Hello everyone, I wanted to ask about what you consider the most relevant and interesting game design theory that currently exists?

I also want to know what you would expect a game design master and doctorate level education to focus on and care about in terms of topics, areas of study etc. In other words what would you consider the next frontier in game design as a field of study?

(I currently work as an educator at a game design department, and the conversation came up and sparked intense debate between various different interests. My grounding is that this is best answered by practitioners and people who care deeply about the field outside of academia)

I was reading the post on lose/lose skills and thinking about the topic

one of the thoughts I came up with went something like this:

athletics is like lockpicking for "strong" characters

languages (particularly reading) is like lockpicking for smart characters

my general philosophy for lockpicking is it gives access to "extra treasure" or "shortcuts" and it never cuts off access to core quest elements (using Fallout video game logic) - and I currently have it as a challenge because it can scale (expert locks) and there are other ways around a lock typically

here is the challenge to my assumptions; both athletics and languages are binary skills in my design, you can do it or you can't (no checks) - realistically if I follow my own logic lockpicking should be a binary skill also

but it just feels wrong, what are other people's thoughts

This is how I plan to write and lay out my NPC book.

1. I give the players the breakdown on how to read NPC stat blocks
2. I create one "ultimate" NPC stat block for each character and creature type. This stat block represents the most powerful version of that particular character or creature players could expect to encounter.
3. I note that the stat block provided can be "deconstructed" to create more typical NPCs. I.E. "Most orcs don't have all these traits; for a typical orc foot-soldier, just select one extra trait beyond these three base traits."

Screenshot examples can be found here

-

My questions for the group are:

• Does this ask too much of players/game masters that need to create "smaller" baddies and city folk?
• If you were looking at running an adventure using NPCs from this book, how would you prep your characters for the session?

-

The game I'm working on is Arcana: The Pursuit of Mastery. Currently available in early access on itch.io.

Edit: title is a typo, should be "base stats or NO base stats?"

Currently revisiting some designs, and im stuck on this question.

Originally I ditched stats (might, cunning, etc) in favor of just verbs (attack, defend, lie, etc). You have a list of things you can do, and you can get good at that thing. End of story.

But some part of me wonders if this is good. There's something about seeing a high 'might stat' that makes it easier to understand what the character is all about, compared to having to comb through specific actions. Does that matter? I might be getting too caught up in presentation lol.​