Joe Blanchard, Author at Factions of Sol

Engaging Players: Five Useful Tips for Dungeon Masters

Joe Blanchard — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 19:20:00 +0000

As a Dungeon Master, I’ve found that one of the hardest things to do today is to keep players engaged—especially when so many of us are stuck playing online. And after lots of trial and error, here are my favorite ways to keep your players engaged in-game.

TOP 5 TIPS

Sensory details
Humor in-character
Subvert expectations
Keep things moving!
Cause and Effect

DMing with Sensory Details

Especially when we can’t connect to each other’s energy through the screen, it’s easy to feel isolated and stuck in the “real” world. Sensory details (details that appeal to our 5 senses like sight, sound, etc.) help engage our imagination and make the fantastical world we’re in feel much more real. My absolute favorite way to do this is not with big details, but with the tiny specific details that players can imagine the best. It’s one thing to be told the day is hot, and it’s quite another to be told that your character feels a bead of sweat slipping between the sections of their already-hot leather armor. Fear is another direction you can take this in (read more on that here).

Humor is Key

Humor is a no-brainer–it’s a great tool to lighten the mood, get people laughing, and encourage fun shenanigans. My secret is to encourage your players to stay in-character when they’re joking around. This helps them stay connected to the world, explore different parts of their character’s personality (PC’s deserve to have a good time too), and even develop the actual plot of the campaign—usually in ways you least expect. It’s one thing to talk about the druid eloping with a quickling, and it’s quite another to role play through the romantic (and VERY brief) ceremony.

Subvert Their Expectations

Because fantasy as a genre is so saturated with cliches, giving the players the opposite of what they expect—in both big and little moments, can go a long way to keep your players on their toes. Kind old Clerics with evil agendas, sketchy quests that turn out wholesome, surfer-bro astral entities, it all serves to open the world up to new directions, keep things exciting, and make your game feel less like a copy & pasted Critical Role adventure.

Keep Things Moving

The pace of a game (especially in combat), is crucial. My rule of thumb is to keep things moving as quick as you can without muddying the storytelling. That way, the moments that deserve more time feel more special.

Cause and Effect

I think the most rewarding parts of DnD come when your characters are really hit by the consequences of their actions—both positive and negative, and the strongest way to make that happen is to focus on the people in your world, as it’s easiest to empathize with. When your characters save someone’s life or help a village, let your players see what happens next. Do they meet a former victim who’s started a new arcane trade? Visit a happy family that was formerly scrounging for food? One of the most striking moments early on in my current campaign happened when they failed to save a child from lethal poison. The kid died, they watched the family grieve, and after my players understood a lot more about the power they carried in the world. Be wary of punishing your players, however, especially if the issue can be solved with an honest conversation rather than turning a PC’s crush into an aboleth.

Have you used any of these tools? What do you use to keep your players engaged over zoom (please I actually wanna know)? Comment and let us know!

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Top Four Ways to Cheat at Board Games

Joe Blanchard — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 17:44:00 +0000

(From a Game Designer)

Like lots of people, I spent a good deal of my quarantine playing board games. Both casually and working as a designer on our game Factions of Sol, I spent endless hours with family and on TableTop Simulator. However, I encountered a significant problem early on–I am bad at board games. Like legitimately bad, for no reason. Not that I’m (necessarily) dumb or don’t understand the game, because even when I LITERALLY DESIGNED THE GAME WE’RE PLAYING, I never seem to win.

So, in lieu of being able to win games like a normal person, I turned to what was clearly the next best, most ethical option—Cheating! Cheating takes a regular game night and turns it into your own ~fun~ little thrill. I like to think I’ve gotten pretty good at it, so I wanted to share my top 4 tips for cheating at board games.

4. Sleight of Hand

Pros: You feel like you’re in Skyrim / a James Bond movie

Cons: Everyone saw you

I think sleight of hand is the most boring way to cheat. It’s hard to pull off, takes physical skills (which most of us don’t have), and isn’t nearly as cool as you want it to be. Yeah so what, you got more wheat in Catan while your mom was wine-drunk…everyone else at the table still saw you take 8 cards. And now you have to talk about your “problem.” 3.5/10

3. Playing Dumb

Pros: Very believable, easy to pull off

Cons: Hurts that no one questioned it

Ol’ reliable. All you’ve gotta do is “accidentally” put too many troops on the board or “forget” to spend your resources for the third time in a row, and just like that BAM! You’ve got the advantage! In my experience this trick might start working too well, however, in which case just get ready for a big ol’ drop in self-esteem (unless it’s already rock bottom 😉 ) for when your baby brother says that “My stuffed tiger is smarter than you.” 6/10

2. Bullying

Pros: VERY effective

Cons: A lot of Discord servers won’t let you back in

Another very solid choice at the gaming table. Since this trick can go so many different ways, I’d recommend focusing on intimidation, blackmail, and cyberbullying. Nothing takes the wind out of someone’s sails mid-game like the table getting flipped on to you, or finding a bunch of incredibly mean photoshops of yourself on twitter. While this one does work great, be prepared for some hard feelings after the game. Some people just don’t get that it’s part of the fun. 8.5/10

1. Gaslighting

Pros: No one catches you

Cons: None

Nothing can beat gaslighting. This skill has worked SO well for me, I started using it in other areas of my life & I’ve never been better. All you’ve gotta do is hit ‘em with a “I never said that! You never listen!!!” or a “You’re the only person who believes that.” They’ll internalize the blame, carry it around for the rest of their lives, and you’re golden! Use this fun trick to change who’s in the lead, rewrite rules, make people doubt their sanity. 10/10

Have you used these tools? What other great cheating tips have you discovered? Let us know!

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Stunning Research: Hot and Heavy Alien Specimens on Hypatia

Joe Blanchard — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 03:38:13 +0000

Emmet Solisqueen, Field Researcher

Specimen identification Team 6

Planet: Hypatia

Day 15, 0700 hours:

The rest of the launch & installation team departed from Hypatia this morning, leaving Captain Twist and I alone on this beautiful, wild planet. Our task, to identify all notable specimens on the planet will be an immense one—there’s so much this planet is hiding. Captain Twist is similarly mysterious. I often catch his dark, brooding eyes staring off into the distance.

Day 18, 1430 hours:

The work has been physically grueling so far. Our days are filled with hours of trekking through fungal jungles and when we return, at night we’re both drenched in sweat. We’ve identified one specimen of flora that grows in large airtight spheres and produces oxygen. Captain Twist and I accidentally got caught inside of one today. Despite his charm as a leader he is still quiet. For some reason when he looks at me, my stomach churns. It must be the atmosphere on this planet.

Day 27, 2030 hours:

The work continues. We’ve catalogued almost 50,000 species in just a few weeks. Captain Twist says that we’ve been doing great work here, and that he’s glad I am with him. When he said that I felt a very scientific joy. I think. In other news we discovered a fungus that carries electricity more efficiently than a superconductor, and apparently it’s going to revolutionize human technology. There’s just something about Captain Twist’s broad, elegant shoulders, his intelligent, watchful eyes & his beautiful mind. I guess I want to be him.

Day 61, 1300 hours:

We did it! Captain Twist looked at me with his beautiful eyes and hugged me as we finished cataloguing almost a 10 million species into the Megacore database. I don’t know what possessed me, but for some reason, I couldn’t let go of him. There was something about his warm, yoked biceps wrapped around my shoulders that almost brought me to tears. Twisty is just such. a. good. platonic. companion. Captain Twist just laughed and whispered in my ear “what, are you that bacteria-573a that we discovered the other day? You won’t let go until pressure is applied to your thoraxus?” It is this researcher’s field report that a tickle fight ensued.

Day 63, the end of the world:

Given that our work is almost at an end, Captain Twist has been recalled. Today is when we say goodbye. Nothing matters anymore, I only live to look deep into Twist’s eyes one last time. I am overcome by some strange grief.

Day 64:

I’m gay, aren’t I?

Enjoyed this story? Check out more Sol Sunday posts here.

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A DM’s Best Friend: How to use Fear

Joe Blanchard — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 00:19:55 +0000

Getting your players genuinely invested in what they’re doing—who their characters are, their friends in the world, and the story they’re making—is one of the most fulfilling things you can do as a dungeon master. After playing Dungeons and Dragons for ten years of my pallid Gen Z life and dungeon mastering for the last five, I found that to get players to really care about their characters and their campaign I had to learn how to use fear.

Unfortunately, I don’t mean JUST trying eldritch horror adventures, throwing liches (plural) at a 1st level party, or installing trap doors beneath your player’s seats that lead to a pit of half-formed reptilian Matt Mercer clones to encourage them to stop dropping character. I also mean emotional or interpersonal fears. Mystery. All the things that make your player’s brain go, “something’s up, I need to pay attention”.

Our imaginations are adept at focusing & motivating us when it comes to fear. Fear has a very different effect on players then, for example, deception which is used in Among Us and One Night Werewolf. In D&D, fear pushes us out of the rational and self-conscious, into the emotional, subconscious, and imaginary—which helps ground us in the world and in our characters. If your DM has described the unnerving sound a troll’s tongue makes as it wraps around someone’s intestines, maybe you’ve felt your own shoulders start to tighten as your hero reaches for their sword.

One of my favorite things to do as a DM is to use small sensory details to build mystery and tell their imaginations that something’s not right (a villain that acts a bit too casual, a dungeon that smells sweet, a vegan lizardfolk, etc.). This becomes really cool because not only does it bring your characters in physically, but it also engages them mentally by making them figure out what does it mean—which in turn engages their imagination.

However, players need to be able to trust their DM and feel safe in order to let their imaginations run wild, which means trust, safety, and communication need to be well established. Personally, I’m a big fan of the “before, during, after” model, where at every step there’s an opportunity for players to communicate what’s working and what’s not.

Before you introduce sensitive or intense content, RPG consent checklists (like this one) work great. In-game tools for players to stop, switch, and communicate discomfort are fantastic (like the consent flower). Individual check-ins after an intense session go a long way to show your players that you care. I also love doing campaign check-ins each level-up to give players a chance to give feedback and start conversations. More tools are linked below!

Fear is exciting with D&D because it makes our adventures & alter egos feel more real. But just like you wouldn’t want the knives at a haunted house to be sharpened, your players need to know they’re getting into before they can face their monsters. What other tools have you used playing RPG’s? When have you felt most engaged at D&D table? What DO you do if you meet a vegan lizardfolk? Let us know down below or on our Facebook, Instagram or Twitter!

Tools to Explore:

Safety Tools by Golden Lasso Games

Accessible and Inclusive Gaming

The Support Flower (download)

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Factions of Sol: A New Universe to Discover

Joe Blanchard — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 18:21:00 +0000

Introduction: A New Universe

The team at Mark IV Games is currently in the process of publishing our very first game (coming to kickstarter soon) called Factions of Sol, which takes place in a very unique and new universe—a 1950’s “retro-dystopia” of Earth and its solar system. And as part of that work, we’ve VERY excitedly been writing goofy characters, horrifying (mostly gay) creatures, and thrilling adventures, and we want to share this new universe with you!

And as part of sharing this WILD world with you, I wanted to give you a bit of an introduction into the new universe (galaxy) of Sol. So what the hell does “retro-dystopia” mean? Do we even know? Why are all the creatures gay? Isn’t that homophobic? Wonderful questions, one and all!

The Retro-Dystopia of Sol

A retro-dystopia refers to a story that takes place in the past, but has been rewritten as a dystopia. In the universe of Sol (“Sol” being the name of both the Sun and Earth’s solar system) the year is only 1955, but a “family friendly” megacorporation called Megacore has taken over the planet Earth, ushered humankind into an early space age, and has settled the solar system with research colonies and space stations, all to try and find what Mark Megacore (founder and CEO of Megacore, Inc) believes is a secret paradise, hidden far across the galaxy.

So how did our world get this way? How come it’s so different?

From the New Universe a Sci-Fi Alternate History Unfolds

Well like a mediocre X-Men movie, the timeline diverges with a somewhat-unjustified new technology. At the turn of the 20th century, a teenage Mark Megacore invents a new form of long-range radio and picks up a strange signal coming from across the galaxy, dreaming that night of a galactic paradise. Mark Megacore then creates MegaCore and takes over the planet over the course of World War One as MegaCore’s new technologies seduce and then subsume every world power—creating the Dominion of MegaCore. With the world’s resources at his command, MegaCore then ushers in a utopian space age for the wealthy—and a dark dystopia for the rest.

By the 1950’s, Mercury’s vast solar energy fields power Sol’s ships, thousands of long-range radio towers are built on Mars to seek out MegaCore’s mysterious alien signal, and missions across the cosmos are launched from Jupiter where humans encounter thousands of new, mostly gay species—leading theorists to the conclusion that turns out, heterosexuality is unique to Earth. But despite these incredible breakthroughs, MegaCore’s constant push for progress has turned Earth into an environmental wasteland, home to endless slums and hidden enclaves of elites.

When does Factions of Sol Take Place?

In 1955, MegaCore’s long-sought after alien signals return suddenly with a clear and urgent message—The death of the universe is near, and only those who are worthy will be saved and reach paradise. This message brings chaos and war to the planets of Sol, causing the different factions to rise up and fight against their extinction.

Want to read more about the secret history of MegaCore, or the rise of the different factions of Sol? Like, comment, and let us know! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter!

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The Story of the Evolution of Factions of Sol

Joe Blanchard — Sat, 02 Jan 2021 02:06:25 +0000

Factions of Sol was Raised by a Village

Factions of Sol, Mark IV Games’ first game, has been in development for just about a year, and from beginning to end, the game has changed countless times. We’ve created and redrafted dozens of card decks, trashed tons of ideas, and spent endless hours playtesting to get the game to where it is now. And much like raising an infant, creating Factions of Sol has been a labor of love filled with late nights, bulk orders of plastic pieces, and all the nurturing patience a bunch of college students can muster. More so than most games however, Factions of Sol was raised by a village—with a three-dad design team (Adam, Elam, and I) and orbiting team members who constantly improved our work, the game is very much so the product of a community, and we’re proud to show off our nerd-baby to the world soon.

Elam's Original Idea for Factions of Sol

The original game was designed by Elam and consisted solely of hundreds of small white squares of printer paper attached to playing cards—our low budget mockups of game cards. Players stole, “called the law” down on other players, and bid on cards every round. And while this first version shared core ideas like building machines, exploring planets, and earning victory points, its gameplay was drastically different—but it gave us a wonderful foundation.

After Consulting the Team, a New Game Board

Shortly after Elam presented this game to the company, we decided to form a design team to take the game farther—which we playfully named “Jupiter Rats” (referring to a running joke that space rats were infesting Jupiter). I vividly remember the first meeting that the JR team had. In a preceding meeting with the whole company, we really wanted to structure Factions of Sol in a way that made it more physically and visually interesting. To solve this, we came up with the exciting idea that the game board would be the planets rotating in orbit around the sun, and that each planet would correspond to an action players could take.

This new board presented an interesting problem—if the locations (and therefore, distances) of each action are constantly changing at different rates, how do we create a game that stays balanced? The answer, was math.

The Math Behind the Game Board

Each planet in Earth’s solar system (which we call Sol) orbits at a different rate. Using these rates, we devised a system where each planet’s orbit had a number of steps corresponding to the length of its journey around the sun. Mercury’s orbit, closest to the sun, only has 2 steps, whereas Neptune, the farthest, has 24. This allowed us to mathematically standardize and manipulate the different planet speeds while still keeping the dynamic gameplay we liked so much. But, with a new board came a need for new game mechanics.

The Fundamental Game Mechanics of Factions of Sol

But in order for those cool orbits to be useful, we needed a movement system that would make the changing locations of the planets relevant strategically—so in the same meeting, we created a system where players use limited batteries of energy to move between the orbits (in spaces called sectors), leaving energy pieces in their wake that make travel more difficult. This made longer distances harder to travel, and forced players to keep track of each other’s movements, which, when combined with our moving planets, created wonderfully dynamic gameplay.

Quarantine and Playtesting

With these more fundamental mechanics solidified, the next couple months took us into quarantine, and, while hunkered in our childhood homes, the Jupiter Rats team really got into the meat of the game. We had our dynamic base for gameplay, but in order to make Factions of Sol a game that had nuanced, fair strategy and high replayability, we had to examine and optimize every aspect of the game—which meant tireless rounds of play testing. We continually drafted and redrafted each planet’s mechanics, re-balanced orbits & energy costs, and got yelled at by our online professors for not paying attention.

We Eliminate Attack-Based Mechanics

Around this time we also took out any attack-based mechanics because of how they sucked the fun out of playing—which left us with no real sources of player interaction in the game, which led us to instituting my personal favorite mechanic, called “Stellar Events”. Stellar Events are game-changing events (planets switching places, wormholes opening, etc.) that players vote on each round. This system proved to be really effective and engaging in our playtests, as not only did Stellar Events incentivize interaction & in-game politics, but they also inherently competitive without being aggressive, and added a wonderful new dimension of replayability to the game.

After the first couple hundred hours on Tabletop Simulator (the gaming software we used to test the game), we started to build the world around our game so we could welcome new players into our stellar madness. We developed the unique 1950’s retro-dystopian style of our game, wrote original lore about the people who inhabited it, and created rulebooks specifically tailored to first-time players to make learning the game easier.

The Introduction of Factions (How Factions of Sol Got its Name)

The next big step in our process was the introduction of player factions, which we did for three reasons. First, by adding faction abilities and machines players got a unique and customizable playing experience different from anyone else at the table, which helped to make the game more personal to each player. Second, as we added lore for each faction players also got an in-world lens through which to play the game—someone playing the Zealots of Sol can now use the Zealots’ unique history, hopes, and grudges to justify screwing over other players. Third, adding new faction abilities threw off our delicately-built game balance, and the next couple weeks led us into another round of deck revisions and experimentation.

Next, We Made Factions of Sol Intuitive and Understandable

Once we rebalanced the game with factions and revamped our planet mechanics, we found ourselves with a fun, dynamic, and very complicated game—which made it inaccessible to new players. After some great research on the difference between game depth and complexity, we refocused our efforts around building a game that was intuitive and understandable. We added a first-player mode of the game, revisited our rulebook (again), simplified our mechanics, and worked with our wonderful graphic designer to create a system of symbol-based instructions, all of which really helped to make our game more accessible without losing its nuance.

The Next Step for Factions of Sol? Manufacturing.

Now finally, at this later stage of the process, the Jupiter Rats team is working on fitting manufacturing concerns into our game design (what pieces are easy or hard to get? Is there anything we don’t need? Why can’t we make pieces out of lead?) so we can make a game that’s as efficient and smart as it is fun. We hope you’ll enjoy the end result of this journey! Follow us at Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or contact us if you would like to hear more about our work!

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How to Approach Manufacturing for Self-Publishers

Joe Blanchard — Sun, 20 Dec 2020 02:57:26 +0000

Manufacturing, in my opinion, is objectively scary. It’s complicated, pedantic, and especially for crowdfunders, only seems to exist in the somewhat dream-like future of when your project actually has funding. However, as I dive more and more into the world of manufacturing, I’ve found it’s also fun and pretty darn rewarding. So in an effort to make this kind of work more accessible, I wanted to share a bit about my experience riding this learning curve, and plug a couple of my favorite resources.

For my skimmers here’s a TLDR:

Manufacturing is complicated but it’s not as scary as it seems
Trust yourself, you got this. And when you don’t, google it.
Research is hard but incredibly helpful, and it’s easier with the links below

The first real surprise I had is that manufacturing is that it’s a regular industry just like any other—designed for people with varying levels of expertise to make cool stuff. As soon as I broke past the all-intimidating wall of manufacturer contact forms, perfect portfolios and hyper-detailed blog posts (hehe), everything was much less scary.

All I really had to do was explain what pieces I wanted in my game, and someone else told me how much it would cost (this is called an RFQ, or “request for quote”). From there it’s basically just professional, very-detailed texting. At its heart, your project manager wants your business and wants to make your game happen. So trust yourself! You know your game, you know your vision. And if you don’t know an acronym, material, or other industry secret? Google is your very best friend 😉

Regarding other types of manufacturing research—while you do know your vision, research helps you make that vision so specific that your manufacturer can see it clearly too. You’ll also save a LOT of money if you do your research well. And the wonderful thing about making board games is that there’s an enormous community with tons of experience just waiting to make your day. Engage them and learn from their experience so that you can make your game the best it can be. Below are a couple of my favorite resources.

Stonemaier Games Kickstarter Lessons:

Jamey Stegmaier of Stonemaier games is a godsend and has done tons of work putting his expertise back into the community through these blog posts. Especially in the “Shipping and Worldwide Accessibility” section, I learned a TON about the details and finesses that can make shipping and manufacturing much easier.

James Mathe – Game Publishing

James Mathe of Kickin’ It Games has also done awesome work that’s been incredibly helpful for me when communicating with manufacturers. James goes into fantastic detail and makes lots of info on manufacturers, materials, etc. very readable. I highly recommend his “Art of the RFQ” and “Hitchhiker’s Guide to Game Manufacturers” posts.

Comment if you’ve had similar experiences, or if you want to see more resources!

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