Fresh sheets!

17. April 2010 by admin.

The first part of Fourth Draft is still being compiled. But as a little treat, here is the first (very rough) draft of the character sheet! It’s extremely simple. There are two reasons for this: This version is only meant to be functional, not pretty, so dazzling decorations are not yet part of the equation, aaand… it really is a simple sheet! Unlike many other RPGs, GEARS works around a very simple character design concept put forth since First Draft, and a few tweaks made it even simpler. As a result, anything character related (technical stuff, not the fictional background stories some players choose to write! And not really equipment lists either… sorry) can be placed into one streamlined row! The character sheet, really, is nothing but a coloumn of these, every row just the same. And you can do anything with it!

So here it is, the first version of the GEARS character sheet:

Posted in Abilities, First Draft, Background, Disabilities, Character creation, Equipment/Gear | 1 Comment »

Proper organization

11. December 2009 by admin.

… needed on several accounts, it seems!

The site was down Dec. 10 due to a miscommunication with our new provider. It’s up and running again, though, nothing lost. We do not expect it to happen again.

The other kind of organization is Organizations, large structured groups that characters in a game may be involved with somehow. They may be allies, enemies, bystanders, victims, interests, power factions, or anything else one might imagine them for. And I want creation tools for them, just like we have for characters, equipment and exotic powers! Why? Because with such a system in place, it becomes possible to distribute fully designed Organizations for game worlds and adventures, or modular ones that can be assembled for any campaign. Like a collection of monsters or a set of premade characters for use in adventures (as people encountered by player characters, presumably), such Organization collections would allow immensely detailed game worlds to be set up in minutes.

But also, because proper structure allows quicker and more versatile use in adventures! If an Organization is described well, and there are meaningful rules and guidelines in place, the Narrator can quickly assess what it means when the characters blow up a secret lab, recruits a key expert, affects a vital operation, etc. It makes the Organization a vibrant, dynamic part of the adventure, instead of some nebulous background explanation for where the ninjas come from!

Sadly, the Organiation rules that were ready were made for the Relations rules that were voted out as ‘bland’ during playtest. The new Relation rules are much, much better, thanks to extensive player feedback, but they do not fit into the old Organization rules. So they need rewriting! When they are done, players can deliberately assess how to cripple giant Organizations by cutting out vital operations, they can build and recruit their own, they can join up, infiltrate, sabotage, have dramatic stand-offs with and generally have fun with Organizations, from the local mercenary outfit to the intergalactic alien religion or the secret conspiracy of the Elves! I have an old character, made for a different game, in which house rules were used to design an agent who could call in orbital strikes, if and when he could explain why the act would be absolutely vital to his Organization. Of course, they more or less owned him in return, but tense situations are where adventures are born! I want characters like that to be modelled with the basic rules in GEARS; the advanced rules will take it much, much further…

Posted in Aliens, Relations, Design kits, Game worlds, Dammit!, Monsters, Equipment/Gear, Narrator, Superpowers, Character creation, Playtests | No Comments »

Creating the Creators

4. December 2009 by admin.

Writing is now dealing with Technologies, for designing a game world in such detail that the advancement of individual categories of items can be felt. Maybe laser rifles are a new invention, still clunky and imprecise. Or maybe they are refined, not just horrifically precise and terribly lethal, but light enough to be snapped into pocketsized concealment modules. But none of that will happen unless non-lethal, scientific lasers (and the kind for light shows) are first invented! Pick your Technologies, pick their individual Progress, and the system does the rest.

This is just another piece in the puzzle that is the, still fairly new,  “creation kit” philosophy of GEARS! I have noted on the concept before, but I feel it is essential enough to repeat: In so far as it is at all possible, the GEARS core rulebook will contain the materials needed to construct anything. Most games have core books that deal in detail with character creation, some of them even only characters of a certain, low level. The GEARS character creation rules have proven far more compact and streamlined than originally expected, so now other aspects of the game are following. Equipment is just one example, another being the creatures mentioned in earlier entries (based on the character creation system used slightly differently), vehicles as an extension of equipment, super powers as an addition to standard Abilities, and so on. And game worlds are now getting the first kick into action. Fourth Draft might actually end up having not just a better structure, but also some design kits for campaigns and adventures!

One design kit that is still a bit up in the air (other than Relations, which, as mentioned yesterday, have run into a few problems) is races. The character creation system, supported by the still-to-be-pinned-down Human Template, will allow some strange creations, but the feel of an entire and at least somewhat unique race is still a bit murky. The exact elements of fantasy and alien races will need some examining and testing before something truly worthwhile can be included. It might end up in Fourth Draft. But it will be made.

Posted in Relations, Races, Human Template, Design kits, Game worlds, Aliens, Fourth Draft, Equipment/Gear, Superpowers, Character creation, Third Draft, Vehicles | 1 Comment »

Getting through Customs

30. November 2009 by admin.

The writing of the Equipment section is fully underways now, helped immensely by conversations with playtesters. As old posts show, having equipment be more a way to tailor something precisely for an idea, rather than just a shopping list, is one goal of GEARS. The first steps are now being taken, with tweaks and revamps of a (horribly convoluted) previous system being streamlined into something more snazzy. The part on customizing existing equipemnt, either as a unique (or at least unusual) buy or as an alteration to existing gear, is fairly written now, albeit with room for many more aspects to customize (there is a quick list, which can be used in the fairly simple customization rules). It is even tying into the Ability system quite nicely, to the point where the range of items in a game world can actually be explained by the customization rules. They are not meant to do so, and the shopping lists that will eventually be added will not make any kind of show out of it, but it takes only a slightly observant mind (and the brief remark inserted in the chapter) to notice that everything is suddenly explained quite neatly. That was a bonus we did not plan on

Then there is the whole personalization issue, with items built according to the needs of a particular character. Yes, you can have an item that will work much better for you than its brethren, while being nothing but a bother to everyone who does not have your size of hands, overall build, personal aura, or the like! It’s still a somewhat shaky system, though, and will need some sandbox testing to check its viability.

And it goes beyond that. I just finished writing a section that uses steampunk blade guns as an example of Item Combos that become their own piece of equipment, with quite some interesting options for unique Abilities tied in. It’s better than expected, though a lot of clean-up and testing is still needed to get it juuuuuust right.

What is becoming painfully obvious is that the next round of playtests will have to be very different in order to incorporate the many different options that exist; they may be packed into tight, streamlined rules, but there are so many things that can be done with them that I cannot personally see a way for a few adventures to do the deeper testing. Options are still considered, including reaching out for external playtesters (we have not announced any need for that at all, so far). Time will tell…

Posted in Cash, Character creation, Equipment/Gear, Guns, Machines, Vehicles, Weapons | No Comments »

Looking ahead

23. November 2009 by admin.

Second Draft and the website seem stable, and the first work is already being done on Third Draft. For the moment, the writing part is centered around the Ability List, and the ‘Medical’ category is progressing quite nicely. Talents are still hampered by three different versions of the list existing, with a few variations of even those. There are some aligning choices, but there will have to be a bit more testing to pinpoint the exact list desired for the game. Hopefully, most key Talents will be chosen soon.

The real debate, however, is on two matters that are arguably a bit farther ahead: Non-standard items, and powers. The items refered to are those that are not bought, not even through black markets or special contacts. Experimental gadgets, alien devices, ancient enchantments and the like seem to break the current system, and there are multiple rules versions on the drawing board for them now. The question is acquisition; how does one handle the acquisition of such items during character creation? GEARS is not currently built for, nor fully meant for, a system that uses character points to define items. Systems like GURPS and HERO are famous for their in-depth methods of assigning special abilities (or Abilities; sometimes, they put actual skills and powers into items, in game terms) to gadgets, weapons and the like. Their systems are impressively versatile, but certain concerns have already been aired in Entry 19 (of the old blog) about transfering the same philosophy to GEARS. These items seem caught between character and equipment, and there are early signs that other items may have similar problems: Powerful exosuits (which supply strength, senses and other things thought to be character territory), cybernetics (ditto), enchantments on the body (which can improve anything in the character, theoretically), and so forth. They are all in a strange area between item and character Abilities.

But even more important, they are essential to many genres and styles, and they influence game balance immensely. What worth is a fancy Ability if gadgets outmatch character experience? At some point, items become close to substitutes for actual characters. In worlds that exist on powerful technologies, that makes sense; even today, having a good gun beats years of bodybuilding and martial arts training. But when some such powerful gear is not openly available, character creation becomes the explanation for how a character can have something like it, especially from the start. This gap between the character creation rules and the still forming equipment creation rules needs to be closed before GEARS can be considered fully functional in respect to unique or complex gadgets.

The question about powers is a bit more diffuse. Testing of GEARS with high-power settings has been limited so far, mostly enough to ensure that the dice mechanism scales well (which it fortunately seems to do, in nearly all regards). What is still causing some problems is the definition, in game terms, of highly complex powers and relations between powers. Concepts like physical, mental or other drains with power usage, side-effects, limiting circumstances, etc. are still only roughly defined in (unpublished) GEARS notes. Simple powers can be made, and a surprisingly simple system for constructing them is being drawn up at this very minute, but the highly complex powers of quality comics and well-written high-power fiction are still causing problems with game balance and character point accounting (powers are here assumed to be built into characters during character creation). For example, if a system of magic has powerful spells, the spells can be easily created with the methods being drawn up (in fact, playtesters are creating some rather interesting things on-the-fly). But if using those spells drain a character, is that just a fact in the game world, or is it something to build into the magic system? Or perhaps into each individual spell? The game world will have a lot to do with it, in that some worlds will just accept that spells or the like cause some drain, while others handle each power uniquely. But whatever the in-world circumstances, GEARS needs a system for handling it, one that provides game balance without neglecting the uniqueness of such powers. Ironically, the problem is not that such systems are hard to make; the problem is there are too many already in use! Playtesters have modified the original (now horribly obsolete) concepts heavily, and recombining the results in a way that allows easy power design while maintaining game balance os proving hard. If that game balance is to become game world dependent (i.e. different game worlds provide different game balances, to support genres and styles better), that is merely another mighty hurdle.

Essentially, none of this is anything new in terms of design problems. GEARS is a system, and what has been described are components. Making components work together in a larger system, especially one designed to provide this amount of flexibility, always results in problems connecting Component A to Component B. It is a headache, but it is a good headache, because the problem is too many options, rather than no way forward. It comes down to choice. And with the design philosophy of GEARS, some of that choice will turn into options for campaign versatility, turning the current problem into a future advantage. Right now, it’s simply about getting there from here.

Posted in Wealth, Superpowers, Character creation, Equipment/Gear, Old blog, Second Draft, Magic, Playtests | 1 Comment »

Entry 19: Wealth & Possessions

9. November 2009 by admin.

.::: Entry 19, 2009/11/9 :::.
The topic of equipment has already been dealt with in earlier entries, to a certain extent. But what has not really been talked about is how such gear is actually acquired. Both in character creation and in later games, there are more ways of, and more views on, acquiring gear than most assume. I want my game to include a better explanation for characters having their gear than just “they buy stuff” or, even worse, “that kind of character just has that stuff”. I do not want purchased gear to be marginalized; buying your things is a logical and meaningful way to get them! But I do not want it to be the universal default, nor do I want to enforce ‘the universal shopping list’ that many games seem to go by. Even if it is a small part of the character, I want the acquisition of gear to make sense for the character, and reflect the kind of world the character lives in, not to mention his or her place in it.It might seem like a lot, but this is not just some insane demand for more detail. While the matter of where a knife was acquired can be painfully uninteresting, a lot of gear can spark up questions, especially when its effects are taken into account. A cybernetic eye enhances eyesight, for example. So does the player pay for it with points during character creation, or with cash? And what if it is surgically installed later on, what then? And what about that ‘priceless’ magical sword, if it is so priceless, how was it acquired?

Even beyond such questions, a thoroughly created game world can toss some frustrating questions into the process. If a character is from a certain region, will gear be acquired at the local prices? What if the character was briefly in a city with cheap gear, did he or she go on a shopping spree and get everything the character now has at low, low prices? And just how much can a character afford?

:: Cash, Card, Credit! ::

One of the most basic questions when creating a character in almost any game is “how much money does my character have?”. Cash allows the characters to get gear either immediately or later on, and it pays for a lot of other things during an adventure, too. I have stuck with a method of character cash for years now, and it works: Buy cash like it is an ability, then multiply the final level with an amount of cash set for the given game world. So if the cash-point value of a game world is 20 doubloons, buying Cash[14] will start a character out at 280 (20 times 14) doubloons. Needless to say, there is no learning or experience for this ability.

But while cash-in-hand will start the average adventurer character off nicely, some like more advanced options, if nothing else then to simulate real-life options. Two come to mind: Borrowing and earning. Whereas the cash option is just what a character has, these two are more about what that character can get later on. The idea of character income has already been thoroughly tested, and can be molded like cash: Buy an ‘ability’, and the character gets a weekly income equal to 1/10 of the aforementioned cash-point value. If the value is 20 doubloons, for example, the character gets 2 doubloons per week times the acquired ability. Easy, efficient. ‘Credit’ has undergone multiple tests, however, and none have shown satisfactory results. Essentially, it would be ‘the skill of borrowing money’, getting bigger sums at lower costs and for longer terms. The details are still out.

:: The Tool Ability ::

Money solves the gear-purchasing problem for shopping-list items. But too many genre conventions involve gear that is not purchased outright, from the magical sword to genius gadgets or inherited books of power and mystery. Without a pricetag, an item cannot be solved by throwing money at it.

Several existing game systems try to solve this by making the items a part of the character, rather than independent gear. A battlesuit thus becomes a set of abilities acquired for the character, just like that character might acquire the ability to read a language or fly a plane. An item might have unique abilities, or problems of its own, things that would make no sense for a person. Or ‘normal’ abilities would be somewhat different for an item. But a lot of fascinating and unusual items can be created by viewing an item as a set of abilities ‘in a box’, especially if ‘ability’ and ‘bonus’ are made fairly interchangeable.

I do have some disagreement with this method, though. There are the strictly practical problems that turn up when a character has his or her abilities ‘in a box’, which can basically be handed to someone else to use, or even stolen. This set of problems can bog a system down in rules to prevent abuse, all on its own! But beyond even that, I dislike the idea for the simple reason that gear suddenly does not feel like gear any longer. In a superhero game, the idea that a hero (or villain, or whatever) can fire bolts of lightning from the hands can definitely be an ability. If this person needs to wear a funny suit for it to work, I can still see it as an ability, with the suit being like what a sword is to a swordsman: Something that allows an ability to be used. But if it is the suit that fires the lightning, the ability that the character has is merely to use the suit! How the suit has this power is a different thing. And if the suit is not uniquely available to that character only, if the suit can actually be taken by others who will try to activate it, the idea that the bolts are the character’s ability goes right out the window for me. I don’t even want to get into what would happen if such ability-gear is acquired long after character creation…

In the grey zone between what is character ability and what is purely a gadget, there are interesting possibilities for whole fields of gear. Abilities can exist to tap into the gear, gear can exist to allow a character to tap into abilities, and so forth, creating amazing bonds between character and gadget (and we haven’t even looked at potions or strange energies yet!). But I would like that fascinating complexity to remain uniquely its own, rather than translate items entirely into character traits. This way, the abilities involved also have the chance of being an expanded part of the game world, something to be understood and handled in different ways. Maybe the suit is not the only way to focus an ability. Or maybe the abilities locked in the suit itself can be dismantled, examined, altered… or simply broken!

:: Point Acquisitions ::

One method that has been tried and tested thoroughly with a fair degree of success since my work with TAYDS is to have a general rating for items in overall power (which includes things like versatility, ease-of-use, durability and so on). A proper rating system for items allows them to be bought like abilities, setting a ‘point cost’ pricetag on the item. It works with basic items that do not fit shopping lists, but mainly because those items have a fairly linear progression of power. Once items become complex, typically through multiple uses, complex requirements and so forth, this ‘point cost’ method begins to break down.

The question is whether a better system can be built to charge points for items that are acquired at character creation (acquisition later would be handled by whatever in the adventures made it happen). Arguably, the basic notions of the aforementioned ‘tool is abilities’ may suddenly apply again, but somehow it seems the system would need to be adjusted, or balance goes right out the window; if a tool doing something costs the same as the ability, the idea of losing it will make the natural ability a better choice, and if it cannot be lost, the realism and idea of it being actual tools is ruined. Other flaws in the ‘tool is abilities’ method follow the same logic, and there remains also the problem of making tools feel less like gear and more like some detached piece of a character.

Of course, just because items are acquired via points does not mean it has to function this exact way. The idea in the above is to have an item wear a pricetag for what it can do, i.e. pay for power more or less directly. Another option is to pay for having access to certain kinds of gear, and then acquire some of that as a (perhaps) permanent possession. For example, having experimental super-toys might require having access to the labs that make them, something acquired as a presumably social part of the character (friends in the right places, so to speak). Inherited things may require an appropriate family history. This deflects some of the problems with point-acquired gear by making it part of something bigger. How a value-of-purchase figures in is still a harder issue; will it now be worth the investment to get the items, at all?

A lot of gear can be handled by making it actually equipment, stuff to be bought. The types that are not shop available will need to be defined by their origins, and how the gear is acquired will probably end up building on that. The consequence of this is that there will not be any fixed way of equipping characters: If it’s store bought, the cash rules provided will deal with it nicely. If it is special-made, it takes the connections and will be ‘priced’ according to how the world handles those things, probably handled by social backgrounds. Family heirlooms, strange acquisitions, alien gifts etc. will need their own reasons for being in the possession of the characters.

Posted in Wealth, Shopping, Cash, Equipment/Gear, Vehicles, Old blog, Weapons | 1 Comment »

Entry 13: Locations, Locations, Locations

27. October 2009 by admin.

.::: Entry 13, 2009/10/27 :::.
Most of the things I have looked at over the last twelve entries have been things that are inherent to RPGs, or at least found in many of them. One subject that is much less touched upon is locations. True, maps are a staple of gaming, from the little overview maps of a tavern or the main street in a western shootout to dungeons larger than medium-sized cities! But maps are a very poor representation of locations for anything except knowing where in them you are.

Taking a location beyond merely a map allows the GM to define in depth how it affects an adventure. Factories are an old favorite of mine, complex and busy places with multitudes of chances to injure yourself or others, send heavy machinery spiraling out of control, things falling, breaking, even the occasional explosion. They are chaotic places, and conveying that chaos to players is a beautiful thing.

But one factory is not the same as the other, even if maps are ignored. Heavy machinery vs. sterile rooms, dirt vs. clean, people vs. automatic, chemicals vs. solid tools vs. lasers, etc. Anyone who has spent time in different factories will know that they give off different atmospheres and present seriously different challenges. Some are no challenge at all. Some are akin to the Minotaur’s Maze.

Ideally, any larger location, and many small ones, should be interesting enough that a full adventure could be run there. Anything larger than an apartment building should have enough opportunities to build a full campaign around!

:: Places & People ::

No, I am not referring to what people exist in a place, though that is a factor, too (discussed later here!). I am referring to how places are fit or unfit for people. And when I say ‘how’ and not ‘whether’, there is a reason for it! One reason I have a special thing for factories is that they blend so much together. In this case, there are the clearly marked and safety inspected paths for people to travel in, areas marked off for technicians and specialists (who know how to act safely there!), special paths for special teams, places not meant for humans in general (vents, shafts and many other places players are no doubt going to see as perfect ways to get in. They may be right. Or wrong), outright hazardous areas (dangerous machines, toxic fumes, etc.) and so on. How ‘fit’ a factory is for humans often depends on exactly where you are in it, and the definition of ‘fit’ changes from carefree to hardhat to full safety gear to just don’t go there.

Of course, factories in other times or just different regions are different, and that alone can make the place stand out. The clear safety markings may not be there, or rules are enforced by someone with a big gun. In some places, everyone is a specialist, not because they have special education but because it takes skill just to get around. Oil rigs in certain parts of the world are death traps, and poorly kept facilities are… interesting. And while factories are prime examples, anything can really go that way, from the servant quarters in a castle in the Dark Ages to hazardous interstates in a future of massive overpopulation and a fetish for fast vehicles!

This all makes for ways that characters can integrate with places: Knowing how to act around them. Knowing what goes and what does not in a starport bazaar gives you an advantage, something thieves and lowlifes constantly thrive on. Tricking someone into an area you can handle but they cannot can be as effective as any armed ambush! Thus, building a character around the idea that the character knows certain kinds of places well opens for opportunities to truly use the landscape to your advantage, or to end up in very dangerous territory, right in the middle of a normal town.

Flipping the subject on its head, people also become a depiction of the places they spend their time. Someone used to dirt and dust will not be scared of filth, whereas someone who has never set foot outside clean homes and hotels will probably be somewhat interested in appearances. Danger, noise, crowds, unsafe grounds and so forth all turn people into something that fits the places, or they perish (which need not mean ‘they die’, but simply ‘they leave’ or the like).

:: Enemy of the Estate ::

Of course, one good reason to be nervous about a location is if it is actually built to keep people out, or in, or to simply kill whoever comes by; fortresses, secure compounds, prisons, minefields, there are a whole host of possibilities in just our basic, real world. Such a place becomes the equivalent of a massive monster, often with mazes and all sorts of problems built right into it. The dungeon runs that are so integral to some game systems work because a large and inhospitable place screams adventure, but dungeons are far from the only options for that effect; intrusions, prison breaks, getting through places, there are endless options for making the location the challenge.

This poses the overall question of how not only people handle places, but how places handle people? Any advanced methods, from clever mechanics and hidden key mechanisms to guardian spells and sentient buildings can be made to interact on their own with those in and around them. While a security system is typically represented as something meant to just keep people out, that is not what it really is: It is meant to keep certain people out, and let certain people in. How it sorts them can wary greatly, and might include a human (or similar sentient) operator somewhere, possibly but not necessarily on the grounds.

And taking that a step further comes the question of how a location will handle people unknown and unexpected, perhaps people it has no way to know how to react to. The Frankenstein monster concept can translate to a location quite easily.

If a location is complex enough, it can require handling in a way not unlike a person; it can have its quirks and preferences, its habits and routines, and when things get out of hands, it might even throw the building equivalent of a tantrum, controlled guns or magical effects trying desperately to handle what they were not set up for by way of overkill!

On the other hand, some places are deliberately made to pamper to people.

:: Home Turf ::

One aspect of location that is as much an aspect of character creation is the idea that a special place or area has special meaning to the character. Someone who has lived a long time somewhere, or is a frequent visitor, might know all the little ins and outs of the place. This goes much farther than simply knowing how to act in a certain place; anyone might know how to act around a suburban neighborhood, but a long-time resident, especially an adventurous one, might know every shortcut and hiding place, and be able to use home court advantage against a much more powerful pursuer. Someone who has used the time living there to set up special little caches or spots, not to mention traps, will be able to do a lot of damage, or a lot of good.

Giving a character home turf is not limited to one per character, either. Some people instinctively begin to make themselves familiar with places they frequent, and anyone who spends some time on the road might have a few such places. With advanced communications and friends in the right spots, someone could even become fairly familiar with turf they have never physically explored!

The exact benefits of home turf will depend on the turf and the character. How to build it into a character is hard to say, but it could easily follow lines not unlike those that will end up governing friends and close acquaintances or ‘perfect fit’ gear, as discussed in Entry 12 and 8, respectively.

:: Property ::

Of course, some players are no doubt going to grow keen on the idea of spending character wealth on property, building their own places. This is quite likely going to involve shopping lists of rooms and contents for those rooms, be they labs, lairs, lobbies or lounges. And such a place can be something that the characters will continue to build on, expanding it for a multitude of purposes! As discussed in Entry 12, it is even possible to use property like this to affect status, from the fear of a man with his own dungeon chambers to the suave cool of a large pool and massive recreation rooms. Characters with multiple such places can move the concept of impressive property (or property that defines them in ways not quite to be called ‘impressive’, like dark drug dens or spartan safehouses).

But even more so, property can be an extension of tools, something that shows the benefit of work gear too big to bring along on adventures. A well-stocked garage is a typical example, building perhaps a bit on the Bat Cave concept. Similar things could work for space vehicles, power suits, even stables for riding wolves, griffons and dragons!

A property that is actually part of some operation adds another layer, be it adventure related (HQ for the rebels, for example) or not (earning an income by running a hotel or store, for example). Property uses locations to move parts of the background story into a greater light, and the fact that it is an actual location means the adventure could easily spread there; when the villain comes for them, it might take place in the very place they own! Unlike the average dungeon or other random shooting gallery, a character’s property will have value to the player(s), but they will also most likely have access to all the functions of it they would usually be the victims of, like traps and hidden doorways. Having an adventure spread to a character’s property turns the tables, making the characters the ones running the maze…

:: The Wild Places ::

All of this leans towards the idea of locations as buildings, or at least highly equipped lairs of some kind. But a lot of adventures, both in games and other media, take place in vast, untamed nature spots. From caves to deserts to canyon rivers, they offer great opportunities for affecting adventures. Any such place could be home turf to a character, and someone who has lived there long will have adapted somewhat to the risks and opportunities inherent to the place. It could even be owned, like a natural park or private resort!

Of course, setting up a natural area makes the standardized ’shopping list’ approach to filling the place a little less logical to use. Whether it would take simply a variant of that concept, or a whole new approach to creating a place, is impossible to say at this point.

:: And Fun ::

The purpose here is to make exploration and travel a more entertaining and perhaps even dramatic part of the game, by making different places truly different. That means different dangers, different options, different encounters and so on. The real challenge actually seems to be to make those differences work as a display of where the characters are; what kind of dangers etc. would make a factory feel like a factory and a swamp feel like a swamp? In the end, a part of this will no doubt rely on a strong gallery of things to put in places, in addition to what is inherent about the places itself. It is even possible that places will have to be assembled from different lesser things that actually provide the differences, like a particular swamp being not made special from scratch, but being a special blend of pre-designed terrains, creatures and features.

What is important is that the location work becomes a boon on the game without being a drain on the GM and players. That balance looks to be the greatest challenge.

Posted in Locations, Cash, Equipment/Gear, Old blog, Machines | No Comments »