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Worlds of Design: Game Design Rules of Thumb - Part 1
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<blockquote data-quote="Bedrockgames" data-source="post: 8203494" data-attributes="member: 85555"><p>The issue though is you never really know what can become meaty in the hands of the GM. I do agree things can get lost in the lore. But I also think these kinds of rules (similar to the rule on say brevity of text we have in the OSR), while they start from a good place, often lead to products I don't enjoy. For example, some stray legend about an Ogre God who fell in love with an Elf Queen, might be pointless meandering to a lot of GMs, but some might choose to make that story the basis of some artifact plot hook (i.e. maybe the Ogre God Wrote some moving love song to her, and to this day the melody still has power over Ogres----and finding it would prove useful because the kingdom is being invaded by a massive horde of Ogre tribes). This may not be a great example, but the point is, when I am coming up with adventure ideas, one of the first places I look is to the lore, to see if there is anything I can build on for an adventure hook. </p><p></p><p>My view on design and design principles is you often have a thesis-anti-thesis dynamic that plays out over time. Lore gets too deep, so designers start scaling back on lore. Then it reaches a point where people don't have lore to chew on, so designers start expanding lore again. There is a sweet spot I think. And I think books that hit that sweet spot, feel less pinned to their time. But I do think we can lose too much flavor that the GM needs if we dig into this principle too much.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bedrockgames, post: 8203494, member: 85555"] The issue though is you never really know what can become meaty in the hands of the GM. I do agree things can get lost in the lore. But I also think these kinds of rules (similar to the rule on say brevity of text we have in the OSR), while they start from a good place, often lead to products I don't enjoy. For example, some stray legend about an Ogre God who fell in love with an Elf Queen, might be pointless meandering to a lot of GMs, but some might choose to make that story the basis of some artifact plot hook (i.e. maybe the Ogre God Wrote some moving love song to her, and to this day the melody still has power over Ogres----and finding it would prove useful because the kingdom is being invaded by a massive horde of Ogre tribes). This may not be a great example, but the point is, when I am coming up with adventure ideas, one of the first places I look is to the lore, to see if there is anything I can build on for an adventure hook. My view on design and design principles is you often have a thesis-anti-thesis dynamic that plays out over time. Lore gets too deep, so designers start scaling back on lore. Then it reaches a point where people don't have lore to chew on, so designers start expanding lore again. There is a sweet spot I think. And I think books that hit that sweet spot, feel less pinned to their time. But I do think we can lose too much flavor that the GM needs if we dig into this principle too much. [/QUOTE]
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