Hello, everyone, and welcome back to your seat at the Epic Table! Today I’m going to finally stop ignoring demographics. What demographics? The demographics of this website and RPGs in general, which tell me that the absolutely overwhelming majority of you only play D&D or Pathfinder. And I mean, that’s kind of natural, seeing as Epic Table sells D&D adventures. And, you know, those two are the huge titans in the RPG community.
I’ve been writing articles for this blog since mid-May now, and the vast majority of what I’m writing has been about, or targeted at, non-D&D/PF players and subjects. A lot of that has been because there’s just so, so many places to get D&D/PF content online. That’s not a knock on them; it’s an acknowledgement that it’s been two full editions of both games since I felt like I had anything really unique to say about them. And yes, for those doing math, that means I’ve never felt I’ve had anything unique to say about Pathfinder—I’ve played in a grand total of one PF game that lasted like two sessions. Because of that, I’ve decided to focus on other stuff.
But today, D&D/PF fans, I am going to focus on you. I am going to do this in the most annoying way possible: by trying to get you to play something else.
What I am not going to do, however, is tell you that these games suck and you’re bad for liking them. You’re not. I have two goals with today’s article: to show you how to use other games to make your D&D/PF game better, and to ask you to game thoughtfully about the system itself.
I’m going to do that by showing you two games.
Making D&D and Pathfinder Games Better: Microscope
Oh my Lord, I cannot stop fucking talking about Microscope. (Note: please ignore how out of date their website is.) I’m not gonna give a full game review here, mostly because I have other things I want to say in a limited word-count. But I absolutely love this game, and I think it makes any game in any system better. That absolutely includes both D&D and Pathfinder.
Please don’t run away immediately: Microscope is a GMless, diceless game about building a history timeline. Seriously, please come back, it’s not an unstructured game of make-believe. In fact, Microscope is one of the most structured games I’ve ever played, and I think the game is much, much better for it. Tightly adhering to its rules makes it very easy to create a fascinating world and history with buy-in from everyone playing.
That’s what the game’s about: building a history, and incidentally building a world while you do. You start by choosing the bookends of history: two historical periods that represent the beginning and end of the era you’re going to cover. This, plus a quick one-line summation of the general trajectory you’re taking, is the grand overview of everything that happens. From there, you zoom in (like using a microscope (get it)) to periods of history in between, events in those periods, and even individual scenes to help you answer questions those events raise. I could say, “And that’s it, that’s the game,” but that would honestly do a disservice to how powerful the engine is.
The game has a lot of tools to make sure the outcome is within certain bounds. One is the palette system. Players decide at the start of the game what things are in-bounds or out-of-bounds for this world. This isn’t a safety tool system (and one should be instituted separately before play begins); rather, this is a way of ensuring that players don’t wind up with something they absolutely hate being part of their world. Conversations are encouraged to reach consensus—remember, there’s no GM here.
It’s also impossible to remove something another player plays. You can have something remove it from the timeline later (the game calls it “nuking Atlantis”), but that addition will still have been part of the timeline at some point. This means that games don’t devolve into people playing tug-of-war over whether or not a certain thing is included.
Okay, great, it’s fun and it makes worlds. Why does that make D&D/PF games better?
Well, for one thing, it’s a fun way of making worlds, which is a lot of the background work to any homebrew campaign. But it also creates worlds that the whole group is automatically invested in and has stakes in. Everybody cares about some part of the world because they helped make it. Quite frankly, this is going to make your players better at roleplaying, too: it gives them a little taste of what can happen if they take advantage of their agency. You cede a little power as GM, but the dividends are enormous.
Seriously. Play a round of Microscope to make your next campaign setting. It takes one session of play or so and is totally worth it.
Gaming Thoughtfully About The System: The Gr8 System
I want you to take two hours with your group and play a game with my very own bookmark system, the Gr8 System. The entire system is reproduced below:
The Gr8 System
An Elisheva Games game
By H. Tucker Cobey and Elisabeth Snowe
You need 2-6 people. Choose one person to be the MC. Everyone else is a player. Players each control one character; the MC controls everything else. Each player will need an eight-sided die, which are available at your local gaming store, some chain bookstores, or online.
Player Rules
Each character has three stats: Physical, Mental, and Social. Assign 2 to one stat, 1 to a second, and O to the third. Whenever you do something, or need to avoid doing something, roll an eight-sided die and add whichever stat is appropriate. If the total is 5+, you succeed. If not, you fail. The MC will describe how, but you’re welcome to
make suggestions.
MC Rules
- Do not make the characters look like losers when they fail.
- When the characters fail, have them fail in a way that changes the circumstances.
- Read Rule #1 again.
…That’s it. That’s the game. It’s way more fun than you’d think; the probabilities are actually very specific (I’m using those mods and that die size for a reason). The MC advice is the best distillation I have of how to GM/MC a game.
Why do I want you to do this? How does a session of this make D&D/PF better? And what does this have to do with gaming thoughtfully?
I want you to game thoughtfully like a game designer. What I mean by that is this: play this game, and see what rules you wish you had. See what rules you miss from D&D/PF. Then, go back and play D&D/PF again. This time, though, think about all of the rules you’re interacting with. How many of them are necessary? How many of them are good? How many of them do you think there could be something better? D&D and Pathfinder cater to very specific game styles. Take a moment and think: is this the best way to represent the fun I’m trying to have? The answer may surprise you.
2 Games 2 Furious
Ultimately, games are tools in a toolbox. That includes D&D and Pathfinder, but it also includes Microscope, Gr8, and the literal thousands of games that exist out there. Try expanding your toolbox, and see if it helps you build a better experience for you and your group. There’s a lot out there. I’m begging you to try some of it.
The contents of this post are © 2024 H. Tucker Cobey. All rights reserved.
