Snakebite

A few days ago I posted something about vibes. I stand by it; I think that at the end of the day the most fun games I've ever played all shared a single, clear vision about the kind of story your group is going to tell, and used everything they had to help indicate that vibe. You can always play against it--sure, I guess--but at that point you're mostly just showing off how clever you are. I can't praise that kind of indulgence, sorry. I was raised Catholic.  I've been trying to build my case, and part of that is an attempt to figure out how to build vibes. For most TTRPGs, the art plays a huge role. (The huge prominence of art, in a medium where the game takes place entirely in the imagination, and most people are not even looking at the rulebook often during play, has always struck me as weird and an early sign there was a mystic quality behind effective TTRPGs that was hiding from description: the vibe.) Art shows players what their world feels like, what the threats...

I've been thinking a lot about vibes. I think they matter, and I think they matter more than I've seen people aknowledge. Everyone praises fun systems, and they praise clever rules, and they praise light rules that allow for fun systems without tedium; they praise dense rule systems that allow for complex simulation; they praise art quite a lot. A few people praise the layout of rulebooks. But people seem to take vibes for granted, and I'm not so sure that's wise. Some questions. What are vibes? Do you mean tone? You really think nobody talks about how important mood and tone are? What, are you dumb? Let's answer these in reverse, because I can build up to something rather than open with my thesis. This being the opposite of most writing advice, it will obviously catch readers off guard. Art of War. Yes, I'm probably dumb. But I'm doing my best. Of course everyone recognizes how important tone is! They would immediately say so, I'm certain. I just...d...