arcandio's mad ravings

gamedesign

Hint: they serve fundamentally different purposes.

I'm writing this post sort of as a way to collect my thoughts before diving into a particular design challenge in this vein on #ATSD.

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I seem to write a lot of stuff phrased as a question when I intend to give a specific answer. This is not that. I'm not sure, but I've got some thoughts.

Disclaimer: I'm sick and I have no plan for this post. It's going to be hard to follow.

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And why I don't get to use it often.

Buckle in, this is going to be a long one.

What's Analytical Game Design?

Analytical game design is just what I call doing a particular style of #gamedesign which mostly revolves around broadly-applicable design rules and the use of spreadsheets and data as the driving methods for design.

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Massive disclaimer time.

  • Content warning: Spoilers, philosophy of RPGs. Expect disagreements of schools of thought.
  • I do not fault my DM.
  • Yes, I'm butthurt and salty.
  • If one of these issues is caused by my DM, I don't intend offense, it's clearly just a difference of play style vs DM style.
  • This is probably mostly a rant.
  • I have not read the Curse of Strahd, so I'll mostly be talking out of my ass be talking about my experience as a player. Also, to prevent me from getting spoilers, I've also tried to avoid reading about it as much as I could.
  • DM: If you're reading this, take everything with a grain of salt, and do not take it personally. Reading this kind of post from my players or even just on the web would give me anxiety attacks, so put it down if you need to. We can talk about it directly if you want.
  • I've not yet done my due diligence on Player Agency to see what others have to say about it, but as a writer I've got some pretty strong opinions of my own.
  • I don't like bashing/ragging/ranting about stuff. I believe that to make the world a better place, we should focus on the positive. I'll try to do that, but it's not exactly the point of this post.

Spoiler Alert: Curse of Strahd, Death House Spoilers

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