Exploring how Moon Rings takes a simple card-grid and turns it into a journaling game about a witch hunting for rings in a dangerous labyrinth. And how I might use this in future game design classes.
I also have that tarot deck! So fun to look at. I also don't use it enough, but I have a million tarot decks. I also got the fancy custom deck for Moon Rings. Couldn't resist. Agree re: design and letting players create story and not forcing an arc.
In an euro or efficiency board game, I can see being a bit more heavy handed with adding an arc. For example in Rauha, the game changes to an "Age II" deck of more powerful cards at the half-way point. But in a solo journaling game that is focused on self-expression and narrative, leaving it more open ended makes a lot of sense.
I was thinking of a past article you wrote about player agency on a hexgrid map. One of the points you made in the article was the illusion of choice resulting from having no information about the contents of a hex tile (either face down or resulting from a randomized roll table of events). Do you think this game has a similiar issue?
My follow up thought was that you can give this game as an example of an Nth iteration to your students, but you could then ask the follow up question: What might an N+1 iteration look like? What are the pros and cons of this design decision?
To answer my own question, if the game contains the illusion of choice, I might consider adding an opening game mechanic where the player can reveal 1 or more cards before starting there opening move. I would have to know the game more to determine the right balance, but first pass would be something like roll the d12, low result reveal 1 inner tile lose 1-2 blood, roll 7-10 lose 3-4 blood reveal one inner and one outer tile, roll 11-12 lose 2 blood reveal 1 inner and 2 outer but on opposite sides. (Could do lose a finger at a certain tier, but I don’t know how impactful losing a finger is.) Cons: balance would need to be figured out, but may distract from the core game loop. Losing blood at the start may be a feel-bad. Not revealing a tile may also be a feel-bad. Pros: Players have agency from the first move and a possible plan of action (go towards or away from that tile).
I think that does apply here, particularly in the first few moves. The player has no information by which to choose which card to move to next. Sort of like the first move in Battleship. But, also like Battleship, as more information is revealed there is more reason to choose one next position vs. another.
It's important to note that many of the challenges result in being able to peek at cards which does give information and allows a choice. Also, backtracking over revealed cards costs blood, so pathing matters.
Ultimately I don't think Moon Rings is trying to achieve the "tough choices" kind of fun. It is much more about the self-expression, narrative, and fantasy kinds of fun. But these would all be good topics to discuss in the context of a game design class!
But on a master class for the next level of just tabletop experience, I’m going to suggest my Fame system.
It’s leans towards rules light, but I organized it for easy understanding.
Comparison.
If you had to find every fire spell/power/feat in Dungeons & Dragons, it would be on several different pages in a few books.
You can learn about every single fire power in Tales from Trinity City on pages 52-57 in the rulebook, all under Fire Mastery.
Read that again.
And character creation is picking your background - which is your origin, and then choosing the powers and skills that you want to take, and in a minute, you’re off to save the world!
It’s not 40 minutes of picking so many things.
It’s not choosing from 100s of meaningless choices that add +1 this or that, it’s I pick Fire Mastery and I unlock more abilities as I get more powerful.
And it’s not, I can learn everything, there’s a cap of a mix of 7 powers and skills, and your primary powers and skills are what you’re known for.
Whoa, I picked up Moon Rings at a convention a few weeks ago. A convention to which I also brought the Eldritch Overload tarot deck. This is how I know Im subscribed to the right place.
Fantastic breakdown of how push-your-luck mechanics create tension without feeling arbitrary. The finger-as-resource design is clever becuase it ties mechanical loss directly to narrative stakes in a way that feels visceral. When I was designing my first solo journalling game, I struggled with balancing luck mitigation and keeping failure meaningful. Seeing how Moon Rings layers limited spell uses over the dice adds that agency sweet spot.
this seems super cool :D also, thank you for pointing out that a tarot deck can be used to substitute for regular playing cards! i recently got a new (and my first) tarot deck, so i love that now, i can get to use it for both games that use tarot and 'regular' decks :) (i got Charlie Claire Burgess's "Fifth Spirit Tarot", in case anyone is interested ^^ i love how queer and diverse it is!) thank you for sharing <3
I also have that tarot deck! So fun to look at. I also don't use it enough, but I have a million tarot decks. I also got the fancy custom deck for Moon Rings. Couldn't resist. Agree re: design and letting players create story and not forcing an arc.
In an euro or efficiency board game, I can see being a bit more heavy handed with adding an arc. For example in Rauha, the game changes to an "Age II" deck of more powerful cards at the half-way point. But in a solo journaling game that is focused on self-expression and narrative, leaving it more open ended makes a lot of sense.
Also, I love that tarot deck! It's a good one.
ah, yeah, I meant specifically in this context (TTRPGs, solo journaling games)
I was thinking of a past article you wrote about player agency on a hexgrid map. One of the points you made in the article was the illusion of choice resulting from having no information about the contents of a hex tile (either face down or resulting from a randomized roll table of events). Do you think this game has a similiar issue?
My follow up thought was that you can give this game as an example of an Nth iteration to your students, but you could then ask the follow up question: What might an N+1 iteration look like? What are the pros and cons of this design decision?
To answer my own question, if the game contains the illusion of choice, I might consider adding an opening game mechanic where the player can reveal 1 or more cards before starting there opening move. I would have to know the game more to determine the right balance, but first pass would be something like roll the d12, low result reveal 1 inner tile lose 1-2 blood, roll 7-10 lose 3-4 blood reveal one inner and one outer tile, roll 11-12 lose 2 blood reveal 1 inner and 2 outer but on opposite sides. (Could do lose a finger at a certain tier, but I don’t know how impactful losing a finger is.) Cons: balance would need to be figured out, but may distract from the core game loop. Losing blood at the start may be a feel-bad. Not revealing a tile may also be a feel-bad. Pros: Players have agency from the first move and a possible plan of action (go towards or away from that tile).
I think that does apply here, particularly in the first few moves. The player has no information by which to choose which card to move to next. Sort of like the first move in Battleship. But, also like Battleship, as more information is revealed there is more reason to choose one next position vs. another.
It's important to note that many of the challenges result in being able to peek at cards which does give information and allows a choice. Also, backtracking over revealed cards costs blood, so pathing matters.
Ultimately I don't think Moon Rings is trying to achieve the "tough choices" kind of fun. It is much more about the self-expression, narrative, and fantasy kinds of fun. But these would all be good topics to discuss in the context of a game design class!
I discussed this exact design challenge in the context of Epsilon, so you might find it interesting: https://omnes.exeunt.press/p/epsilon-004
Thanks for the comment!
I like the mechanics of this game.
But on a master class for the next level of just tabletop experience, I’m going to suggest my Fame system.
It’s leans towards rules light, but I organized it for easy understanding.
Comparison.
If you had to find every fire spell/power/feat in Dungeons & Dragons, it would be on several different pages in a few books.
You can learn about every single fire power in Tales from Trinity City on pages 52-57 in the rulebook, all under Fire Mastery.
Read that again.
And character creation is picking your background - which is your origin, and then choosing the powers and skills that you want to take, and in a minute, you’re off to save the world!
It’s not 40 minutes of picking so many things.
It’s not choosing from 100s of meaningless choices that add +1 this or that, it’s I pick Fire Mastery and I unlock more abilities as I get more powerful.
And it’s not, I can learn everything, there’s a cap of a mix of 7 powers and skills, and your primary powers and skills are what you’re known for.
Whoa, I picked up Moon Rings at a convention a few weeks ago. A convention to which I also brought the Eldritch Overload tarot deck. This is how I know Im subscribed to the right place.
Fantastic breakdown of how push-your-luck mechanics create tension without feeling arbitrary. The finger-as-resource design is clever becuase it ties mechanical loss directly to narrative stakes in a way that feels visceral. When I was designing my first solo journalling game, I struggled with balancing luck mitigation and keeping failure meaningful. Seeing how Moon Rings layers limited spell uses over the dice adds that agency sweet spot.
this seems super cool :D also, thank you for pointing out that a tarot deck can be used to substitute for regular playing cards! i recently got a new (and my first) tarot deck, so i love that now, i can get to use it for both games that use tarot and 'regular' decks :) (i got Charlie Claire Burgess's "Fifth Spirit Tarot", in case anyone is interested ^^ i love how queer and diverse it is!) thank you for sharing <3