Graham Walmsley ⏩ Dragonmeet

Oh and hey @irny.bsky.social he did one for you too.

There are four days until Dragonmeet and I'm getting excited, if by excited you mean "Wondering if I've forgotten anything".

I'm on booth E15, just behind Chaosium. Come and say hello. Here's an amazing map of where I am by @jogbrogzin.bsky.social.

Oh I love "gamefeel"!

Witch: The Road To Lindisfarne is horror-adjacent.

Cthulhu Dark's scenario Screams of the Children has a lot about feminity and class.

Now, a lot of this is subjective. For you, Mechanic One might have an intense feel, whereas for me, it might have a conversational and relaxed feel.

That's fine. All I'm really saying is that we don't think enough about the atmosphere mechanics create at the table.

Mechanic Two has a more exciting, unpredictable vibe, because of the dice and the randomness. You never quite know what you'll find. It's exciting.

For me, Mechanic One has a meditative, quiet, focussed vibe. You wander around a crime scene slowly and ask questions. That's it. There's nothing to distract you.

What's the difference? You succeed in both of them, but in Mechanic Two, you get a random chance of something interesting happening.

That's obvious. But I'm more interested in how the two mechanics feel at the table. They're totally different.

Mechanic Two: To investigate, roll a die. You always succeed, but on a 5, you find something extra, and on a 6, you find something and must explain why it means something to you. (This is a variation on the Cthulhu Dark mechanic.)

Mechanic One: Each character has a list of questions they can ask ("Can I find anything hidden?", "What do these documents say?", "Where has this object been?"). And the GM must answer them if they're asked.

We don't talk much about the "feel" of TTRPG mechanics, so I thought I'd do that.

Imagine two sets of mechanics for finding clues in a mystery.

Also, I'm so tempted to edit all the other maps everyone is posting to add our booth on it.

Just added a thing.

*raises hand*

This is where I am at Dragonmeet, sharing a stall with @patchworkfez.bsky.social .

Come and say hello! And, you know, buy things, that'd be good too.

I'm reading Abir Mukherjee's A Rising Man, a murder mystery set in the Raj period. It's reminding me how powerful murder mysteries can be for exploring a setting or period of history. It's a criminally underrated genre.

thirdfloorwars Schedule - Twitch Check out thirdfloorwars stream schedule, and set reminders so you don’t miss out!

Tomorrow, I get to share one of my favorite scenarios from Cthulhu Dark by @grahamwalmsley.bsky.social. The Screams of the Children. 1850 East London. Mystery, class horror, and themes galore. See you in chat.
twitch.tv/thirdfloorwa... N

Game: "Adjust the slider so you can barely see the logo"

Me: Adjusts the slider so I can clearly see everything because I don't want to be squinting at the game for hours

I'd really like to go next year!

Here's me talking about storytelling on @symphonyhorror.bsky.social with some brilliant people.https://youtu.be/m9T9GpVUy0w?si=uxvQ_92gcd_kQ7xv

I'm really proud of the way it's designed, by the way. It builds on Will That Be All?. It accommodates players dropping out in various ways (there are goals but they're not tied to specific characters; there are rumours but they're all duplicated).

An enormous cake with The Cinnamon Bakery on it

I'm running The Cinnamon Bakery today, my cozy larp about a running a business in a happy little town.

One player, who's playing the baker, has baked this cake! It's incredible.

TR-49 on Steam Narrative deduction meets audio drama, from the creators of Heaven’s Vault, Overboard! and A Highland Song.

We don't know. What we do know is the wiring diagram works. We built it, virtually, in @godotengine.org. We fed it scans of the books we found.

And the books are very, very strange. The "game" that resulted is also strange.

We're hoping people can make sense of it for us.

If you're at Dragonmeet next week, I have a booth! Here I am, next to scrappy newcomers Chaosium.

I'm sharing with the incredible @patchworkfez.bsky.social (buy their stuff it's great). And I'll let you know later about what I'll have to sell: I'm waiting on one last delivery.

Cold City Second Edition is out now, with 100% 5 star ratings and some amazing reviews.

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5... #coldcity #ttrpg

I love this article. Once you know this, it's easy to spot the connection: Aliya, the protagonist of Heaven's Vault, is very different from the Doctor, but she definitely wanders around ancient sites, monologuing to herself until she understands exactly what happened.

Tonight, I and @bschoner.bsky.social play brothers in the zombie apocalypse. We are on opposite sides of a closed door. One of us is infected. I've been wanting to get this game by @moreblueberries.bsky.social to the channel. Their digital play PDFs make it easy. Watch live or later. #ttrpg

I like this!

This is all really basic, obviously. It's just to say: your mechanics should reinforce the feeling and the story you want to create.

Cozy woodland game = cozy woodland mechanics.

There's something even deeper, which is about the type of mechanic.

Rolling dice gives a feeling of randomness. Do we want that feeling in our cozy woodland game? If not, maybe we want a question-asking or point-spend or token-exchange mechanic instead. Or no conflict mechanic at all.