This is it. Our fiftieth episode marks the end of our long conversation about designing tabletop RPGs (and everything else we spilled over into). This episode addresses audience questions, the past, and the future. What do you do when you're done and the thing you've been working on leaves the workshop? Let's talk about it. Thank you for joining us…

You need funding. You might give your game away for free, but you didn't make it for free. Your time and work have value. How does that translate to cost and how does your product help fund itself and the next thing you want to make? Nathan is sharing a living document about all this, too: "Notes on Independent Publishing." Get in there and share y…

Let's talk about some of the software that we—Nathan and Will—use for production purposes like layout and graphic design. More importantly, let's talk about how that impacts our game designs and workflow across the board. We're also seeking new questions and topics to explore as we wind down the show's run. Got questions? Weigh in on the show, shar…

As you're proceeding into production of your game, ask yourself: What can I do myself? When should I ask for help? What would I say to externalize my vision to a hire? What you do yourself, what you expand your skills to accomplish, and when you hire experts — these are parts of the spheres of production. Design Games is made possible by our suppor…

What form does your RPG take? Is it a book? A deck of cards? A poster or mousepad or business card? Are you sure? Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching for…

Let's talk about another means of delivering random results and packaging information for players in your tabletop roleplaying and story games: cards. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us…

Look around. Get your bearings. Take a look back at what's working and what you've learned, then move forward with the knowledge. That's what we're doing, this time. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and w…

You've got a lot of notes, you've got rules and systems, maybe you've been writing for yourself. How do you start writing all of that out for other people in addition to yourself? Let's talk. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the …

Say a thing. Say it again. A design isn't right the first time, so we revise and restate and iterate. Let's talk about that.What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, via our Google+ Community.Our podcast is funded via Nathan’s and Will’s Patreon pages at patreon.com/ndpaoletta and patreon.com/w…

Do you know about the Game Chef design competition? This time we talk about our experiences with Game Chef and what we know of its history and influence on games and designers.What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, via our Google+ Community.Our podcast is funded via Nathan’s and Will’s Patre…

We continue our conversation about the first real playtests of your new game design, this time focusing on what you do to make sense of information from a playtest.What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, via our Google+ Community.Our podcast is funded via Nathan’s and Will’s Patreon pages at …

Say a thing. Say it again. A design isn’t right the first time, so we revise and restate and iterate. Let’s talk about that. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by se…

Do you know about the Game Chef design competition? This time we talk about our experiences with Game Chef and what we know of its history and influence on games and designers. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own …

Episode forty?! Ye gads. Here we explore more notions on the topic of your early playtests, and how to get information out of them, make sense of some of it, and prepare for revisions to your design. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in…

We’ve reach that time. Let’s talk about playtesting your design—specifically, how to prep and participate in the early playtests of your RPG. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk …

We've finally reached this critical point. It's time to talk about playtesting your design.What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, via our Google+ Community.Our podcast is funded via Nathan’s and Will’s Patreon pages at patreon.com/ndpaoletta and patreon.com/wordwill — and our patrons occasio…

We set out to talk about designing games to be ready for hacking and remixing by the end user, but first a stopover at a discussion of universal systems, too. Let it go, Will. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, via our Google+ Community.Our podcast is funded via Nathan’s and Will’s Patre…

We set out to talk about designing games to be ready for hacking and remixing by the end user, but first a stopover at a discussion of universal systems, too. Let it go, Will. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own w…

Let’s talk about how a game moves, functions, and adapts. Let’s talk about affordances. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching for our G+ Community. Music i…

Some game designs are highly visual. When does that work happen? How early is too early to think about art and a visual arrangement of ideas? We talk it out. This episode references Nathan’s design-process illustration, by the way. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar he…

This time, we tackle a great listener-submitted topic about how to makes risk and challenges feel dramatic and satisfying in your RPG designs — and how to help players think about risk and challenge in play. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? …

Another great listener topic, another episode wrestling with said topic. This time: we talk about designs involving Player vs Player and PvE mechanics and, y'know, some of what that means. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the sho…

Here we attempt to tackle another great question from the G+ community. This one’s about designing with purpose and how purpose can align with (or away from) content, context, vision, and more. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on th…

We’ve talked a lot already about design steps and techniques, thoughts and approaches. You’ve got vision and notes and notions. Now let’s talk about bringing it all together. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own wo…

What even is a playstorm? We think we know and we dive into the answer in this episode, to consider what makes playstorming different from playtesting, what it’s for, and when we do it. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, …

What is “a success” in play? What is failure? When do players’ and characters’ victories align? When do they diverge? And how do we talk about it all? Tune in and hear. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, an…

When we talk about “color” in RPG design, we’re often talking about texture and tangibility and how they interact with and express your game and what it is about. We think. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work…

What do we mean when we talk about emergence? What’s emergent by design and what emerges anyway? We wrestle with the issue this time — and maybe not for the last time! Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and…

Space, in many games (and especially RPGs), is abstracted and metaphorical, letting the idea of space mingle with other ideas in exciting ways. What is “narrative mass” and how do relationship maps suggest or defy a space? Let’s talk! Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar…

It’s time to talk about time. This time, we make time to discuss real-time play, abstractions, and dramatic units of time in RPGs and other games, which takes us into territory about focus, abstraction, and player agency once again. Expand the episode with these links: Caitlynn Belle’s Message is a text game you play in an hour. The Beast (Fair war…

What’s the situation in your game? How do you flag, support, and inspire situations in play? RPG play can be as small as a single dramatic situation or as vast worlds teeming with volatile circumstances … but it’s for naught if the players don’t know how to interact with that situation. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, wh…

Let’s talk more about settings and worlds for gameplay, including designing and recognizing links between your world and your game! Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next…

How does your game’s setting interact with its design? How do you begin to design a setting? How does your setting suit your game — and why? We talk about this rich and vast topic, not for the last time. Look around the old site for more info from this episode! Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and W…

Let’s talk about influences on our designs and how we converse with them and with our own game’s vision and voice. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searching fo…

What are some early exercises and tactics for starting a new design? Formalize your inspiration and vision. Make some notes on what is exciting you about this game. Visually sketch out a scene in your head or write it out as lines of dialogue. Other techniques include: mockup a possible cover for an eventual book; sketch a character sheet; make art…

This time, we look back at the show and reflect on 20 episodes of conversations. What are we happy with and what do we still want to attempt? What course corrections might we attempt for the show next? This approximates the kind of reflection we do as designers, midway through a design, and helps us identify what’s next for the show in 2016. Design…

What is antagonism in play — we talk about the problems inherent in the term, what it means in play, and how you can think about it in your design. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to…

This time, we talk about communications between a game’s designer and its players—especially the GM—both implicit and explicit. We also refer again to our previous questions, written by Nathan and refined/revised through our conversations, about (but not just about) GM tasks, authority, and responsibility: What need to be created (or established)? …

This time we’re dropping names and game titles all over the place, focusing on just a few of the games that we’re feeling influenced by lately or over time — especially when it comes to GMing. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the…

This time we’re talking about designing for GM authorities and responsibilities in tabletop RPGs — a rich topic that we’ll explore more in the future. Here’s a version of the questions that we considered on the show, useful for considering in your own designs, too, we hope: Questions about, but not just about, “GM” tasks, authority and responsibili…

In this episode, we discuss the roles, responsibilities, and authority of the GM in tabletop RPGs and story games. It’s a role with a lot of permutations for designers to think about, plan for, and react to. What do you think? Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. …

We’re tackling a few more listener questions this time — and it’s a bit of a challenge. These are great questions! Of course, it was only after we recorded that we remembered a great example of a game with character-leading-to-class mechanisms: Mortal Coil! Galileo Games’s worlds of magic and magical systems builds up the rules of magic during play…

For our not-spooky 13th episode, we address a few listener questions we’ve received. Still, things get a little spooky. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, by searchi…

Listen in as we discuss resolution mechanisms in RPGs, including musings about scope and scale and fictional time. How do you know when a thing has happened in your game? How do you know when to check to see if a thing has happened? By listening to this episode, maybe! Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back N…

This time, we have a quick talk about the difference between a system and its rules. How does that affect your design and can a design change systems already in place? Let’s talk. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (i…

We had more to say about reward cycles, systems, and mechanisms in theory and in practice, so this episode is about more of that. As proof that the podcast is doing its job (for us, at least): we have thoughts beyond what we were able to squeeze into this longer episode. (Will had something of an epiphany a couple of days after we recorded.) Here’s…

In this doozy (doozy!) of an episode, we talk about reward cycles in design and play, from their core dynamics and philosophies to how they can befit or bemuse different players differently. (See also, flow as understood in psychology.) Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every doll…

Let’s talk about the terminology of our games and how that influences the patois at the table. What lingo do you use in your game and what sobriquets develop over time? As ever: decisions, decisions. Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps. Music is “Dances and Dames”…

What is character monogamy in an RPG and what does it do in your design? Let’s talk about it! This time we reference games like Ars Magica, The Adventures of Indiana Jones, Dark Sun, Amazing Engine, Monsterhearts, Circle of Hands, and more (also salmon) while talking about what happens when players play just one character apiece… or not! Design Gam…

Here we look at the gist of experience points (XP) and character development, especially in tabletop RPGs, and how character progression can reward, reflect, and influence the play of your design. Once again, we’ve dipped into a deep topic, so we may well dig into this again down the road. This episode is the result of several different techniques …