Think about it this way: when should we be rolling dice? In my opinion, there are two conditions we need to meet to justify a die roll:
1) The action has both a chance of success and failure; and
2) The action’s success or failure carries consequences.
In the previous example, neither of these things are really true. While we could fail an individual roll, since we can keep trying over and over at no cost we are guaranteed to eventually succeed. There’s no real risk of failure. Frankly, the door might as well not exist since we know for certain that we will ultimately break it down.
So as a game master, how could we improve this door challenge? I have four suggestions:
Read moreRoller coasters aren’t fun because they are fast per se; their fun actually comes from the changes. First is the long, slow climb, building anticipation. Then your stomach lurches as you drop and twist and launch through turns and loops, and your speed fluctuates, too, slowing on some hills, before lurching down again. Etc.
In games you utilize the principle of cadence to make sure that levels are constantly shifting in terms of pace, difficulty or even type of skillset required.
Read moreIn Captain’s Gambit, our cast of characters involves aliens, but of course based on Shakespearian characters from centuries ago.
While we’ve kept the names and pronouns of the original characters, it was a conscious decision to design the female captains as such that we didn’t give them all cis-mammal-human characteristics.
The art and character designs that we went for might look inconsequential, but the design behind them is actually a little complicated. The question boils down to this: how do you make representation of women obvious, without perpetuating stereotypes about what defines womanhood?
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