Episode 735 – All Subsystems Must Die
Jun 28, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 11 segments
Jason chats with Jack Rosetree
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Jack RosetreeGuestJasonHost
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Jun 28, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 11 segments
Jason chats with Jack Rosetree
Jack RosetreeGuestJasonHost
And the whole point is – we'll take a moment and define subsystems and whatnot.
And a lot of those things sometimes aren't necessary or they're overly complicated or they don't do the things that you want them to, or you're just being really cute with your design and it's not actually helping the game ultimately.
And so, you know, the reason this came up most recently for me, we're with two, two separate little projects.
I was play testing with somebody and, and, They had a dudes on a map tactical fighter game, which is, you know, you see a lot of those in playtesting.
And at one point during feedback, I mentioned, hey, your line of sight rules are a little bit, you know, unclear.
Here's the thing.
Here's the thing.
I actually, having played a lot of games where line of sight rules were a thing, I actually know exactly what they mean.
What they mean is there are no fiddly rules around, you know, like D&D Minis was like, you can only target the closest person that you can see.
And can you see them partway? And is there a cover and blah, blah, blah.
And what they're saying is if I can see any bit of this character, I can attack it.
which is indeed a line of sight rule.
But
do see where they're coming from.
No,
And, you know, it was one of those rare occasions where I just had stunned silence as a response in the scope of the playtest because I was like, I don't know how to begin to explain to you that you do have line of sight rules, even if you don't want to admit it.
And the whole point is – we'll take a moment and define subsystems and whatnot.
And a lot of those things sometimes aren't necessary or they're overly complicated or they don't do the things that you want them to, or you're just being really cute with your design and it's not actually helping the game ultimately.
And so, you know, the reason this came up most recently for me, we're with two, two separate little projects.
I was play testing with somebody and, and, They had a dudes on a map tactical fighter game, which is, you know, you see a lot of those in playtesting.
And at one point during feedback, I mentioned, hey, your line of sight rules are a little bit, you know, unclear.
Here's the thing.
Here's the thing.
I actually, having played a lot of games where line of sight rules were a thing, I actually know exactly what they mean.
What they mean is there are no fiddly rules around, you know, like D&D Minis was like, you can only target the closest person that you can see.
And can you see them partway? And is there a cover and blah, blah, blah.
And what they're saying is if I can see any bit of this character, I can attack it.
which is indeed a line of sight rule.
But
do see where they're coming from.
No,
And, you know, it was one of those rare occasions where I just had stunned silence as a response in the scope of the playtest because I was like, I don't know how to begin to explain to you that you do have line of sight rules, even if you don't want to admit it.
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