This PKMashup prompted some thoughts about WIP projects Compose RPG and Vignette RPG and the false dichotomy of Top Down and Bottom Up design. Compose was initially motivated by a desire to create a system which gave players granular control over the mechanical complexity of their personal experience without negatively affecting anyone else at the table. Vignette, as underdeveloped as the idea still is, was motivated by the desire to create small and evocative mechanics which captured a specific moment or experience.
This reminds me a bit of the debate in the gaming community regarding RPGs as being for narrative, gaming, or simulation. Vignette is philosophically in alignment with Story Games, while Compose definitely had a mind towards more gamey modes of play. Both of these highly compartmentalized and modular design philosophies, however, don’t lend themselves to more simulationist understandings of TTRPGs.
The idea I have now is a slight variation on MOSAIC Strict’s design pillars, and the original vision of Compose. Player-facing modules would be focused on how the player’s character moves through the world, usually through some sort of evocative archetype while system-level vignettes facilitate shared scenes of a specific kind.
Games are made of games all the way down, so as a design philosophy MOSAIC Strict certainly makes sense - especially with the Gamemaster present to mediate interactions within the fiction. I’d guess the key to creating engaging modules will be in modeling the world in new ways as well as introducing unique affordances for the players. Understanding where the fun is in any modular system, and how to facilitate potential interaction between pieces is where the challenge is.
This note is a pkmashup of MOSAIC Strict and Combining Top Down and Bottom Up Design. See PKMashup Notes to learn more.