The Compendium

The Compendium is a game about creating a game - a session 0 model to create a meaningful world and characters by rolling on tables and answering the prompts.

As a longtime member of the tabletop community, my work is intended to help other people tell the kind of stories that they crave. It combines concepts that are well accepted in the tabletop community with ideation from myself and my peers in order to create scaffolding for great games. 

One of the main concepts adapted for this work is the idea of joint creation in game worlds to create player investment. By asking players to contribute to the world, they become more invested in its outcome. I also used pre-existing structures for player support, such as safety tools like X-cards. The work then takes shape under the influence of stories such as Critical Role Season 2 and Worlds Beyond Number. These are the kinds of stories that I like to tell, and that most look to in their home games. However, they are also professional stories, which makes them inaccessible. I hope that this game may help to bridge the gap, and have players create games that feel as rich.

Overall, this most recent work intends to ease the burden on GMs by connecting players into the story while experimenting with new concepts around player engagement. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did creating it.