RPG Networks

I. Dear Reader,

On reddit, azura26 did some interesting graphical visualization of what games get recommended and how connected they are to each other. You should check out the thread here because it explains how the chart was made and how to read it. But I’m also posting the image below so you get a sense of the outcome.

The bigger the circle, the more recommendations the game received on reddit. Then, the connections are based on how often games showed up on the same list, i.e. , recommended by the same person in the same post. Thus, it’s not surprising to see Call of Cthulhu next to Delta Green and Pathfinder 2e next to D&D 5e. But it may be surprising to see Mothership next to Blades in the Dark or Pendragon next to Traveller.

Mork Borg keeps being recommended alongside Vaesen because they have the same publisher, Free League, despite not having anything in common. Which just goes to show how much that matters. Shadowdark not getting mentioned alongside the OSR crowd but showing up next to Dragonbane is interesting. I have no explanations there. Of course, because the data is so vague and the networking algorithm is making aesthetic choices, interpreting these charts is a bit like divination. But divination is fun!

Only games that received more than 25 entries in their data set show up in that image so if you’d like to see a bigger version with more games, this version is much more expanded. Real credit do azure26 for giving this to us.

Suddenly, the colour-coding part of the algorithm is revealing with a painful degree of accuracy the dominant play styles or cultures that we observe. There’s the red, that’s obviously the martian playstyle. Then, there’s orange, that’s the venusian playstyle. I get to make jokes because I wrote my grandiose sociology of play explaining it already.

That side, there is some weird stuff on the boundaries. Spire and Heart and Lancer being labelled blue rather than green is interesting. I’m not sure what it means but I imagine that someone must die now. no, no, it has to happen but I’ll let you decide who. This is the other fun part of divination, there must be a sacrifice! Okay, okay, in case it’s not clear, things can be real and we can still resist factionalism. Please don’t assume this is about “types of people” — enjoy responsibly!

Yours mercurily,

Thomas

PS: I have recently discovered the shortcut for the em dash on Windows is to hold down the ALT key and then press 0151 on the numpad. Obviously, “shortcut” is a stretch. In Docs and other software, if you type two hypens, it’ll replace them automatically. But anyway, you will now be seeing em dashes appear in the newsletter — like here!

PS2: Last week’s issue went out almost 36 hours early. Thank you for everyone who talked about that as if it was a nice thing! That made me feel better about forgetting what the “Publish” button does.

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II. Media of the Week

Quinns Quest Season 2 is back and it’s got a whole new retrosheen. It now looks like an educational — ooo, edutainment — CD from the 90s. The first video looks at Delta Green as well as the extremely flavourful Impossible Landscapes.

Quinns makes a lot of interesting claims about Delta Green that I’m enjoying thinking about: the system being good cause its boring, the sanity system as compassionate, and the portrayal of cops as critical. About the adventure, the main thing I’m thinking about is how he described the fact that the adventure is a railroad as a good feature, not a bug. I think I agree with him but it’s worth unpacking the whole idea of railroading in a separate issue.

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III. Links of the Week

• On the GameTek newsletter, Geof Engelstein describes how a lot of beginner boardgames have the same game loop. It’s interesting to think about what makes a “gateway game”.
• On Deeper in the Game, Chris Chin talks about facilitation fatigue and I’m relating hard. Specifically, the idea that scheduling is the psychologically draining thing.
• Analog Game Studies has a series of reports on an academic RPG event in the University of Cincinnati: “we surmised that better networking and interchange would happen if the participants played relevant games together, rather than just talk about them at each other (which is what academic games conferences are usually like). Thus, the “Heidelberg model” was born.”
• On tumblr, an interesting post about how those “do not play this game if you’re a nazi” blurbs that appear in RPGs can actually help reveal the nazis.
• On It Came From The Bookshelf, a review of Shadowrun 3e: Shadows Over Asia which I only recommend you read as an act of schadenfreude on how racist it was.
• On the OSR blogging scene, there’s been a blogclave, i.e. series of posts about cleric and religion. Among many others, Zedeck Siew wrote up a cannibal priesthood and Ty Pitre shared some great notes on the structural types of religions. One is specific, one is high concept, both worth checking out.

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IV. Small Ads

All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section contains sponsored links and advertisements. If you’d like your products to appear here, read the submission form.

• Grimwild, the cinematic heroic fantasy RPG, is now available in hardcover! Get your copy of this beautiful book.
• Heart of Darkness is a dark fantasy DnD campaign, featuring a fleshed out open world with five distinct regions, 200+ pages, 75 statblocks, and 7 dungeons. Live now on Kickstarter.

This newsletter is sponsored by the the wonderful Bundle of Holding. Check out the latest bundles below:

• Against the Darkmaster is a LOTR-inspired fantasy based on the old MERP system. Get it alongside the Golden Throne adventure and more!
• Also, a bundle of adventures for Shadowdark
• As well as, in response to Quinns’ new video, a bundle of Impossible Landscapes, the Delta Green Handler’s guide, and more.

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Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. If you’d like to support this newsletter, share it with a friend or buy one of my games from my itch store. If you’d like to say something to me, you can reply to this email or click below!