next article in the ongoing AngryCraft series and that I was going to invite members of the Angry Discord community to sit in as a live studio audience. Well, it didn’t work. But it also did. It didn’t work in that there were technical issues that took a long time to resolve and ate up a lot of the narrow window I had to record in. It did work in that the issues were eventually ironed out with the help of some dedicated Angreons – that’s Angry Patreon supporters – and, not only did I end up figuring out how to work things for the next time, I also ended up with a very useful tool for future webinars, hangouts, and streams. There was also some confusion about the start time due to a typo in one of the seventeen announcements I posted. Which didn’t help.
I’m going to take a second run at the video capture thing this coming Friday, May 29, from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM EDT. It’s basically just take two. Once again, it won’t be interactive. I will be giving a spiel and then filling out a spread sheet while I think out loud. And the article will be released next week.
And now I have a bigger hole in my schedule. Which is fortunately about to be plugged. And that brings me around to…
Third, there are going to be three updates at The Angry GM this week. Tomorrow – Wednesday, May 27 – and Friday – May 29 – you will get both parts of a two part article on a new way of looking at encounter design. The first article is identifying the problem, the second one is offering some new-ish basic GMing skills that will help solve the problem. I’m polishing the article up now. So it won’t get delayed.
On Thursday – that’s May 28 – the finalists for the “Angry, Save My Map” Sweepstakes will be revealed and you – my loyal readers – will get to vote on the winner. On the TWO winners. Surprise! I split the contest and I’m giving out two prize bundles now. I had to. You’ll see why on Thursday. Voting will be open for one week starting Thursday, June 28 at 6:00 AM EDT.
Finally, there’s been a little bit of bad news. Due to some developments in my personal life, I’ve had to kill some of my personal pursuits and put things on hold for a month. I’ve got a lack of time and some health issues that need seeing too. For a change. Unfortunately, the SMAFARGE! playtest has been put on hold and will resume at the beginning of July. I will try to keep live streams and chats going on a weekly basis, but I am putting off the Jackbox Discord Party until next week. It’ll be on Tuesday, June 9 at 8:00 PM EDT.
The Learn to Play module is still on track for an early-to-mid July release and it remains a very high priority. As is getting the next AngryCraft article done and keeping the Let’s Build an Adventure series going. Those will be my major focuses through June. I know they are all things that people are very excited to see continue.
So that’s it. Keep an eye out on the site for that two-parter on encounter design because it plays directly into the Let’s Build an Adventure that will be continuing over the coming weeks.
Sounds like you have a lot on your plate even without the health problems, I hope you can sort things out.
Just take care of yourself. A few more weeks of us playing “any wrong way we want” won’t make much difference. I consider your “forensic deconstruction” of RPG systems to be an invaluable resource to the gaming community. With all of my experience I learn something from every article you write. Looking forward to (hopefully) shelling out cold, hard cash for products (stand alone or supplemental) based on that deconstruction and your overall philosophy.
On the topic of the delayed playtest, I wanted to ask a question about the idea of having a designer hat and a GM hat: When you’re playtesting, what point of view do you run the playtest from?
Speaking as someone who’s done a LOT of playtesting, I can offer some (amateur) advice here. You don’t want to design while playing, because you need to give your current design some room to breathe without being tweaked. A good mechanic may seem bad at first if the first two rolls are particularly unlucky or lucky, so save tweaks until after a decent trial period.
On the other hand, don’t go full GM-hat, either. If you do, you’ll wind up doing exactly what you do with published products – changing things on the fly to make them work for your situation. You’ll wind up not testing what you designed because you’re making all kinds of on-the-fly calls to change things that you think may not work perfectly, but the whole point of playtesting is to find out whether they work well.
Ideally, you’ll have other GMs to run playtests, as well. When you’re doing it though, or if you don’t have other GMs to help, I suggest running as if you’re a particularly rules-lawyer-y GM. Use your GM hat primarily, but hold close to the rules you designed so that you avoid covering for their weaknesses. If you’re a designer, you’re likely used to saying things like “Yeah, I know the DMG says that, but it will work better this time if we do this.” Don’t do give your design that kind of “help.” Force it to stand for itself. You may decide that even though it wasn’t perfect for a given situation, it shouldn’t change because to change it would sacrifice it’s primary purpose. That’s okay. You still need to see the weakness first-hand, though.