I made this thing for a game jam. Its 12 weird patrons for spicing up your player options with a healthy dose of chaos. This kind of thing is maybe not that useful for most, but I'm giving it to y'all anyway. I mean somebody out there probably wants to make a deal to serve a taxidermied unicorn.

Questions or feedback appreciated.

Finished a big rewrite of my rulebook. It's a goofy time-traveling action mess of a game. I've been working on and playing the game for almost 3 years now, but the rulebook is falling behind where the game is at the table. I would really appreciate it if anyone that likes reading rulebooks could check out the Google Docs version and see if there is anything obviously incoherent or typos.

The entire game is 100% free and will always be that way, I'm only interested in sharing my esoteric design.

If you see this big pile of gamma world inspired jokes and think it sounds like fun, I'm down to talk about how to run the game, or answer any questions. Thanks Y'all

Wrote a new blog today on two different topics. 1st my inability to finish a project vs my desire to start 20,000 more projects. 2nd about saying yes to players.

Making a storytelling first game, taught me to bend over backwards to say yes to my players. Really excited to take this philosophy with me into other running other games. The line behind enforcing the rules and giving players what they want can be hard to navigate in some systems, it's not even always easy in my super squishy system. I have never gotten so much narrative collaboration from players though. Letting them invent their own answers, being flexible, and rolling with player ideas.

Curious about any stories experiences with saying yes, especially to something you never thought of before they uttered it. I think collaboration is something ttrpg excel at and is underused in lots of game styles. I want to hear about it. Anybody have anything they put into their own designs to encourage collaboration?

Wrote a new blog today about how much setting should go in a rulebook. It's different for every game, but I feel a lot of games put too much lore in with the rules.

I know it's really hip to have your setting lean on your mechanics and vice versa, so neither works great without another, but I am more of a fan of rules that support tone and play patterns that reinforce genre more than specific settings. Probably mostly because I am not big on learning a lot about a setting before I feel good about running a game.

I also like to have lots of room to improv and make a setting my own. I know you can do that with any setting, but I just feel more confident doing that with less definition in the setting.

I could probably drop a little something more into my rulebook as a stinger to get people excited about what kind of fiction the game presents. I guess that could be interpreted as setting, or at least adjacent.

Curious about what other think about this topic.

https://infantofatocha.itch.io/chronomutants/devlog/572397/whats-a-paradox-war-anyway

Wrote a new blog today about how much setting should go in a rulebook. It's different for every game, but I feel a lot of games put too much lore in with the rules.

I know it's really hip to have your setting lean on your mechanics and vice versa, so neither works great without another, but I am more of a fan of rules that support tone and play patterns that reinforce genre more than specific settings. Probably mostly because I am not big on learning a lot about a setting before I feel good about running a game.

I also like to have lots of room to improv and make a setting my own. I know you can do that with any setting, but I just feel more confident doing that with less definition in the setting.

I could probably drop a little something more into my rulebook as a stinger to get people excited about what kind of fiction the game presents. I guess that could be interpreted as setting, or at least adjacent.

Curious about what other think about this topic.

https://infantofatocha.itch.io/chronomutants/devlog/572397/whats-a-paradox-war-anyway

Wrote a new blog today about how much setting should go in a rulebook. It's different for every game, but I feel a lot of games put too much lore in with the rules.

I know it's really hip to have your setting lean on your mechanics and vice versa, so neither works great without another, but I am more of a fan of rules that support tone and play patterns that reinforce genre more than specific settings. Probably mostly because I am not big on learning a lot about a setting before I feel good about running a game.

I also like to have lots of room to improv and make a setting my own. I know you can do that with any setting, but I just feel more confident doing that with less definition in the setting.

I could probably drop a little something more into my rulebook as a stinger to get people excited about what kind of fiction the game presents. I guess that could be interpreted as setting, or at least adjacent.

Curious about what other think about this topic.

https://infantofatocha.itch.io/chronomutants/devlog/572397/whats-a-paradox-war-anyway

Today’s blogpost is all about my flailing to refine and streamline my design docs into a coherent rulebook. I read enough of the d**** things you’d think I would know how to compile and order one. I understand the basics and where I went wrong, and have roadmap, but compared to design development is long and grindy.

Would really love if other folks have input on what makes a rulebook good? what have people done to make their projects easy to get? Which books are your favorite examples? What are your biggest hurdles?

For me I intellectually understand what needs to be there, but actually getting the writing clean and succinct to read is a challenge. I see a lot of DiY books for of background art and such trying to emulate a AAA book but they don’t have the text and order of content hammered out 1st, I didn’t want to move to layouts until my text was set, but maybe that’s a mistake? Curious to see what people think.

Today's blogpost is all about my flailing to refine and streamline my design docs into a coherent rulebook. I read enough of the d**** things you'd think I would know how to compile and order one. I understand the basics and where I went wrong, and have roadmap, but compared to design development is long and grindy.

Would really love if other folks have input on what makes a rulebook good? what have people done to make their projects easy to get? Which books are your favorite examples? What are your biggest hurdles?

For me I intellectually understand what needs to be there, but actually getting the writing clean and succinct to read is a challenge. I see a lot of DiY books for of background art and such trying to emulate a AAA book but they don't have the text and order of content hammered out 1st, I didn't want to move to layouts until my text was set, but maybe that's a mistake? Curious to see what people think.

Looking for folks to trade a little proofreading. I will read your book and give the best feedback I can on your document. I am not an editor, consider this more like a playtest for an enthusiast seeing your book. I do read/love a lot of rulebooks and game. I can tell you what does/doesn't make sense to me. I can tell you what spelling/grammar mistakes I notice. I can tell you if I see any rules contradictions. If you want I can also give design feedback/impressions, but I was thinking more of a editing pass, at least for what I would like in return.

Specifically, I'm looking for feedback on clarity of my rulebook. Awkward sentences, poor grammar, unclear rules. My rulebook is 20,847 words. So if you have something for me to proofread it would cool to exchange. I feel like this is the only part of my book I cannot do without a 2nd person. You can DM me for specifics, and if you would like to see the gamepage to decide if you are interested first: https://infantofatocha.itch.io/chronomutants

Looking for folks to trade a little proofreading. I will read your book and give the best feedback I can on your document. I am not an editor, consider this more like a playtest for an enthusiast seeing your book. I do read/love a lot of rulebooks and game. I can tell you what does/doesn't make sense to me. I can tell you what spelling/grammar mistakes I notice. I can tell you if I see any rules contradictions. If you want I can also give design feedback/impressions, but I was thinking more of a editing pass, at least for what I would like in return.

Specifically, I'm looking for feedback on clarity of my rulebook. Awkward sentences, poor grammar, unclear rules. My rulebook is 20,847 words. So if you have something for me to proofread it would cool to exchange. I feel like this is the only part of my book I cannot do without a 2nd person.

You can reply here or move to DM for specifics, and if you would like to see the gamepage to decide if you are interested first: https://infantofatocha.itch.io/chronomutants