CHAINMAIL: 12.01.2023

Against Incentive - Luke Gearing

"Incentivising behaviour is bad for your game."

The author of this article, Luke Gearing, is somebody who I've grown to really appreciate. He is a fantastic author and his blog is full of really interesting ideas that flip some of my normal assumptions on their head. This blog post explains that when you incentivize specific behaviors at your table, you introduce an "optimal choice" which can incentivize players to only take that choice. Why talk to the goblins when killing them gives you XP? He takes this thought even further, all the way to the question of whether XP is even relevant at all in your TTRPG. I've just started working on a hack of 5E and a lot of his design theory is making its way into my designs.

Toward Better Rewards | Running the Game - Matthew Colville

"The behavior a game rewards is the behavior a game encourages."

A second opinion on the incentive conversation. I hope the fact that I am including two resources related to incentives will show how important it is to understand what you incentivize in your game. These designers don't completely agree on how to handle incentives, but I think it's important to look at different perspectives. Get out of your echo chamber and let differing opinions enhance your gaming.

Thoughts on combat-as-sport vs combat-as-war - Echo Station 5-7

A fantastic post breaking down two different design principles in combat. Neither one is correct or better than the other, but they do highlight two distinct styles of play, and game systems tend to be designed to facilitate either one or the other.

Combat as sport revolves around balanced, streamlined combat where the rules are very clear and the way you interact with the combat is very cut and dry.

Combat as war revolves around unbalanced encounters that force the characters to do everything they can to push the balance in their favor, usually through outside-of-the-box thinking or improvised problem-solving. Not usually by abilities written on their character sheets.

I thought this was a great analysis that helped me understand the game I run and how I can lean into the combat style I want to see in my games.

I hope these resources inspire you! If you haven't already, the best way to stay up to date with everything hothead-related is to join the discord. See you next week!