RPG Design Panelcast

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021 Presented by Tanya Pobuda, Sarah Stang, Erika Chung, Eric Lang. We know where we stand - gaming, specifically analog gaming in this case, has a sexism and racism problem. We've proven that through our research. Now that we have the data to back up our lived experiences, what can we do to fix the problems?

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021 Presented by Beth Rimmels, Sen-Foong Lim, Gwendolyn Marshall. As a GM or game designer, you can produce a rewarding or disappointing experience for players. Regardless of genre, game or goals, what your design focuses on and how it conveys that determines how it will be received. We'll discuss how to create satisfying experiences whether you're trying to scare players, create thought-provoking frustration, or make players feel like heroes

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021 Presented by Jason Cox, Shing Yin Khor, Jeeyon Shim. Keepsake Games, Art, Education and Equity. Keepsake games, which generate material objects as a result of play, are a fascinating tool for classroom use. What if the experience of educational games was visually shaped by the students? How would this affect their engagement and retention of content? How can a game like this thrive in the quantitative systems that dominate education?

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021 Presented by Richard Ruane, Diogo Nogueira, Sarah Blunt, Daniel Wilson and Noora Rose. Cold, scary, empty, and filled with radiation, we all know the real void of outer space isn't a friendly place. But what opportunities do we get when we create settings in a different outer space, one we see in pulp novels, weird fiction, planetary romances, cosmic horror, and early tabletop games and supplements such as Spelljammer or Space 1999? What makes creating a space fantasy or weird space setting different from creating a classic fantasy or space opera? What themes can creators explore when we look at space in weird and fantastical ways?

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021 Presented by Jordan Russell. What is DDP? What is VAT? How can I expand my business Globally? If these are questions you have asked yourself then this session is for you. Come grab some knowledge with Jordan Russell (from ShipBob) on how to expand your business into different markets around the world. Becoming a global business isn't as scary as it seems.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021 Presented by Scott Morris and Michael Parker. Are you a designer and want to know how your game gets distributed? Are you self publishing and want to know more about Distribution? Are you crazy enough to actually ask a Distributor anything? Join us as Scott Morris from GTS and Michael Parker from ACD discuss the U.S.'s 3-Tier system and answer questions.

Recorded at Metatopia 2021 Presented by Gabby Swab, John Harris, Ian Mercer. Role Playing as Experiential Learning: How Dungeons & Dragons Assists in Teaching Management Concepts" In Fall 2020, students across three universities participated in building a character based on their Ideal Entrepreneur, Human Resources Manager, or Leader. Using the format from the popular Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game, the students' chosen character used their characteristics, skills, and knowledge to perform in three different course-related scenarios. Students were then asked to reflect on their character, their decisions, and the subsequent outcomes. In this forum, we discuss the activity and the management topics (e.g., decision making, individual differences, resources) it allowed us to teach using games as experiential learning techniques.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021 Presented by Sen-Foong Lim, Paul Stefko, Moe Poplar and Quinn Murphy. Jonathan Lavallee was unable to attend for medical reasons. Analysis paralysis exists in creativity! When we put up limits and restrictions, we find new ways to solve problems and be creative. This panel will talk about what works for them when putting up walls around their creative process.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021 Presented by Jonathan Lavallee, Sen-Foong Lim, Misha B. It's always great and interesting to have cool terms for features in your game, but there are moments when that can get in the way of what you're trying to say. We'll be talking about the importance of, and balance between, clarity and flavor in your text.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021 Presented by Jay Dragon, Robert Donoghue, Rabbit Stoddard, Darla Burrow. Game design and publishing are complex tasks at the best of times, and particularly so for those dealing with ADHD. Many creatives struggle with maintaining their attention and concentration on their design and publishing work. How do you track your accomplishments and keep track of what you need to do next? How do you manage multiple deadlines and juggling priorities? How can ADHD be harnessed to help you with your creative work? In this panel, four experienced designers will share their hard-won secrets

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Jack Parra, Melissa Gay. This panel for art beginners discusses technique, both in a general sense and specifically for the kinds of products you're likely to encounter in the game biz.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Grant Howitt, Matt Jones, Alexi Sargeant, Jeeyon Shim, Jason Tocci. Writing long games is hard, but so is writing short games. What advantages do one-page games afford us? What can't they do? What can they do better than longer games? We're going to find out.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Eric Whalen. This panel is a brief discussion of the basics of copyright law (and some other aspects of intellectual property law) as they pertain to writers and game designers. Members of the panel include game designers, publishers, writers, and former attorneys who have dealt with these issues themselves

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Cat Tobin, Will Sobel, JR Blackwell, Christopher McGlothlin, Maz Hamilton. You're an RPG designer now! That's great, but now how do you get your awesome game in front of players who will appreciate it? How do you position yourself for future projects? Basically, how do you get your name on a game to mean something? Our panelists grapple with this sticky problem!

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Emily Escovar, Anne Ratchat. You've got a great game and you're looking to sell it, or maybe you're looking to get a position working for somebody else making games. How do you present yourself and your game in their best lights? Pitching's a necessary skill regardless of your role in the industry. Learn how to do it here!

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Kathleen Mercury and Julie Ahern. Any adult who's worked closely with kids as a teacher, caretaker, or mentor has a cache of stories about times they learned true humility at the hands of a child. This late night panel presents the argument that the youngest generation is our greatest asset. Join panelists as they break down (through real life, hilariously humiliating examples) how every aspect of games, from design to execution, is bettered for the presence and involvement of kids, and what we can do to make our spaces more welcoming to young people.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Cat Tobin, Becky Annison, Sharang Biswas. How to Design !More! !Drama! into your RPG! Some of the most satisfying role playing experiences come from the dramatic outcomes of emotional connections between player characters. We look at ways for tabletop and LARP writers to design for deeper character relationships and dynamics, to provide a structure for GMs to bring more of the good kind of drama to their RPGs

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Kyle Ott & Riley Parks. This panel will focus on tips targeted to those who are beginning their design careers. The presentation will include advice on how to approach a publisher and conduct publisher research. Our panelists will give new designers advice on how to get unstuck and resources to help them with their first designs.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Whitney Delaglio, Camdon Wright, Avraham Yosef Baez. People are told to tell their own stories when making games, but biracial folk are often forced into an unreasonable process of justifying their marginalization regardless of their life experiences. We'll also talk about the racist foundation of not allowing designers to speak about living in, growing up around, and often excluded from more than one community. Also about how our backgrounds influence the games and artwork we design.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Roberta Taylor, Paul Saxberg, Kimberley Lam, Shoshana Kessock. How do you keep a creative spark alive when everything is coming to pieces around you? This panel will discuss some practical ways to nurture your creative self when you feel like you can't possibly make anything.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Sarah Shipp, Kathleen Mercury, Eric Slauson. How do designers get their themes to reverberate across the hobby? By adding depth, shape, and clarity to their themes. Let's talk about how to avoid muddy themes and create games that sing.

Recorded at Metatopia 2020 Presented by Misha Bushyager, Elsa Sjunneson, Kristen Roberts Explicitly feminist world-building will consider all the ways that traditionally domestic tasks and arts enrich your setting and shape your characters. From textiles to food, child-rearing to death rituals, considering the ways these details fit together will make for deeper, richer game experiences. These principles apply across all game forms

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Chance Feldstein, Erika Skirpan, Jessica Comstock, Jon Cole. Generally, "transformative" games teach skills, facilitate personal insights or shadow work, or otherwise have a significant impact on your non-gaming life. What makes a LARP game transformative without sacrificing fun and other important elements?

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Jason Pitre, Fiona Geist, Darren Watts, Viditya Voleti. Indie game publishing is a strange craft and the design communities approach the process differently. In this panel, we will explore the similarities and divergences in publishing approaches from a Story Game, Sworddream, Trad and OSR perspectives. Let's share our knowledge and get weird.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Graham Walmsley, Christopher McGlothlin, Darren Watts, Lynne Hardy, Alex Helms. It's almost a truism that it's very hard to make RPG adventures, scenarios and modules that will sell unless you're talking about the very biggest games. Is that really true? Let's share some tricks and tips on this panel!

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Dr. Jessica Hammer, Christopher Hall. What does it mean to design games from a Jewish perspective? We have recently seen several games that center on the Jewish experience, like Rosenstrasse, Keeping The Candles Lit, Dream Apart and Mud. In this session, we'll look at key Jewish texts to see how themes and ideas from Jewish culture can inform your design. All texts will be provided in English; please come prepared for a vigorous conversation.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Charles Simon, Justin Ford, Pamela Punzalan, Erik Bernhardt, Nychelle Schneider. Forged in the Dark designers share their secrets! A diverse panel of up-and-coming indie designers inspired to create by Blades in the Dark who have variously playtested, engaged with fellow Forged in The Dark fans, and kickstarted projects comes together to discuss their inspirations, design challenges, and successes.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Tam Myaing, Doug Levandowski, Roberta Taylor, Jessica Creane. As designers we strive to make games "fun", but they can also be a vehicle for other emotions, such as fear, sadness, disgust, shame, etc. From Brenda Romero's Train to Marc Gertz's Imperial, we will explore several games that intentionally or unintentionally make you feel bad

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Jason Pitre, Rob Donoghue, Emily Dresner, Kenneth Hite The 100 GP Pearl: Economics and Trade as Design Elements. Economics and trade have long been foundational elements of game design, from the hyperinflation of dungeon pillaging to the free traders of Traveller. In this panel, we discuss how these aspects can be used as the foundation for game mechanics and procedures. Don't make me quote the rules of acquisition at you

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Russell Collins, Brennan Taylor, Meguey Baker, Greg Stolze. Was your game imperfect when it was released? Has it changed over time? Have you? We'll explore why (and how) you can update your game for the 2nd, or 3rd, or 4th, edition

Recorded at Metatopia 2020 Presented by Jason Pitre, Spencer Campbell, Sasha Moros, Ben Robbins, Caroline Hobbs. Role playing games have a long history of asymmetrical rules, beginning with the establishment of the Dungeon Master in the very beginning and continuing to games such as Kingdom. Role playing games have explored countless different ways of allocating authority, and modern asymmetrical boardgames (Root, Vast, etc) have showed some new approaches worth considering. In this panel, we will dig into potential ways to approach asymmetrical design.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Jason Walters, Moe Poplar, Darren Watts, April Walsh, Jonathan Lavallee. Publishing your first RPG can be difficult, how do you know when enough play testing is enough? What feedback should you listen to? How do you get your game ready for print? All these questions, and more, will be answered in this comprehensive advice panel.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Curt Covert, Julie Ahern. Games Are Art: Designing Through An Artist's Lens. When you think of art, you think of music, theater, painting, sculpting, writing, film. And at the heart of each is an artist, who uses their talents, creativity, skill and intelligence to craft something that never existed before, with the intent of sharing a vision, a feeling, a message, a sense of discovery or connection. The games we create are no less an art form, and we designers no less than artists. What we craft brings people together for a shared experience and has the ability to do more than challenge us mentally, pass the time or entertain, but to connect emotionally with people. Let us view game design through an artistic lens, to look past the mathematical underpinnings, and dive into what makes games a uniquely human endeavor.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Eric Whalen, Rob Hebert, Steven Long, Debbie Moynihan. "Contract Literacy 101: Whereas & Therefore & Beyond" The majority of game designers will need to sign at least one contract prior to completing their game. This panel will improve your literacy and familiarity with the structure of contracts, as well as explain some of the standard contract terms you ought to be prepared to encounter. The information should be relevant to designers, artists, and publishers alike.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Jason Morningstar, Jabari Weathers, Brennen Reece. Art Direction: From Designer to Director to Artist. A game designer, an art director, and an artist who recently worked on a project together will talk about the project (Bully Pulpit Games' "Dead House") from each of their perspectives - how they collaborated and communicated and perceived both the brief and the final output.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Will Sobel, Beth Rimmels. For better or worse, traditional RPGs have a reputation for crunch and complication that can be scary for new players. How can designers and publishers make their games less imposing both in substance and appearance?

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Curt Covert, Melissa Lewis-Gentry, Jason Walters, Isaac Vega. How do you present a game to playtesters without biasing them, but getting what you want from the test? How do you present that same game to a publisher differently? How do you present the game to fans at a show to get them excited enough to buy it? Some things will be identical, others will be custom-tailored to the audience and what they care about (or what you want from it). And there are multiple versions of each.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Olivia Montoya, Donna Prior, Avonelle Wing. Discord. Itch. Twitch. If you blinked and suddenly your peers sound like they’re talking about new horsemen of a very minor apocalypse, we’re here to help you catch up. There are a plethora of new(ash) platforms available to empower your gaming experiences. Avie’s here as our token dinosaur, while Donna and Olivia bring the knowledge

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Pamela Punzalan, Vince Smith, and Alastor Guzman. Much of the dialogue relevant to the tabletop gaming industry and the communities that form around it is centered around the United States of America. Many know that creators from all around the world exist, but few understand just how different their contexts can be from the status quo. This panel seeks to bring multiple voices from beyond America together in order to discuss these differences, and provide some nuanced insight on how the America-centered industry informs their own contexts and communities.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by James Wallis, Cat Tobin, Kieron Gillen, Jacob Jaskov. We all know how certain games feel in play and how they make us feel, but as designers and critics we don't have a set of words to describe it. Do we need an experiential vocabulary of play, and what would one look like?

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Jacob Segal, Justin Ford, Ian Hart. Systems like Forged in the Dark are designed with mechanics that deliberately support player agency. When paired with external safety tools, these agency-focused mechanics are intended to foster safer play culture and richer experiences. Our panelists will discuss what we mean by "player agency" and what these mechanics look like and how they work.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Jason Pitre, Zedeck Siew, Sinta Posadas. Non-player characters are vital to tabletop and live action roleplaying games. They provide companionship, contrast, resources, information, and dramatic conflict with the players. They are the avatars of the setting, and the best tools that a GM has at their disposal. In this panel, we discuss how games can be designed using NPCs as a key mechanism of play.

Recorded at Metatopia 2020 Online Presented by Kitty Stryker, Spider Perry, Avonelle Wing. We will talk about practical actions you can take to be better prepared the next time you have the chance to speak up. It might be addressing a micro-aggression at the game table or shutting down a bully who wants to make somebody feel small in an online setting, for example. These aren't easy things and the skills don't always come naturally. Our panelists will talk about practicing phrases and learning to overcome the social conditioning that perpetuates "isms

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Anne Ratchat, Spider Perry, Misha Bushyager, Mids Meinberg, Pamela Punzalan. For all the merits of the genre, it is not an exaggerated statement to say that horror is the least accessible genres in analog gaming. Between mechanics that require physical ability, the habitual use of monsters whose descriptions sound uncomfortably close to home, and the widespread misunderstanding of how mental health and mental illnesses work, a large swath of players are alienated before the game even begins. In this panel, we will use the recurrent inaccessible themes in horror to explore how one can build a more accessible game from the core mechanics out.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Heather O'Neill, Timothy Grant, Brian Quinones, Jack Berkenstock. This panel of game designers and therapists will discuss their journey to design RPGs for use in therapy as well as the overall benefit of using roleplaying games as a therapeutic tool. What games have they used in the past? What worked, what didn't? How did they modify games for therapy sessions?

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Jeeyon Shim, Meguey Baker, Jason Morningstar. Understanding the natural world as an active participant in games and design shifts our engagement with environmental justice and enriches every aspect of our work. Join this panel of game designers with backgrounds as adventure guides, outdoor educators, and naturalists as they discuss the various ways integrating the natural world positively impacts their design and community work in games. Attendees will learn tools to understand the more-than-human community around them in ways they can weave into their own participation in games, whether as players, designers, or organizers.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Gabriel de los Angeles, Sen-Foong Lim, Brian Quinones. Using concepts from education theory is a natural and obvious way to improve game design practices. Our panelists will talk about how to apply an understanding of how people learn and engage in play to your design process to create more immersive, satisfying designs.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Jason Morningstar, Sungil Kim, Taka'aki Ayukata, Steve Segedy. Asian game markets are booming! Come meet two publishers who are actively licensing and translating English-language properties for their own countries and beyond. Join us for an informal conversation with and between publishers from Japan and Korea.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Alastor Guzman, Sergio Ake. "How To Include Latin America In Your Kickstarter Fulfillment" Latin American gamers are often excluded in Kickstarts due to. high shipping prices, tax and unfamiliarity with the market. In this panel, we'll talk about how to include them in your fulfillment estimates and make it worthwhile for all involved.

Recorded at Metatopia 2020 Online Presented by Anne Ratchat, Sharang Biswas, Bronwyn Sperling, Kristen Roberts. Food is fundamental to survival and yet serves as so much more, building communities and relationships, serving as an artistic expression, connecting us to ideals and memories. We will explore our diverse relationship with food, cooking, and eating and, in turn, show how such simple acts can be very powerful mechanics in games, most notably LARP.