This is Split/Party, a newsletter about Breaking TTRPGs apart and finding what makes them tick .
We are not a hype newsletter. I will hype your game anytime, anywhere; just not here.
Here, we break games. We leave marketing, wishful thinking and brainstorming at the door. We deal with the ways games actually are, how people play them and how people read them.
Not here to sell books; I assume you already got them and you are wondering, “damn, how do I bring this to the table?” We see what may be the hurdles that may make you pick a game over other, identify the unique elements of the game and its stress points, and point towards the planning your first sessions.
We have a framework for review and we use it. We design it to fulfill four general goals:
Get a general feel of a game before having to invest precious time and other resources into it;
Break it down in a way that makes easier to learn and teach the game;
Study the design, and how a game engine shapes play the way it does;
Analyse the potential for further design and how to bring the lessons from this game to another game.
It is a different framework, but most reviewers out there focus on if you should buy a game, if you are getting Value for your Content, or are of the “unboxing” model. We want to offer something different; hopefully you find it useful and stick around. If you have other frameworks or other ideas, we would like to hear about it! We love this art form and think having more frameworks of analysis out there only improves the medium.
Hope to see you around even as we Split/Party.