Explicit expectation-setting would at least let me know I'm playing poker and not blackjack! Doling it out through "hints" doesn't cut it.

Dust Devils got many of us (including @jmstar.bsky.social) into indie TTRPGs in the first place. It's not that genre mashups aren't fun, but they don't quite provide rich connections to other humans or traditions of storytelling that others have thought a lot about. We build on others' work!

One pillar of my research & design praxis is that TTRPGs are expressive of knowledge, which manifests itself in just how much genre knowledge a creative team happens to bring to the table.

Monsterhearts, for example, sings b/c the game is *hyper-aware* of how its teen horror genre works, etc.

Game balance is incredibly tough, and the kind of immersive sim that lets all gameplay responses be applicable is incredibly performative and difficult to make, but the games with the Secret Right Answer to their gameplay uncertainties still raise an eyebrow.

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