Welcome back!

This post is going to be a quick one. I've been busy wrapping up the Kickstarter campaign for Glide - Repacked these past few weeks and touching up the playtest rules kit for everyone. Both will be launching February 4, 2024!

Modularity as a Premise

When you think of modularity what comes to mind is likely pieces fitting together in unison. If you've spent a lot of time with PC games, you may even think of mods for those games, changing core mechanics or adjusting settings. Pieces can be taken away, replaced, or modified. The whole would still work but things customization friendly for the user. This is the core idea for customization I went into Courier - Repacked with.

Modularity as an Accessible Tool

Often times in games you will feel the pressure of a clock, timer, or looming world state that you may feel anxious about or would rather put on hold while you explore. Life is stressful enough with deadlines and time sensitive events, so why make your gaming time feel the same? These end-game conditions can disrupt a players enjoyment of the game and pull them from the immersion. I've been in the same situation may times, with traditional TTRPGs as well as many video games.

I began think of modular choices to increase accessibility when researching accessibility tools to improve my design work. Originally I would view accessibility tools as the X-card or providing digital character sheets for players but I soon realized that rules need to be accessible as well, offering choices for players when possible. The idea then came to me, through my research and reflection, that a player should be able to remove complete sections of rules if they don't fit the accessible standard for them and still have the opportunity to enjoy the game.

Modular blocks can be fitted together to create many different shapes!

So you might be asking yourself now how this even works? Can you play and enjoy a game that can essentially be pieced out and rules ignored? Why, yes! Think of difficulty options in a video games, or rules expansions for popular TTRPG systems. You can flip things on, off, or through different settings, or add and remove the written rules from expansions. Modifying the game to your own personal experience is fun, more rewarding, and puts the pressure away unless absolutely required.

Courier - Repacked has been created to have each rule system live in it's own capsule. A rule capsule can and will interact with other systems but can be removed if the player doesn't enjoy it or it doesn't fit their accessible needs. So, for example: The Exploration system is a core mechanic of the game but can require a lot of rolling, writing, drawing, and referencing. A player may like to have their map to be full form the start. What they can do is create a map in one go, so they create a map at the very start of their game. What this does is remove Scouting (which has a chance for Encounters) but still keeps in the moving, exploration, and all other map actions in. Making this small rules change as an accessible choice keeps the game whole but just flips a switch off to suit the player needs.

The Long Dark (Hinterland) has an excellent selection of options for your personal survival experience, including a shareable code!

Modularity for the Community

I love creating homebrew rules, scenarios, and supplements for games. You can even find some of the ones I've created here on itch! Having a flexible and customization friendly system is a must, in my opinion, for modern game design. There is always going to be a player who enjoys your product so much that they want to add something to it, making the experience unique to their tastes. 

With Courier - Repacked, the player can take any of the tables included and substitute them, or even just modify them. In the final version of the game digital tables will be available to match the same rolling rules used in the core game, giving the flexibility to pick from multiple results. Want to have different item finds for each location type (Wastes, Ruins, etc.)? Now you can! This is the power of a modular system that opens the game up for the community to create and enjoy the process of creating something unique.

Thanks for reading! Courier - Repacked launches this weekend.

- Cody