Episode 13 of the podcast landed this morning! It’s about one-page games.

Episode 13 of the podcast landed this morning! It’s about one-page games.

Episode 13 of the podcast landed this morning! It’s about one-page games.

Tagging-in the designers whose work we discuss: Marshall Miller Emily Care Boss Grant Howitt Epidiah Ravachol John Harper and Ray Otus.

As promised in the episode, we will be including some links to the games we discuss in the comments.

http://gauntletpodcast.libsyn.com

36 thoughts on “Episode 13 of the podcast landed this morning! It’s about one-page games.”

  5. Here are some links. I may be adding more throughout the day.

    John Harper’s games

    http://www.onesevendesign.com

    Everyone is John

    http://pftdcast.com/resources/EveryoneIsJohn.pdf

    Jellysaw

    http://www.jellysaw.com

    Links to a bunch of neat games can be found here (courtesy of Marshall Miller):

    http://www.finemessgames.com/nano-games

    And here is Nanoworld:

    http://www.finemessgames.com/nanoworld-a-game-of-clones

    Worlds Without Master

    http://www.worldswithoutmaster.com

    Cheat Your Own Adventure (which we discuss on Ep. 4)

    http://www.ukroleplayers.com/wiki/Cheat_Your_Own_Adventure

    Havoc Brigade (and other Grant Howitt games):

    http://lookrobot.co.uk/games/

    Breaking the Ice:

    http://www.blackgreengames.com/shop/breaking-the-ice-pdf

  6. Here are some links. I may be adding more throughout the day.

    John Harper’s games

    http://www.onesevendesign.com

    Everyone is John

    http://pftdcast.com/resources/EveryoneIsJohn.pdf

    Jellysaw

    http://www.jellysaw.com

    Links to a bunch of neat games can be found here (courtesy of Marshall Miller):

    http://www.finemessgames.com/nano-games

    And here is Nanoworld:

    http://www.finemessgames.com/nanoworld-a-game-of-clones

    Worlds Without Master

    http://www.worldswithoutmaster.com

    Cheat Your Own Adventure (which we discuss on Ep. 4)

    http://www.ukroleplayers.com/wiki/Cheat_Your_Own_Adventure

    Havoc Brigade (and other Grant Howitt games):

    http://lookrobot.co.uk/games/

    Breaking the Ice:

    http://www.blackgreengames.com/shop/breaking-the-ice-pdf

  7. Thanks for “giving me life” this week! I, of course, enjoyed the love my own designs received, but I was generally thrilled with the subject of 1-page games and hearing some love for other designers I admire. I am tragically in love with microdesigns, whether they are as “big” as Lady Blackbird (less than a dozen pages) or as small as Nanoworld (1 folding business card). I used to try to put my designs into 24(ish)-page digest sized books and then I realized that forcing myself to put them into 1-page first was a great way of testing my game’s focus, completeness, and playability. Then, after I got them into 1-page, I realized there was no need to express all the other crap that would have gone into the zine-length version. That’s not to say I don’t have some ideas for zine-sized games, but elegance of the 1-page design still holds my desgin-brain in thrall. (Also, while you didn’t mention it on this episode, you have mentioned Cheat Your Own Adventure before and that is also a good 1-page game.) Thanks, again. Great podcast.

  8. Thanks for “giving me life” this week! I, of course, enjoyed the love my own designs received, but I was generally thrilled with the subject of 1-page games and hearing some love for other designers I admire. I am tragically in love with microdesigns, whether they are as “big” as Lady Blackbird (less than a dozen pages) or as small as Nanoworld (1 folding business card). I used to try to put my designs into 24(ish)-page digest sized books and then I realized that forcing myself to put them into 1-page first was a great way of testing my game’s focus, completeness, and playability. Then, after I got them into 1-page, I realized there was no need to express all the other crap that would have gone into the zine-length version. That’s not to say I don’t have some ideas for zine-sized games, but elegance of the 1-page design still holds my desgin-brain in thrall. (Also, while you didn’t mention it on this episode, you have mentioned Cheat Your Own Adventure before and that is also a good 1-page game.) Thanks, again. Great podcast.

  15. Thanks for the kind words! Always tremendously strange when people are like “this is a trope of Grant’s games” like I have an oeuvre, suddenly. But I’m glad you enjoyed it! I’m currently knocking about the idea of Kickstarting a bigger version of it with five cities and (gasp!) an advancement system

  16. Thanks for the kind words! Always tremendously strange when people are like “this is a trope of Grant’s games” like I have an oeuvre, suddenly. But I’m glad you enjoyed it! I’m currently knocking about the idea of Kickstarting a bigger version of it with five cities and (gasp!) an advancement system

  19. Ray Otus Good catch on Cheat Your Own Adventure! Gosh, we play so many games, it’s easy to forget them sometimes.

    I like what you had to say about getting your game into 1-page form first. That’s an interesting design strategy. We’re actually doing a little game design meetup in Houston tonight, and the rules are: 1) it must use Fudge Dice and 2) it must fit on two-sides of an index card. I think we had something similar in mind when we put that together: get the core of the game complete and make sure it works before even thinking about anything else. 

    I’d be curious to hear what the other game designers on the thread have to say about that idea.

  20. Ray Otus Good catch on Cheat Your Own Adventure! Gosh, we play so many games, it’s easy to forget them sometimes.

    I like what you had to say about getting your game into 1-page form first. That’s an interesting design strategy. We’re actually doing a little game design meetup in Houston tonight, and the rules are: 1) it must use Fudge Dice and 2) it must fit on two-sides of an index card. I think we had something similar in mind when we put that together: get the core of the game complete and make sure it works before even thinking about anything else. 

    I’d be curious to hear what the other game designers on the thread have to say about that idea.

  21. Grant Howitt We’ve played a bunch of your games and enjoyed them (the only controversial one, for us, is Warrior-Poet). And we’re doing Regency Ladies in May!

    We have had lots of trad gamers in Houston come to our events in order to get a sense of what story games are about, and Havoc Brigade and Goblin Quest have been great to show those people. I would definitely back a “deluxe” version of Havoc Brigade.

  22. Grant Howitt We’ve played a bunch of your games and enjoyed them (the only controversial one, for us, is Warrior-Poet). And we’re doing Regency Ladies in May!

    We have had lots of trad gamers in Houston come to our events in order to get a sense of what story games are about, and Havoc Brigade and Goblin Quest have been great to show those people. I would definitely back a “deluxe” version of Havoc Brigade.

  25. Stephen Crawford We talked about one-page games, not necessarily one-page dungeons. Although I love this contest. It’s a terrific resource for fantasy games.

  26. Stephen Crawford We talked about one-page games, not necessarily one-page dungeons. Although I love this contest. It’s a terrific resource for fantasy games.

  27. Couple things:

    James Mullen features several shorter games on his blog at http://groundhoggth.blogspot.com/

    As a f’rinstance, I like the sound of Char. Gen. (http://groundhoggth.blogspot.com/2014/09/char-gen.html), where players create stats for a player character, and in so doing decide on what kind of game world they’re working with.

    Also, last year saw a contest to create two-page rpgs:  http://www.topsecretgames.net/winners-first-ever-two-page-tabletop-contest/

    I can’t vouch for ’em, but friends have had fun with Police Cops and Jovian Despair.

  28. Couple things:

    James Mullen features several shorter games on his blog at http://groundhoggth.blogspot.com/

    As a f’rinstance, I like the sound of Char. Gen. (http://groundhoggth.blogspot.com/2014/09/char-gen.html), where players create stats for a player character, and in so doing decide on what kind of game world they’re working with.

    Also, last year saw a contest to create two-page rpgs:  http://www.topsecretgames.net/winners-first-ever-two-page-tabletop-contest/

    I can’t vouch for ’em, but friends have had fun with Police Cops and Jovian Despair.

  29. Speaking of Groundhoggoth, two of the games I’ve posted up for a look (Vox Populi, and Power Grab), are by the same individual.  Power Grab definitely falls into the 1 Page game idea, and I feel terrible I’ve been too distracted by my lazy monster hunting ways to run a game of it.

  30. Speaking of Groundhoggoth, two of the games I’ve posted up for a look (Vox Populi, and Power Grab), are by the same individual.  Power Grab definitely falls into the 1 Page game idea, and I feel terrible I’ve been too distracted by my lazy monster hunting ways to run a game of it.

  35. A: Nanoworld sounds like something I really need to get into

    B: Twilight Imperium is most definitely the Crusader Kings of boardgames; super-fun for people who are ready to pour that much time into a session…although I liked Rex better as a game.

    C: All these one-page games just sound so interesting!

  36. A: Nanoworld sounds like something I really need to get into

    B: Twilight Imperium is most definitely the Crusader Kings of boardgames; super-fun for people who are ready to pour that much time into a session…although I liked Rex better as a game.

    C: All these one-page games just sound so interesting!

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