I strongly felt the importance of flavour text defining the play space in my experience with FIST. When I read FIST prior to the Ultra Edition update, I was quite taken with the game and its premise of a super over the top metal gear solid parody, but didn't quite feel inspired to bring it to the table. I just couldn't picture what kind of story the game wanted me to tell, and the game's main offering was in the 100 traits that were very evocative and conducive to crazy overly-dramatic moments and fun mini-mechanics for players to play around. It took the release of the Ultra Edition, the main difference being 80 plus pages of flavour text and the mechanically arranged version - random tables - to help me form the play space in my mind, to be inspired to create my own scenario with its obstacles and setups for the kind of stories the implied setting wants to bring players towards. It was only after reading all this flavour text that I felt motivated enough to bring FIST to the table and it was an absolute blast.
"All aspects of a game are just skeletons for what play could be." That's going to sit with me for a long time to come. Thank you for making such an insightful video!
Loved the video! The subject, ideas shared, and your cadence made for an awesome short vid. Glad the algorithm got me here can't wait for more to come.
Interesting to compare the FKR playstyle with the post-forge/storygame/g+ game design ethos in light of your essay. The former has developed out of the OSR scene with the maxim of "playing worlds, not rules", and aims to put fluff, shared setting understanding and high table trust in a GM making rulings and using rules as a personal toolkit as central to the play experience. The latter, as you state, looks to make that fluff central flesh through which the skeleton of game mechanics can be wrought. I'm seeing some fascinating games forming out of these similarities and contradictions. The Named Toolkit and Wraithlands in particular both look like they are going to be worth watching over the next year.
I’ve played a one-shot run by Daniel Kwan! Everything you said here is reflected in his narrative style in-game, so you’ve totally hit the mark. We played Night Witches, and were catapulted into a super intricate and engaging war story, with only a little rules support from PbA. It was probably the single best session I’ve ever had. I’m so happy to see Ross Rifles content, instant subscription from me!
This game raises a fascinating question! How do you train the player's imagination to improvise freely in a genre they have no basis of understanding for? When I was first approaching Monster of the Week, people routinely would explain things to me based on the genre conventions of "shows like X-Files, Buffy, or Supernatural!" Having not seen those shows, and not really having interest in them, neither the game text nor the people around me seemed to be able to articulate how to grok the game style without simply watching a bunch of shows from the 1990's and... deeply internalizing them? In order to have a shared imaginative space, we need a shared mythical language! But then I look at a product like 'Ross Rifles' (there are many like it) that say "Read this essay first," and I think... "Is THAT the best way to solve for this problem?" Hard to know. Very provocative video!
I think that's a really good question. You're probably right that having a bunch of flavor text isn't the best way to get players in the headspace for a genre, but that is my preferred method. I feel like players should try to meet designers where the game is at, even if the layout requires a bunch of reading, and then decide whether or not what the game is going for is for them. However, I think there are absolutely games that use art (or even music/audio tracks) to convey their tone and theme. I haven't yet read Mork Borg, but just looking at its cover gives me a pretty good idea of what the game wants (and I've heard the rest of the layout is similarly evocative). And games like The Wretched or The Sticker Game with accompanying audio tracks/soundtracks undergird the text to create an emotional connection to its themes.
@@aavoigt I think you're onto something with art/music, where I'm inclined to think a lot of heavy lifting is done! Something about aesthetics having a unique transportive power, for sure. It gets a little funnier, too, when we're talking about games like Ross Rifles or Night Witches, or anything historical, when we add a question like "Are we also trying to connect to a particular feeling *from history*, or are we just using the history to create some new inner landscape?" Lots of fun stuff here!!! Maybe I'll do my own little thang on this...
I am sorry I missed this video when it first came out. I unfortunately neglect fluff myself in favor of trying to keep my games slim. Something I should reconsider.
Awesome stuff! Hmu, I'd love to have you on our creator disc with Legal Kimchi, Blaine Simple, and a bunch of others! Would've reached out to you on bluesky but I forgot you can't message people there :,(
I strongly felt the importance of flavour text defining the play space in my experience with FIST. When I read FIST prior to the Ultra Edition update, I was quite taken with the game and its premise of a super over the top metal gear solid parody, but didn't quite feel inspired to bring it to the table. I just couldn't picture what kind of story the game wanted me to tell, and the game's main offering was in the 100 traits that were very evocative and conducive to crazy overly-dramatic moments and fun mini-mechanics for players to play around. It took the release of the Ultra Edition, the main difference being 80 plus pages of flavour text and the mechanically arranged version - random tables - to help me form the play space in my mind, to be inspired to create my own scenario with its obstacles and setups for the kind of stories the implied setting wants to bring players towards. It was only after reading all this flavour text that I felt motivated enough to bring FIST to the table and it was an absolute blast.
"All aspects of a game are just skeletons for what play could be." That's going to sit with me for a long time to come. Thank you for making such an insightful video!
Jay Dragon is such a sharp designer, I try to read all of Jay’s thoughts. Thanks for watching Kaiya!
Loved the video! The subject, ideas shared, and your cadence made for an awesome short vid. Glad the algorithm got me here can't wait for more to come.
This is a great video! Loved it.
Thanks LegalKimchi! I loved your videos on Bioessentialism and Revolution!
Interesting to compare the FKR playstyle with the post-forge/storygame/g+ game design ethos in light of your essay. The former has developed out of the OSR scene with the maxim of "playing worlds, not rules", and aims to put fluff, shared setting understanding and high table trust in a GM making rulings and using rules as a personal toolkit as central to the play experience. The latter, as you state, looks to make that fluff central flesh through which the skeleton of game mechanics can be wrought. I'm seeing some fascinating games forming out of these similarities and contradictions. The Named Toolkit and Wraithlands in particular both look like they are going to be worth watching over the next year.
I’ve played a one-shot run by Daniel Kwan! Everything you said here is reflected in his narrative style in-game, so you’ve totally hit the mark. We played Night Witches, and were catapulted into a super intricate and engaging war story, with only a little rules support from PbA. It was probably the single best session I’ve ever had.
I’m so happy to see Ross Rifles content, instant subscription from me!
This game raises a fascinating question! How do you train the player's imagination to improvise freely in a genre they have no basis of understanding for?
When I was first approaching Monster of the Week, people routinely would explain things to me based on the genre conventions of "shows like X-Files, Buffy, or Supernatural!" Having not seen those shows, and not really having interest in them, neither the game text nor the people around me seemed to be able to articulate how to grok the game style without simply watching a bunch of shows from the 1990's and... deeply internalizing them? In order to have a shared imaginative space, we need a shared mythical language!
But then I look at a product like 'Ross Rifles' (there are many like it) that say "Read this essay first," and I think... "Is THAT the best way to solve for this problem?" Hard to know. Very provocative video!
I think that's a really good question. You're probably right that having a bunch of flavor text isn't the best way to get players in the headspace for a genre, but that is my preferred method. I feel like players should try to meet designers where the game is at, even if the layout requires a bunch of reading, and then decide whether or not what the game is going for is for them.
However, I think there are absolutely games that use art (or even music/audio tracks) to convey their tone and theme. I haven't yet read Mork Borg, but just looking at its cover gives me a pretty good idea of what the game wants (and I've heard the rest of the layout is similarly evocative). And games like The Wretched or The Sticker Game with accompanying audio tracks/soundtracks undergird the text to create an emotional connection to its themes.
@@aavoigt I think you're onto something with art/music, where I'm inclined to think a lot of heavy lifting is done! Something about aesthetics having a unique transportive power, for sure. It gets a little funnier, too, when we're talking about games like Ross Rifles or Night Witches, or anything historical, when we add a question like "Are we also trying to connect to a particular feeling *from history*, or are we just using the history to create some new inner landscape?" Lots of fun stuff here!!! Maybe I'll do my own little thang on this...
hell yes! playground theory!!!! great video
thanks Coffee!!
interesting! congrats (early) on 1k!
Great short video!
I am sorry I missed this video when it first came out. I unfortunately neglect fluff myself in favor of trying to keep my games slim. Something I should reconsider.
Yeah, not that mechanics-focused games are bad or anything, but it is nice to use fluff to add another dimension of play to a text!
The next step is to talk about *how* different types of "fluff" offer you a usable skeleton for dreams.
bruh what how tf do you have so little popularity?
Haha beats me! Tell your friends how great I am!
Awesome stuff! Hmu, I'd love to have you on our creator disc with Legal Kimchi, Blaine Simple, and a bunch of others! Would've reached out to you on bluesky but I forgot you can't message people there :,(