Bastionland Podcast - Tabletop Roleplaying Game Design · Chris McDowall

Spencer Campbell's Rule of Three

·52 min·3 clips

Spire gives classes "the do cool shit button," letting players challenge how the game works for a moment.

1. Bastionland Podcast's "rule of three" centers on Spencer Campbell choosing three tabletop games that shaped his design thinking. 2. Chris McDowell hosts the episode, and Spencer Campbell is the guest as the creator of games including Hunt, Reap, Rune, Lumen, Luna, Loot, Light, Null, Nova, Nest, Drifters, Dusk, Dust, Slayers, Seasons, and Score. 3. The episode asks which three games are "the most foundational" to Spencer Campbell's ideas about play, rather than his changing list of favorites. 4. Root appears first as a "dudes on a map" and area-control game set in a forest of villages, paths, and rivers. 5. Spencer says Root made asymmetry click because the Marquis de Cat builds an engine while a raccoon faction collects junk and trades it. 6. He notes that the same game can feel very different because each faction pursues victory points through its own rules. 7. Chris and Spencer also talk about how animal factions can pull in players who would not sit down to a historical war game. 8. Spencer explains that Root can be hard to teach because asymmetric factions require different explanations. 9. He points to the box's tutorialized first two rounds as a smart way to teach the game without overwhelming players. 10. He also says asymmetry lowers cognitive load by letting players choose factions with different levels of complexity. 11. Spire becomes the next focus, and Spencer calls out its premise of dark-elven political revolutionaries fighting an oppressive white elf regime in a mile-high city. 12. He says Spire's classes are defined by abilities that can change the fiction or break the game in controlled ways. 13. Spencer describes those abilities as a "do cool shit button" that lets players challenge the assumptions of play. 14. Chris connects that reaction to his own response to Spire's classes, which also pushed him toward making more distinctive character options. 15. Spencer says Spire and Heart showed him that advancement can be narratively focused instead of tied to gold or XP. 16. He also praises the setting presentation and Adrian Stone's art for making the city feel like a grab bag of usable ideas rather than an encyclopedia. 17. Blades in the Dark is the third game, and Spencer says it shaped some of his longest campaigns as a GM. 18. He describes Blades as a tight loop of briefing, mission, and debriefing, with faction movement happening between sessions. 19. Listeners who like tabletop game design, asymmetry, and class-based systems will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners who want quick recaps without design discussion may skip this one.

As heard by us

A thoughtful Rule of Three conversation about tabletop design and memorable classes.

Spencer Campbell joins the Rule of Three to talk through three tabletop games that matter to him, and the discussion is at its best when it settles into class design.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Listen if you want Spencer Campbell talking through why certain tabletop classes feel exciting right away.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Bastionland Podcast - Tabletop Roleplaying Game Design