Emergence and Progression in TTRPGS: A Fool's Ramblings
bonus stinky evil cat I’ve been thinking a bit about why I have enjoyed running Cairn and why I haven’t been enjoying D&D 5e or Lancer recently, and I think I have stumbled upon an answer: Emergent vs Progressive gameplay. There’s lots of writing about this, mostly around videogames, so I’m going to talk about these terms as I understand them, but I’ll also try to include some other writings that I’ve looked at. Emergence is when simple rules interact with complex systems. Think Chess or The Sims. Simple rules, like, “a pawn can move one space forward” or “Sims need to eat” come into contact with a complex system, like a human brain crafting a grand strategy, or a simulation of an entire world. Progression in games is a newer phenomenon (according to Juul) where there is a series of challenges, and there are strict rules which the player must follow in order to solve them and eventually reach the end. For the most Progressive game, think Mario. Run right, jump, maybe throw a f...