RPG Design Panelcast (Jason Pitre)

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Jon Cole, Oscar Biffi, Katherine Shane, Misha B, Olivia Montoya, Chiara Locatelli.

Some small game projects are created by an auteur, who controls every aspect of production. These panelists rejected that approach to create projects working with a team on behalf of their community. How did they balance the community's needs with their ambition? Is it possible to represent a community via anthology at all? Panelists will discuss the nitty gritty processes behind their projects, revealing what worked and what didn't, answering questions, and sharing their hard-won tips for publishing in community.

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Nicole Amato

Join Kickstarter's Games Outreach Lead, Nicole Amato, as they discuss best practices for running a crowdfunding campaign. There will also be plenty of time for a Q&A for any questions you might have.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Moe Poplar, Michael Low, J Gurantz.

Now kids, stop fighting! RPGs are intensely emotionally engaging, deeply moving experiences - and they're fun! Much attention has been paid, recently, to their application in therapy, helping people navigate complex emotional change. This creates a question - how does the violence often built into the system - and setting - of an RPG affect players, and how can we create games where tension, drama, and struggle don't have to be wedded to destruction?

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Graham Walmsley, Christopher McGlothlin, Darren Watts, Lynne Hardy, Alex Helms.

It's almost a truism that it's very hard to make RPG adventures, scenarios and modules that will sell unless you're talking about the very biggest games. Is that really true? Let's share some tricks and tips on this panel!

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Pamela Punzalan, Vince Smith, and Alastor Guzman.

Much of the dialogue relevant to the tabletop gaming industry and the communities that form around it is centered around the United States of America. Many know that creators from all around the world exist, but few understand just how different their contexts can be from the status quo. This panel seeks to bring multiple voices from beyond America together in order to discuss these differences, and provide some nuanced insight on how the America-centered industry informs their own contexts and communities.

Recorded at GenCon Online 2020

Presented by Jason Walters, Pamela Punzalan, Wilson Zorn, and Maurice Poplar.

Indie Press Revolution hosted this excellent discussion on the ideas and games at the forefront of modern RPG Design in the year 2020, during this special panel at GenCon Online.

Pamela Punzalan -  https://thedovetailor.itch.io/ https://twitter.com/TheDovetailor

Wilson Zorn -  https://twitter.com/zornwil

Maurice Poplar -  https://twitter.com/MauricePoplar

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Chris O'Neill, Stephanie Bryant, Warren Morrison, Walt Ciechanowski.

Roll20 provides players and GMs with a popular virtual tabletop for games. How can you best take advantage of it as a player, a designer or a publisher? Our experts and power-users will bring you up to speed on the service.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Joan Moriarity, Darren Watts, Beth Rimmels.

Which is better, a game that concludes when somebody wins, or a game that concludes when the story is deemed to be complete? It's a trick question, obviously; both styles have their benefits and drawbacks, but what are those exactly? Why do certain kinds of players tend to gravitate toward one or the other? What can devotees of one type gain from playing the other, and how can we make it more enjoyable to cross that divide?

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Whitney Delaglio, Camdon Wright, Avraham Yosef Baez.

People are told to tell their own stories when making games, but biracial folk are often forced into an unreasonable process of justifying their marginalization regardless of their life experiences. We'll also talk about the racist foundation of not allowing designers to speak about living in, growing up around, and often excluded from more than one community. Also about how our backgrounds influence the games and artwork we design.

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Sydney Engelstein and Geoffrey Engelstein

Sydney has taken close to a thousand pitches for Indie Game Studios. Geoff has taught game design and helped designers improve their prototypes for over a decade. Between them they see the same issues with designs over and over again, particularly with newer designers. In this seminar, they will share with you the top things that are wrong with your game, based on this hard won experience. They guess there's a slight chance you've avoided a few of these issues, but probably not. And let's face it - you won't know unless you attend.

NOTE: An insufficiently edited version of this panel was posted earlier, but this is the corrected version for your enjoyment.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by James Wallis, Cat Tobin, Kieron Gillen, Jacob Jaskov.

We all know how certain games feel in play and how they make us feel, but as designers and critics we don't have a set of words to describe it. Do we need an experiential vocabulary of play, and what would one look like?

Recorded at Metatopia 2020

Presented by Dexter Duckworth, Elsa Sjunneson.

The Distant Future, the Year 2000: Updating Cyberpunk for the 21st Century. The hard-hitting themes of social inequality and corporate exploitation found in cyberpunk are as relevant now as they were in the 80's, but not everything in the genre has stood the test of time. This panel will dive into how both the technologies and sensibilities found in cyberpunk can be updated in order to design games that are timely and inclusive.

Recorded at Metatopia 2020

Presented by Brian Dalrymple, Jessie Edwards, Hal Mangold.

Our panelists will walk you through the basics of turning your game design hobby into a business. We'll talk about the most cost-efficient ways to register an LLC, open a business bank account, file a trademark and keep track of your expenses for tax season.

Recorded at Metatopia 2020

Presented by Jonathan Ritter-Roderick, Anya Combs.

Join representatives of Kickstarter for a discussion of the state of crowdfunding projects going into 2021. Topics will include what's different, what hasn't changed at all and how to prepare for success if you're taking a campaign live.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Roberta Taylor, Paul Saxberg, Kimberley Lam, Shoshana Kessock.

How do you keep a creative spark alive when everything is coming to pieces around you? This panel will discuss some practical ways to nurture your creative self when you feel like you can't possibly make anything.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Menachem Cohen, Ryan Cagle.

Because of the fictional distance between player and character, TTRPGs, even D&D, can be designed and used to facilitate spiritual growth, exploration, and healing. Mechanics, role play, and setting/story also factor into this and GMed, GMful/less, and solo games work in this context. Panelists will discuss how they have designed and used games for spiritual discovery and address theoretical underpinnings of why it works, such as bleed and alibi. There will be time for questions.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Jeeyon Shim, Meguey Baker, Jason Morningstar.

Understanding the natural world as an active participant in games and design shifts our engagement with environmental justice and enriches every aspect of our work. Join this panel of game designers with backgrounds as adventure guides, outdoor educators, and naturalists as they discuss the various ways integrating the natural world positively impacts their design and community work in games. Attendees will learn tools to understand the more-than-human community around them in ways they can weave into their own participation in games, whether as players, designers, or organizers.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Jason Pitre, Zedeck Siew, Sinta Posadas.

Non-player characters are vital to tabletop and live action roleplaying games. They provide companionship, contrast, resources, information, and dramatic conflict with the players. They are the avatars of the setting, and the best tools that a GM has at their disposal. In this panel, we discuss how games can be designed using NPCs as a key mechanism of play. 

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Tim Rodriguez & Beth Rimmels.

Card games are a classic design model that have already expressed innumerable possibilities. We'll talk about classic styles of decks, iterations on classic games, alternate formats, the mathematics of card games, and why we all love them. We'll also consider and critique ideas and concepts and talk about why or why not to choose this design format.

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Shoshanna Kessock, Brian Neff, Doug Levandowski, and Sean Jaffe.

Echoes of the late 20th century are all around us in 2019, especially in pop culture and media. Stranger Things, IT, and Bandersnatch have tapped into a rich vein of nostalgia that has entranced audience and permeated our time. Gaming, especially tabletop gaming, has been depicted as a vital part of 80s culture. In return, game creators are tapping into both the renewed interest in the hobby, and the evocation of nostalgia for this time period. In this panel we'll be exploring this recursive relationship with creators from Kids on Bikes and Rememorex. We’ll talk role playing and nostalgia, how to evoke an authentic sense of a time period, and what has drawn us as creators back to the past.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Kalum, Pamela Punzalan, Diogo Nogueira, Allan Cudicio.

"RPGs and English as Our Vehicular Language: Beyond the American Culture Online: The internet enables Tabletop RPG fans to come together globally. However, it is difficult for non-American communities to have their voices heard. This due to the use of English as our shared vehicular language combined with the disproportionate American demographics online. In this panel, we'll explore the experience of non-native English-speaking RPG luminaries within this reality. We'll talk through the lens of RPG about local identities and cross-border engagement. 

Recorded at Metatopia 2020 Online

Presented by Dan DiLorenzo, Frank DiLorenzo, Kira Peavley, Curt Covert, Shari Spiro, Ben Harkins.

You have a great board/card game and you're ready to start shopping for a Publisher. What are they looking for these days? Our panelists will explain what excites them, and talk about how they look for key elements that they can extend into sellable games.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Cat Tobin, Becky Annison, Sharang Biswas.

How to Design !More! !Drama! into your RPG! Some of the most satisfying role playing experiences come from the dramatic outcomes of emotional connections between player characters. We look at ways for tabletop and LARP writers to design for deeper character relationships and dynamics, to provide a structure for GMs to bring more of the good kind of drama to their RPGs

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Curt Covert, Julie Ahern.

Games Are Art: Designing Through An Artist's Lens. When you think of art, you think of music, theater, painting, sculpting, writing, film. And at the heart of each is an artist, who uses their talents, creativity, skill and intelligence to craft something that never existed before, with the intent of sharing a vision, a feeling, a message, a sense of discovery or connection. The games we create are no less an art form, and we designers no less than artists. What we craft brings people together for a shared experience and has the ability to do more than challenge us mentally, pass the time or entertain, but to connect emotionally with people. Let us view game design through an artistic lens, to look past the mathematical underpinnings, and dive into what makes games a uniquely human endeavor.

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Hosted by Whitney Delaglio

Hand-Holdy content means it has the support of the content its holding hands with to help inform the reader on how to play and avoids lonely content that doesn't add to the gameplay as much as it could. It also makes it easier for the designer to create a game that tells the story/does what the designer wants it to.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Cat Tobin, Will Sobel, JR Blackwell, Christopher McGlothlin, Maz Hamilton.

You're an RPG designer now! That's great, but now how do you get your awesome game in front of players who will appreciate it? How do you position yourself for future projects? Basically, how do you get your name on a game to mean something? Our panelists grapple with this sticky problem!

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Jason Pitre

Producing books is a challenge at the best of times, and the printing landscape has changed radically since the pandemic. The panel speakers will explain the process for finding companies to work with you, choosing your print specifications, and other secrets of the trade.

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Peter Hayward, Gil Hova

More Than Just Victory Points: Alternative Approaches to Win Conditions.  "Most victory points" is the default victory condition for most board games, and why shouldn't they be? They solve most problems you encounter while designing - balance, investment, rewarding people for doing what you want them to be. Well, unfortunately, most everyone has worked out the same thing, and now the market is flooded with Victory Point win conditions. Want to make your game stand out? Try something else.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Jason Pitre, Rob Donoghue, Emily Dresner, Kenneth Hite

The 100 GP Pearl: Economics and Trade as Design Elements. Economics and trade have long been foundational elements of game design, from the hyperinflation of dungeon pillaging to the free traders of Traveller. In this panel, we discuss how these aspects can be used as the foundation for game mechanics and procedures. Don't make me quote the rules of acquisition at you

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Jonathan Lavallee, Sen-Foong Lim, Misha B.

It's always great and interesting to have cool terms for features in your game, but there are moments when that can get in the way of what you're trying to say. We'll be talking about the importance of, and balance between, clarity and flavor in your text.

Recorded at Metatopia 2020 Online

Presented by Scott Morris, Mike Paschal.

Are you a designer and want to know how your game gets distributed? Are you self publishing and want to know more about Distribution? Are you crazy enough to actually ask a Distributor anything? Join us as Scott Morris from GTS and Mike Paschal from PHD discuss the U.S.'s 3-Tier system and answer questions. 

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Avonelle Wing, Curt Covert, and Alex Cutler

You've read game design blogs and Facebook groups. You've delved into conventional wisdom. You did your homework. A game should be replayable. You should set your funding goal as 1/5 of your overall costs to fund fast. A prototype should be a single sheet of paper and some markers. A prototype needs to be full production value. Publish it yourself and sell it out of your bedroom; order fulfillment is easy. All of these things might be true, and they could still be the thing that sinks your ship. Our experts talk about the ways accurate advice can still be wrong for you.

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Stras Acimovic, John LeBoeuf-Little.

Blades in the Dark has led to a new generation of game designs such as Scum and Villainy, Band of Blades, and Mutants in the Night. In this panel, we dig into the toolset and what sets it apart from similar design traditions. What are the core principles behind designing games Forged in the Dark? Where can we grow and diverge from the core?

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Eric Whalen.

This panel is a brief discussion of the basics of copyright law (and some other aspects of intellectual property law) as they pertain to writers and game designers. Members of the panel include game designers, publishers, writers, and former attorneys who have dealt with these issues themselves

Recorded at Metatopia 2024

Presented by Avonelle Wing and Nicholas Ambrose

So, what is "the three-tier system"? What's a consolidator? Hobby? Mass-market? Specialty? Once you have a design that seems viable, there are a lot of steps between here and retail success. Bring your questions, and we'll try to answer them after a brief overview of possible paths forward.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Nicole Cutler, Avonelle Wing.

It seems a little unpopular to tell new designers "don't kickstart your game"; Kickstarter is an invaluable tool. There are so many encouraging blogs and podcasts that talk optimistically about how accessible it is to crowdfund your own game. but there's not a lot that talk in depth about the logistics, liabilities and potential pitfalls. Before making the decision to launch a campaign, we want to give potential new creators a realistic look behind the curtain to see what they're diving into.

Presented by Jason Pitre, Ash Kreider, Vivian Young, Eric Whalen, Tristan Zimmerman

AI is a hot topic. Authors are suing over their content being used to "train" AI without their consent. Platforms and publishers are taking hard anti-AI positions. Or coming out publicly to declare that they are using AI and nobody can stop them. People who want to use AI for idea generation or to simplify and automate boring tasks are at odds with peers who maintain that there is no ethical way to use AI. We're going to start by defining "AI" and then we'll have a respectful, thoughtful conversation on the topic.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Ash Kreider, Jason Morningstar, Mike Czaplinski, Jeeyon Shim.

A panel about the limitations of imagination when it comes to how we see violence in tabletop games. With the entire range of human experience to draw from, why is designing games without violence still seen as having a "niche" audience? In this panel, we will discuss what it means to explore designing games that don't feature interpersonal violence as a resolution mechanic.

Presented at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Tam Myaing, David Gordon, Chris Backe, Kevin Dunkelberger.

When the COVID lockdowns began, the NYC Playtest Group was one of the first to move to online playtesting. Since then we have run over 50 sessions since mid April, and have also helped other gaming conventions with running games virtually. In this panel we will discuss with moderators from other groups around the world, on the the lessons we've learned in the trenches in running a successful virtual playtest group. 

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Eric Whalen, Rob Hebert, Steven Long, Debbie Moynihan.

"Contract Literacy 101: Whereas & Therefore & Beyond" The majority of game designers will need to sign at least one contract prior to completing their game. This panel will improve your literacy and familiarity with the structure of contracts, as well as explain some of the standard contract terms you ought to be prepared to encounter. The information should be relevant to designers, artists, and publishers alike.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by A.C., Jay Dragon, and Viditya Voleti.

Being a GM is hard; like, really hard. Having nobody willing to fill that role has been the downfall of many a game group. But there is an alternative! GM-less roleplaying games are getting more and more popular, and this panel is here to discuss why.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Grant Howitt, Matt Jones, Alexi Sargeant, Jeeyon Shim, Jason Tocci.

Writing long games is hard, but so is writing short games. What advantages do one-page games afford us? What can't they do? What can they do better than longer games? We're going to find out.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Jay Dragon, Robert Donoghue, Rabbit Stoddard, Darla Burrow.

Game design and publishing are complex tasks at the best of times, and particularly so for those dealing with ADHD. Many creatives struggle with maintaining their attention and concentration on their design and publishing work. How do you track your accomplishments and keep track of what you need to do next? How do you manage multiple deadlines and juggling priorities? How can ADHD be harnessed to help you with your creative work? In this panel, four experienced designers will share their hard-won secrets

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Meguey Baker, Vincent Baker

An introduction to PbtA from a designer's point of view. How and why Apocalypse World works the way it does, what your game can take from it, and how and why your own game should work differently. Highlighting PbtA's conversation model, with an emphasis on consent and communication, and PbtA's model of fiction, with an emphasis on adapting it to your own game's needs.

Recorded at Metatopia 2020

Presented by Vivian Abraham and Jason Cox.

Some games are easy to play online, and some have robust platforms to support them. But what if your game involves group singing? Or social mingling? Or some other mechanic that is harder to do online? Let's share some ideas for converting these trickier games to be enjoyable virtually! 

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Meguey Baker, Caleb Stokes, Clark Valentine, Edward LaValley.

Teenagers bring innovation, creativity and hard questions to the game table. Our panelists will talk about how to hold space for everything that makes gaming with them magical.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Sen-Foong Lim, Paul Stefko, Moe Poplar and Quinn Murphy. Jonathan Lavallee was unable to attend for medical reasons.

Analysis paralysis exists in creativity! When we put up limits and restrictions, we find new ways to solve problems and be creative. This panel will talk about what works for them when putting up walls around their creative process. 

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Kenneth Hite

A METATOPIA tradition - Kenneth Hite rambling about game design. In this case the notion of scope: How big should your setting be? How can you design a setting to contain multiple core game activities, and should you? As always, Ken has notions and questions, and hopes you have more of both as we explore Bigness (and un-Bigness) in games.

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Jay Dragon and Amanda Valentine

Every game has a voice, from the biggest trad book to an indie zine, and this narrative voice helps a game teach itself and stand on its own. In this round table held by award-winning game designer Jay Dragon we'll talk through a number of examples of games that utilize narrative voice to articulate their game-worlds, and rewrite our own mechanics in ways that emphasize how different perspectives can change the nature of the game on a deep level.

Recorded at Metatopia 2020

Presented by Jason Pitre, Spencer Campbell, Sasha Moros, Ben Robbins, Caroline Hobbs.

Role playing games have a long history of asymmetrical rules, beginning with the establishment of the Dungeon Master in the very beginning and continuing to games such as Kingdom. Role playing games have explored countless different ways of allocating authority, and modern asymmetrical boardgames (Root, Vast, etc) have showed some new approaches worth considering. In this panel, we will dig into potential ways to approach asymmetrical design.

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Bill White and Avery Rosen

This panel discusses the theoretical, pedagogical, and practical implications of trying to teach people to run tabletop RPGs as GMs. We're interested in understanding the best practices, the pitfalls, and the contexts in which "teaching people to GM" in any kind of formal way is even possible. We survey the role-playing landscape in order to understand how the technological and cultural shifts of recent years have affected the way people learn to run games.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Mel D'Amato

Anyone who makes or sells consumer goods has been watching the news about shipping and logistics in horror. The cost of freight is up. There are no shipping containers to put goods into. Products are sitting on docks in Asia. Full ships can't get to port to unload on this side of the ocean. Our expert, Mel D'Amato from ShipBob, talks to us about what's going on, why everything is terrible, and what we can expect over the next several months.

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Jason Walters, Jeff Stormer, Christopher Badell.

Your game's ready for Kickstarter! So how much will you be asking for? What's the absolute minimum you need to get your game made? What is the floor number for success? How will you handle unexpected levels of success? Let's get practical about your numbers.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Gabriel de los Angeles, Sen-Foong Lim, Brian Quinones.

Using concepts from education theory is a natural and obvious way to improve game design practices. Our panelists will talk about how to apply an understanding of how people learn and engage in play to your design process to create more immersive, satisfying designs.

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Meguey Baker and Vincent Baker

We've been creating and publishing our own games for almost 25 years. How, why, and what does it take? Why self-publish instead of shopping your work around? How do you plot your own course, build your own audience, and measure your own success? This is about being you, the designer, making your games, owning the fruits of your labor, and keeping both your drive and your passion while holding down your day job and maintaining your relationships.

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Meguey Baker & Jason Pitre.

Publishing your game doesn't need to be daunting. There's work involved, but with a diverse tool box and a clear understanding of your publishing goals, publishing might be more attainable than you imagine.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Jason Morningstar, Jabari Weathers, Brennen Reece. 

Art Direction: From Designer to Director to Artist. A game designer, an art director, and an artist who recently worked on a project together will talk about the project (Bully Pulpit Games' "Dead House") from each of their perspectives - how they collaborated and communicated and perceived both the brief and the final output. 

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Bryan Dalrymple, Patrick Day.

Any board or card game being published in 2021 needs to take into account the likelihood that in-person demos and shopping will be limited. Our panelists will talk about what the design implications of this are, and how you can adjust to make your board or card game more viable as a physical commercial product.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Jon Lemich, Chance Feldstein, Alex White.

There are many diceless RPGs, but their mechanics and design objectives vary more than most designers realize. What do you need to consider when designing a diceless RPG? Do you simply want to replace dice with cards or hidden information wagers, or do you want it to be randomizerless, gameless, or pure collaborative authorship?

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Jason Pitre, Cat Tobin, Amanda Valentine, Lauren McMannon, Camdon Wright.

Everyone should have a chance to create and publish games. Unfortunately, there are many structural barriers keeping unrepresented voices from coming to the table. In this roundtable discussion, our panelists discuss ways that established publishers can support new voices through information, promotion, funding, and education.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Olivia Montoya, Acata Felton.

In some circles, Secrets and Powers LARPs are dismissed as outdated or "too obscure." Our panelists flatly reject this mindset, and invite you to join them for a discussion about what Secrets and Powers games have to offer. Come learn more about this specific type of LARP, which has a focus on pre-written characters, hidden information and roles, and ability mechanics. Learn about why secrets and powers games are cool, get a crash course on how to write and GM them in the modern day, and consider how to make a better future for communities that run them.

Recorded at Metatopia 2021

Presented by Eric Whalen.

Lawyers secretly know that you do not read the big chunks of standardized text in your contract that have nothing to do with your obligations and how much you are getting paid / paying (called "boilerplate" text). Worse - many lawyers forget to read the boilerplate in their own contracts! Whether you love or hate these reader-unfriendly text walls, join the panelist as he reminds us to intellectually grapple with the important provisions everyone has likely agreed to, but may never have read or fully understood until now. Chatters will be encouraged to link their own boilerplate samples so that panelists may demonstrate how to dissect organic boilerplate specimen live.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Chance Feldstein, Erika Skirpan, Jessica Comstock, Jon Cole.

Generally, "transformative" games teach skills, facilitate personal insights or shadow work, or otherwise have a significant impact on your non-gaming life. What makes a LARP game transformative without sacrificing fun and other important elements?

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Jacob Segal, Justin Ford, Ian Hart.

Systems like Forged in the Dark are designed with mechanics that deliberately support player agency. When paired with external safety tools, these agency-focused mechanics are intended to foster safer play culture and richer experiences. Our panelists will discuss what we mean by "player agency" and what these mechanics look like and how they work.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Jack Parra, Melissa Gay.

This panel for art beginners discusses technique, both in a general sense and specifically for the kinds of products you're likely to encounter in the game biz.

Recorded at Metatopia 2020

Presented by Rach Shelkey and Jaqueline Bryk.

It's time once again to talk about happy, uplifting games! How do you make space for pastoral gaming while the world is going through a global health crisis? How does one find joy when the long term outlook changes by the minute? Our panelists will share their thoughts and personal experiences on exploring the heartwarming through the plague.

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Jack Parra, Lissane Lake, Nicole Amato

Getting high-quality art is key to making a product look professional. Our panel makes with the tips and tricks to controlling costs and Funding the Project.

Recorded at Metatopia 2021

Presented by Gabby Swab, John Harris, Ian Mercer.

Role Playing as Experiential Learning: How Dungeons & Dragons Assists in Teaching Management Concepts"

In Fall 2020, students across three universities participated in building a character based on their Ideal Entrepreneur, Human Resources Manager, or Leader. Using the format from the popular Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game, the students' chosen character used their characteristics, skills, and knowledge to perform in three different course-related scenarios. Students were then asked to reflect on their character, their decisions, and the subsequent outcomes. In this forum, we discuss the activity and the management topics (e.g., decision making, individual differences, resources) it allowed us to teach using games as experiential learning techniques.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Olivia Montoya, Donna Prior, Avonelle Wing.

Discord. Itch. Twitch. If you blinked and suddenly your peers sound like they’re talking about new horsemen of a very minor apocalypse, we’re here to help you catch up. There are a plethora of new(ash) platforms available to empower your gaming experiences. Avie’s here as our token dinosaur, while Donna and Olivia bring the knowledge

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Christopher O'Neill, Adriel Wilson, Cat Tobin, Misha Bushyager.

Role playing as a HOBBY continues to evolve and mature. Has role-playing now gotten big enough to be considered a MEDIUM? Join us for a lively and passionate discussion on the concept that role-playing has become more than just games, but a medium - a channel for communication, information, and entertainment. In this panel, we will look at whether role-playing is a medium, and if so, what that means for our hobby. The panelists all represent different aspects of designing and publishing role playing games and bring diverse and interesting points of view around the topic.

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Jason Pitre, Misha Bushyager, James Mendez Hodes.

Some of the best games deal with heavy topics and challenging subject matter. Creators who look to design or publish games addressing sensitive subject matter need to do due diligence to reduce the chance their work could do harm. In this panel, we will discuss how creators can ethically do the legwork and research to tackle issues of race, sexuality, identity, and trauma.

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Cam Banks and Amanda Valentine

You've had a successful Kickstarter, you've been hired by a game publisher, you've released your work on Itch or DriveThru. You've done it! But now what? We're here to discuss the aftermath, the fallout, and how to survive that and stay doing what you love to do.

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Melissa Lewis-Gentry and Curt Covert.

Receiving feedback is hard. Running a successful playtest is even more complicated. Our experts will share their tools for getting the most out of a playtesting table.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Dr. Jessica Hammer, Christopher Hall.

What does it mean to design games from a Jewish perspective? We have recently seen several games that center on the Jewish experience, like Rosenstrasse, Keeping The Candles Lit, Dream Apart and Mud. In this session, we'll look at key Jewish texts to see how themes and ideas from Jewish culture can inform your design. All texts will be provided in English; please come prepared for a vigorous conversation.

Recorded at Metatopia 2023

Presented by Cam Banks and Amanda Valentine

Licensed RPGs are a minefield of conflicting interests, stakeholders, and opinions. With the assumption that you've done the hardest part of securing a license, actually designing, developing, and producing the game is often much harder than expected. We'll talk about the process of faithfully adapting someone else's work to a new game project.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

 Presented by Richard Ruane, Brian Yaksha, Zedeck Siew, Amanda Franck, Pamela Punzalan.

Microsettings (settings that focus closely on a specific area, region, or location) can be a powerful touchstone for game design. By focusing their attention and concerns on a small region, city, or even places as focused as a bar, a school, or a shopping center, microsettings give the smaller, more particular stories a space to happen. In the panel, we'd like to discuss how designing and detailing of focused microsettings can evoke a location's multiplicity and diversity, make the world of the game more accessible and real, challenge characters to form relationships within the setting, and invoke curiosity about mundane aspects of setting life.

A thread of additional questions and answers have been prepared by Brian Yaksha, one of the panelists.

https://twitter.com/goatmansgoblet/status/1324917649143435265

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Beth Rimmels, Sen-Foong Lim, Gwendolyn Marshall.

As a GM or game designer, you can produce a rewarding or disappointing experience for players. Regardless of genre, game or goals, what your design focuses on and how it conveys that determines how it will be received. We'll discuss how to create satisfying experiences whether you're trying to scare players, create thought-provoking frustration, or make players feel like heroes

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Alex Cutler, Matt Forbeck, Kenneth Hite.

You made a game! Congratulations! Now explain your incredible game in one sentence. That isn’t as easy as it sounds. You want people to buy into your game as players, as investors, or as retailers. You will only have one chance to make that first impression. It needs to have impact. If you want to see your game successful on a crowdfunding site, or sold by your local game store, then you need to know what kind of pitch types and styles to maximize both what you say and target the right audience.

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Kate Bullock, Camdon Wright, Bronwyn Sperling.

Want to learn how to create safety tools that fit your game and are baked into the mechanics instead of just adding pre-established tools on top? This panel dives into the creative and mechanical process of understanding safety and support and integrating it into your ttrpg designs.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Russell Collins, Brennan Taylor, Meguey Baker, Greg Stolze.

Was your game imperfect when it was released? Has it changed over time? Have you? We'll explore why (and how) you can update your game for the 2nd, or 3rd, or 4th, edition

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Jason Pitre, BJ Recio, Mags Maenad.

Math is often a barrier for analog game designers of all disciplines. This panel is meant to help lower that barrier by teaching you some basic, versatile tools you can use to solve most problems. How do you figure out probabilities of success when rolling dice or drawing cards? What is a bell curve, a mean and a median? How do you figure out combinations and permutation? We are here to give you the tools to thrive.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Tam Myaing, Doug Levandowski, Roberta Taylor, Jessica Creane.

As designers we strive to make games "fun", but they can also be a vehicle for other emotions, such as fear, sadness, disgust, shame, etc. From Brenda Romero's Train to Marc Gertz's Imperial, we will explore several games that intentionally or unintentionally make you feel bad

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Jason Morningstar, Jacqueline Bryk and Alastor Guzman. 

Failure is baked into any creative discipline, but we rarely discuss it. In this panel we'll discuss our most noteworthy failures and the role failure plays in our process. The goal is to normalize failure and to learn from the occasionally dramatic mistakes of others. It may be funny, it may be sad, but it will definitely be interesting.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Richard Ruane, Diogo Nogueira, Sarah Blunt, Daniel Wilson and Noora Rose.

Cold, scary, empty, and filled with radiation, we all know the real void of outer space isn't a friendly place. But what opportunities do we get when we create settings in a different outer space, one we see in pulp novels, weird fiction, planetary romances, cosmic horror, and early tabletop games and supplements such as Spelljammer or Space 1999? What makes creating a space fantasy or weird space setting different from creating a classic fantasy or space opera? What themes can creators explore when we look at space in weird and fantastical ways?

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Curt Covert, Melissa Lewis-Gentry, Jason Walters, Isaac Vega.

How do you present a game to playtesters without biasing them, but getting what you want from the test? How do you present that same game to a publisher differently? How do you present the game to fans at a show to get them excited enough to buy it? Some things will be identical, others will be custom-tailored to the audience and what they care about (or what you want from it). And there are multiple versions of each.

Recorded at Metatopia 2024

Hosted by Jim Dagg, Misha Bushyager, Whitney Delaglio & Amanda Valentine

Game design is art. And play. And craft. So what about when you just want to hone your craft and find joy in something, but don't want to make it a second-job? In an industry where success is defined by quitting your day job or running a $1M crowdfunding campaign, HOW do you shake the hustle vibe and let yourself enjoy design as a hobby?

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Brian Turtle, Peter Hayward, Avonelle Wing.

I fell into games almost by accident back in 1994 when some friends and I created a game called "The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon". We started Endless Games shortly thereafter and the game found a home in the mass market before we knew it. In the 20+ years since, we've been navigating the toy industry and gaming landscape in both mass and specialty. That said, the hobby side of the industry is still somewhat uncharted territory for us. Join us for a discussion of the differences between mass market and hobby sales and what works where.

Recorded at Metatopia 2020 Online

Presented by Anne Ratchat, Sharang Biswas, Bronwyn Sperling, Kristen Roberts.

Food is fundamental to survival and yet serves as so much more, building communities and relationships, serving as an artistic expression, connecting us to ideals and memories. We will explore our diverse relationship with food, cooking, and eating and, in turn, show how such simple acts can be very powerful mechanics in games, most notably LARP.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Jason Pitre, Fiona Geist, Darren Watts, Viditya Voleti.

Indie game publishing is a strange craft and the design communities approach the process differently. In this panel, we will explore the similarities and divergences in publishing approaches from a Story Game, Sworddream, Trad and OSR perspectives. Let's share our knowledge and get weird.

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Emily Escovar, Chris O'Neill.

Our panelists will walk you through the basics of turning your game design hobby into a business. We'll talk about the most cost-efficient ways to register an LLC, open a business bank account, file a trademark and keep track of your expenses for tax season.

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Ryan O'Grady, Kenneth Hite, Brennan Taylor.

There's something satisfying about taking ownership of a piece of the world as a player and watching it flourish (or not). There have been various approaches to this over the years (Ars Magica, MIcroscope, The Quiet Year, even D&D!) Let's discuss what player involvement of world building really means and different approaches for incorporating it into traditional RPGs.

Recorded at Metatopia 2020

Presented by Misha Bushyager, Elsa Sjunneson, Kristen Roberts

Explicitly feminist world-building will consider all the ways that traditionally domestic tasks and arts enrich your setting and shape your characters. From textiles to food, child-rearing to death rituals, considering the ways these details fit together will make for deeper, richer game experiences. These principles apply across all game forms

Recorded at Metatopia 2019

Presented by Jennifer Gutterman, Shawn Roske, Tim Blank.

Are you an educator wanting to gamify your classroom? Are you building a traditional education game? Do you want your game to be fun but also teach the players about something? This is where we can discuss ideas, workflows, deployments and examples of games in education, gamification in the classroom or building games that teach.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Jason Morningstar, Tim Hutchings, Jeeyon Shim.

Join us for a rollicking discussion of our worst habits and how being lazy, careless and hard-headed is often the best possible approach to game design. Do you design in layout? Is your playtest process a little shambolic? Do you cut corners and assume the math will all work out? If not, come and be outraged as we take a somewhat jaded approach to conventional wisdom you've heard a thousand times. 

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Kyle Ott & Riley Parks.

This panel will focus on tips targeted to those who are beginning their design careers. The presentation will include advice on how to approach a publisher and conduct publisher research. Our panelists will give new designers advice on how to get unstuck and resources to help them with their first designs.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Jason Cox, Shing Yin Khor, Jeeyon Shim.

Keepsake Games, Art, Education and Equity. Keepsake games, which generate material objects as a result of play, are a fascinating tool for classroom use. What if the experience of educational games was visually shaped by the students? How would this affect their engagement and retention of content? How can a game like this thrive in the quantitative systems that dominate education?

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021

Presented by Anne Ratchat, Jason Morningstar, and regrets from James Mendez Hodes.

 When writing games, a lot of topics are taboo simply because as a community, we are worried how people might take the intentionality of the design to the worst possible places. The issue created by not writing these games, we erase the experience of so many creatives and players who also deserve to have their voices heard. We will be discussing the thought process of how to tackle these controversial topics so that games can be a place for all experiences.

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Will Sobel, Beth Rimmels.

For better or worse, traditional RPGs have a reputation for crunch and complication that can be scary for new players. How can designers and publishers make their games less imposing both in substance and appearance? 

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Rach Shelkey, Jacqueline Bryk, Sidney Icarus, Jen Dixon.

Has the current global health crisis inspired a new game idea? Considering writing a game about healthcare workers? Join our panelists as they discuss what role playing games can learn from the field of medicine and how to thoughtfully address the medical profession in your designs. Questions encouraged!

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020

Presented by Daryl Andrews, Jessie Edwards, Omari Akil, Bruce Harlick. 

Join us for a roundtable conversation about how to get the best data from your time at the playtesting table. We'll discuss our experiences running playtests, and talk about common mistakes and how to avoid them