RPG Link Roundup, Dissociated Mechanics Edition

By Dave on March 20, 2012 in Role-Playing

Steve Winter is rapidly heading to the upper echelon of my favorite RPG bloggers’ list, with articles about game design like this one: Effects vs. Meanings. Do we design from a desired effect to a cause, or do we design a cause and then figure out what effects it has?
His post was inspired by this one, On The Failure of Tactical Combat. The writer raises the concept of the “dissociated/disassociated mechanic”, pointing out that when you design an ability from the effect side you have a very narrow tool with little practical application outside of combat.
Justin Alexander, another favorite blogger-designer and fellow Minnesotan, first talked about dissociated mechanics back in ’08 prior to the launch of 4th edition – his critique forms a continued basis of criticism for the system four years later. Taken together, the three articles are worth serious consideration by any game designer.
Also, a hat tip to the Stormwind fallacy, a term mentioned in the Steve Winter piece that I wasn’t familiar with. The fallacy is that building an optimized character necessarily implies poor roleplaying skill, or building a deliberately suboptimal character necessarily implies good roleplaying skill.
Somewhat related, as a critique of the kind of game that 4E rules inspire: How a Blind Player Improved Our Game. “GM as if your players are blind” is an intriguing axiom to consider for future games. ‘Ware the battlemat!
Pathfinder is becoming an MMO
An AMA with Pathfinder author/writer James L. Sutter – All of these cool people live in Seattle!
A kickstarter by Steven Long, Hero Games product lead for the past decade, for a Mythic Hero RPG supplement
And another kickstarter for an interesting-looking set of “brainstorming cards for storytellers“, Story Forge – might be worth picking up a set once they’re released