I like book compilations and sets. I love trilogies and quintads. If Jeph Loeb ever produces something I like, I’d also love books in a series where each one is a new month, day, week, year, thing. I love it when progressive bands do part IV of a trilogy and complex song structures that take 65 minutes to resolve.
I think if you have the right set of themes, you can even do games in a series. For instance a game all about suffering and giving up something you love for something you need… followed by a game where you start with nothing and have to achieve everything… which anchors to a board game about growth and destabilization… and then dovetails back to a card zen-like card game like Uno, where you have to lose everything you have.
The Gipf series of board games is a great example of this. But designing across mediums has proven difficult in this hobby. Most gamers who enjoy a thematic board game, might not also play the roleplaying game or historical miniatures game that ties all those elements together. And there is a long track record of failed projects by people trying to design a CCG-RPG or some similar hybrid.
Over the coming months, I intend to design a new RPG (with cards) that crosses over two different themed sets of games that I have in the hopper. To make it even more interesting, I’ll be designing this project step-by-step on this page, walking through each design aspect of the game.
Stay tuned.