Hi all, 

I'm Bird, and have dabbled in tabletop for awhile, mostly creating my own resources for games.  I mostly lurk in the community, listening  on twitter and discord. Most of my writing is science fiction.

I thought it might be helpful to have a tips and tricks discussion to share knowledge among one another on ways to write tabletop games and resources. Pitfalls folks have noticed and ways to avoid those. Tips about collaborative storytelling and how to direct that toward a positive experience for all players. And really any sort of shared knowledge about writing for tabletop gaming and physical games in general.

What say you?

From my limited experience with hacks I would say dont be afraid of moving away from the core game. Get rid of anything that doesnt fit what you want to accomplish with the system. 

I've found the most useful tool for me is iteration and rapid playtesting. That is to say - get something, some basic grounding, of your game ready and working as quickly as you can. Don't sweat bugs, presentation or gaps in the design so much, just get something written. Then play it, write down every comment you get, and revise. Obviously this has a couple requirements - you need a regular group who's willing to play your half-baked nonsense of course! - but you get a really dynamic flow and ideas get tested very quickly, refined where the work and jettisoned where they don't and you'll find you often only discover ideas during play.

This isn't for everyone, and I've also seen some people just knock out the best games ever in a draft or two before any playtesting at all, but for me, constant iteration, rapid design gets the results.

Seconding the idea of just getting stuff to the table, individualizing it, throwing out the mechanics that don't work for you. Stuff can always be added later so get a first draft that has your vision and start playing with it. People more experienced than me espouse the idea, so I'm encouraging this.

Also, be willing to write a game and accept that nobody plays it. Some games matter more from the reading than the playing. This used to give me a lot of trouble until I read The Tragedy of GJ237b which is a great read but literally can't be played. If you try to play it, the game ends. It's weird and interesting. Like how not everything Da Vinci designed was built. This is ok, this is acceptable, this is worthwhile. 

Finally, as much fun as it is to watch the download counter on itch, try not to. It's too easy to connect your worth as designer with how many people are downloading or reading or talkign about yoru games nad that's just a recipe for disaster unless you're lucky and get an instant fanbase. Then it's a recipe for delayed disaster. So, you know, be kind to yourself and accept the worth in what you do.

This is all great tips and ideas on how to design and work through the challenges associated with designing! Thank you all, and feel free to keep the tips and tricks coming. 

I really like the idea of scaffolding in order to test a specific mechanic or design element with players. This sounds like a great way to determine how best to develop that mechanic further, or if the idea needs to be revised entirely. 

I'm a huge lover of world-building, and I saw one game -- Iron Edda -- that approached the worldbuilding through a fascinating mechanic of  building it with the players themselves. There was a mechanic to it and a set of tables to help generate ideas. I like this sort of approach to keep players feeling like they are really helping to form and build the story and world along with the GM.

So question: How does worldbuilding elements come into play in your designing? How do you deal with that aspect? And how do you deal with the impact the environment of the world can have on players?