Below are things I’ve learned or found interesting in the past month:
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I’ve been watching a lot of beloved movies recently. And while I’ve always enjoyed — if not agreed with — Roger Ebert’s reviews, I’ve found his series on Great Movies to be extremely helpful in understanding why people enjoy Taxi Driver, for example.
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My favorite blog post from last year, Pocket-Sized Powder Kegs by Ty of Mindstorm Press. It’s possible I’ve shared it here before. Whatever, it’s rad. If you’re using factions in your RPGs, give this one a read.
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Adam Mastroianni of Experimental History on why you should become a public person.
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I’ve been learning how to draw out of a book, but people keep recommending Draw A Box. Haven’t tried it yet myself!
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Chris McDowell’s article on GM-Focused Playtesting is basically how I create the handouts and cheat sheets for Cyberrats and my other games. Those are some of the universally-praised aspects of the games, even by the critics.
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After the murder of George Floyd, Scrabble removed racial slurs from its official dictionaries. The subhead from CNN points out that this applies “Even if it would be worth a triple word bonus.”
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Load Bearing Tomato On chasing player approval.
It doesn’t occur to most players that result they see was not always what was intended. It’s actually incredibly common for things to work out differently than how they were planned. On every single game that has ever been made, either tech debt, design debt, timing, capitalism, or all of the above has forced developers to make something than they intended.
8. Strip Panel Naked has an incredibly efficient video about characterization.
10. This audiophile study has been making the rounds, and it’s exactly the kind of thing I’d expect to see from Experimental History (unaffiliated).
11. This Tumblr post about Frank Miller’s colorist, and other ways to make his linework pop.
12. Dialged.gg, the HSL color matching challenge game.
13. New dino!