Scalability in the Game

[True Black Raven]

What does scalability in the game mean to you and how do you implement it/what does it look like?



In all threads where Rob's book (Dave Arneson's True Genius) is quoted please note Copyright Robert J Kuntz 2014-2017

[hengest]

I have no idea, can you provide or link to a quote about this? I want to know more.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Do either of you have the book? I moved stuff around and cannot lay my hands on my copy at the moment. If someone else does not post first, I will after I find the book.

[hengest]

Mar 17, 2021 15:39:29 GMT -5 The Perilous Dreamer said:

Do either of you have the book? I moved stuff around and cannot lay my hands on my copy at the moment. If someone else does not post first, I will after I find the book.

I never got any of Rob's recent publications, I think I was away from the forum when they came out and then never caught up. But I am interested. His ideas always sounded like they were boiled out of a lifetime of experience and I wished I could spend more time on them. If you find it, thanks in advance.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Mar 17, 2021 19:48:00 GMT -5 hengest said:

Mar 17, 2021 15:39:29 GMT -5 The Perilous Dreamer said:

Do either of you have the book? I moved stuff around and cannot lay my hands on my copy at the moment. If someone else does not post first, I will after I find the book.

I never got any of Rob's recent publications, I think I was away from the forum when they came out and then never caught up. But I am interested. His ideas always sounded like they were boiled out of a lifetime of experience and I wished I could spend more time on them. If you find it, thanks in advance.

 I will let you know when I locate it. In the meantime here is the link for anyone who wants it. Dave Arneson's True Genius It is $15.00 plus shipping and tax. It is not very thick, but there is a lot in it.

I really hope he does the other books that are planned.

[hengest]

Mar 17, 2021 22:41:30 GMT -5 The Perilous Dreamer said:

Mar 17, 2021 19:48:00 GMT -5 hengest said:

I should probably spring for this.  If I do, I will try to remember to revisit this thread.  There are times when I cannot believe Rob Kuntz frequented this board.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Mar 17, 2021 22:56:12 GMT -5 hengest said:

Mar 17, 2021 22:41:30 GMT -5 The Perilous Dreamer said:

I should probably spring for this.  If I do, I will try to remember to revisit this thread.  There are times when I cannot believe Rob Kuntz frequented this board.

Why do you say that? Just curious. He posted as much here as he did at Dragonsfoot and OD&D Discussion combined in a fairly brief time with a much smaller audience. But here he was among friends and fans.

[hengest]

Mar 17, 2021 23:05:38 GMT -5 The Perilous Dreamer said:

Mar 17, 2021 22:56:12 GMT -5 hengest said:

I should probably spring for this.  If I do, I will try to remember to revisit this thread.  There are times when I cannot believe Rob Kuntz frequented this board.

Why do you say that? Just curious. He posted as much here as he did at Dragonsfoot and OD&D Discussion combined in a fairly brief time with a much smaller audience. But here he was among friends and fans.

I don't mean because this board is lowly or anything, I just meant because he was there at the beginning of the hobby and I was not, but we interacted a bit on this board.  That is what is amazing to me.  You were there playing and reffing at the dawn, too, so probably my surprise seems out of place!  

Edit: The Perilous Dreamer , I see there are other publications available at Three Line Studio, one on Don Kaye and one called The Game that Changed Everything, do you know of other planned works?    

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Mar 17, 2021 23:20:33 GMT -5 hengest said:

Mar 17, 2021 23:05:38 GMT -5 The Perilous Dreamer said:

Why do you say that? Just curious. He posted as much here as he did at Dragonsfoot and OD&D Discussion combined in a fairly brief time with a much smaller audience. But here he was among friends and fans.

I don't mean because this board is lowly or anything, I just meant because he was there at the beginning of the hobby and I was not, but we interacted a bit on this board.  That is what is amazing to me.  You were there playing and reffing at the dawn, too, so probably my surprise seems out of place!  

Edit: The Perilous Dreamer , I see there are other publications available at Three Line Studio, one on Don Kaye and one called The Game that Changed Everything, do you know of other planned works?    

No, your surprise is not out of place.

He has some other books planned that really go into some detail about Arneson and Gygax and details that he is not prevented by an nda from talking about like Arneson was. When I find the book I will give you the names as proposed.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Found it! 

At the back of the book he (Robert J Kuntz) gives the title "A New Ethos in Game Design." He then gives a table of Contents and a few pages of one paragraph excerpts from the book. I really hope he gets this published before too many years. Even more I hope he finishes it.

The chapters I most want to read are "What Arneson Knew," "What Gygax Knew and What He Changed," and "Beyond What Arneson and Gygax Knew."

I have not read Dave Arneson's True Genius for a while and I will need to re-read it. 












Dave Arneson's True Genius Copyright Robert J Kuntz 2014-2017

[The Perilous Dreamer]

I have not had time to read the book yet, but I did do a skim of it and I also did a forum search here and I am not turning up anything relevant outside this thread. 

However, I think (using Ockham's razor) that we should just go to the definition of the word first. 

Scalability

Scalability is the property of a system to handle a growing amount of work by adding resources to the system.

Scalability can be measured over multiple dimensions, such as:

Administrative scalability: The ability for an increasing number of organizations or users to access a system.
Functional scalability: The ability to enhance the system by adding new functionality without disrupting existing activities.
Geographic scalability: The ability to maintain effectiveness during expansion from a local area to a larger region.
Load scalability: The ability for a distributed system to expand and contract to accommodate heavier or lighter loads, including, the ease with which a system or component can be modified, added, or removed, to accommodate changing loads.
Generation scalability: The ability of a system to scale by adopting new generations of components.
Heterogeneous scalability is the ability to adopt components from different vendors.

What does Scalability mean?

Scalability is an attribute that describes the ability of a process, network, software or organization to grow and manage increased demand. A system, business or software that is described as scalable has an advantage because it is more adaptable to the changing needs or demands of its users or clients.

Scalability is often a sign of stability and competitiveness, as it means the network, system, software or organization is ready to handle the influx of demand, increased productivity, trends, changing needs and even presence or introduction of new competitors.

In its simplest form scalability (or expandability) for D&D, that would mean that you can game with one player or many players, you can game with a bunch of 8 year olds or 70 year olds (you can even mix them together). But that is only one facet, you can expand any part of the game from the users (players) to a simple encounter in a tiny hamlet up to domain play and a clash between kingdoms.