CALICO // VISIONS

Dungeon Design 11 // The Influence of The Fiction Over Gameplay     It's been a while // many weeks, in fact. I've been busy. Not with anything in particular, just random nonsense that takes up time. I intend to maintain my business. However, I do consider writing this blog to be one of those things that would do so.      There are some concerns when it comes to crunchy games about what exactly should take priority in scenarios in which adjudication may be difficult. Typically, this comes down to GM preference.        Psychomortis interfaces with this concept somewhat strangely, as it's a game built for fluid gameplay but takes place within a very rigid environment; dungeons. There have been concerns about how exactly to grapple with this dual-nature of the experience, and while it may require a different method of approaching dungeons and their design, it's quite simple and quite possible.     I wasn't sure exactly what ...

 Dungeon Design 10 // A Series of Tubes     I'm a little late to this one. Didn't notice, did you? A dungeon can be a lot of things, but the grand majority of them have this one thing in common: they're one-note.       Think about it this way // dungeons are usually uniquely linear in most games. They often have only 1 goal // to reach the end, defeat the boss, save the princess, whatever. Some special dungeons might have 2. Even if a dungeon loops around itself and is rather nonlinear and skillful in its design, it might only have one way to "win". While there may be nothing wrong with this in conception, this practice, as well as a few others, often lead to dungeons that are shallow and dull.     How do we fix this? Subgoals . Bottlenecks and Subgoals .         --------------------------------------------------------------- //     Some Things to Think About // The use of "subgoals" should ...

Dungeon Design 01  // It's About Making Connections     It has been brought to my attention that the last blogpost I made read like it was written by an udder madman. I promise you that it might have been, but I will make an effort to write in such a manner that is more easily understood and with better flow. This time.       There are a few things I need to make very clear on this topic. I will not be writing basic advice here // standard things like looping your rooms, or "Jaquaysing" a map. There are numerous ways and places you can find that kind of information, and there would be no reason for me to write about it.    --------------------------------------------------------------- //     Breaking Down some Preconceptions // Dungeons should never be designed to simply be rooms connected by hallways. If a map is laid out this way, it doesn't matter how 'jaquaysed' it is, or how much it loops, it will always be boring. ...