Building Better Together
While pursuing my Master’s degree at Salve Regina University, I collaborated with a fellow student on a class project to design a minimalist tabletop role-playing game. Role-playing games (RPGs) are collaborative storytelling games in which players take on fictional characters in a shared world. One participant—often called the Game Master—describes the setting and challenges, while the other players declare what their characters attempt to do. Outcomes are typically determined by simple rules and dice rolls, blending imagination, strategy, and chance.
Our goal was to create a system simple enough for beginners but structured enough to feel meaningful. I initially sketched a rules framework built around four core attributes—Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and Charisma—using a single six-sided die to resolve actions. Players would choose streamlined classes like Warrior, Mage, Rogue, or Healer, each interacting differently with combat and problem-solving. The system emphasized fast encounters, light mechanics, and quick character creation, with enemies defined by a simple Difficulty Level and modest health totals to keep gameplay moving.
Had I worked alone, I likely would have completed the assignment more quickly. But my classmate brought a perspective I did not naturally prioritize: player experience and narrative flow. Where I focused on mechanical elegance and balance, she pushed for clarity in how spells felt in play, how leveling rewarded creativity, and how the Game Master guidelines encouraged imaginative problem-solving rather than repetitive combat. Her contributions strengthened accessibility and engagement in ways my more systems-oriented draft would have missed.
The collaboration required more discussion, iteration, and compromise than solo work would have. Yet the final product was more cohesive and better aligned with the spirit of RPGs: shared creation. What could have been a technically tidy ruleset became a genuinely playable game that balanced structure with storytelling. In slowing down to build it together, we modeled the very dynamic the game was meant to foster—collaborative imagination producing something stronger than either of us would have created alone.
That experience reinforced something I’ve seen repeatedly in professional settings: collaboration may extend the timeline slightly, but it often elevates the outcome. When we invite others into the design process—especially those who think differently—we surface blind spots, strengthen usability, and build shared ownership. The result is not just a better deliverable, but a stronger partnership that carries forward into future work.
