{"id":68,"date":"2018-07-18T17:18:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T17:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2018\/07\/18\/quick-shot-harder-they-fall\/"},"modified":"2021-11-16T00:39:22","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T05:39:22","slug":"quick-shot-harder-they-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2018\/07\/quick-shot-harder-they-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Shot: Harder They Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jay Iles has a cool new game on Kickstarter right now called Harder They Fall<\/i><\/a>, with a nifty mechanic: dominoes! I asked Jay a few questions about it – check it out!<\/b><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\"The<\/a><\/div>\n

What is Harder They Fall<\/i>, both as a product and as your vision?<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
My pitch for HTF is that it brings the tension and melodrama of an end-of-movie blockbuster battle to your table, with zero prep and simple rules. As a group, you build up the conflict that’s bought these two sides together, decide the individual strengths, oaths and doubts of each champion, and draw the battlefield on a sheet of paper. As you play you’re raising the tension in a very real way by setting up dominoes to be toppled over, while the value of the domino decides what choice of questions you have to ask the other players. This last thing is crucial: you’re constantly letting the other players make statements about your character and their place in the fiction, which is what lets it cross the divide from board game to story game.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
As a product, it’s an intentional move away from the lavish production values and long list of stretch goals my previous kickstarters have had. I still want it to be a product that’s nice to look at, of course, but I’m aiming for a 20 page pamphlet with everything you need to play in it. Part of my goal for this campaign was to see if there’s a space for small-scale, short-run projects that are less psychologically demanding on the creator than your traditional blockbuster RPG kickstarters!<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

How did you come up with the idea of using dominos, and how did you playtest them to ensure it has the impact (literally) that you’d like?<\/b><\/p>\n

Weirdly enough, it came from a Domino\u2019s ad – a domino with 3 pips, their name and the slogan We Did It – captioned with \u201cThat\u2019s a 6-, no you didn\u2019t\u201d. I ran the numbers, and realised that drawing a domino from a pool and counting the pips is very similar to rolling 2d6 (more precisely, it\u2019s actually 2(d7-1)). As someone who\u2019s mainly designed in the Apocalypse World<\/i> format, that was immediately exciting!<\/p>\n
When it came to play testing, the main concern was the dimensions – it needed to possible, but not common, for your chain of dominoes to contact and knock down one of their foes\u2019. In play testing, I needed to test how far apart you could place your dominoes to chain them together, how many dominoes in a set vs how many turns there are in a game, that sort of thing. The main point of feedback was that it all hinged upon the toppling of the dominoes – a string of bad draws when setting them up could lead to all sorts of misfortune for the player involved, but so long as knocking them over was satisfying it all worked out.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"A<\/a><\/div>\n
Why do you feel the story game aspects – shared narrative control, storytelling – are so important to Harder They Fall<\/i>? How do they feel tied together with the mechanics?<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
Fundamentally, this game is intended to set up a conflict that feels like it could be the climax of a campaign that you just happen to have not played. Part of that is building the sense that this narrative is alive, that it exists between all of you, and the shared narrative control is a big part of that. The other reason the shared narrative is important is to make sure that everyone\u2019s involved in everyone else\u2019s turns. When you take action, you make the initial statement of what your combatant is doing, but it\u2019s your opponents that get the final say on what impact that has on the world. <\/div>\n

This is all based on the setup in D. Vincent Baker\u2019s Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands<\/i>, which goes all-in with Vincent\u2019s trademark lists of specific questions. That\u2019s where this most strongly ties into the mechanics: when you draw a low-value domino (i.e. totalling 8 or less) you\u2019ll be forced to ask a question with bad implications for your fighter if you play it to boost their efforts. You can escape that by playing it in one of your opponent\u2019s chains, but that both boosts them mechanically and lets them define more of your character\u2019s doubts, fears and conflicted loyalties. What I really love about this is that players who are mechanically minded and play to win, and players who are there to tell a good story, tend to end up engaging with the system equally and telling a great story as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Two<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The towering dominoes over this city is such a fun image \ud83d\ude42<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
—<\/p>\n

Thanks so much to Jay for the interview! I hope you’ll all check out Harder They Fall<\/i> in its last few days on Kickstarter!<\/b><\/p>\n

\n

This post was supported by the community on patreon.com\/briecs<\/a>. Tell your friends! <\/p>\n

To leave some cash in the tip jar, go to http:\/\/paypal.me\/thoughty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you’d like to be interviewed for Thoughty, or have a project featured, email contactbriecs@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay Iles has a cool new game on Kickstarter right now called Harder They Fall, with a nifty mechanic: dominoes! I asked Jay a few questions about it – check it out! — What is Harder They Fall, both as a product and as your vision? My pitch for HTF is that it brings the tension and … Continue reading “Quick Shot: Harder They Fall”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[390],"tags":[53,20,4,17,25,61,8,15,12,26,42,23,18],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-board-games","tag-five-or-so","tag-games","tag-gaming","tag-interviews","tag-quick-shot","tag-roleplaying-games","tag-rpg","tag-rpgs","tag-story-games","tag-tabletop","tag-tabletop-games","tag-tabletop-rpgs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paHOcG-16","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1031,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2019\/03\/quick-shot-on-by-aecers-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":0},"title":"Quick Shot on By Aecer’s Light!","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"March 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Today's quick shot is with Mad Jay Brown on the project By Aecer's Light!, a setting zine on Kickstarter now! Check it out! -- What is By Aecer's Light!, both as a product and as your vision? By Aecer's Light! is me 'small scale testing' a creative project on my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/00000PORTRAIT_00000_BURST20190317180415618.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/00000PORTRAIT_00000_BURST20190317180415618.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/00000PORTRAIT_00000_BURST20190317180415618.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/00000PORTRAIT_00000_BURST20190317180415618.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/00000PORTRAIT_00000_BURST20190317180415618.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/00000PORTRAIT_00000_BURST20190317180415618.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":110,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2018\/02\/death-in-rpgs-let-me-live-revised-2-17-18\/","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":1},"title":"Death in RPGs – Let Me Live (revised 2\/17\/18)","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"February 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi all!I recorded this recently and had to make some updates, but now it's a new video on a new URL:\u00a0https:\/\/youtu.be\/Uluvyh64_P8This post was supported by the community on patreon.com\/briecs. Tell your friends!To leave some cash in the tip jar, go to http:\/\/paypal.me\/thoughty.If you'd like to be interviewed for Thoughty, or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":382,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2014\/07\/hangout-with-brie-and-pulse-creators\/","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":2},"title":"Hangout with Brie and PULSE Creators","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"July 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2017\/11\/boy-band-the-game\/","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":3},"title":"Boy Band: The Game","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"November 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi All! Got an idea today, so I wrote it down. Check out Boy Band: The Game, which will get a fancier version at some point, but until then, get ya grabby hands on it.Boy Band: The GameThis post was supported by the community on patreon.com\/briecs. Tell your friends! To\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1435,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2019\/07\/friday-hi-day-youtube-post-live\/","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":4},"title":"Friday Hi-Day YouTube Post Live!","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"July 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Tfn7OHqQ_HQ","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/Tfn7OHqQ_HQ\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":117,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2018\/01\/play-with-purpose\/","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":5},"title":"Play with Purpose","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"January 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Dice by John W. SheldonI'm going to try to make this brief, but I wanted to express something that has been sitting with me a while, and that's about what games we play and why we play them. This stemmed from discussion of Dungeons & Dragons, but it applies to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-zZdzrOIXkZI\/Wl1NcdCsEeI\/AAAAAAABo0I\/sBHrENEADz4YnGpRbCh-qVX_k1h_FsuCACK4BGAYYCw\/s400\/tumblingdice_04.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}