BIND | TTRPGs

Happily Ahistorical

Oct 12, 2023 · 2 min read · BIND

RPG worlds need histories, so I had to write some history for BIND's world, Fenestra. This was a big mistake.

The writing smelt bad, in that peculiar way that most fantasy writing is bad, before half a page went down. The problem came from having to write - every word was vestigial, nothing really mattered; it wasn't …

How I Made BIND's Monsters

Jun 27, 2023 · 2 min read · BIND

BIND began as a D&D-reaction. "Mathematically, these rules stand some serious improvement". After that, I only wanted some generic fantasy monsters to make an example game.

Unfortunately, art costs money, which I didn't have. The first RPG I'd made lost me a lot of time wandering through cheap stock-art, …

Why BIND Rules Don't Allow Players to Go for the Eyes

Jun 7, 2023 · 4 min read · BIND

(a story about spreadsheet failure)

I've considered changing BIND's 'to-hit' system to let players 'go for the eyes' (or a headshot, or otherwise decide to attempt a vitals shot), and decided against it. My reasons sit below, but expect lots of boring numbers. You have been warned. (or just skip to the conclusions) …

New Handouts

Apr 29, 2023 · 2 min read · LaTeX BIND

BIND's maps have their numbers and comments applied by its writing tool, LaTeX. This makes handouts really easy, because the same map can present different layers to different people.

Here's the plan so far (it's untested, none of my players have seen this):

The fallen temple to Qualme (god of death and pensions) has …

No Introduction Necessary

Apr 22, 2023 · 3 min read · BIND Theory Memoirs

It's been commented that BIND has no introduction, saying 'what is a roleplaying game?', and I don't think it needs one.

Of course, nobody's picking this thing up in a 90's game store, et c., but I feel we have a deeper problem. I think that no RPG - including D&D - really needs an explanation of 'how to do …

Minified vs Minimalist Rules

Mar 19, 2023 · 4 min read · BIND

D&D got a way with a lot of bad habits, because it was the only game in town. People are expected to read the core rules, then the Dungeon Master's Guide, then an adventure. I've copied their style, and only now realized the error of front-loading MAXIMUM RULES.

The order of books in this case is:

Core Rules ( …

Spreadsheets are Great

Jan 27, 2023 · 3 min read · Theory Design BIND

Whenever I'm unsure about a rule, I pull out a basic spreadsheet, and start populating numbers.

The image I had for the ghoul spell began with a mage who could raise small things from the dead, like a cat, or dog. Slowly, the dark sorcerer would learn to raise gnomes, then humans, and finally raise undead ogres or …

Fate Points in BIND

Apr 12, 2022 · 8 min read · BIND Design

Remember that book or film where the protagonist received a nasty wound, then persevered, and won the day? Well that can't happen in RPGs, and that's a shame. So my solution is Fate Points (FP).

Reasons People Created Hit Points

Hit Points make sense as a standard game abstraction, until they apply to PCs. If PCs …

The OGL is not Open

Mar 22, 2022 · 4 min read · BIND Design FOSS

The Open Gaming Licence (OGL) does not in fact produce terribly open games, so I wish people would stop referring to such RPGs as 'open source'.

No Real Books

The OGL specifically excludes Product Identity.

"Product Identity" means product and product line names, logos and identifying marks including …

The Open Source RPG Dream

Jan 30, 2022 · 9 min read · Theory BIND FOSS

The cynics say that we keep reinventing the wheel. They say we have too many RPGs, mostly doing the same thing, and why bother to write yet another RPG about elves and magic swords? And they have one thing right - we should stop re-writing RPGs from scratch. Instead, we should change them.

Knave started as a …