TTRPG Design Lenses

UPDATE: I have made a much more printer friendly version of this after having figured out how to get the right dimensions for standard playing cards on Canva. I didn't review the content, and some of the titles awkwardly collide with the subtitles, but at least it's way more useful to anyone who might want to print them off and proxy them over some playing cards or M:tG cards or whatever.

I'm also working on a full guide to writing a TTRPG, with checklists and everything. I want to release it separately from this, but I'm still trying to make it work well alongside it.  I wish I could give free keys to the people who have bought this, but unfortunately there isn't a way for me to do that.

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Here's a tool for designing and playtesting ttrpgs or other physical games. I made this to help myself update my old work, and hopefully it will help others. As far as I know, there aren't any decks made specifically for TTRPGs available elsewhere. I tried to make it applicable to card games and boardgames the best I could, but you may have to ignore a few points that don't apply.

If you're unfamiliar with design lenses, they are cards that help you to focus on an important topic across all aspects of the game without getting distracted by other things that need to be done. Each card contains a list of items to contemplate, most often phrased as questions to get you thinking. The goal is not to answer each question so much as it is to use them as a starting point to consider what might need to change. Game design is a massive domain, and each item on a card is approximately a whole twitter thread's worth of theory, so feel free to research a topic if you feel you could learn more about it.

There's no particular order you need to use them in, and my recommendation would be to take a break of at least an hour after using each card. If you're not working to a tight deadline, it can be easier to just pick a single card for the day and apply it to however many projects you're comfortable working on in a day.

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Pricing note: This design tool is now $20. It was sitting at 7000 downloads having only made $23, so I removed pay what you want.

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The "Crowdfunding" card is based largely on Riley Rethal's PUNCHGO! and Trinity Knot Studio's TKS Pre-Crowdfunding Checklist, which are both great resources from Ken Davidson's TTRPG Resource Jam.

This is a submission to TTRPG Resource Jam and Itch.io's Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality.