Primæval Fantasy – Details, episodes & analysis

Attention & focus guide our outcomes. The conventional RPG methods we inherited have players constantly toggling between the Meta & Make Believe.

For those gamers who truly want an immersive Role Playing experience, we must be willing to change that method. Mechanics are vital for the game, but this does not mean the players need to any attention to them whatsoever. By freeing players from all mechanics considerations, they can then flourish in their imaginations, focusing on role playing their characters & exploring the Secondary World.

"There's no wrong way to play RPGs," is a common retort against all RPG discourse about methods, mechanics, etc.. I decided to briefly shine some light on these confusions, & the fallaciousness of the undergirding dynamics generating such assertions.

21. Interview with Che Webster of Roleplay Rescue, Part 1. 

-Special introduction by Tesla, my cat! 

-Today I talk with Che Webster, the creator of the Roleplay Rescue (RPR) podcast & blog.  Che talks about many topics, & so I split this interview into 2 parts. 

-In part 1, he muses on the motivation behind RPR, encouraging gamers to return to the hobby, the psychological difference between online vs in-person gaming, and teaching RPGs to the kids at his school. 

-The RPR website: https://anchor.fm/rpgrescue // https://roleplayrescue.com 

-Che's Twitter account: @ubiquitousrat 

-Part 2 to follow soon. 

20. Jordan’s Journey into Game Design Madness.

Here I have a casual conversation with 2 old friends, Eric & his son, Jordan, who has been gaming since he was in utero. We talk about their gaming preferences, D&D 3.5, & Jordan’s own game-in-development, “Ultra-Real”.

Another fun group-conversation with John & Nate, and another old friend, Eric. (Bonus-amounts of banter!)

Our main topic: PC Fear, fury, and self-control. My desire in RPGs is to escape a miniature wargaming mindset, to encourage the feeling that the characters are people, not 2-D caricatures. In this case we address the question of PC fear, rage, or even laziness overwhelming their cold, rational sides.

Episode 18.

A short essay about the role of realism in RPGs, focusing on the clarification of terms, the belief-generating power of realism, and the dangers of "detailism".

All Tolkien quotes are from, "On Fairy Stories". 

17. Hooking Up, Breaking Up with Gamers

This was a tangent from another conversation, which I decided to edit into a stand-alone episode. We discuss the problems with gamers in our groups who have conflicting appetites & expectations, the importance of doing what you can to get on the same page before you ever try gaming together, and of breaking up if you are gaming with people who have conflicting gaming goals.

Continuing our conversation about magic in Primæval Fantasy, discussing the tools we've used through the years to keep casters in harmony with the kind of Fantasy setting we want.

"Less is more!" 

Part I: My friend & co-magic-system designer, Drew, talk about our decades of work on this magic system, discussing the task of allowing players to possess magic while preserving the kind of Fantasy world we want, where magic remains special, mysterious, & restrained.

Part II to follow.

This is part 2 with my friends John & Nate on RPG styles.

Here we delve specifically into the nuances of difference with Cause/Effect on the PCs as opposed to all others in the world.

1) What do we allow the PCs to do (more than NPCs) just because they are PCs.

2) To what degree do we “protect” the PCs just because they are PCs.