🍁 Levi Kornelsen

...I don't think Rolf is a bastard.

Uh. That's all I got for the list.

I mean, that'd be a bigass handout, if it got used that way, but also, hey neato!

What sorts of game-teaching handouts have you seen (official or not)?

I mean stuff like rules references, PBtA move sheets, the Daggerheart sidecar, resolution walkthroughs...

"You would literally be better served by flipping a coin" is quite the success rate.

Things I learned today: This.

Also a new way to put extenders on a forklift, but that's a different story.

Ah! Okay, I think one of my pairs of boots had those. I may have actually selected *against* them in the rest. Weird little things.

Are we talking laces here?

I am realising now that none of the boots I have owned actually *had* anything I would call straps on them, and maybe that's where I went wrong?

So: Somebody screwed up, rather than them doing something screwed up.

They owned it, fair enough.

“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.”

James Baldwin

Are we talking Joust, howdahs, or shadow of the Goosossus?

That makes sense to me, in that smaller games are where you'd *expect* to bring over the most baggage and have it be useful, only to discover no, not here.

I got far enough into comprehension to realise that he thought the word "design" should be animated to glitter constantly, and noped out there.

Had to block a dude for deciding I needed a "You can't teach design" sermon, because fixing whatever's going on there is Not My Problem.

Okay.

Bye bye.

Instructional Design For Tabletop Roleplaying by Levi Kornelsen A primer on applying Instructional Design to Tabletop RPGs

I have no idea what you're on about here.

Context for you:

levikornelsen.itch.io/instructiona...

(I will not use this page to take a shot at people going "If they would just approach games my way, which is the best way, then". I will vent that here on Bluesky, and that will be all. Breathing, in and out.)

True, but in this case, I'm drafting a page for a zine about instructional design in TTRPGs, so, I'm very much locked-on.

Yep. It's a bastard, that one, particularly because if you actually *name* the game or games you want yo retrain from, it can read extremely easily like sour grapes. And if you don't, you risk confusion.

*Tabletop* RPGs. D&D, etc.

Yes, though that's a different thread altogether.

- Understand that forwarding any kind of punishment breeds reaction (even if you call it consequences) will not yield predictable results. Fight the guards? Don't mind if I do!

(8/)

- Provide a positive address of the issue. You are on their side, hoping to show them good things; write like it. "Here are some things that take some getting used to", and not " Unlike some OTHER games".

(7/)

- Reduce overlap at the start; if you're worried about murderous characters, don't provide a "murder guy" template.

(6/)

- Make a special effort to showcase character resources, investments, and rewards that pull players to focus on things beyond the specific behaviour.

(5/)

If that's a concern for you, here are some things you can do on that front:

- Ensure that you are forwarding a clear pitch for what play is like that precludes the specific behaviour you're concerned about.

(4/)

This is an instructional problem; specifically, a retraining one. Not in the sense that that good instruction is easy and works every time, but in the sense that instruction is the only thing you can do about it that works at all.

(3/)

It can also result in "They're playing my game like D&D, and it's not geared for that at all!", and other nearly identical sentiments.

(2/)

At work, drafting a page:

Tabletop RPG players carry skills and preferences from game to game. This is good! It means you don't need to teach every single thing about play every single time.

But.

(1/)

As a conference centre setup ape, those curtains aren't even soft. Soft dampens noise. They're basic pipe and drape, and block zero sound and minimal light.