It also made me think about whether that was what they were trying to achieve with that fancy 3D VTT thing they were developing for D&D.

One of the most toxic ideas to have come out of the forge is the idea that play needs to be *focussed* but who decides what receives the most focus?

One of the lovely thing about the old White Wolf games in particular is that they covered DOZENS of themes with mechanical support. The group gravitated towards what it enjoyed and cared about.

It also made me think about whether that was what they were trying to achieve with that fancy 3D VTT thing they were developing for D&D.

One of the most toxic ideas to have come out of the forge is the idea that play needs to be *focussed* but who decides what receives the most focus?

One of the lovely thing about the old White Wolf games in particular is that they covered DOZENS of themes with mechanical support. The group gravitated towards what it enjoyed and cared about.

@Taskerland That’s the «Designer is God»-belief, isn’t it? We experience a carefully crafted «experience» that is meant to evoke certain patterns, certain choices, certain themes... I find it problematic.

Build a game that is laser-focused on clattering around maps twatting things and what you get is an experience that is not only narrow but also repressive.

You literally cannot run sessions about anything else as there isn't support for it.

I felt that about the early Forge games and I felt it about that boardgame: Vast mechanical and physical infrastructure for what turns out to be a super-narrow experience of play.

@Kobiac It's either that or the designer-as-God. I'd rather trust the person whose table I am sat at than the person who makes the game.

@Taskerland I have to say though, you knew that all going in, I mean.. it even looks like CoC Heroquest, what possessed you?

@Printdevil They brought it to my home! I was also quite curious. I've played app-based mysteries.

@Taskerland You let the darkness in...

@Printdevil It's just so much *stuff*

@Taskerland Any of it worth cannibalising for a proper.. game..

@Printdevil Minis and map-tiles and tokens. So... No?

Interesting playing a Lovecraft-themed boardgame last night. I was thinking of that 'Look at what they need to immitate a fraction of our power' meme but actually it was a lot closer to 'Damn girl, you live like this?'

£150 for what is basically Lovecraftian heroquest. Fully half of the session was people rooting around in boxes to find things that were placed on the board only to be immediately removed.

@Taskerland There are so many of these. Was it Cthulhu: Death May Die? I played that one the other day and enjoyed it well enough as a HeroQuest.

@sbszine It was Mansions of Madness.

@sbszine It was Mansions of Madness.

@Taskerland @sbszine The version of Mansions of Madness I played had a computer component which told you how to rearrange the board, how monsters moved or acted, etc. Really, all the physical props like the cards and character tokens and even the board itself were vestigial, but it still seemed like an awful lot of fiddling around with props