Displaying 5 items of Unwritten Earths Symposium with the tag "train of thought".
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The Constraints Episode
December 17th, 2025 | Season 2 | 1 hr 4 mins
game design, train of thought
In this episode, Eppy brings a discussion of where the "technological" creative constraints in game design come from. We talk about what this means in the context of tabletop, how constraints surface through the design, and how we handle them as designers. This builds a little on our conversation about design surfaces, and is ultimately another part of a long-term conversation about, well, game design! We also do our final homework for 2025, bringing some holidays from different projects in our back catalogue to celebrate the season.
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The Playtesting Episode
September 3rd, 2025 | Season 1 | 51 mins 56 secs
conventions, play design, train of thought
In this episode Eppy leads off with a hot take about playtesting, leading us to a discussion of the multiple purposes of playtests, playstorming, techniques for effective playtests, and an introduction of a new feature of the Unwritten Earths Symposium Discord: Playtest Tuesdays!
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The Podcation Episode
June 25th, 2025 | Season 1 | 57 mins 38 secs
train of thought
In this laid-back episode we chat about greeting cards and inspiration from non-games for game formats, follow a train of thought about using Valentine's Day exchange as a game mechanic, and check in with each other about how ideas and inspiration from previous episodes are coming together for new game projects.
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The Ritual Episode
April 16th, 2025 | Season 1 | 57 mins 11 secs
design, train of thought
In this episode we talk about building rituals in and for play, follow a train of thought about building in "blessings" for each other into gameplay, discuss the joy of dice, and come back from sabbatical to assign game discovery homework.
Reminder: The Adventurer & Hobbyist Annual 2025 Kickstarter is live through the end of April!
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Mounts, Death and Music
December 4th, 2024 | Season 0 | 1 hr 7 mins
game discovery, train of thought
In this episode, we talk about mounts and companions, death in RPGs, and follow a Train of Thought about translating sheet music into playable patterns before delving into our game discovery homework. Have we designed a game yet?