Design Doc: Recent Episodes
Hannah Shaffer and Evan Rowland
Welcome to Design Doc, a podcast documenting the process of analog game design. Game designers guide you through their process from concept to product.
Former historical interpreter Enzo joins us to talk about interpreting history! A few months ago we visited Old Sturbridge Village, an 1830s rural New England recreation village. We went as naive visitors, only able to guess at how it was run. Our guest today was kind enough to share his memories of working at the museum! We discuss what it was like interacting with pass-holder guests, being the groom in a historic wedding, and sneaking off to take smoke breaks away from the prying eyes of modernity. Thanks again to Enzo for sharing his time and knowledge with us! Episode links: To learn more about Old Sturbridge Village, visit their website here: www.osv.org Turtlebun links: Our games: turtlebun.com Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun Join our Discord! discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King Design Doc on twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod
In this episode Hannah and Evan describe their recent trip to Sturbridge Village, an 1800s recreation historical town. They talk about the value of on-the-ground research for creative projects, the peculiarity of animal habitats in fantasy places, and some dredged-up financial controversies paving the ye olde village streets. Episode mentions:
Sturbridge Village: https://www.osv.org/
Jenny Nicholson video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9OhTB5eBqQ
The Maze Runner (film): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maze_Runner_(film)
Turtlebun links:
Our games: turtlebun.com
Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun
Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun
Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun
We have a Discord! https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz
Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King Design Doc on twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod
We talk about bringing confidence to our own work, and games inspired by olfactive poetry. 1:25 - Founder energy 13:58 - Project Gutenberg 32:32 - Pie Girl Episode Links and Credits Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King Design Doc on twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod Mentioned in this episode Outsider Comics in Seattle - https://outsidercomics.com/ Project Gutenberg - https://www.gutenberg.org/ The Art of Perfumery by G. W. Septimus Piesse (1857) - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16378/16378-h/16378-h.htm Turtlebun links Our games: turtlebun.com Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun Discord: https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz
In a much-requested episode topic, Hannah and Evan talk about WORLDBUILDING. We narrow in on three worldbuilding faux pas we're trying to be aware of in our own work: Word swapping, "Fish People," and the dreaded authorial insert. Episode Mentions: Lincoln in the Bardo: novel by George Saunders Upload: comedy-drama series Episode Links and Credits: Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King Design Doc on twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod Turtlebun Links Our other games: turtlebun.com Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun Discord: https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz
Hannah and Evan discuss how to repair their relationship with a game they've spent a year struggling to complete. Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King Design Doc on twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod Mentioned in this episode: Microscope RPG by Ben Robbins. Turtlebun links Our games: turtlebun.com Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun Discord: https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz
Hannah and Evan talk about the fiddly little end things that make a project go on, and on, and on much longer than you expected.
Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King Design Doc on twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod
Turtlebun links Our games: turtlebun.com Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun Discord: https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz
Hannah and Evan salvage an episode about being on time with an upcoming game, and publish it in a world where they were not on time.
Intro/outro theme by Pat King.
Perfect media is untouchable. Hannah and Evan talk about looking to flawed, goofy, broken movies and books for creative inspiration, instead of looking to our favorites.
Content:
Intro/outro theme: by Pat King
What's the right tone for the rules of a roleplaying game? Evan and Hannah talk about casual versus formal writing, and how small word choices exploded into rewriting the mechanics of Questlandia.
In this episode, Hannah and Evan talk about the self-consciousness that comes when you grow up and are told you must make things for serious reasons. How does one escape that self-doubt? Enter...bad comics! Enter...fanfic!
Intro/outro theme: Pat King
Design Doc on twitter: https://twitter.com/designdocpod
Support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/turtlebun
How do you reignite the passion for an old project? Hannah and Evan talk about returning to Starship UltraLux and strain to apply a spaghetti metaphor.
Check out our 2021 retrospective on Patreon! Happy New Year! :)
Intro/outro music: Pat King
It's easy to overlook the little things that are going well when there's no big exciting game or runaway success to chase. Hannah and Evan talk about appreciating small victories, daily routines, and high gravity days.
Some games: https://turtlebun.com/collections/all-products
Some nano games: https://turtlebun.com/collections/all-products/products/nano-game-bundle
Episode intro/outro music by Pat King
In this episode Hannah and Evan chat about their honest expectations and secret hopes for the latest Kickstarter campaign. What do the numbers mean and why is it so hard to talk about money?
Intro/Outro theme: by Pat King
The Questlandia Kickstarter campaign ends November 18th. Link here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/turtlebun/questlandia-updated-and-expanded
We've had seven years to think of a good pitch for our game. Now, we're Kickstarting Questlandia again, and we're finally figuring out the pitch that feels right. In this episode we talk about the approaching Kickstarter for a new edition of Questlandia, and just how hard it is to find a genuine voice when speaking to an online void.
The Questlandia updated and expanded edition Kickstarter launches October 20th. Sign up to be notified when the campaign goes live here.
We haven't had a deadlined project in a minute. But now it's time for a deadlined project again... How do we incorporate that work without letting un-deadlined projects slide? How does anyone not just fill the negative space?
Intro/outro music: Pat King
Join the Turtlebun Discord: https://discord.gg/9umUykHVAQ
Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/turtlebun
We just finished a year-long project, and have a little time to plan our next steps! The work of what happens in-between is just as important as the work of making a new game. We brainstorm about future projects, how to sell the books we've already made, and making a new company and new website.
- Design Doc Intro/Outro theme: Pat King
- Turtlebun Discord: https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz
Hannah and Evan shoot the shoot about games, being in the weird middle space of a project almost being done, and launching lucrative YouTube careers.
Hannah and Evan talk about the quest to thrive in the shadows of the world's most popular RPGs. An episode about how to compare every roleplaying game to the big ones, for the good.
https://www.patreon.com/turtlebun
- Intro/Outro theme by Pat King
- Addtl music: New Ages 1 by Little Dog Big Ears
Hannah and Evan discuss the trials and tribulations of offering a "deluxe" version of a game on Kickstarter. How do you balance the quality, the complexity, and the pressure to compete with mass-produced games?
Theme song by Pat King
Editing by Jeff Stormer of Party of One Podcast
We sold out of Questlandias, and have decided to revamp it for the next print run! We talk about returning to our first game with both appreciation for what it is, and an intention to improve it.
Theme song by Pat King
Editing by Jeff Stormer of Party of One Podcast
We talk about what makes a game's scope big or small, why Q2 has taken so long, and all the projects we've made in the meantime.
Support Design Doc on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/turtlebun
We talk about how we've redesigned the structure of our workday, because boundaries around work are important even when—and ESPECIALLY when—it's work you love.
Design doc intro/outro theme: by Pat King
Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/turtlebun
We sit down for an unplanned recording of Design Doc when Evan says something sad.
Note: This episode discusses the toll that work can take on physical and mental health.
End of episode donation notes:
- The Okra Project - https://www.theokraproject.com/
- Black Mental Health Alliance - https://blackmentalhealth.com/
- Bail Fund List - https://bailfunds.github.io/
Music:
- Design Doc Intro/Outro theme by Pat King
- New Ages I by Little Dog Big Ears
In this episode we talk about completing a project that made us our own worst bosses and what it's like coming back from burnout.
Link to re-launched Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/turtlebun
Its purpose, the act of creation. Its destiny, unknowable. Today's episode is about a bike on skis.
- Design Doc intro theme by Pat King.
- Intermission and outro music, New Ages I by Little Dog Big Ears.
Character creation in Questlandia 1 lasted two hours. Character creation in Questlandia 2 is five minutes. What changed?
Intro/Outro music: by Pat King
The junk poets are changing again. This time, maybe in a spoooooky way.
We talk again about the junk poets as GMing tools and making them less corporeal, but more present than ever.
- Design Doc Intro/outro theme: Pat King
- Intermission music: New Ages 1 by Little Dog Big Ears
- Design Doc on twitter: @designdocpod
Questlandia 2 is a campaign game with no Game Master. Without a designated person in the GM role, that responsibility must be distributed among all players. We talk about how the Junk Poets can support every player in the GM role.
Questlandia 2 has been delayed. Now, we're releasing an entirely different RPG first. We talk about—and try not to apologize for—how timelines and business have to adapt to design difficulties.
Design Doc intro/outro theme: by Pat King
We asked on Twitter what you wanted to know about running a roleplaying game Kickstarter. Now, we're answering your questions. From self-promotion to self-care, what to say when there's nothing to say, and pretending we know anything about taxes.
Show notes:
- Design Doc Intro/Outro theme by Pat King
- Additional music: New Ages 1 by Little Dog Big Ears
Who are the Junk Poets and what do they add to Questlandia? We go over what we know, what's still missing, and how they could make a GMless game easier to play!
We've finished the first two playtests of Questlandia and something is still missing. In this episode we talk about how to hone in on the emotional core of the game. What stories does this game want to tell and how do we make sure it tells them?
After playtesting Questlandia's new kingdom and character creation, it's time to test some scenes! Bartholomew the anxious city planner and Quincy the cast out justice-bringer will have to make some hard choices. Choices that begin with a cat and end with a geological anomaly.
Intro/Outro theme music - by Pat King
Welcome to Kingdom Knot, where our people keep vigil over the void at the edge of the world. Something has emerged from that void—a creature for which we have no words, of which we have no memory. For now, we will call it...a "cat."
Music credits:
- Design Doc Intro/Outro theme written by Pat King
- Also featuring New Ages 1 by Little Dog, Big Ears
Alanna Shaffer joins us to talk about how, even when telling made-up stories, we can be aware of biases in the way we talk about history. Whose stories get told? Whose get left behind? And what's our responsibility to our fictional worlds?
Mentioned reading:
- Charity and Sylvia by Rachel Hope Cleves
- The New Map of Empire: How Britain Imagined America before Independence by Max Edelson
- The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller by Carlo Ginzburg
- Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution by Kathleen DuVal
- A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling over the Memory of Sand Creek by Ari Kelman
Why are our worlds turning out horrible? After playtesting at Metatopia, we talk about how the framing for worldbuilding can exaggerate societies to cartoonish levels. Maybe we can learn from the original Questlandia?
It's Trans Awareness Week. A short bonus episode about trans allyship, education, and creating better gaming spaces.
- Trans Awareness Week: https://www.glaad.org/transweek
- The Trans Language Primer : https://www.translanguageprimer.org/
We talk about acknowledging—and embracing—the inherent politics of game design.
Intro music credit. New Ages 1 from Little Big Dog Ears.
http://opsound.org/artist/littledogbigears/
http://opsound.org/info/license/
In September we met for a mini Questlandia retreat. We talked about how our intentions for the game have shifted in the current political landscape and introduced an unfolding guidebook that will sit at the center of play.
How do you keep making things when life throws the unexpected your way? We're learning what that looks like now.
A good GM can step up to manage social dynamics at the table. But in Questlandia 2, there is no GM, so the rules we write need to do that work. How can we keep the excitement and ideas flowing without leaving quieter players out of the fun?
What happens if a player achieves their big character goal in the very first scene of the game? We found out.
With no GM, players in Questlandia 2 are responsible for framing their own scene types. As a result they animate objects, make holy voyages, and befriend a sentient wall.
Good games are often built on an avalanche of bad ideas. We talk about the worst ideas we've had so far, and how to turn them into something useful.
The first playtest that takes us all the way through character creation. Meet beasts of burden, puppeteers, and the queens who inhabit Mosslicker Alley.
With one playtest down, we talk about what went right, what went wrong, and what we'd like to change.
What makes for a good RPG toolkit? We explore dice, cards, dactylomancy, and some of the weirder tactile tools you can bring to the table.
Hannah and Evan embark on a journey to redesign their first roleplaying game. Welcome to Design Doc, our year-long experiment in transparent design!
Social media
https://twitter.com/designdocpod
designdocpod@gmail.com