Character sheets—the single greatest piece of reference material a player will use, are often the most frustrating. Learn how to design character sheets that are easier to use & easier on the eyes!
Description:
As you've run or playtested a game, have you witnessed players trying to figure out what to roll? Where a skill is at? Taking a lot of time searching their character sheets for what they need?
Geekspective’s Amber Marie has 12 years of graphic design, UX, and RPG experience and is sharing her insights into building better character sheets. She’ll discuss how the human mind processes information, the challenges it presents, and how to overcome them.
You'll learn how to build better information hierarchy, improve information flow, and overall make more user friendly and attractive character sheets.
Puzzles are classic obstacles in games. Used effectively, they can be a rewarding experience. We'll discuss elements of puzzle design & how to use them to build engaging interactions in your games.
Description:
Puzzles are classic obstacles to players in role playing games. When done well, they are rewarding for both game master and players. There's a fine line between a rewarding puzzle and one that is frustrating. Members of geekspective.com will discuss successful elements of puzzle design, how to combine those elements and build puzzles that are complex yet fun for players. We believe that puzzles should always be solvable, either the easy way, or failing that, "The Hard Way". Puzzles can add an extra dimension to gameplay and with the elements of good puzzle design, you'll be able to create more exciting and rewarding games for your players.
Incorporating Physical Props Into Your Tabletop RPG
Summary:
Keeping players engaged is key to a good RPG session. One way to accomplish this is through physical props. We’ll give examples of some items, how to create them, & when to use them to great effect.
Description:
As any good gamemaster will tell you, keeping your players excited and engaged is the key to a good RPG session. We believe that one of the best ways to accomplish this is through appropriately placed physical props. In this seminar, we’ll give examples of some of the simpler items, how to create them, and when to use them for maximum effect!
Surprisingly, these props don’t have to take a lot of time, money, or (most importantly) skill to make. The key is to know when to use them and what introducing props can do to your different players. We’ll discuss examples we’ve used in our games and even do a live demonstration for some of the simpler props. Lastly, we’ll have a few samples for a lucky few audience members to take home and use in their game.
If your tabletop RPG seems dull, one problem could be the characters. Learn how to create more vibrant characters with more personality. We will help you put the ‘role’ back into role-playing!
Description:
At geekspective.com, we firmly believe that role-playing characters are more than stats on a character sheet. Early RPGs didn’t encourage personality, favoring maps and equipment lists. The latest generation of RPGs, however, encourage storytelling and social role-play. If you aren’t sure how to adapt to a new system that requires more role-play, or just love the idea of more vivid and interesting characters, this is the discussion for you! We make actual play podcasts which requires us to create voices for our characters. That helps, but adding personality traits, interesting possessions, and personality quirks in addition to those voices, your characters will become much more fun and your RPG sessions will too.
Game masters want their worlds to be rich & engaging. In this seminar, we’ll borrow personas, a methodology used in software design to better understand users, to make our NPCs more compelling.
Description:
As gamemasters, we all want our world to be as rich and engaging as Middle Earth, but let’s face it, we aren’t Tolkien. In this seminar, we’ll borrow personas, a methodology used in software design to better understand users, to quickly and effectively help make our NPCs compelling.
This session will walk through what personas are in the professional sense, and then adapt that to the gaming table. We'll have hands-on activity and each participant will be provided take-home materials to help us better implement persona-based NPCs in your own games. At then end of the workshop you'll have a new tool to quickly make and maintain deep and believable NPCs.