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Currently Playing: Prep Isn't Enough: Why More Contingency Branches Never Close the Gap

Dr. Ben discusses Ashby's Law for TTRPGs (Episode #189). #dnd #pathfinder #ttrpg #wfrp Website https://rpgphd.com/ Discord https://discord.gg/e49rJVQCwW RPG PHD swag!!! https://rpg-phd.myspreadshop.com Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089593636905 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/rpg_phd/ Bluesky @rpg-phd.bsky.social Special thanks to Evelina for the thumbnail template, much appreciated!! 😊 Description This episode covers Ross Ashby's cybernetics, why GM prep breaks down under player creativity, and how to design faction systems, clocks, and dynamic threat mechanics that absorb chaos instead of trying to out-plan it. Tags cybernetics, Ross Ashby, law of requisite variety, TTRPG design, game master tips, GM advice, tabletop RPG, system design, Apocalypse World, Blades in the Dark, PbtA, game theory, RPG design theory, homeostasis, second-order cybernetics, faction design, clocks TTRPG, improv for GMs, RPG PHD --------------------------------------------- 00:00 Intro 01:51 Theory Ashby's Law 05:29 Design Application 10:13 Gamemaster Application 14:12 Pitfalls 17:26 Step By Step Guide 19:59 Thoughts? -------------------------------------------- Ashby, W. Ross. An Introduction to Cybernetics. Chapman & Hall, 1956. (Source for the Law of Requisite Variety, "only variety can destroy variety," and the attenuation/amplification framework.) Ashby, W. Ross. "Design for a Brain." Electronic Engineering, 1948, and later expanded into Design for a Brain: The Origin of Adaptive Behaviour (Chapman & Hall, 1952). (Source for the homeostat.) von Foerster, Heinz. Observing Systems. Intersystems Publications, 1981. (Foundational text for second-order cybernetics and the observer-inside-the-system principle.) Johnstone, Keith. Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre. Faber and Faber, 1979. (Source for yes-and as a structural improv principle.) Music and Sounds: https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/Erdns8jA3D/ https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/MRyCi54t7M/ https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/AQBpWzOsID/ https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/yCvSWOBYUe/ Music: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/c0X3Z8H8uZ/ https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/yCvSWOBYUe/ Music: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/bWHPOsoaql/ https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/uDAHxg3lIS/ https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/e3mQvva1kZ/ https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/e3mQvva1kZ/ https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/e3mQvva1kZ/ https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/2dLRmfzdA5/ https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/jrNZjxJQqZ/ https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/c0X3Z8H8uZ/ https://www.epidemicsound.com/sound-effects/tracks/8c51eca6-dbb5-4925-b4ec-7ee51630322e