Saturday, November 07, 2009

How to Host a Dungeon: Clash of Civilizations


Last month, Ben, Jonathan, and I got together for a playtest of How to Host a Dungeon: Clash of Civilizations. This is gigantic multi-player How to Host a Dungeon variant. I'm just getting around to digesting the learnings now.

For a while I thought I'd just junk this whole idea. The things I like about How to Host a Dungeon solo play feel dull in group play. Counting my Dwarven population to see what they build feels very flat.

But then I read Dawn of Worlds and I was inspired to take another look at my assumptions. Jonathan's also working on a multi-player collaborative world building game that's inspiring me.

So I'm revising Clash with some new fundamentals:

  • Instead of rigid build lists, loose guidelines

  • Breeders breed, delvers build, Drow enslave, and so on: these are the fundamentals, so keep them simple and automatic

  • Replace the more arcane procedures with open-ended instructions to the players

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