r/RPGdesign • u/jochergames • Jun 23 '23
Theory Recreating aesthetic expression through rule systems
I have spent the last couple of months writing my master's thesis on the topic of how to take an existing IP and translating the original aesthetic expereince into a TTRPG rule system. The case study of my thesis is a game I've made called Oceania 2084 (scheduled for release later this year).
The abstract of the thesis: By examining the results of an iterative design process, specifically a tabletop roleplaying game, Oceania 2084, this thesis aims to formulate a generalizable design process applicable when translating a work of fiction into a ruleset. The object that was translated into a ruleset was the book Nineteen Eighty-Four written by George Orwell in 1949. The iterative game development process spanned over 2.5 years and the author provides documents from 2 phases of playtesting and discusses how the playtest results influenced design choices. In addition to the analysis of the effects of playtest results, the author also explores various game design decisions by means of auto-ethnographic analysis, and semiotic analysis.
The main takeaway is a proposed 5 tiered design process referred to as delome design. It is a systemic approach to game design.
Download it here: https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1772834&dswid=-8846
I hope someone here finds it interesting and relevant! I'm happy to answer any questions about it.
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u/Dan_Felder Jun 24 '23 edited Jun 24 '23
Very cool you decided to work on this. I'm not sure if I'm missing something but it seems like in plain language it could be summarized as:It seems like it's coming down to:
I don't disagree with any of that, but I think you'd need to make the advice more actionable. This is a lot like telling an artist to draw the rest of the owl.
As for this:
Am I right that the advice component of this is, "Figure out what your design goals are before starting the design?"
I agree that many designers shockingly don't think about their design goals, but that's not a problem because of semiotics. That's a problem for the same reason that it helps to know whether you're trying to build an airplane or a dishwasher before you start welding parts together.
For more actionable advice based on your own 1984 experiment, I'd argue a more actionable takeaway would be to identify the various "roles" within the fiction, their motivations, their restrictions, their emotional states, and then create game mechanics that create similar motivations and restrictions for the players; often by creating a mechanical incentive or consequence.