Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis

Divers into the Abyss,

We continue the third volume of this roiling experiment in grand style with a rollicking interview with the irrepressible Jared A Sorensen. Mr Sorensen is one of our favorite RPG designers. His works include:

1. Schism

2. OctaNe

3. Inspectres

4. Lacuna part 1 and the Creation of the Mystery and the Girl from Blue City

5. Parsely

6. FreeMarket

7. Play

8. Black Lipstick

9. Fish Out of Water

10. and the forthcoming Night Waves

Rather than reviewing his career, we focus on his latest work, Fish Out of Water. It's a flipping great RPG — simple, elegant and self-evident. We try to articulate our amazement regarding this unexpected effort from Mr Sorensen while he describes his design process.

You should treat yourself and buy Jared's games here.

You can preorder Fish Out of Water here.

You can find Kurt Komoda here.

Check us out on Substack here!

Alchemically Minded Followers and Friends,

Our guest for this month's episode is none other and the inimitable, indefatigable Paul Beakley. You may know this tireless gentleman from his insightful blog, Indie Games Reading Club, in which he offers cogent, easily digested thoughts on roleplaying game design and practice. I confess that I am extremely partial to his musings, as he has written excellent analyses of The Burning Wheel Fantasy Roleplaying System. In this interview, we discuss Paul's long and storied history with games, his crowdfunding spreadsheet and his thoughts on the state of the RPG world.

Enjoy!

—Luke, Christopher and Sam

Seekers of Truth,

This year at Gen Con Christopher and I altered our traditional format and instead ran a traditional game design advice panel at Gen Con in the guise of your humble Ludological Alchemists. We had a fair turnout, many of whom had not heard of our stygian recordings of our maundering.

For the topic, we elucidated nine questions that Alchemist Luke had posed to his students regarding their final assignments for his Tabletop RPG Design class in April.

1. What is the game about? What's the concept? What genre or format does the game take? What materials does the game use? The number of players and their roles. Session time, number of sessions. What is the content of a session?

2. What themes does the game address?

3. What is the setting of the game? What is the critical problem of the setting? How does the problem in the setting reflect theme? What's causing this world to fall apart? How is this fatal flaw reflected in the theme?

4. Who are the characters that the players adopt? How are they affected by the world's fatal flaw? What tension prevents the characters from simply curing the world's problems? How is the theme manifested in the characters?

5. How do we create characters? How do the players use their characters to address the world's flaws? Again, how is this interaction tied into the game's theme?

6. How do to the characters' abilities connect to the uncertainty system?

7. How do the abilities and uncertainty systems simulate activities, conflicts and challenges for the characters?

8. How do the players interface with the uncertainty system and simulations? Are there incentives or disincentives for them to earn and spend? Who operates the uncertainty engine and how?

9. How do the rules address the players as individuals, friends, strangers, etc.? What are the roles in the operation of the game? How do the rules address the social layer of the people at the table?

You might have reached this point in reading this post and think, "Could you give an example of how to answer each of these questions?" To which We respond:

• Kagematsu

• Blue Beard's Bride

• Dungeons & Dragons Basic Edition

• Lacuna and the Girl from Blue City

• Polaris

• 3:16: Carnage Amongst the Stars

These texts all answer each of these questions in flavorful and even provocative ways.

As ever we are— —Your Humble Alchemists

Please help us continue Hypothesizing on our Substack.

Or if you'd prefer a non-Substack donation link.

Star Knights,

Long ago, the people were dying at the end of the world.

But hope was not yet lost, for Christopher and Luke discuss one of the most fascinating RPGs of the past 20 years: Polaris: Chivalric Tragedy at the Utmost North. Polaris confronts the most persistent problem in all RPGs: how to resolve conflict through dialogue alone. It's ambitious design, dripping with flavor that cloaks its unique system.

Listen to your alchemists seek the deepness in this sacred text!

Please help us continue Hypothesizing by checking out our Substack.

Or if you'd prefer a non-Substack donation link, this one might do.

Humble Supplicants,

Seekers of knowledge, I bring to you a conversation with one of our game design titans — Greg Costikyan. Greg is a designer of war games, board games, computer games and roleplaying games. His roleplaying games credits include Bug-Eyed Monsters, Toon, Paranoia, Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, The Price of Freedom and Violence: The Roleplaying Game of Egregious and Repulsive Bloodshed.

We talk about his start in games as an eager, earnest 14-year-old playtester who evolved into a developer at game designer at SPI and West End Games.

A few things that we touch on with Greg during the interview:

• Poverty is a motivator for young game designers.

• System must be tailored to setting.

• Defining games is fascism.

Please help us continue Hypothesizing by visiting our Substack.

Or if you'd prefer a non-Substack donation link.

You can find Greg's clear-eyed 2002 essay here.

Fiends,

There was no guarantee that we achieve this momentous step. And yet, through sheer grit and determination, we have arrived at the first episode of our third volume. In this episode we talk about podcast money, why we make games and then dive deep into Gregor Hutton's 2008 masterpiece, 3:16: Carnage Amongst the Stars.

To learn more, see some cool images, comment, and potentially optionally support our endeavors, visit our now-free Substack!

Ad Astra!

-Luke

Tyros,

As by now you have detected, when we make promises we move our heavens and earths to deliver on those promises. This episode is one such example. We promised to divulge to you the secrets of selling 5,000 copies of your game and in this very recording, Christopher divulges his mystical secrets! Not only do we learn that Christopher is indeed a werewolf, but we gain his formula for successfully birthing a game into this burning and damned world of ours.

If you have not been following this saga closely, Interceptor, the game Luke developed publicly on our Substack, is near completion. We'll launch it this summer, likely in June.

This is the last episode of this Volume. But we're not throwing in the proverbial towel just yet! If you're enjoying listening to us, please do rate and review this podcast on whatever platform you partake. And join us next month for more insights, more stories, and more alchemy.

Hello seekers of knowledge,

There exists a silent force at every table. It does not take turns. It has no victory condition. And yet, it determines whether your game lives or dies.

This episode, we turn our attention to the most underestimated element of game design: how players learn.

How do we transmute a designer's intent into a player's understanding? We dive deep into the arcane architecture of the manual, the tactical utility of the reminder card, and the subtle art of the "teaching aid." We explore the friction between a comprehensive reference and a functional tutorial, and ask the forbidden question: can a game truly teach itself, or are we all just wandering in a wilderness of unread errata?

We examine the layered ecosystem of understanding:

• First contact (the rulebook)
• Guided onboarding (a teacher or tutorial)
• In-play reinforcement (reference materials)
• Long-term mastery (internalization and memory)

Best to listen first. Then ask your question on our Substack, armed with context.

-Luke & Christopher

Squad,

Focus yon mind, tense thine muscles. Here in we explore forbidden and speculative lore.

In this tenth episode of our second volume of recordings, Luke enlists Sam and Christopher to speculate on a world in which RPGs possessed the might and support of the culture-media juggernaut that is the National Football League.

• How do we form teams in the league?

• How do the teams compete?

• How are the commercial breaks inserted?

• How does color commentary work?

Listen and discover our answerless answers!

The NFL started paying some of its taxes in 2015.

NFL 2025 Rules document

Chuck Klosterman's book, Football.

Join the discussion on our substack!

Tyros,

Pour the ablutions, purify thyself and cast spells of warding for the words we speak in this episode are words of secret knowledge and power. To come at them unprepared and you risk self-destruction.

In this ninth episode of our second volume of recordings, Christopher dispenses true knowledge: the process for publishing a tabletop game. Numbers, figures and procedures swirl from his lips like stars in a constellation.

Delirium and the Incompressible Work of Publishing

Christopher and Luke return to the mic still deep in the ever-shifting flavors of delirium, including a callback to the legendary Philly Taco and an unsuspecting bystander's awakening.

From there: finals are in, grades are posted, and Christopher talks about last semester's biggest win and biggest regret, including a painfully familiar story about perfectionism, momentum, and failing to land the plane.

The rest of the episode lives in the sticky boundary layer between game design and publishing: how to find an audience, why "I have a game, now I'll find a publisher" is often wishful thinking, what conventions are actually good for, and why "self-publishing" is not a magical third option.

Links and references

• What is a "Philly Taco," really?
• PAX Unplugged
• Origins Game Fair
• itch.io
• If you're forming an LLC and need an EIN: IRS "Get an employer identification number" page

What conversations precipitated the need for such links? You must listen and learn…

If you want more episode, more show notes, more information, and whatever new alchemical residue this conversation leaves behind, the Ludological Alchemy Substack is where it all goes to congeal. You can read along there, subscribe, and get the next episode delivered straight to your inbox before delirium changes flavor again.