#devpile2025 — Public Fediverse posts

Dev Pile: Vampiric Update

Two weeks ago I wrote about how the Vampire class in 4th edition D&D sucks. That was an exercise in demonstrating the boundaries of a design goal, in which I laid out that I wanted a design that fit with the function of the existing Vampire and could operate in a way that doesn’t displace existing design. I then, because that article was already 1500 words, figured that I should tackle what that actually looks like later.

This post is not going to show you like, properly formatted 4th edition mechanical material, because that’s kinda wordy and it’s a pain in the arse to format and I don’t think it’s inherently interesting to you unless you’re actually here for Vampire material. Don’t worry, though, there will be a place for it soon™. Instead, this post is going to be about describing the kinds of things I actually have done and then a discussion of how to iterate on this kind of design with minimal playtesting.

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https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-48-vampiric-update/

#DevPile2025 #DnD4e

Dev Pile: How Did I Make Lysen Co?, Part 5

This is the last piece of reflective writing on making Lysen Co. This is the plain text writing that will be formalised into academic language and given proper citations to become a case study in my PhD.

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Dev Pile: Blood And Bones

Starting next week, I will be in a classroom with a bunch of students talking about ideation and experimentation. That’s going to involve some generative tools and showing them ways that they can use those tools to launch off ideas. My plan is to take them the skeleton of Moonshiners and show them the way that these tools can be used to generate the templates of card faces. Then, when I have those concept assets generated, I can show them the steps I go through to take those ideas and make them into my own.

The aim here is to demonstrate the use of these tools as a kind of word calculator. I use Excel to do math for me, and I use it to generate random things. I use texture libraries and public domain art, I know that there is a value to having convenient things to prime the pump, to set up a template.

Anyway, because I have Moonshiners in a skeletal form, and I want to use that class exercise to demonstrate the process on that skeleton, what I’m going to do this week is talk a bit about progress on Bloodwork.

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Dev Pile: Moonshiner Prototyping Diary 2

How big is a deck of cards?

This question is a game design quandrary that always comes back to ‘how big do you need it to be?’

Right now I am grappling with the material considerations of the game Moonshiners. This is what I call the ‘stuffness’ and I’ve been holding off on it until I could get my hands on a standard box from our tabletop material printing service (Launch Tabletop) for a larger game. What I got is this cool box for our game Cafe Romantica:

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Dev Pile: Make And Use Templates

Templates are good. If you’re doing anything graphically, and you’re not the kind of sticky-brained fine-detailed picky parrot of a person who wants absolute control over all elements and have the skill to actually execute on that, self-educating in a way that makes you both an expert and willing to tell people you’re an expert (hi Fox), then you should use a template. I do, for almost everything I do.

It doesn’t just stop at grabbing templates from the sites I use to make the things I make. Gamecrafter gives you printing templates, for example, as does our current ongoing concern with Launch Tabletop, where they will show you a blank thing that indicates where you can’t put material. That’s a template to indicate your bounds, though, that’s not the same thing as a template to indicate your targets, and that’s when the time comes to educate yourself by engaging with the field.

Okay, here’s two points: Build A Reference Pool and Build Your Toolbox.

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