Crunching & Chewing
And perhaps my dumbest game name yet
Welcome from a cold, grey, rainy afternoon. This feels like my home elemental plane.
This Week’s post talks about the difference between Generous Crunch and Parasitic Crunch.
Parasitic Crunch takes more than it gives. It can take the form of entire subsystems or even just a writhing colony of tiny little rules that have wormed their way into the system, taking up cognitive load while offering little to nothing positive in return. In isolation it's easy to say "actually this rule really isn't complicated" but that's just a distraction. Always ask "what is this piece of crunch offering in return?" when you're considering whether it should be cut loose.
I’ve been learning to love some heavy crunch again lately, though my own work is always likely to stick around the minimalist end of the spectrum.
Elsewhere Cosmic Orrery writes about Diceless Violence. Even if you don’t want to cast your dice aside I think the discussion around diceless play has some really interesting ideas to chew on.
Don't think of fights happening in discrete segments, like a turn-based video game's trade of blows, actions flow into and from one another; momentum and weight matter. The previous positioning informs further actions and positioning.
I’d love to try this style of play out, and always interested to hear the experiences of people who already have.
Coming Soon
On Patreon I talked about the design behind TITANIC BASTIONMECHS, including a wishlist and my thoughts on how the various Battletech incarnations stood up to it.
My wishlist was something like:
1. Field every type of unit from infantry squads up to huge mechs
2. Have unit and weapon types feel different without extra subsystems to learn
3. Have enough Mech detail that they feel like real multi-part machines to be built and destroyed piece by piece
4. Make heat and movement important factors to manage for your own Mechs and exploit in your opponent's Mechs
5. Have a simple, fast turn procedure and straightforward mechanics for each phase, with minimal rules reference needed
6. Allow for fast, intuitive calculation of your chances of success on a particular attack
This will go up next week, with a proper pitch for the game, but you can already check it out in its rough form over here. Let me know if you get some Mechs to the table to try it out.
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