More on Tangible Artefacts in TTRPGs
Read about my first thoughts here: Tangible Artefacts in TTRPGs — Matthew Davis Projects
I have been thinking more and more about the tactility when playing table top roleplaying games. I am not sure if it is just because my regular game is online, or my love for board games; that it has given me a real yearning to incorporate tactility in a stronger way, into Rift Walker and other games I play.
Daggerheart
While this is not a comprehensive review by any means, I wanted to talk through the physicality of Daggerheart, when a ran a session of it.
The class-based character sheets and sidecars were very easy to use and helped facilitate a lot of the character generation and explanation of specific verbiage.
Cards for powers and abilities were great to have them all laid out in front of the player. Outside of the first level, you can also swap in and out for the load out, so they not only used for reference, but as cards.
Fear and Hope tokens, really helped to show the looming threat the GM had accumulated, and reminded players to use their fate. It was nice when rolling the duality D12s, that players or myself, had the feeling of grabbing a token when it was generated. The flow of them in and out of the pool was great. It felt like a physical representation of the narrative flow.
Loot dice tables gave a nice structure of rolling dice on a table that went up by tier to see the impact of the sort of loot you would receive. It was rolled by the player, so there was that added engagement. I am even more fond of another method I will talk about later.
Other Games
As previously discussed, I like how tactile pieces can bring a visual and physical reminder of mechanics.
Nimble 2e and Dragon Bane use cards for loot and improvised effects. This would be my chosen implementation.
ICRPG uses cards for random events and session preparation. I wonder if there is a way I could implement this? Having the visual reminder and chance to shuffle up, is powerful.
Flail uses poker dice sets to activate rare character abilities. More engagement with the dice themselves, I want it to be quick but interesting and still engaging, so only looking for one thing could be good. As much or as little as you like in complexity. Could be a role ability.
ICRPG and Mothership both have a phsyical way of showing if the target number was rolled. Of course, Rift Walker already achieves this.
Mausritter and Flail use physical chits for inventory items and wounds. I have loved playing with this. It is so engaging. I already use a slot-based inventory system that incorporates wounds. I wonder if there is a way of incorporating the physicality, into the mechanical impact they have? Conditions could be made to be more obvious and engaging in this way.
In Rift Walker
In Rift Walker monsters have physical HP as dice and cubes. Playing a little dice spend game is good for the GM to decide how they want to fight. Peril points being generated give the flexibility to those or other narrative effects, is engaging. I want this to be more incorporated as is a little clunky.
I like the quick read for dice success. The pools of dice, give a tactility to hit points and how likely you are to succeed at checks
I could easily recreate Role Abilities as cards to be able get them more in the face of players.
Hoping to talk about this more, as I put the next play test. Until then, keep playing!
