20clawzstudios

[20clawzstudios]

no sales for 5 days..

[20clawzstudios]

For anyone curious, Wendsday I'm going to be streaming working on the brand new character sheets for Shattered Neon on my youtube channel. Not a lot of people get to see the more simple and (sometimes) tedious parts of ttrpg work, so stop by if you want to chat, ask questions about ttrpg dev, or just think it's fun to watch me fumble around trying to make my boxes look pretty

[20clawzstudios]

these are you ancestors?? lmaooo

[20clawzstudios]

For anyone who want to, my wife just finished working with a wonderful team of game Devs for PIG Squad's Summer Slow Jam! It's a lovely little musical puzzle game with ice skating, and it's free! Play here!

[20clawzstudios]

average session of @anim-ttrpgs' Eureka

[20clawzstudios]

For anyone curious, Wendsday I'm going to be streaming working on the brand new character sheets for Shattered Neon on my youtube channel. Not a lot of people get to see the more simple and (sometimes) tedious parts of ttrpg work, so stop by if you want to chat, ask questions about ttrpg dev, or just think it's fun to watch me fumble around trying to make my boxes look pretty

[20clawzstudios]

That or the crippling loss of his Gorgan wife. Could be either tbh

One of the most recent issues I've realized in ttrpg design I'm seeing when I look into new systems is the idea of Goals. This isn't to say games like Mouse Guard and Shattered Neon aren't good, but moreso that they have a glaring issue with Goals: people do NOT know how to write a goal to save their life. And like, I can't blame anyone for that. We live in a world its hard to think of what you'll eat tomorrow, much less what Leo the Serpenteater is wanting to do.

I'm not sure what solution to this is best. OSR stuff and AD&D tend to map goals to character levels so players know roughly what their character should want to do at any one time, ie "At level 9 a fighter can expect to try to make their own castle or barony". Mouse Guard notes very specifically that Goals are things that you could complete in one session. In Shattered Neon I did the opposite. Goals are instead Ambitions. Things your character strives towards but knows they may never actually achieve.

I don't think any of these approaches are perfect, but it is interesting to see how each approaches "how do you set a goal?" question people will have differently. Yet another example of why you need to play or read multiple games to make a good ttrpg.

[20clawzstudios]

The unexpected reason why the drive-through line is so long

[20clawzstudios]

Self-Awareness by Katsuhiro Õtomo

[20clawzstudios]

Oh my god, Defy the Gods funded. Three days in.

Getting here required running one Kickstarter, canceling it, resetting my expectations, and launching a new one with more modest goals. But I really want to make this book, you all.

You can get so wrapped up in your own creative project, you think everyone in the world will want it. Then you hit reality and find out its audience is actually really, really niche.

And I'm okay with that! The book stays true to itself. I want to make a sword & sorcery adventure that mirrors and echoes queer life. And most of all, I want to make it. It's a big project, with so many people lending their talents. I want it to be real.

And now—thanks to many of you!—I get to do it. And put it in your hands, with all my love, and hope you enjoy reading and playing it.

26 days and change left to go in the Kickstarter—lots of stretch goals I want to hit. Thanks for coming on the ride with me.

⚔️❤️‍🔥

[20clawzstudios]

Okay maybe serpent eating man was a bad example, but you get it :P Ambition in Shattered Neon grants characters Luck when they have made what they feel is progress towards making their ambition true and complete. Many ambitions (ie, I want a world where no one is taken advantage of) are not feasible to actually ever be completed. Progress towards making a "better" world and actually accomplishing that are two different things, and that distinction is noted within the game's rules. As an aside, Luck itself is a transformative resource, letting players reroll both their own rolls/dice AND the dice/rolls of other characters. It's effectively narrative power, as one can use it to possibly force their own character's success or the downfall of another. It ties into the themes around luck and how sticking to one's own morality is rewarded by the magic of the universe, not simply accepting the world as it is. Ambition as effectively a "win-state" (to borrow a term from video games) is an interesting concept. I've always been a fan of games, be they ttrpgs or video games, allowing for multiple win states. I think it adds a wonderful layer of mechanical and narrative complexity surrounding what it actually means to succeed.

One of the most recent issues I've realized in ttrpg design I'm seeing when I look into new systems is the idea of Goals. This isn't to say games like Mouse Guard and Shattered Neon aren't good, but moreso that they have a glaring issue with Goals: people do NOT know how to write a goal to save their life. And like, I can't blame anyone for that. We live in a world its hard to think of what you'll eat tomorrow, much less what Leo the Serpenteater is wanting to do.

I'm not sure what solution to this is best. OSR stuff and AD&D tend to map goals to character levels so players know roughly what their character should want to do at any one time, ie "At level 9 a fighter can expect to try to make their own castle or barony". Mouse Guard notes very specifically that Goals are things that you could complete in one session. In Shattered Neon I did the opposite. Goals are instead Ambitions. Things your character strives towards but knows they may never actually achieve.

I don't think any of these approaches are perfect, but it is interesting to see how each approaches "how do you set a goal?" question people will have differently. Yet another example of why you need to play or read multiple games to make a good ttrpg.

[20clawzstudios]

Reminder for folks that the Post Mortem stream is this Sunday (aka tomorrow) at 5pm Pacific on my youtube.

Can't wait to see y'all there <3

[20clawzstudios]

Ohhhhhh that's cuuuuuuute

[20clawzstudios]

Ergo Proxy, Episode 1. Re-L Mayer.

[20clawzstudios]

[20clawzstudios]

Would y'all enjoy me doing a review series of ttrpgs, movies, and anime etc that were inspirations for my own ttrpgs?

[20clawzstudios]

If you’re wanting to support some LGBT creators during pride month, consider supporting us.

75% of our team is LGBT in one way or another, and we need your support to stay afloat this month (and well every month but y’know).

Not only is most of our team queer, our games are too, and no not just because queer people made them and play them. (No, D&D isn’t queer, D&D culture treats queerness like a coat of paint.) An author or an audience doesn’t make something queer purely by association, a piece of art is queer if it engages in themes and experiences of people who are queer, and each of our TTRPGs do.

Our games engage meaningfully, mechanically, with the experiences of the abnormal, the discriminated against, and the marginalized. Each of our RPGs engage with mechanical reflection of gender and sexual norms, a prerequisite to enable mechanical reflection of transgressing those norms. You don’t have to take my word for it, you can download, read them, and play them here at this link (payment is optional but dearly appreciated and sorely needed), or wait and see the separate posts I’m going to make about this subject later that really delve into this. (Also accepting testimonials from fans either reblogged on this post or tagging us on your own post.)

In the meantime, we need to make an income of $2,898.83 before the end of the month, and at the time of writing this we only have $581.68. If you want to support queer artists, please consider checking out our itch.io, patreon, or ko-fi at these links.