HeyJaredRandomless Renaissance
Discussing game design without a random element and CERAMIC-Strict games.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 9
- Latest publication
- Sep 24, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 8, 2026
Latest issues
12 Cursed Illusionary Goblins (opens the original)
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12 goblins will appear in the player characters’ path toward their goals.The characters need to take each one out with a roll.One goblin disappears automatically when the player makes the roll.If the roll fails, the curse is triggered.The curse affects something nearby, or something the characters care about.Once all of the goblins are gone, the adventure is over.What makes them illusionary goblins is that they aren’t actually goblins at all—they are events.Relationships
Beyond Rules and Fiction: The Future of Roleplaying Game Design (opens the original)
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IntroductionThe many different explanations of the same looping interaction modelHow Players Create RealityThe game space is filtered through the player’s mental modelsThe Constant Rewrite of RealityEvery loop, where the player interprets new information, br
Beyond Rules and Fiction: A Diagnostic Tool for Debugging Engagement (opens the original)
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The game’s core loops that activate the brain should, as I have mentioned earlier in the series, help game masters develop techniques and approaches, help game designers understand how experiences emerge in the mind, and help roleplayers consider how their own actions can make the game more enjoyable for others.However, it can also be used as an analytical tool to more easily identify where the loop breaks down.Killing monsters and gaining XP to defeat larger monsters is a typical loop. But when
Beyond Rules and Fiction: The Many Ways We Find Fun (opens the original)
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People have varying abilities to become absorbed in an activity depending on their personality type, their current state of mind, and the group they are participating in. Some people can easily shift between different forms of engagement, while others have a clearly preferred play style.What is noteworthy, however, is that these forms of engagement can trigger one another—either because the person themselves enjoys a particular activity, or because they see others having fun and becoming engaged
Beyond Rules and Fiction: Why Uncertainty Matters (opens the original)
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