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<blockquote data-quote="Graf" data-source="post: 4185306" data-attributes="member: 3087"><p><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p></p><p>Please, brainstorming by myself only goes so far.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>A bit, I think, my intent is for interactions to have a bit of an iconic feel. (does that make -any- sense? </p><p></p><p>I think I want to say pseudo western european/gothic.</p><p></p><p>[sblock=Japan]</p><p>I have a sorta Japan thing going. Speak it. Lived there for years. My wife is Japanese (just going chronologically -- she's the most important of course). etc etc</p><p></p><p>I ran a game once set in an excessively detailed pseudo-feudal mythological Japan with all my Tokyo gaming buddies. They created awesome characters, really worked with me to fit them into the setting.</p><p></p><p>The game? It sucked. </p><p>I was just too locked into how specific the setting was, what was OK, how society would react, blah blah blah.</p><p>It was the last "true homebrew" I ran (i.e. where the world was made up in advance).</p><p>[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>I'm thinking that the society will be more ruined, anarchistic.</p><p>[<em>edit: I may be going to far in this direction though...</em>]</p><p></p><p>Like, there is a mill, and they grow wheat, or something similar somewhere (possibly grown magically directly (magical bag o' wheat?), possibly grown indirectly through magic (I'll post something about this in a minute), or grown subsistence farming style.</p><p></p><p>It's possible that some of their farming implements will be minorly magical (in the sense the they have a bunch of hoes that never go dull or rust), so that they don't worry about making new ones.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Basically yeah. The most important actions revolve around leaving.</p><p></p><p>I'm leaning in the direction of: the latent soul of the hero within them makes them capable of shaking off the daze.</p><p></p><p>Again, still brainstorming. It may be different for different people.</p><p></p><p>[<em>edit: see also the 2nd post after this one</em>]</p><p></p><p>The daze is specifically a bit vague. Some people are dazed all their lives more or less consistently. Other people swing in and out day-by-day. Other people may shake off the daze completely for a year or two and then swing back in.</p><p></p><p>I wouldn't run it, really. My intention is for it to be PC driven. [edit; So if you want to be completely dazed, or dazed in some sort of strange way (you obsessively walk the circumference of the town, right on the border), that's all cool.</p><p>Or you're just not very dazed at all.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Obviously I have ideas.</p><p>I didn't want to prejudge before I had players and a dialog with them.</p><p></p><p>Historically my games have been... a bit full. Too many different NPCs, groups, counter-groups, counter-counter-counter-groups floating around. The PCs simultaneously having three different plot threads to follow all of which have their own count-downs, staged events, escalating threat levels, assassination squads searching for the characters,....</p><p></p><p>My new policy is basically, "Whenever possible instead of making up another mid-level bad guy, with his own organization/city/off-world strong hold, try to make something the PCs could conceivably encounter and move toward resolution within the next few sessions".</p><p></p><p>I realize I'm [<em>edit:not</em>] communicating specifics very well. And that can make character generation tricky, but, I'd like, if possible to have character generation help push me a bit.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I agree.</p><p>I have a confession and a point to make.</p><p></p><p><strong>The confession:</strong>1 When I do that I tend to play favorites a bit. So long as something is vague then it's qualities are amorphous; If I firm things up then a narrative starts to develop in my head.</p><p></p><p>[sblock=For Example]</p><p>Lets say I decide that an old undead knight is nearby, and every night he rises and fights the same undead skeletons in the same battle, and after he wins he sits around in the graveyard and is all emo. If the PCs are sneaky/clever/rp well and do X then they'll get Y from him... </p><p></p><p>There is an evil necromancer, nearby, keeping the knight alive (or undead and cursed) because of an ancient curse. If the party gets Y from the knight then they'll have a great advantage when the fight the necromancer.</p><p></p><p>If they kill the necro first it's a hard but boring battle, maybe he monologes a bit but really even with a lot of effort he'll probably turn into a bag of forgettable xp. And they never see the knight, when they get to the graveyard the curse is broken.</p><p>If they do it in reverse order: they find out about the necro, understand the world a little bit more, get to rp with the knight, etc.</p><p></p><p>In my experience sometimes gently nudging people in a certain direction works brilliantly. In other times the group (or, more likely a specific player) picks up on it and digs their feet in. Every time some NPC mentions the "rumors of a ghostly battlefield" they loudly assert that "it's probably something epic, like a tarrasque, it'll suck this necromancer sounds easy, lets take care of him first".</p><p></p><p>I'm what the player says for comic effect of course. </p><p>[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>The problem with a narrative is that you, instinctively, want to push people toward it. "It'll be a better story that way, you don't want them to die against a powerful monster, but you want the monster to be powerful, so giving them a temporary boost in exchange for roleplaying/cunning decision making becomes attractive.</p><p></p><p>And you can always re-write things so that the necromancer is different, or the knight is different or what have you. But the simulationist in me sometimes revolts and I wind up being inflexible.</p><p>So the confession is that I don't want to start writing out too much specific stuff and get too far ahead of the PCs. I do that and pretty soon I'll have all of the first three levels mapped out.</p><p></p><p><strong>The point:</strong> is not really fair because the FAQ doesn't include enough information for you to have even guessed this is that, since the players have designed most of the town, they will, in essence, be setting up the methods of their exaltation (i.e. the acquisition of their heroic soul).</p><p>At an extreme (that I don't think I would be so interested in running) if there is -nothing- to do then, obviously, leaving the town/exalting is going to be fairly simple.</p><p></p><p>Just to throw out an example: if someone makes up a "dark cave under town that no-one goes to; something lives in it and comes out at night to steal children" and I say "that sounds cool" and it goes in the world and people start roleplaying about how their sister has disappeared and take their characters in there then we might run some sort of mini-combat using the PhB lite book (or whatever).</p><p></p><p>Someone else could just roleplay with themselves and, if they do a good job, wind up exalting while talking to themselves in front of a mirror.</p><p></p><p>One each of these are very cool ideas. My responses reflect my own initial impression of the setting, I'm not married to anything I'm saying per se. My responses just reflect me touching on different issues and chewing them over.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Can't read at the start of the game. Upon exaltation you'll be able to do everything your character can normally do. Which means read/write/etc. ([<em>edit: at least it meant that in 3.5 and I expect it'll mean that in 4.0.</em>]</p><p>(That doesn't mean you'll be able to read all of the books in the temple, but you'll be the only people you know who can read and write).</p><p></p><p>Of course, if someone put a temple in and said, "my character spends every day, from dawn till dusk, in the temple staring at these little scribbles" then I would be obliged as a DM to react to it.</p><p></p><p></p><p>It's entirely possible that either a PC has seen, or there is a persistent rumor (passed by the relatively undazed, or by a persistent dazed person who rumormongers) of some sort of figure visible in the distance.</p><p></p><p></p><p>A classic idea. Vague though.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I do have a plan for there to be something weird floating around who "knows something (or at least pretends to".</p><p>One of my design goals is to have a "starting area" that doesn't involve a lot of NPC interaction.</p><p></p><p></p><p>My instinct is to say "no castle". But now that I think about it a partially ruined castle would make a fantastic zone.</p><p>Maybe some dazed guardsmen, who guard the big front gate that dominates the center square, the same way their father's did. Their weapons have rusted, sometimes they can shake off the daze and think "what are we doing?"</p><p>The best of them stop being guards and take up more meaningful roles, but a few fall back to the daze.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I actually had a terrible experience with stirges in someone's homebrew once. But they aren't bad monsters...</p><p>But this is actually one way where I have willing to flex; if a player doesn't like stirges then you'll travel the length and breadth of the continent and never run into them.</p><p>(If you don't like dragons though then we may have a problem...)</p><p></p><p>They were fantastic. </p><p></p><p>Above and beyond being useful themselves I hadn't really considered the whole situation in the context of "medieval town". (Bizarre I realize)</p><p></p><p>I'm getting pretty attached to the castle idea pretty quickly (even if it's not exactly what you were looking for). That'd be great.</p><p></p><p>[<em>edit: and walls/canals is growing on me too.</em>]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Graf, post: 4185306, member: 3087"] :) Please, brainstorming by myself only goes so far. A bit, I think, my intent is for interactions to have a bit of an iconic feel. (does that make -any- sense? I think I want to say pseudo western european/gothic. [sblock=Japan] I have a sorta Japan thing going. Speak it. Lived there for years. My wife is Japanese (just going chronologically -- she's the most important of course). etc etc I ran a game once set in an excessively detailed pseudo-feudal mythological Japan with all my Tokyo gaming buddies. They created awesome characters, really worked with me to fit them into the setting. The game? It sucked. I was just too locked into how specific the setting was, what was OK, how society would react, blah blah blah. It was the last "true homebrew" I ran (i.e. where the world was made up in advance). [/sblock] I'm thinking that the society will be more ruined, anarchistic. [[I]edit: I may be going to far in this direction though...[/I]] Like, there is a mill, and they grow wheat, or something similar somewhere (possibly grown magically directly (magical bag o' wheat?), possibly grown indirectly through magic (I'll post something about this in a minute), or grown subsistence farming style. It's possible that some of their farming implements will be minorly magical (in the sense the they have a bunch of hoes that never go dull or rust), so that they don't worry about making new ones. Basically yeah. The most important actions revolve around leaving. I'm leaning in the direction of: the latent soul of the hero within them makes them capable of shaking off the daze. Again, still brainstorming. It may be different for different people. [[I]edit: see also the 2nd post after this one[/I]] The daze is specifically a bit vague. Some people are dazed all their lives more or less consistently. Other people swing in and out day-by-day. Other people may shake off the daze completely for a year or two and then swing back in. I wouldn't run it, really. My intention is for it to be PC driven. [edit; So if you want to be completely dazed, or dazed in some sort of strange way (you obsessively walk the circumference of the town, right on the border), that's all cool. Or you're just not very dazed at all. Obviously I have ideas. I didn't want to prejudge before I had players and a dialog with them. Historically my games have been... a bit full. Too many different NPCs, groups, counter-groups, counter-counter-counter-groups floating around. The PCs simultaneously having three different plot threads to follow all of which have their own count-downs, staged events, escalating threat levels, assassination squads searching for the characters,.... My new policy is basically, "Whenever possible instead of making up another mid-level bad guy, with his own organization/city/off-world strong hold, try to make something the PCs could conceivably encounter and move toward resolution within the next few sessions". I realize I'm [[I]edit:not[/I]] communicating specifics very well. And that can make character generation tricky, but, I'd like, if possible to have character generation help push me a bit. I agree. I have a confession and a point to make. [B]The confession:[/B]1 When I do that I tend to play favorites a bit. So long as something is vague then it's qualities are amorphous; If I firm things up then a narrative starts to develop in my head. [sblock=For Example] Lets say I decide that an old undead knight is nearby, and every night he rises and fights the same undead skeletons in the same battle, and after he wins he sits around in the graveyard and is all emo. If the PCs are sneaky/clever/rp well and do X then they'll get Y from him... There is an evil necromancer, nearby, keeping the knight alive (or undead and cursed) because of an ancient curse. If the party gets Y from the knight then they'll have a great advantage when the fight the necromancer. If they kill the necro first it's a hard but boring battle, maybe he monologes a bit but really even with a lot of effort he'll probably turn into a bag of forgettable xp. And they never see the knight, when they get to the graveyard the curse is broken. If they do it in reverse order: they find out about the necro, understand the world a little bit more, get to rp with the knight, etc. In my experience sometimes gently nudging people in a certain direction works brilliantly. In other times the group (or, more likely a specific player) picks up on it and digs their feet in. Every time some NPC mentions the "rumors of a ghostly battlefield" they loudly assert that "it's probably something epic, like a tarrasque, it'll suck this necromancer sounds easy, lets take care of him first". I'm what the player says for comic effect of course. [/sblock] The problem with a narrative is that you, instinctively, want to push people toward it. "It'll be a better story that way, you don't want them to die against a powerful monster, but you want the monster to be powerful, so giving them a temporary boost in exchange for roleplaying/cunning decision making becomes attractive. And you can always re-write things so that the necromancer is different, or the knight is different or what have you. But the simulationist in me sometimes revolts and I wind up being inflexible. So the confession is that I don't want to start writing out too much specific stuff and get too far ahead of the PCs. I do that and pretty soon I'll have all of the first three levels mapped out. [B]The point:[/B] is not really fair because the FAQ doesn't include enough information for you to have even guessed this is that, since the players have designed most of the town, they will, in essence, be setting up the methods of their exaltation (i.e. the acquisition of their heroic soul). At an extreme (that I don't think I would be so interested in running) if there is -nothing- to do then, obviously, leaving the town/exalting is going to be fairly simple. Just to throw out an example: if someone makes up a "dark cave under town that no-one goes to; something lives in it and comes out at night to steal children" and I say "that sounds cool" and it goes in the world and people start roleplaying about how their sister has disappeared and take their characters in there then we might run some sort of mini-combat using the PhB lite book (or whatever). Someone else could just roleplay with themselves and, if they do a good job, wind up exalting while talking to themselves in front of a mirror. One each of these are very cool ideas. My responses reflect my own initial impression of the setting, I'm not married to anything I'm saying per se. My responses just reflect me touching on different issues and chewing them over. Can't read at the start of the game. Upon exaltation you'll be able to do everything your character can normally do. Which means read/write/etc. ([[I]edit: at least it meant that in 3.5 and I expect it'll mean that in 4.0.[/I]] (That doesn't mean you'll be able to read all of the books in the temple, but you'll be the only people you know who can read and write). Of course, if someone put a temple in and said, "my character spends every day, from dawn till dusk, in the temple staring at these little scribbles" then I would be obliged as a DM to react to it. It's entirely possible that either a PC has seen, or there is a persistent rumor (passed by the relatively undazed, or by a persistent dazed person who rumormongers) of some sort of figure visible in the distance. A classic idea. Vague though. I do have a plan for there to be something weird floating around who "knows something (or at least pretends to". One of my design goals is to have a "starting area" that doesn't involve a lot of NPC interaction. My instinct is to say "no castle". But now that I think about it a partially ruined castle would make a fantastic zone. Maybe some dazed guardsmen, who guard the big front gate that dominates the center square, the same way their father's did. Their weapons have rusted, sometimes they can shake off the daze and think "what are we doing?" The best of them stop being guards and take up more meaningful roles, but a few fall back to the daze. I actually had a terrible experience with stirges in someone's homebrew once. But they aren't bad monsters... But this is actually one way where I have willing to flex; if a player doesn't like stirges then you'll travel the length and breadth of the continent and never run into them. (If you don't like dragons though then we may have a problem...) They were fantastic. Above and beyond being useful themselves I hadn't really considered the whole situation in the context of "medieval town". (Bizarre I realize) I'm getting pretty attached to the castle idea pretty quickly (even if it's not exactly what you were looking for). That'd be great. [[I]edit: and walls/canals is growing on me too.[/I]] [/QUOTE]
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