design:brainload
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| - | Let’s talk brainload. | + | Let’s talk //brainload//. |
| =====What is Brainload?===== | =====What is Brainload?===== | ||
| - | Unlike in video games, where a computer remembers and enacts the rules, in analogue games, humans are the ones responsible for enforcing rules. | + | Unlike in video games, where a computer remembers and enacts the rules, in analogue games, humans are the ones responsible for enforcing rules. |
| In LARP, this means that - you are responsible for remembering a bunch of stuff about your character, their passive abilities, their hits, what kind of weapons they can use, etc, as well as the general rules about the game (what calls do, how healing works, safety rules, social contract, etc.) | In LARP, this means that - you are responsible for remembering a bunch of stuff about your character, their passive abilities, their hits, what kind of weapons they can use, etc, as well as the general rules about the game (what calls do, how healing works, safety rules, social contract, etc.) | ||
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| =====Designing for Brainload===== | =====Designing for Brainload===== | ||
| - | Brainload is also a hard limit on how complicated a system can be. Most LARP systems employ the ‘one second rule’, where you can only take damage from a person once per second (this is, among other things, to stop degenerate behaviours like egg whisking your opponents for massive damage.) | + | Because human brains are the hardware on which a LARP runs, brainload also represents a hard limit on how complicated a system can be and still function. |
| - | If, during any one second, you cannot brain whatever update you need to make to the game state (e.g. reducing your hits while dealing with ongoing calls, movement, fighting, etc.), then your brainload has exceeded what the system can take. If this happens repeatedly to players during combat, then the system is failing at some level. | + | Now, most LARP systems employ the ‘one second rule’, where you can only take damage from a person once per second (this is, among other things, to stop degenerate behaviours like egg whisking your opponents for massive damage.) If, during any one second, you cannot brain whatever update you need to make to the game state (e.g. reducing your hits while dealing with ongoing calls, movement, fighting, etc.), then your brainload has exceeded what the system can take. If this happens repeatedly to players during combat, then the system is failing at some level. |
| - | The above is just a hard cap, though - the most your brain can tolerate. I don’t think this should not be the norm in combat; the ideal LARP combat should be one where you have enough spare bandwidth to, y’know, actually enjoy the act of fighting and be able to think proactively, so you can do cool stuff, like unleash an epic ability, tackle the combat strategically, or do some dramatic roleplay. | + | However, just avoiding people's brains becoming //completely// overwhelmed is not enough. I think the ideal LARP combat should be one where you have enough spare bandwidth to, y’know, actually enjoy the act of fighting and be able to think proactively, so you can do cool stuff, like unleash an epic ability, tackle the combat strategically, or do some dramatic roleplay. |
| - | I therefore see it as the duty of a LARP designer to reduce brainload to the minimum possible whilst keeping combat fun. | + | When Mat and I first started discussing simplifying Animus, after feedback pointing out that it was too complex, we tried to take a critical look at all of the things that we could strip out, with an eye to reducing brainload during combat as much as possible. We talked about the kind of things that we could and couldn’t remember in combat. |
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| - | When Mat and I first started discussing simplifying Animus, after feedback pointing out that it was too complex, we tried to take a critical look at all of the things that we could strip out, with an eye to reducing the moment-to-moment brainload of combat as much as possible. We talked about the kind of things that we could and couldn’t remember in combat. | + | |
| Things we habitually couldn’t remember: | Things we habitually couldn’t remember: | ||
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| Since then, we’ve spoken to a lot of other people and found this to be the case. Indeed, it’s almost an open secret in MM that the majority of folks approximate their hits. | Since then, we’ve spoken to a lot of other people and found this to be the case. Indeed, it’s almost an open secret in MM that the majority of folks approximate their hits. | ||
| - | Here are some of the things I think we discovered from this process. This is by no means an exhaustive list of brainload-contributors. | + | Here are some of the things I think we discovered from this process. (This is by no means an exhaustive list of brainload-contributors). |
| **Involuntary updates increase brainload more than voluntary updates.** With hit points, you’re constantly having to update a fixed number by reacting to someone else ‘interrupting’ you by hitting you with a weapon. One of the big differences between updating a number like ‘hits’ and with a number like ‘spell charges’, we realised, is that you choose when to use the spell charge. | **Involuntary updates increase brainload more than voluntary updates.** With hit points, you’re constantly having to update a fixed number by reacting to someone else ‘interrupting’ you by hitting you with a weapon. One of the big differences between updating a number like ‘hits’ and with a number like ‘spell charges’, we realised, is that you choose when to use the spell charge. | ||
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| **Things that are physrepped are easier to remember than things which aren’t physrepped.** One of the reasons that potions are such a pain in MM is that, habitually, they are not physrepped by actual potions. Similarly, remembering that you have a spare dagger is a lot easier if you are carrying that dagger physically on your person. One of the things I like about Ichorwerkers is that they don’t even have to remember their ‘spell charges’ - they just look down at the bag they have and can //see// how many flasks they have left. | **Things that are physrepped are easier to remember than things which aren’t physrepped.** One of the reasons that potions are such a pain in MM is that, habitually, they are not physrepped by actual potions. Similarly, remembering that you have a spare dagger is a lot easier if you are carrying that dagger physically on your person. One of the things I like about Ichorwerkers is that they don’t even have to remember their ‘spell charges’ - they just look down at the bag they have and can //see// how many flasks they have left. | ||
| - | **Your stuff is easier to remember than other people’s stuff.** The problem with Auras. It’s way easier to remember your own abilities than it is to remember abilities other people give you passively during an adventure (and therefore don’t necessarily remind you about). However, abilities that actively give you a thing during combat (like builder priest RESIST calls) are not normally something that people have trouble remembering. | + | **Your stuff is easier to remember than other people’s stuff.** The problem with Auras. It’s way easier to remember your own abilities than it is to remember abilities other people give you passively during an adventure (and therefore don’t necessarily remind you about). However, there are abilities that actively give you a thing during combat (like builder priest RESIST calls) that people usually do remember. |
| =====Brainload and Accessibility===== | =====Brainload and Accessibility===== | ||
| - | Brainload is one of the big things that makes LARP tricky to enjoy, and combat hard to get right. Reducing average brainload makes a LARP more accessible. In fact, this is one of the things we had in mind when creating our new non-combat role, [[:supplementary_rules#herald_of_echoes|Herald of Echoes]], who have no hits, no skills or abilities, don’t take effects, and have optional access to a handful of ranged calls. Playing Herald is the most brainload-light option in our game right now, much more so than monstering. | + | Obviously, every human brain is different, and has a different tolerance for load. But reducing brainload as much as possible allows more people to participate, and, in my opinion, makes combat more enjoyable (instead of a miserable slog). |
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| + | This is one of the things we had in mind when creating our new non-combat role, [[:supplementary_rules#herald_of_echoes|Herald of Echoes]], who have no hits, no skills or abilities, don’t take effects, and have optional access to a handful of ranged calls. Playing Herald is the most brainload-light option in our game right now, much more so than monstering. I'm hopeful that this should let some people turn up and play who would otherwise not be able to, especially, say, if they're just visiting for a week and want to adventure with their PC friends. | ||
| Obviously, brainload isn’t everything. One of the intimidating things for new players is getting to grips with the body of rules in the first place, so rules should be simple and sensible enough that learning them isn’t too arduous a task (and, ideally, that there are some classes / playstyles that are very ‘rules light’ in terms of what they have to remember.) In one of the responses to last week’s blog, I spoke a little about how we’ve tried to design low-level characters with this kind of rules-light approach in mind, especially Paladins, Forest Touched, and Weavers. As characters level, complexity increases. I hope I can speak to this a bit more in a future post. | Obviously, brainload isn’t everything. One of the intimidating things for new players is getting to grips with the body of rules in the first place, so rules should be simple and sensible enough that learning them isn’t too arduous a task (and, ideally, that there are some classes / playstyles that are very ‘rules light’ in terms of what they have to remember.) In one of the responses to last week’s blog, I spoke a little about how we’ve tried to design low-level characters with this kind of rules-light approach in mind, especially Paladins, Forest Touched, and Weavers. As characters level, complexity increases. I hope I can speak to this a bit more in a future post. | ||
design/brainload.1513087942.txt.gz · Last modified: 2017/12/12 14:12 by gm_seb
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