BIND | TTRPGs

Qestion & Answer Rules

Dec 28, 2025 · 2 min read · Design BIND

BIND's rules have split into 'basic' and 'not-so-basic'. But now the divide has shifted again, this time without planning or care, just naturally. The 'basic' rules became 'must-have', or 'must-do', and the rest has shifted to rules which answer questions. Examples: "Roll for actions when there is a danger of something …

Action Points

Nov 18, 2025 · 2 min read · Design BIND

Using action points instead of initiative has been great. It works like this: Just Go! We just start, then whoever said they hit the bartender spends an Action Point. Most characters have 3. Once everyone's spent their Action Points, a new round begins. The table doesn't have that feeling of 'combat!, wait, no, roll …

Folding Rules

Oct 14, 2025 · 6 min read · BIND Design

All rules are bad, but many are necessary. A game about travel without rules for carrying things just forces the GM to come up with rules on the fly. But needing rules to resolve a lot of situations doesn't mean a lot rules. Designers can cheat by folding rules over each other, so they cover more area, without taking …

Playtesting BIND

Sep 29, 2025 · 3 min read · BIND Design

I can't remember most of what playtesting taught me over the last ten years, but I remember these things: XP on the Sheet Players didn't like having to look up the cost to buy Traits with experience points. This seems a bit ridiculous, given that you only look up costs (at most) once per session and there are only a …

Only a Company Can Make an RPG

Jul 31, 2025 · 3 min read · FOSS BIND

The RPG scene has repeatedly laughed, cried, or tooted about the various 'indie RPGs' made by corporations with with multiple accountants. But wherever you want to draw the line, it can't be a single author, because nobody makes a standard RPG alone. Even the smallest, the most indie of the indie-RPGs, has a credits …

The Joys of Automation

May 10, 2025 · 11 min read · BIND LaTeX Design

I don't think any sane individual could write something like BIND without automation tools. Games with a similar scope require a team. (BIND also requires a team - everyone who's joined to comment, edit, or draw, has improved the game immensely, but that's not today's topic) Step Five A lot of people imagine they could …

Balancing Mana Points

Apr 6, 2025 · 3 min read · Design BIND

One Reddit comment described the problem of using Mana Points in an RPG (as opposed to spell slots): If it's a game with more-or-less d20 fantasy or JRPG video game progression, then it's very difficult to find a cost for an ability early in the game that feels worth the price when you have max 8 mp that doesn't seem …

Show Me in the Module

Mar 5, 2025 · 5 min read · Design BIND

I have a beef with chonky source books that say 'changelings do this', and 'always describe the traps, don't just say 1D6 trap-damage', and then expecting the reader to create the world in adherence to these principles. "How about you do your job and write this into the adventure modules?", I find myself thinking. "How …

BIND's Story Point System

Mar 1, 2025 · 4 min read · BIND Design

The Problem I just wanted to rock up to the table and start the game, but the DM had other ideas. He wanted all of us to write a character back-story. Having three jobs at the time, I didn't feel enamoured with my homework. The little story meant a hurdle to jump over to get to the actual game. But let me back-up and …

Theft as Mnemonics

Feb 3, 2025 · 5 min read · Design BIND

The old A,D&D Ravenloft modules were some cheesy shite. Even the most sullen and macabre Goth in Gotham couldn't extract a nugget of honest fear from the campy Hammer Horror rip-offs. But we loved them. Why? Ravenloft began with Dracula-but-with-hitpoints, then added wagons of gypsies carrying plot, Frankenstein's …