It's not possible to say whether an RPG session was MOSAIC Strict, because that strictness is a framework for writing, not play. Even so, when I started experimenting with writing under the paradigm, I wondered what it might be like to play a game whose formal rule set consisted only of compliant, attested modules. This week I got the chance to run such a thing as a one-shot!
The adventure: "Do It for the Beast" from the Trilemma Adventures Compendium. Congrats, Michael Prescott! Your MOSAIC idea helped sell at least one copy of your book!
The modules:
A Flexible Resolution System from Liche's Libram
Twenty Backgrounds by Dropbear Games
Experience by... me!
Do It for the Beast
This two-page dungeon worked a treat for the purpose. "Townsfolk are being abducted, you've tracked them to this cult hideout, go go!" The module focuses on interactions with the lair's bizarre inhabitants rather than on navigation or puzzle-solving; there's a very simple route to the goal, but the encounters, both placed and random, ensure that getting there won't be trivial anyway. Its aesthetic reminds me of the old "Fourthcore" D&D modules, all blood and snakes and body horror, which managed to get a couple of 🙀 reactions from the players!
A Flexible Resolution System
This one we felt needed some work. In fairness, part of the trouble was that we used the lite virtual tabletop Owlbear Rodeo, in which manipulating pools of distinct d20s was an awkward exercise at best. But even with that aside, there were just a few too many advantage/disadvantage factors to step through, and some tasks didn't lend themselves to a clean "success vs. safety" distinction. Sometimes this was creatively inspiring: an attempt to hide from the cultists led to my venturing "eavesdrop on useful information" as the success axis with "risk of discovery" on the danger axis. Would I have come up with that under a more binary resolution system? Maybe not! In other cases, though, I had to abandon the dice roll and fall back to freeform because I couldn't come up with suitable stakes for both vectors.
I think if I were to tune this module up a bit, I'd make the following tweaks:
The adventure: "Do It for the Beast" from the Trilemma Adventures Compendium. Congrats, Michael Prescott! Your MOSAIC idea helped sell at least one copy of your book!
The modules:
A Flexible Resolution System from Liche's Libram
Twenty Backgrounds by Dropbear Games
Experience by... me!
Do It for the Beast
This two-page dungeon worked a treat for the purpose. "Townsfolk are being abducted, you've tracked them to this cult hideout, go go!" The module focuses on interactions with the lair's bizarre inhabitants rather than on navigation or puzzle-solving; there's a very simple route to the goal, but the encounters, both placed and random, ensure that getting there won't be trivial anyway. Its aesthetic reminds me of the old "Fourthcore" D&D modules, all blood and snakes and body horror, which managed to get a couple of 🙀 reactions from the players!
A Flexible Resolution System
This one we felt needed some work. In fairness, part of the trouble was that we used the lite virtual tabletop Owlbear Rodeo, in which manipulating pools of distinct d20s was an awkward exercise at best. But even with that aside, there were just a few too many advantage/disadvantage factors to step through, and some tasks didn't lend themselves to a clean "success vs. safety" distinction. Sometimes this was creatively inspiring: an attempt to hide from the cultists led to my venturing "eavesdrop on useful information" as the success axis with "risk of discovery" on the danger axis. Would I have come up with that under a more binary resolution system? Maybe not! In other cases, though, I had to abandon the dice roll and fall back to freeform because I couldn't come up with suitable stakes for both vectors.
I think if I were to tune this module up a bit, I'd make the following tweaks:
- Allow for a "quick" or "simple" roll that uses just one axis. Success for a skill check style roll, safety for a saving throw of sorts. Don't do a step-by-step checklist, just factor the most notable advantages and disadvantages from the fiction in the moment.
- When doing the more detailed two-axis resolution, simplify the factors list. Things like "You were present when another PC died trying to do something like this" don't come up very often, so it's a drain on brain and time to visit it again and again. Maybe instead...
Skill: +Advantage if this is in the character's wheelhouse due to their job, training, background, etc. -Disadvantage if they are wildly unqualified for the task at hand.
Tools: +Advantage if you have ideal or superior gear for this task. -Disadvantage if you're missing something you'd normally need to accomplish it.
Help: +Advantage if you're assisted by someone with a compatible skill set. -Disadvantage if someone is interfering with the work.
Wild: Any number of +Advantage or +Disadvantage for tactical position, wounds, expenditure of consumable resources, etc. (I shove e.g. the "time" factor in here because I feel like it's relevant a lot less often than the big three above. Is a sword-stroke rushed?)
It's a less clever, more conventional set of factors, but I think it'd run much smoother in play.
Twenty Backgrounds
We loved these! The players rolled "Monk" and "Scientist", which led to a very thoughtful, combat-averse approach to dungeon infiltration. The skills and gear lists were evocative, the special abilities character-defining, and the magic a delicious mix of simplicity, effectiveness, and risk. We had one magical fumble, which I got to riff on to shocking effect. Pray for the pacification of a guard in the middle of a cult HQ? The "Beast" to which the cult is devoted hears your prayer instead, and the guard disintegrates into a writhing mass of bloody red serpents! 😈
Experience
It'd be silly of me to write a review of my own work, and we only used the most basic, no-frills version of the thing, so we didn't put it through its paces. I will, however, point out an example of how these modules can and do interact mechanically with one another despite being verboten from doing so explicitly in writing. If you craft the interaction of your system with the fiction right, that can in turn be a touchpoint for another module's mechanics. In "Experience", there's the open-ended rule that a player can "Spend a minor experience token to gain a momentary or ephemeral advantage for your character". That maps perfectly to the "other circumstantial advantage" from "A Flexible Resolution System", such that in the end you can effectively spend a minor experience token to buy a d20 for your dice pool! Being aware of these opportunities will make MOSAIC design, and play with its modules, really hum.