Bastionland Podcast - Tabletop Roleplaying Game Design · Chris McDowall

Quintin Smith's Rule of Three

·1 hr 18 min·5 clips

Quinton Smith says Torchbearer works because it makes players feel cold, tired, wet, and scared.

1. Bastionland Podcast returns to the rule-of-three format with Chris McDowell and Quinton Smith talking about tabletop roleplaying game design. 2. Chris McDowell hosts, and Quinton Smith appears as the guest after moving from video game journalism and board-game criticism into RPG coverage. 3. The episode asks what three games matter to Smith and why Torchbearer and Sidereal Confluence keep pulling his attention. 4. Smith says Torchbearer is the dungeon game that makes him feel like he is really spelunking, not just clearing a fantasy map. 5. He describes dungeons as places where everything on your back feels heavy and the player keeps asking when to turn around. 6. McDowell contrasts that with his own dungeon design, which leans toward stupid fun houses, goblins in jelly, and nightmare-room surprises. 7. Smith says Torchbearer works because it is honest about who would enter a dungeon at all: desperate people. 8. He points to the Grind, Beliefs, and traits as signs that the game gets everyone on the same page before play begins. 9. Smith says the system's conditions matter because the game uses tired, hungry, and afraid instead of only hit points. 10. McDowell remembers a Torchbearer cave scene with a sheer drop, wet walls, and a giant spider at the bottom. 11. Smith argues that fear in tabletop games works differently from film or video games because players break tension with jokes. 12. He cites the Mothership Warden's Manual advice to describe smell, touch, and taste so players feel the threat in their bodies. 13. Smith says a cobble slash that leaves a character breathing heavily is more plausible than abstract hit point loss. 14. McDowell agrees that different RPGs serve different play styles, from tactical problem-solving to character arcs. 15. Smith connects that idea to Blades in the Dark, Heart, and Spire as games that fuse crunch with fiction-driven consequences. 16. The discussion returns to Mothership, Delta Green, and Impossible Landscapes as examples of games that can crowd out breathing room between characters. 17. The tone is reflective and analytical, with both speakers switching quickly between design theory and concrete table stories. 18. The format is a conversational interview, but it often becomes a design workshop about what different mechanics ask players to feel. 19. Best for players and designers who care about dungeon procedure, asymmetric factions, and RPG emotion. 20. Skip if you want pure actual-play scenes or rules-light fantasy.

As heard by us

A grounded chat about how RPG mechanics change the feel of play.

Chris McDowell returns to the rule-of-three format with Quinton Smith, and the episode works best when it stays with the shift from board games into RPG design.

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Why you'd press play

Hear why RPG classes work better when they start affecting the whole table.

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