As I started putting in some consistent time every day to make my TTRPG projects moving forward, I’ve hit a certain challenge.
I’m working on some adventures, some system design, I’m even working on some video game projects. What tends to happen is that the boundaries between projects tend to blur. Or on the contrary, I feel like the designs of my projects swell to the point where I’m wondering if maybe this is not two different games.
For example, I’m exploring the idea of making a system to play historical medieval settings (as in no or very little fantasy elements). But I’m also exploring the idea of playing warbands. I’m also working on a medieval setting that’s kinda grim and political.
At first, these three ideas were one nugget. Then as time went on, I thought the grimdark setting seemed to pull too much in the direction of fantastical elements, and warranted to be its own thing. Then having the historical medieval setting focusing entirely or mostly on warbands seemed limiting, so I split them.
But I constantly find overlap between the projects that makes me want to pull them together, or the scope and direction of the projects to become blurry, inviting me to split things to keep them focused.
I wonder if anyone else has similar challenges and how they deal with them. I’m sure the same issue could come up when writing blog posts, doing maps, etc.
the point of engaging with this hobby, as a creator, is to have a massive Google drive filled with 1000 unfinished ideas. you are on the correct path to enlightenment.
I tend to create through playtest. So whatever I feel like playing, I create.
Write a spine of a system, leave blanks where the players can fill in, and test the core mechanic. Do that over a year, tweak it, add more subsystems, and take note of how the players interpret the mechanics. When all this is done, write it using your experience from the game sessions.
Sure, I can have several ideas, but playing is the most important part for me. And by leaving out subsystems at the start, I can see if the subsystems are even worth having in the game.
My thought is that breaking them into their respective parts doesn’t mean they can’t be modular. Like, if they share enough mechanically that they work together, why not allow them to be a nebulously inclusive?
I had something similar happen to me for a long game.
I developped two systems in parallel, sometimes merging then dividing them back again.
Until at some point I found how to network all the subsystems.
Then I evolved the setting I envisionned for one system so that it covered both.
Finally, I tesselated all the subsystems and tucked them under the setting.
In retrospect I think it’s easier to work on small parts, but I also found that the different systems and part of the setting I envisionned at the beginning were complementary. I tested constantly if they were and they were. This may not apply to your game(s).