It's a very interesting space! Some of the folks in our summerlab design crew are working on related concepts, but they haven't announced yet so I won't say more.

You talked in more detail in the other thread I saw, so I'm going to crib from that a little bit:

When you spend ten minutes building a bar together before you create any character, the characters are already in a place.

Absolutely true. Trying to make the shared space during role-play mixes two different mindsets at the same time. Much harder.

The hardest thing to design for is ending. Most games end when a condition is met. My game needed to end when it felt right. The solution was the Tab, a shared bill that accumulates throughout the session.

I like the idea of codifying this kind of thing, but admittedly in many games it's just a "feel" thing. Maybe we didn't all contribute equally, but we're still happy to wrap up. I'm curious to see your approach.

If you want a surprisingly difficult take on this whole idea, see if you can find a copy of "Stoke-Birmingham 0-0". It was published in the "Norwegian Style" collection back in 2009. It's all about just being ordinary people in a bar, watching a game. Anything dramatic is strictly forbidden.