#ttrpg jargon explanation 7

[the-princeps]

Ttrpg jargon explanation #7 Meatgrinders and dungeoncrawlers

Meatgrinders, a meatgrinder is in some ways the equivalent of a soulslike, when done well it is harsh but fair and death is permanent. The goal is to be very careful, touch every tile with a 10ft pole and so on.

Dungeoncrawl, this is a scenario where you're navigating an area (the dungeon, though it doesn't have to be an actual dungeon) and advancing. A good dungeon has atleast the following

combat encounters

resource management

traps and puzzles

roleplay

The combat encounters are obvious, the classic dungeoncrawl will have you battling orcs or elves or such.

Resource management if as if not more essential, this is most clearly manifested in the managing of the amount of torches, food and hp you have. Is it worth it to try and get that loot, with the lowered hp you don't know if you'll be able to beat the x.

Traps are an extension of resource management, they teach the players to consider the risks of collecting and greedily running at loot

Puzzles are generally just a fun challenge that is different to combat.

Roleplay is obviously important, they're named ttrpgs for a reason.

[the-princeps]

Ttrpg jargon explanation/ ttrpg tutorials #8 probability curves and more

A probability curve is the chance of having any single number on a die roll, with 1d6 this is 1/6th for each number. When using multiple dice you get a bell curve, because there are more combinations of numbers that make up some numbers. For example: the 7 is far more probably on 2d6 than the 12, because the 12 can only be made through two sixes, whilst the 7 can be made through: 4 and 3, 3 and 4, 1 and 6, 6 and 1, 2 and 5 and 5 and 2.

This is important to keep in mind when designing ttrpgs as the probability jumps between numbers become higher, when you pla with for example 3d6, going from a TN of 7 to 8 is a far larger change than going from an 11 to 12.

This leads me into the comparison between reliability and high numbers, within your progress system it might be interesting to make seperate options for increasing reliability and increasing the amount you can roll, but when doing so it is important to consider than 2 dice of half the number of a single die has a higher average than the single die. This higher average is due to dice starting at 1 instead of 0.

Oh and I'll probably be renaming this series to ttrpg tutorials