Jul 28, 2026 · 44 min · 11 segments
Today Will (Runeforged Games) and I discuss the ways darkvision ruins tension, we talk cognitive load for Game Masters, layout-driven adventure design, and why easy systems like ShadowDark, Nimble…
Yeah.
You know, you mentioned, It's easier for players.
I think it's easier for the game master.
Much.
And honestly, one of the things as a guy with a full-time job, a father, doing all this DungeonTube stuff on the side and even trying to write my own game, burnout is a big factor.
Yeah, tell me about it.
Or even, like, you know, at times, I've been running for, like, seven or eight players at one time.
I can't do that.
I applaud you.
Four is, like, the most I want to do, but I usually end up running for five or six, and four is definitely my sweet spot.
But, yeah,
so... you picked this as one of the conversations i'd look at your thoughts on like are there games that like shadow dark is obviously an example that we both yeah uh relate to here but are there games that you think do it well or like from a design point what do you think does work or doesn't work with games and game masters and cognitive load
In my experience, it's almost always GM burnout that ends campaigns versus any sort of player issues or anything like that.
And I think a big reason why that's the case is a lot of these bigger games, like 5th Edition, like Pathfinder, there's just so much going on.
There's so much burden placed on the GM to be managing all these different things.
Like the stat block for a basic goblin is like half a page or something crazy.
And that's just too much, especially if you want to be running multiple different types of creatures in the same encounter.
So I am a huge fan of games like Shadow Dark, try to keep things very simple.
They really go out of their way to do layout in such a way that pretty much everything that you need for a given encounter is going to be on a single page or at least a two page spread.
That makes things a lot easier for the GM, not having to flip back and forth between different sections of the book, not having to keep all these really complex rules in their head at any given time, giving GMs latitude to do the rulings over rules that we see so commonly in the OSR.
So this is a really big thing for me.
I think that other games that are doing this well right now, of the few that I am aware of, the Nimble 2.0 is one of these things.
Yeah.
You know, you mentioned, It's easier for players.
I think it's easier for the game master.
Much.
And honestly, one of the things as a guy with a full-time job, a father, doing all this DungeonTube stuff on the side and even trying to write my own game, burnout is a big factor.
Yeah, tell me about it.
Or even, like, you know, at times, I've been running for, like, seven or eight players at one time.
I can't do that.
I applaud you.
Four is, like, the most I want to do, but I usually end up running for five or six, and four is definitely my sweet spot.
But, yeah,
so... you picked this as one of the conversations i'd look at your thoughts on like are there games that like shadow dark is obviously an example that we both yeah uh relate to here but are there games that you think do it well or like from a design point what do you think does work or doesn't work with games and game masters and cognitive load
In my experience, it's almost always GM burnout that ends campaigns versus any sort of player issues or anything like that.
And I think a big reason why that's the case is a lot of these bigger games, like 5th Edition, like Pathfinder, there's just so much going on.
There's so much burden placed on the GM to be managing all these different things.
Like the stat block for a basic goblin is like half a page or something crazy.
And that's just too much, especially if you want to be running multiple different types of creatures in the same encounter.
So I am a huge fan of games like Shadow Dark, try to keep things very simple.
They really go out of their way to do layout in such a way that pretty much everything that you need for a given encounter is going to be on a single page or at least a two page spread.
That makes things a lot easier for the GM, not having to flip back and forth between different sections of the book, not having to keep all these really complex rules in their head at any given time, giving GMs latitude to do the rulings over rules that we see so commonly in the OSR.
So this is a really big thing for me.
I think that other games that are doing this well right now, of the few that I am aware of, the Nimble 2.0 is one of these things.
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3 of 4
Indie Layout Crushes Wizards
Are indie designers outclassing big game publishers?
GM Burnout and Cognitive Load
Why do campaigns really end for GMs?
Built-In Timer Mechanic
Add a ticking clock to one-shots easily.
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