Jason C Daniels

And when, not if, customers/audience members disagree, listen to the what and why. NOTE: some of the disagreements will include myopic suggested solutions. Extrapolate from those once you start seeing patterns in feedback.

It's a messy process. But customers end up much happier as a result.

9/

Expanding a little on "supposed to think:" There's how designers view a character sheet. And then there's the player's view, mechanics relationship be damned. You can't MAKE people think like you. So all you SHOULD do is explain your reasoning. It's respectful. Players appreciate it.

8/

IMO FATE makes it easy to configure some differences of opinion w/ their default. In fact my app makes supporting the different expectation of "Aspects beyond the main five aspects go in one bucket (Extras)" vs "I want separate buckets for Extras, Equipment, and/or Stunts" trivial to configure.

7/

So this begs the question of: how to accommodate differences of opinion among players? My solution is: if it's trivial to support with a slight variations of character sheets, offer some variations. You'll spend less time doing that vs trying to change people's minds. (Many of whom won't change)

6/

This separation also makes it faster for the player to find the information they're after vs mixing the main five with the rest. Both results stem from that design choice.

As you've alluded to, finding that balancing point of granularity is tricky. There is no single right answer for all games.

5/

And FATE already separates aspects by having Extras in a separate bucket from the main five aspects. IMO this has less to do with mechanics than expectation setting for the players: As a general rule, you're expected to mostly use these aspects. That's why they have a pretty section of their own.
4/

I won't enumerate all the ones I can think of as it's late and I'm tired. The general principle to work off of is answering "What does my main audience expect and why (purity be damned)?"

The whys are very important. Those answers can guide what you change or maintain in a character sheet.

3/

I focus on "main audience" as those expectation will be for those you most expect to play the game, and therefore become users of their interface into the game: the character sheet.

All of user interface design is filled with tradeoffs a vast many, most mired in minutia of user context.

2/

People think the way they think.

Does naming categories limit things? Yes. And done right it usually reduces cognitive burden, a potentially great positive of having limitations.

So when making a product for others you gotta take their context into account, mechanics be damned.

1/9

Join us. Become a recluse. We can teach you things you've never seen! (From afar. Recluses DO NOT congregate. Kind of defeats the purpose, ya know?)

Please don't include me in International Women's Day. I'm not a woman or woman adjacent! Non-Binary People's Day is July 14; you can celebrate with me then 😁Today is for celebrating women and let's keep it that way.

That's when I scream "LIES!!!" then run away and forget why I was in the store for the next three weeks.

I'm very tired of needing an app for everything. I don't want to have 500 apps; I just want to interact with your website briefly and be done with it. Stop making me download your app to order a pizza!

I wonder how many people realize this is the norm.

“Households containing an adult w/a work-disability require, on average…an additional $17,690/year…to obtain the same standard of living as a comparable household w/o a member w/a disability.”

www.nationaldisabilityinstitute.org/reports/extr...

Likewise

Designers tend not to need much guidance in organizing their thoughts and information. Non-designers tend to need it more. Having conceptual categories helps as long as they are tailored to the main audience's tastes. And overly broad groupings tend to confuse folks regardless of audience.

2/2

While, there are no answers or arrangements that will make everyone happy, there are decisions that will make a great many unhappy. This varies by audience. So, when making a character sheet, one needs to know their audience and account for their tastes. Some will love your advice.

1/2

Sheet design is similar.

Example: A social media site's UI doesn't group all links under a single category of "links" despite all functioning the same (mechanics). Conceptually similar ones go together to help users understand how to comprehend the information. They're all just links tho.

2/2

Fate does exactly this. It seems counter-intuitive. (Haven't played) My reasoning is categories help players organize their thoughts /and/ physical items are different from a person I've met. Plus my background in UI design tells me to DO NOT GROUP CATEGORICALLY DISTINCT ITEMS TOGETHER.

1/2

You say that. But I swear it's not the same hour, and it tends to be quite sickly upon return. Sickly, like a chihuahua named BEER-ME left to roam Myrtle Beach during Spring Break.

I have SAD and winters are just hard. The extra hour of sunlight hasn't really impacted me beyond "Oh yay. I have to adjust my sleep schedule for an hour of light I'll never see, because I'm in an office building."

Working remotely, allows me to get more sunlight no matter the clock setting.

Hold on. Do you mean to tell me that time just vanished, overnight? And nobody is gonna send out a search party?!?! What has the world come to!

YouTube video by caffein8ted The Dead Milkmen - The Badger Song

So is this the Badger Song you mean? www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByAc...

Or is it this one?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIyi...

Regardless, how dare you impugn the only two songs/chants in my religion! (The IRS says it's not a religion. That and nobody joined. People said it was weird and confusing)

There's a reason we worked to irradicate this illness. Assholes not gettin their kids vaccinated are literally killing others. We need to get this shit back under control

:: heavy sigh ::

😆

I wonder if they will ever cash in the daylight they're going to squirrel away. If not, it seems wasted to me. And not in the fun "I accidentally ate too many THC gummies" sort of way.

FML. I need to proof read for typos better. That should have read "lean" not "learn." Bleh. (I was chatting about hobbies and liking to learn with someone else a few minutes before. I'm blaming that for this typo)

And just in case you're wondering: yes I deleted the "m" from "howmever" as I was out of characters. 😜

You're right about "how(m)." And this is why I cited it as being disconnected from reality and unreasonable. (Somehow, we anti-whom-ers still won. Not due to "howm," however. Well, not that I know of, in any case)

And my gut feel learns toward "whamt" or "whattum" as "whatm" is tough to pronounce.