Demon City: Read Thru, Part One

 

Welcome back! This week, we're beginning of my impressions of Demon City.

Every once in a while I run into an RPG that's so coherent that it can only be called foundational. If you read the game, you will walk away with your tastes fundamentally altered. These are the kinds of games that need to be read and played, because they will actually change you, and that's the kind of game you want to play. Stuff like ADnD 1e, Burning Wheel, and Ironsworn, even if you wind up not liking them change the way you do things, and I am of the opinion that such things should be in your library of games.

Demon City is one such entry.

Also: if your favorite RPG (or something monumental like, say ACKSII) isn't on that list, understand I am trying to talk about things that fundamentally change how you interact with the hobby, once read and understood.

Also also: I'm not claiming to make a definitive list. If you need absolute certainty, go to Hell. You'll find plenty of certainty there.

So, why is Demon City so important?

1. The only actually gameable usage of Tarot, at least so far.

2. It utterly understands what it's trying to model.

3. Its mechanics are objectively correct.

Tarot Is Hard to Design Around

My brother-in-law, Kyle, the smartest most erudite person I know, tried to design a tarot RPG for years. He gave up on it. couldn't wrap his head around it. This is the dude who taught me almost everything I know, and whose methods of learning enabled me to go on and do my own things. And he couldn't figure it out.

I've looked at a few games that claim to use tarot cards, like His Majesty the Wyrm. I have not been impressed, at all. They're usuually used as limited number generator, as opposed to fully exploring using cards and images for randomness. There's nothing in these games that I couldn't do with a regular deck of cards.

And Demon City absolutely nails it. You have multiple decks, with cards traveling between them. The layered imagery of tarot is used to full effect, not to mention that Zak doesn't shy away from going full on esoteric when necessay. It's a fine line to walk, but I didn't miss a beat with what Zak was saying.

Well, except the Rider deck is demonic. Fucking burn that thing please.

Demon City Utterly Understands Horror

The thing people do not understand is that cities, as we have constructed them, are abominations. The instant nature stops being a sparring partner and becomes our play-toy, something has gone horribly wrong. And cities are this play-toy dynamic fully expressed. Modern cities are actually horrifying. And Demon City takes every effort to show that it understands this fact.

And it does it by quoting Isaiah 24:12... which becomes all the more poignant once you just look at the full chapter:

Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.

2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.

3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.

4 The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.

5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

6 Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.

7 The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.

8 The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.

9 They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.

10 The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.

11 There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.

12 In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

13 When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.

14 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea.

15 Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea.

16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.

17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.

18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.

19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.

20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.

21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.

22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.

23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

It is important to understand that the description of this city assumes that the people within it are rotten to the core, and have been abandoned so that the harsh and cruel world may take its pound of flesh.

Like it or not, this is modern horror in a nutshell: humanity fucked around, and now it's finding out. Horror is not about personal transgression punished, but the societal consequences of the rape of the natural world turned on its people.

Demon City understands this. Sharply.

The Mechanics Are Objectively Correct 

Look, folks, I don't say this lightly, but there's literally nothing incorrect about these mechanics. I don't mean they're good. I don't mean they're bad. I don't even mean enjoyable. I mean, when I'm reading these, Zak presents solutions to problems that are so good that I immediately know how to fix other games.

On almost. Every. Single. Freaking. Page.

From the incredible initiative system to the downtime actions leading to advancement... all of this is simply correct. There's more than a few games I can think of that would benefit from having these systems be dropped in, with almost no modifications. It's a shame these ideas haven't spread that much. May have to fix that, with my.... miniscule reach. But it's not nothing.

In Conclusion, 

Demon City is not just another horror RPG — it is a foundational work that earns its place alongside the greats. It delivers the rarest achievement in game design: a system that feels inevitable once you’ve seen it. The Tarot implementation is the first one that actually matters. The horror vision is unflinching and thematically profound, rooting modern urban dread in something ancient and true rather than cheap jump scares. And the mechanics are so clean and purposeful that they expose weaknesses in other games while offering elegant fixes you’ll want to steal. 

You may not run Demon City forever. You may not even love every session. But after reading and playing it, you will design, referee, and think about roleplaying games differently. That is the mark of the truly important titles — the ones that don’t just entertain, but reshape the hobby inside you.

We'll go onto the GMing section next week! It is here I leave you. If I do not see you next week, I do not blame you. It is no easy road.

Fixing Burning Wheel With Boot Hill

 

Yeah that’s right: Revised

Burning Wheel, at its best, is a game of raw aggression. You make your Beliefs and then the GM hacks at them in a frenzy that more than casually resembles sharks around a bleeding seal. If I got stuck on a deserted island and you asked me to pick one game, it would come down to Burning Wheel and mine own baby, Crescendo, and I don’t even know how that decision would go down. I would cry either way. 

What the Hell Is Burning Wheel?

Great question! Burning Wheel is a low-fantasy TTRPG, where you play characters who are driven by their Beliefs, Instincts, and Traits (BITs). You are rewarded for causing trouble with these BITs with Artha, which influence your dice rolls.

Beliefs are proactive statements of how you approach the world, which might include short-term goals. You get Artha for causing trouble on behalf of Beliefs and acting against them.

My father still has good in him. I will convince him of this.

My sister is our last hope.

Ben lied to me. I can never trust him again.

Instincts are reactions to specific circumstances. You gain Artha for acting on Instincts when it would get you in trouble.

Always Force-choke physical threats.

When socially confronted, do not back down.

Always protect family.

Traits are passive facts about you. Some of your Traits can net you Artha for acting on them in an entertaining manner.

Angry, Eloquent, Cautious

Now, in the Revised edition, you gain Artha immediately, by the GM. Later editions, like Gold and Gold Revised, move this reward to the end of the session. This is a mistake we'll get to in a bit, trying to address a much larger problem about Burning Wheel that we're going to address with this post!

This combination of BITs and Artha is a perfect storm of perfectly paced aggression. The GM is constantly after your BITs, you're trying to get Artha without getting totally screwed over, and when this game works it works, and nothing else compares, not even close.

Not even Crescendo, mine own baby which is the godson of Burning Wheel... but that's for another day. Crescendo is doing something different.

But

I haven’t seriously played Burning Wheel in five years.  

Now, part of that is because I have been working my ass off on Crescendo. I have done more research and playtesting and soul searching on this one game than others would put into a dozen games. So that takes up time and brain space.

But Burning Wheel has some really severe flaws: ambiguous game set up, Wises, janky Artha rewards, Instincts, and “optional” rules that aren’t actually optional.  As usual, I'm going to handle the concerns, It's my blog, cry about it in the comments!

"Optional" Rules

The Duel of Wits, Fight!, and Range and Cover are some of the most innovative mechanics ever devised. It's best to describe these mechanics are rock/paper/scissors/Spock/GUN on steroids: players pick out a number of actions (usually three) privately, and then reveal them, one at a time, and compare to everyone else in the conflict. There's this huge and beautiful chart that honestly makes my pupils engorge and all sorts of other unseemly things happen.

But.

People do not use these mechanics, by and large. Usually they're having to use them against the GM. Put a pin in this, we're getting back to it. 

The real issue is that Burning Wheel is designed to use these "optional" rules, and if you don't use them... your Artha piles up, and then you get Artha bloat. This is a very common problem with Burning Wheel. And without the extended conflict mechanics, this problem goes from occasional to "Dear God I have way too much Artha", and the reward loop of the game, the thing it does so well, dies.

Instincts

Instincts were covered above. The problem is that the design of the game makes it difficult to actually challenge Instincts. You're essentially begging the GM to hit you with specific situations... except the GM has to focus on two other Instincts and three Beliefs... and that's just for one player. Given how flexible and rich the Beliefs are, Instincts have a bad habit of going to the wayside (there's a reason why Crescendo drops them).

Janky Artha Rewards

Burning Wheel's initial design was for immediate Artha rewards when you act upon your BITs. Up until Revised, this created a dynamic conversation. If you have too much Artha, the GM can ignore you, because you're in a real conversation with the participants at the table. Burning Wheel Gold changed this reward to waiting until the end of the session to hand out Artha. This makes the flow of the game work better, because the GM can't be the sole architect of the bullshit coming at players and watching Artha rewards.  You can't do both, trust me, not long term.

Wises

Wises are skills that a player can roll to force a fact into the fiction. This is great in theory, but it collapses the setting into a Schroedinger's Setting, making it difficult for players to rely upon the setting, and potentially making the GM skittish about introducing facts.

Ambiguous Game Set Up

This is the big one. There is no real game set up. No, there isn't, don't leave your comment. The GM has no guidance on how to set up the fictional situation that will spark the players into making Beliefs.

And this brillitant game  is missing one sentence, that would change everything:

Players can always challenge each other better than any GM.

And it is possible to engineer this.

Enter Boot Hill

 

On an initial look, the 2nd edition of Boot Hill should not be in this conversation. It's a d percentile game. Burning Wheel is a d6 dice pool.

But you know what it does say you should do?

Have the GM design the opening situation. Have the players issue orders, week to week And then forbid sessions of play when the players aren't directly in conflict. 

These simple rules completely redefine Burning Wheel Revised. Suddenly, players are unable to play unless they go after each other... and if the GM wrote a tight initial situation, where the characters he made up are in direct conflict, the players merely have to show up. 

And the thing is that the Burning Wheel Revised has a metric ton of pre-gen'd characters! The GM barely has to do any work! He just grabs some pregens from the books and writes some BITs. He then winds up, lets go, and then spends his sessions principally rewarding loud and proud behavior as it starts conflict. Sure, the GM is going to sometimes need to present some challenges aside from whatever the players are doing. But that won't be the focus.

Those optional mechanics? I notice that players like using them against each other, not the GM. This is because the power differential is too great to use such a mechanic with a GM. With other players? Man, it's like crack.

And if the GM doesn't want to go pregen, but kitbash? Burning Wheel Revised provides the best tools to do it out of all the Burning Wheel versions. The Monster and Magic Burners may be expensive, but Crane really breaks the math down, and provides actual tools that I can personally vouch for. You can very easily draw up a bunch of stuff with confidence.

Conclusion

The truth is, Burning Wheel Revised is a masterpiece hidden inside a game that sometimes fights against itself. Its core loop—aggressive Beliefs, immediate Artha, and those glorious, baroque conflict systems—is one of the best things roleplaying has ever produced. But the ambiguous setup, the optional-but-not-really rules, and the tendency for everything to collapse into GM-vs-players slog have kept it from reaching its full potential for too many groups.

The fix is simpler than we think: steal from Boot Hill.

Let the GM craft one sharp opening situation loaded with conflicting interests. Hand out pregenerated characters with pre-written (or quickly customized) BITs that put the players at each other's throats from minute one. Then declare: No session happens unless the players are directly pursuing conflicting goals. The GM's job shifts from "invent endless opposition" to "facilitate, adjudicate, and reward the glorious chaos that erupts."

Suddenly the Duel of Wits and Fight! stop being scary optional modules and become the main event. Artha flows naturally from real stakes. Instincts matter because other players will exploit them. The table becomes a arena of raw aggression—the very thing Burning Wheel always promised.

I haven't seriously played Burning Wheel in five years. But reading this back, I realize I'm not done with it. I'm just done with the default way people run it.

If you're a BW fan who's been frustrated, try the Boot Hill Setup. Run it hard and mean. You might rediscover why this game, at its best, has no equal.

And if it still doesn't click? Well… that's why I'm building Crescendo.

But trust me, I will always play both.

The Seraph Omega Rangers: Session 1

 

"RISE"

So Today

I was... informed... that I was going to run a Power Rangers RPG campaign. I warned my young players that I was gonna run Power Rangers the way I wanted to, and they’d have to deal with it. They agreed. They’d already made characters: a Jackson, green ranger with a lance, and Janet, a pink ranger with a bow.

No, I did not smile at their names. They wouldn't have gotten it. But don't think I didn't chuckle.

I have had the core rulebook sitting around for a few years and they just picked it up and presented me with completed character 24 hours later. Turns out, sometimes you just have people who are ready to go.

Why Did I Warn Them?

To me, the best Power Rangers episodes were always about desperation. My blood was always pumping for that show when the stakes were so absurd that the Rangers' powers made the odds better... to just being outmatched. Green With Evil and the Psycho Rangers are fantastic examples of what I'm talking about: the Ranger powers do not actually bridge the gap, but merely make it possible for the Rangers to win by their wits and courage.

So, to hilariously overstate: Power Rangers it the kid's equivalent of Conan or Solomon Kane: eldritch horrors, kickass action, and gumption, in a bubblegum sci-fantasy wrapper.

So What Happened?

It actually went really well! I had to do a quick crashcourse, but once I'd done that, I was feeling pretty confident I could avoid borking the game.

The Crash Course

I sat down and listened to Milestone Play's excellent crash course. I didn't have the time to go through the whole thing, but I skipped around his well put-together video, and learned very quickly that I needed to have the combat and rules marked. I explained to my players that I was going to run straight out of the book, and that it would take me a minute to sometimes figure out what the rules wanted me to do. The Power Rangers RPG actually has a ton of depth to it, and I didn't want to sacrifice that depth for "fun" and "speed". I explained to my young players that rules are meant to be followed, if possible, and that taking the time to learn them was worth the effort. So we were going to ruin a tutorial session of sorts, just with foot soldiers. 

The Black/Phoneout

So we had Jackson and Janet at a park with some other people, just hanging out. They weren't Power Rangers, but just highschool students were older souls. 

Suddenly all phones lost their networks, and the streetlights, which had just turned on in the gathering twilight, went out. Janet made a stupidly high Technology roll, and Jackson made an even higher Science roll. From these rolls, I gave them the following information.

1. All cell phones, regardless of carrier, were out. This meant a pretty big infrastructural outage. The fact that everyone was experiencing it meant that everyone for about a hundred square miles was isolated from the greater world.
2. The power going out at the same meant that yet another big piece of infrastructure was down.
3. An EMP blast would have been big and ugly and extremely noticeable. Nothing big and ugly and extremely noticeable happened.

Jackson and Janet realized that either a bunch of somethings went wrong at once, by accident, or there was something purposeful going on. They stood there a moment, filled with dread, as they watched everyone else in the park just figure out that multiple carriers were down.

And then there was a horrible grinding sound

Like a bunch of concrete being dug up... all around them. And these vulture-like... things.. dug came up. Made of the red soil all around them. They immediately threw themselves at the nearest humans, and began to eat them... and flesh and hair began to sprout from the monsters' bodies... forming wings. Everyone else ran, screaming.

But not Jackson and Janet. When they asked me what should be done, I simply asked: "Do you want to die well, or do you want to die poorly?" After a second, they realized what I was saying: there were too many monsters, they were too powerful, and they were too fast. It was either go down screaming or go down fighting. Pick one.

They ran straight at the things. 

There was a nearby pond, and they each threw an earthen monster into it. The monsters struggled, getting weighed down by the water. Jackson and Janet ran at another two monsters, and knocked them off the people they were savaging. Others started helping. Jackson found a metal bat nearby and literally pulverized one of the monsters in a few quick blows.

And then two of the monsters jumped on him, and one got a big bite out of him, almost killing him instantly. Once again, the players asked me what should be done, and I asked the same question: "Do you want to die well? Or do you want to die badly?" They nodded. "Let's die well."

Janet charged one of the monsters on Jackson and tackled it to the ground.  The other people tried drag the remaining monster on Jackson off, but couldn't. So Jackson choked up on the bat, and pushed the monster over, and pulverized its head through close hits with the bat.

They both got up, to see the other people were fighting back. They weren't cowering in fear anymore! They had an example of resistance, and were following! Of the original seven, four were dead.

Grind. Grind. Grind.

And now they were back up to a dozen. Jackson and Janet looked at me, overwhelmed. This wasn't going to work! How could they win without powers? They'd literally built a tank/sniper duo, and I'd said they couldn't use their powers, because they didn't even have them yet! What on earth could be done but die?

I asked the question, one more time: "Do you want to die well? Or poorly?" They both took a second, and looked at each other. Both of these players have extremely strong affective imaginations. They were there. They could hear the screams of panic, they both had flinched when Jackson had gotten bit. They didn't get mad at me for saying "No powers, yet." They were just trying to understand what the fuck they should be doing.

"Let's die well. We're going down swinging," they both said.

"What if I told you that that question about dying well or poorly was a question your characters heard, in their heads?" I asked. Everytime I had asked the question, I had no clarified whether or not it was in-game or out of game. This one little clarification turned on the lightbulb. Suddenly they understood they were being tested.

"Now, shout 'RISE'," commanded the voice. Neither knew the other heard it.

But they did. And they shouted.

Suddenly they were in full Ranger form. Six fiery wings (Yes I know the stupid AI put on four). Jackson's bat had transformed into a lance. Janet held a bow. Fire radiated from them, and halos of fire floated above their heads. The park, which was getting dark, was suddenly illuminated by the green and pink flames.

And the dozen monsters were running, in surprise. So were the people! They thought something worse had showed up!

Jackson and Janet went and looked into the pond. They saw their new fiery forms staring at them. And then suddenly they were normal. The dark was closing in. So they went back to their houses... to find nobody had power. Or cell phones. Still.

And there were things circling in the sky. Things with wings.

The Fall of the King of Sota: Chapter One

 

So we got a limitation on these session reports: the players are still in real-time, plotting against each other, so I'm going to have be general. I will record my findings as non-spoilery as I can, even at the cost of "trust me bro". Someone wants further records, I can climb through my Discord DMs.

Ransu 21-27

So this was the first week where people started sending me orders. This was amazing to watch. More than half the players had moments where they went "Wait I can really do this?" and I simply said "Yes, and here's how long it takes for you to do so". There were multiple light bulb moments where players went "Oh wait I really do have total autonomy here". 

It was a very strange moment. I have prided myself on player choice for years. Years. You can go through all the campaigns I have posted on this blog. They're all more or less "self-directed" campaigns with players. But... just handing them 1:1 time and making PVP inherently freed the players, and they've been having a blast.

So what did they do? So far? Well, we got Laurentius trying to cause an overthrow of the Church of Elpida with his own "proper" version, and all the aristocrats he's pissing off there. Of the ten people involved, he's dragged about half of them into his decision to publicly decry the Church and the nobility as robbers.

And then we got about the other half of the group, who decided that Cleft Mountain (which is definitely haunted) is the place to go to! Whether it be Montsers who want a lair, or Heroes who want to go climbing for lost lore in the middle of a total meltdown... yeah. They just decided to do a dungeon delve. Time to pull out Appendix A, or Veins of the Earth!

And I Shouldn't Have Been Surprised By This

It is a known fact that killing people must be systemically enforced in the military. If there aren't officers right behind you, telling you to kill the enemy, right now, we know for a fact that people are highly unlikely to do it. We've recreated battles. We know that people kill a lot less than we think, because in those recreations that amount of deaths that happen are way higher than the actual death records we have. People talk a big game, but when it comes down to it... even with training, we don't want to enter into conflict and kill.

And yet conflict drives games. It is what makes them fun: conflict without the horrifying consequences of real life. This is literally why game rules exist, I am starting to suspect.  Because, once the players were put in a situation where the rules pushed them into conflict, and the Weaver assured them it was okay to do so... people started going off the rails, especially the Monster players.

Chapter One

And Then Chapter One happened. And holy shit. Everything that was built up, on that Discord server, suddenly exploded.

Laurentius just went apeshit... and was rewarded for it.

Mother Elise tried to keep the peace... and accidentally burned Lady Marie.

Lady Marie walked in with the best of intentions, and bungled things so hilariously badly that it was practically the highlight of the session... until Laurentinus set an old woman on fire to prove a point.

 

The previous issues with 1:1 time I was having went right out the window, as soon as PVP was baked into Crescendo's system. This is absolutely addictive. I want more. I need more.

I DON'T WANT TO QUIT.

Story Might Be Bigger than Scripts, Bacon

The Dude Knows His Stuff... That's Part of the Problem

I have a pet peeve: when experts forget that their expertise comes at a cost. Bacon is, in comparison to me, clearly the expert in his domain. I’ve written some solid TV scripts. He has actually launched projects — a meaningful gap in experience. That said, I’m not disputing the internal logic of his argument. His conclusions follow reasonably from his assumptions. It’s those assumptions I want to challenge. Bacon gives an excellent breakdown of how story functions under singular authorial vision — the kind required by most novels, films, and many scripted games. That part is strong. The problems arise elsewhere.

What Is a Roleplaying Game?

The medium of TTRPGs

This needs to be established, apparently, because right here is where we'll find the error. TTRPGs have a vital difference from all other games, and if it is not addressed here, the rest of my article will make no sense. I am going to use the words Participants to refer to everyone at the table, GM to refer to Game Master (GM), and Player to refer to players.

I am aware, deeply, that non-GM'd games exist. I'm not using that paradigm at the moment, and I am very aware of the limitation. The point may be better to make without a GM, but I don't have enough experience to comment terribly well. I am also aware that I am generalizing. If you try saying "Yeah but this game", you will not be addressing my general point.

The General Flow of an RPG

A fictional setting and a game is agreed upon by the Participants.

The GM decides upon a situation to present the Players.

The Players decide how to respond to the situation, and inform the GM of their decisions.

The Participants, to varying degrees, decide what happens, using the setting and the game to generate prompts they interpret.

This creates a new situation, which the Players must address.

Yeah But (Generative Procedures)-

I know, I know, I really over-generalized. I'm trying to capture a very wide swath of design (although it's not nearly as wide as you think). The biggest thing left out of this is the use of procedures to generate prompts.

And this is where the video actually falls apart, right off the bat, right in the definitions.  The above flow is exhausting to maintain for most Participants... so we generate prompts using game mechanics. Like, for instance, OSR random tables, or PBTA moves, or even spending a currency (like in Amber) or class features. These are meant to provide fuel for the imaginations of the Participants. More to the point, these prompts are part of the base DNA of an RPG. You are playing with these prompts, because they are toys.

These prompts are then interpreted into a fictional event. Even if you're using something sub-par like a previously existing adventure to tell you what will happen next, you still need to interpret those events into what's going on at the table's conversation.

The essential action of a roleplaying game is the interpretation of mechanically generated prompts into a previously existing fictional situation.

And that creates a story.

Story Does Not Require Singular Authorial Intent

The oldest and most culturally potent stories we have — folk tales, myths, The Iliad, and The Odyssey — were profoundly collaborative. As Jonathan Shay showed in Achilles in Vietnam, the Iliad served as communal therapy for the trauma of war. These works were not drafted whole-cloth by a solitary genius; they emerged from a living tradition, shaped by many hands and voices over time, then later refined. Most pre-modern storytelling existed on a continuum — performed, adapted, edited by audiences and subsequent tellers. Explicit collaboration is the historical norm. Novels and movies, by contrast, are historically atypical: powerful, technologically enabled concentrations of vision, but not the default against which everything else should be judged.

TTRPGs are not a strange offshoot. They are a gamified, accelerated evolution of that ancient collaborative tradition. Procedural generation is innovative, but it is still building on the norm rather than inventing something alien to it.

On Video Games and False Comparisons

Comparisons between video games and TTRPGs often miss the mark. Video games — even procedurally rich ones like Minecraft, Breath of the Wild, or Dark Souls — are still authored experiences with bounded possibility spaces. They can borrow TTRPG-inspired techniques, but they remain fundamentally different in intent and openness. A medieval labyrinth and a spell are both magical in their own way, yet one is designed and the other is emergent.

But TTRPGs Have Design Intent!

Of course they do. Like spells or procedures, RPG rules and settings plant seeds with intent. A love potion might make someone fall in love — but with whom, and to what end? Joy or misery? The designer/GM sets the frame and possibility space; the table discovers what actually grows. The intent is story — not in the narrow scriptwriter sense, but in the broader human sense of shared meaning-making.

I agree that many storygames have deep flaws in execution. Still, a design that consciously pursues theme and emergence is doing something more aligned with storytelling’s deeper roots than pure blank-slate improvisation.

Ultimately,

Bacon isn’t wrong about how "traditionally authored" stories work. He is simply mistaking a historically recent, technologically enabled specialization for the universal essence of storytelling. The novel and the film are powerful because they concentrate vision. TTRPGs are powerful because they distribute it. Both have their place. Both can produce something transcendent. The tragedy is when fans of one feel the need to diminish the other to validate their preference. 

Story doesn’t belong to the solitary genius in front of a keyboard any more than it belongs exclusively to the table of friends rolling dice. It has always been, and will always be, something humans do together — sometimes with one person holding the torch steady, sometimes passing it hand to hand in the dark… or rolling dice to see who carries it next.

The real question isn’t “Which medium does story better?” It’s “What kind of story are we trying to tell, and which tools best serve it?” Everything else is just territorial noise.

Bacon understands a torch. I just wish he’d remember how many hands — and how much chance — have carried the flame before him.

The Fall of the King of Sota: Prologue 2

The Fall of the King of Sota: Prologue 1