What is a Death Spiral?

Heya,

A lot of game design jargon gets tossed around sometimes. And sometimes it’s not explained all that well and there exists a certain amount of trepidation in those who don’t understand the meaning. Asking for a definition is sometimes intimidating because it seems like everybody already knows. And who wants to be left out? I know that people feel this way, because I am someone who has felt that trepidation many times.

Toady I’m going to talk about Death Spirals. First, what is a Death Spiral? It’s a game mechanic involving the resolution system that somehow creates diminishing capabilities of the character and makes it more likely for the character’s capabilities to further diminish. That is to say, suffering an initial failure makes the second failure more likely, which makes the third even more likely and so on. There is virtually no escape from a Death Spiral once it’s begun.

What about an example? Risus is a good downloadable example, but rather than make you read that and then come back here, I’ll give you a hypothetical example (do go download Risus, though). Okay, pretend for a moment DnD3e had a Death Spiral. Whenever your character takes damage in combat it would not only decrease his Hit Points, but also diminish he Strength and Dexterity. This means, not only is he closer to dying, but his ability to hit, deal damage, and avoid damage are also lowered. This makes it harder for him to defend himself and/or kill his opponent.

So what makes this so bad? Shouldn’t characters suffer penalties for losing? Sure, but here’s the thing about Death Spirals that make them so bad. After the initial exchange, none of the further exchanges have any meaning. The stakes of the situation have already been decided! Go back to the above example. With an opponent’s Atk, AC, and Hit Points lowered, the chances of your harming him again are much greater. The chances of him harming you are less. Baring a great stroke of luck, you will harm him again. Then his STR and DEX lower even more. Making him even easier to hit and less likely to hit you. Will further exchanges change the course of the future for that character? No. So after the initial hit, the fight was decided. People just ended up wasting a lot of time rolling more dice. That’s boring.

A second kind of Death Spiral is a Party Death Spiral. If you have ever played an MMORPGs then you know exactly what I mean. But let’s look at DnD again. I’m going to make up a typical party: Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, Thief, and Paladin. The party happens on a four orcs and combat commences. The orcs suddenly have a shaman show up with them and prove tougher than the PCs or the DM first imagined. So tough that the Paladin goes down. Okay, so we now have 5 orcs vs. 4 PCs. The fighter can at best keep 2 busy. The cleric can handle one, but the thief and wizard are made of paper. The wizard gets shellacked next. Now one of the party’s major damage sources is out. The thief goes down next, there’s too many and his HPs are low. Perhaps by now 2 of the orcs are dead. However, we’re down to the warrior and cleric. Before long, the cleric bites it and with no one to heal him, the fighter is doomed. The party wipes out. All because one character, the Paladin, died first.

What we’ve just witnessed is a Party Death Spiral. In MMORPGs, as soon as one of or two of the party members die in an encounter, the rest are sure to follow. Tabletop RPGs that have strict niche protection and defined roles for characters can risk the same fate. As soon as a group’s Meat Shield, Damage Dealer, or Healer goes down, the party is at severe risk.

So how does one avoid creating a Death Spiral? Well, the easiest way is to make sure that losing an exchange does not affect the character’s ability to avoid further losses or inflict a loss on his opponent. Hit Points are an excellent example of how to avoid a Death Spiral. Yeah the character gets closer to death, but his Atk and AC are not affected. You can also make losing an exchange in a contest not dependant in whether or not the character succeeds at the action. My own Holmes and Watson does this. As far as Party Death Spirals go, one can avoid designing these by making sure that characters are diverse. I personally don’t think niche protection is all it’s cracked up to be. So, don’t be afraid to drop it in your game. Having a lot of overlapping abilities will help insure a party’s survival even if one or two go down in combat.

Anyhow, the main point of this essay was to just get out there what a Death Spiral is. If anyone needs further clarification, feel free to post :)

Peace,

-Troy

What are the 'Alt. 3' ?

Heya,

The Alt. 3 (or Alternative 3) are a set of RPG Design questions that are complimentary to the Big Three. The first person I ever saw use them was Jared A. Sorenson, so I’ll credit him with inventing them until told otherwise. I am fairly certain that he and others have employed them at various seminars at gaming conventions (such as VeriCon) to test the systems of new game designers. The Alt. 3 focus on one very central aspect of a game: “What is your game about?” and then probe that more deeply and more deeply. I’ve actually seen two versions used. Here is the first:

1. What is your game about?

2. How is your game about that?

3. How does your game enforce/reinforce what it’s about?


The second runs something like this:


1. What is your game about?

2. How? How is your game about that?

3. What behaviors does your game reward/punish?


As a design exercise, I prefer the former over the latter. It continuously pounds away at the central idea of the game. That’s important. One must look at “What your game is about” in as many lights as possible to truly know exactly what sorts of play and experiences you are wanting as the designer.

The Alt. 3 do not replace the Big Three or the Power 19. Instead, all three sets of questions should be used together as you design your game. Complete a Big Three answer list. Complete a Power 19 Answer list. And then complete an Alt. 3 answer list. Once you have all that done, then you can go back and examine what you have written and know that you have created your own outlines and tools for making a solid RPG.

I can’t stress enough the importance of continually asking questions of yourself. Use as many tools as you can to examine your game from as many angles as you can. Doing that won’t ever replace good old fashion playtesting, proofreading, and feedback, but it sure will cut down on extraneous design elements and wasted space. And that, in and of itself, will make your game better.

Peace,

-Troy

What is the Iron Game Chef?

Heya,

One of the best ways to learn about game design is to actually do it. If you've been looking for an excuse or just needed some inspiration, here's some on a silver platter. The Iron Game Chef is a contest where many game designers are given a list of "ingredients" that they must use as game components. They are also given a theme they have to follow in some way. They basically have just over a week to get it done. Whoa, what can you design is just a week, you may ask? Well, these are just alpha stage designs. No one is expecting a polished product here.

Origonally, I believe the contest was started by Mike Holmes, but the torch has been passed to Andy Kitkowski who is doing a great job with it. Here is a link to the Game Chef Main Site and a link to the Discussion Boards.

If you are new to design, this is an excellent way to get your feet wet. Go in with the idea that this is a learning process and a great chance to get some feedback on your design style. I heartily encourage everyone to participate.

Peace,

-Troy

A Call for Playtesters

Heya,

I have finished the “final” drafts of the playtest versions for all three of my up coming games: Cutthroat, Hierarchy, and Stadoff! If you are interested in playing them and then filing a report on how the session went, reply to this thread or send an email to my email address: legacyboss @ hotmail . com. It would be a great help to me and something I would be very thankful for. :)

Peace,

-Troy

Socratic Design Anthology # 1

Heya,

As I look down my page here at the links on the right, I’m seeing some really important articles vanish from the front page. Stuff like The Big Three and Power 19 should be kept, IMO, front and center. So here’s my solution. Every quarter, I’ll be making an Anthology of Articles. This one will cover, December, January, and February. I’ll link all the ones I feel were important to the mission of Socratic Design in one single article. This way, anyone new to the site will be able to catch up with those who have been reading it from the beginning. Heh, I kinda wish more blogs would do this. Anyway, the order I will put them in will be the order I think they should be read, not necessarily the order in which I wrote them. Feedback, as always, is welcome.

Anthology #1

What is ‘Diaspora’ ? (mainly for the Universal Disclaimer)
What are ‘The Big Three’ ?
What are ‘The Power 19’ ? pt. 1
What are ‘The Power 19’ ? pt. 2
What is ‘Chargen’ ?
What is Situation?
Is Play its own Reward?
What Should I Expect from my First Design?
What if my Game turns out Crappy?

Appendix: 1

Why Design an RPG?
What is a Traditional RPG?
What is a ‘Heartbreaker’ ?
So What are We Looking For?

The Appendix is more personal opinion stuff on my part than design tools. I don’t consider them to be a true part of the Anthology, but are important to me none-the-less. If you have any questions about any of the articles, feel free to post about them here. I’m always happy to field questions and lend a hand :)

Peace,

-Troy