Character-Focused Play Goals

Document Zero: Design Principles

Entertainment & Adventure

The game is an adventure game played for entertainment. The game is not a cozy fantasy, nor is it a period drama–I mean unless you really want to roll for how well you serve tea, or something. I prefer to swing across chasms while smoking a stick of dynamite, but let’s discuss the delicate situation of Lady Hoodlepants, if that’s for you. 

Character Focused, Not System Focused

Building a character is about buying the tools the character needs to accomplish their in-game goals. Without in-game goals, character design/customization is meaningless. Player goals are player-defined, in-game targets of PC actions. Goals have a motive, again, player-defined, and often in-game (but often not). 

This is a player-defined goal: I wanna build a rocketship because I dunno I always wanted to build a rocketship in a D&D adjacent game. 

The DM uses player goals to establish milestones of achievement.

Here is an example of a DM establishing milestones:

You’re gonna need something tough for the material of the ship, but also something fantasy. How about the bones of a kraken? You’ll also need a power source, something big, fantastical. Hmm. How about the dreams of a star? Annnnd you’re gonna need something to guide the ship in the Big Empty of space. How about the brain of a mind flayer? 

 DM milestones plus player goals creates a roadmap for adventures. 

Player One wants to build a mystical rocketship from the bones of a kraken. Said rocketship fueled by the soul of a star and guided by the brain of a mind flayer. The DM and Player One now know that a session featuring this character should include plenty of opportunities to find kraken bones, the dreams of a star, and/or a mind flayer’s brain.

Separate Storylines or Shared Story

The players are not expected to band together for every session. Since attention is passed around the table anyway, why not lean into that? When it’s your character’s turn, entertain the table with what you do. Your turn is a narrative beat in a show all about your character. Show the table something worth watching. 

When it’s not your turn, pay attention to what’s happening. Be a good audience by being present for other player’s turns. 

The game should also support the traditional adventuring party style of play, but I want that play style to be a choice, not a system-wide baked-in requirement. See Challenge Rating in D&D 5e, along with XP thresholds and so on. 

Reward Imagination and Creativity in Play

The game should reward creativity and imagination in play, at the table.

The game should feature defined mechanical benefits that can be flavored as the players and DM see fit, not mechanically distinct goodies with baked-in lore or flavor. Three mechanically different spell systems means three chances for one or more of the systems to be over- or under-powered.

An attempt to balance the mechanical benefits of options, so that no one option is a must-have in all situations, and no option is a hard pass in all cases. It is better to have a list of six good options, rather than 18 options but one of them is overpowered, and three of them are broken beyond use.