#oops game broke

[torchship-rpg]

Dev Diary 12 - Destructive Testing

Breaking from the usual format for this one, and it’s going to be a bit shorter, but this is important.

At the beginning of November was Metatopia, a convention dedicated to playtesting roleplaying games. It’s an excellent place to go to break games in order to fix them stronger than ever, and in that respect Torchship did not disappoint. While its parts all worked beautifully, there were some issues with the connective tissue tying it; the game needed a stronger mechanical framework to put these pieces into.

With that in mind, we’ve started a new draft of Torchship designed to be rapidly playtested and iterated, into which all the other stuff we’ve built up can be plugged back. This new draft focuses particularly hard on making sure the game’s fundamental tablefeel is strong, that you always know what to do and where to go next.

Which is to say, fans of my games having big circles in them somewhere? There’s a big circle in this one now too. Torchship now has two distinct modes; an Action mode where you go out and gather information, and a Reflection portion where that information is managed, damage gets fixed, and plans are made. Action takes the form of ongoing narrative play, dropping into turn-based combat when needed, where Reflection takes place in a series of special scenes called Vignettes to represent timeskips, with more impactful ‘Resupply’ Vignettes acting in some ways as bridges between episodes or story arcs.

While it may sound similar to some of our previous games, this isn’t like in Flying Circus where each part of the Routine is a commitment to a certain kind of gameplay before you can go back. You’re able to switch between the two pretty readily; so long as there’s nothing bearing down on you this minute, you can go into Reflection and play out Vignettes, with the number available before you need to go back into Action depending on the in-universe time until the next important thing.

This structure imitates the back and forth you see in many episodes of Star Trek. To use Devil in the Dark as an example, the Action scenes are things like arriving at the planet to meet with the staff, or going out into the cave to track down what’s killing the miners. When they go back to talk about their findings, prep security crews, or bring in new resources, that’s Reflection. It covers your beloved TNG meeting room scenes, the cut to sickbay as we find out what happened to the redshirt, and the montages of inventing or building the tools that’ll solve this week’s problems.

As part of these rewrites, some parts of the game have been modified from previous dev diaries. We’ve simplified the way Harm works; you now have two Harm tracks, Injury and Panic, and a new accumulating penalty called Strain which builds up quickly as you make checks or use medicine to manage the other tracks or boost your abilities. Strain is easy to clear so long as you have supplies available, so it acts to pace out scenes and give less-skilled characters a reason to roll; if you know there’s a lot of a certain kind of work ahead, you might want to save your expert for the rolls which really matter!

(Radiation no longer uses a whole track, but instead consists of a small card the GM can hand you entitled “Congratulations, you’ve been irradiated!” with a list of dosage effects.)

A variety of changes large and small have emerged from these changes. Relationships act as an excellent starting point for Vignettes, while access to meetings have let us place restrictions on the number of checklists out on the field at a time, as you can always call meetings to retire checklists, propose others, and figure out what your next Big Question is about the mission. We’ve created a new XP system where you train skills directly by using them, with the pace of advancement limited on a per-episode basis to encourage you to play wide and learn new things.

Finally, we’ve come up with a neat solution to one of the longstanding problems that original sci-fi games often run into, where players are unsure what their technology can do, resulting in decision paralysis. We’ve added a very distinct CAN & CAN’T field on the info cards which lists exactly what everything does and what their limitations are so you can jump straight in without slowing the game to ask the GM where the boundaries are. 

Things are bound to change more over time as the game is refined and tested, but that’s a good thing. Good games take time, revision, and a willingness to recognize and rewrite when things aren’t working as well as they could.

[mishkinis]

Keep on walking alone miserably, young girl

[caer-oswin]

Jeremy Sawyer Hayes Snake

[parasocial-paradox]

The Narrative Parable spoilers, I think???

I guess some bits count as a spoiler I guess???

My imaginative ass did not survive when I first found out about TNP:

My favourite part of this is Ghost tbh he's just there chilling in the floor.

Petition for a Thierry marketable plushie to be made PLEASE I would buy the heck out of it

I thought of this on a whim I thought it'd be funny lmao I'm just sad I'm too lazy to fit every narrator in the fic otherwise y'all know I would be drawing every single one.

Don't mind what Thierry's sitting next to I'm sure it's not a hint to something plot relevant hehe

[coffeeebomb]

"You've been restringing this bow for Gods-know how long. May I suggest some place else to lay your undivided attention on?"

"That being...?"

"Me, naturally."

Since the battle at the Gate, Zhana's found herself juggling time between figuring out what to do with their newfound freedom, keeping up with the remainder of Team Tadpole and living with a stray cat her vampiric (life)partner-in-crime.

Was initially thinking of TRYING to draw things in a semi-chronological order. But that flew out of the window after a bit of thinking about how the main questline/timeline (and the inclusion of Zhana's 'personal questline') would play out. It'd probably be somewhere around the end of Act 3 and Wither's party invitation, with a bit of stab-happy side hustles under their belt.

[squig-s]

Who needs money when you have smosh

[hello-from-nrc-infirmary]

I LOVE ASK GAMES BC IM THE ASKERRRRR I LOVE ASKING

🧑‍🧑‍🧒, ☕️, 🤮,🎨, 👻, ❤️, 🏳️‍🌈

Sorry if this is too much 😢

Ooc// it's not too much! I've always wanted to do one!

🧑‍🧑‍🧒 (his family): he doesn't have any siblings and was raised by his single mother until she passed from age and the weakening state of her forest. He's spent the majority of his life on his own until he met Koa the Elk around 80yrs ago (Vern is fae, afterall)

☕️ (coffee or tea): tea! Preferably jasmine, he drinks 2 pots a day

🤮 (most hated food): anything deep fried. Especially fried chicken. The oil upsets his stomach

🎨 (hobbies): growing things, embroidery, and horseback (elk-back?) riding

👻 (something he's afraid of): fire and lightning. 11/10 he avoids the Diasomnia dorm because of the ever-present storm clouds

❤️ (romantic interests): Vern, you get this one.

Vern: *hides his face, but mutters* I-I mean.... umm.... there's ummm... people I like and I ummmm.... wouldn't mind if umm... B-Bennet or um... S-Silver h-held my hand...

🏳️‍🌈 (orientation): asexual, he thinks. He's not sure where under the ace umbrella he's at, but he does have crushes

[vanitasno-bitches]

the ao3 shutdown has proven to me that i would not, in fact, survive the hunger games

[sleepinthestone1]

Celebrated our 3 year anniversary this morning with brunch and I decided to dress up cute 🥞🍸🥰

Didn’t take any pictures with bf bc I forgot and we were hanging out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[crowlore]

just did an unfollow spree for the first time in like 2 years and my god you would not believe how many of the blogs i was following haven’t updated in 5 or more years i’ve been on this site for Twelve Years so i guess it’s a given but

[cerbreus]

[zero-cycle]

Fulham setting himself to Creative Mode to get Couriway and Nerdi to de-op him for the tourney match and then getting op rights taken away before he could go back to survival is such a speedrunner moment

[hazardouslesbian]

SPOTIFY WRAPPED ASK GAME: 1-3, 7, 11, 17, 27, and 28 :)

YAY THANK YOU

1. Mastermind - Taylor Swift (clex anthem if Clark slayed)

2. Basics - Twice (song of the year actually)

3. Bittersweet - Twice

7. Just be yourself - TWICE AGAIN LOL

11. Queen of hearts - ………by Twice

17. Afterglow - Taylor Swift (AGAIN CLEX IF CLARK SLAYED)

27. Tick Tock - you’re never gonna believer this.. by Twice

28. Break Free - Ariana Grande

[1nan0th3rl1f3]

Just had what I think was a panic attack, not(?) feeling good!

[sanguinespirited]

ooc ;;

Ascended Astarion is immediately insufferable I'm probably not going to write him much here lmao

[claire-starsword]

game: here are the Iron Boots! now you won't take damage from spiked floors!

me, who just damage boosted through a whole room to get a chest: ah.