Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
(+)Theorycrafting: Systemic Cultures and Questing
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Emberashh" data-source="post: 9261250" data-attributes="member: 7040941"><p><strong><span style="font-size: 22px">PART II: Refining, Implementing, and First Observations</span></strong></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px">So it's been a hot minute, and I've been plugging away at this. Attached is the current draft of what was described, with some of my refinements and initial observations already integrated. Also attached is the full "Adventuring" document, which includes these rules as well as the bulk of the others that will be integrating </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px">The big thing I've had to come to grips with is that this system is deceptively complicated. Its a lot to take in, but in practice it is absurdly simple. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px">As noted in the Adventuring document, this system assumes the use of the Time Pool mechanic being utilized to govern the turn to turn of the game. As such, just by playing the game normally, the group is already doing 90% of the effort required for this system. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px">The remaining 10% is the Keeper's management of the Calendar and Culture sheets. The Calendar itself would just be a literal calendar, filled in with Questlines and anything marked for Global updates, as well as anything else the Keeper thinks should be tracked. Easy enough. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px">The Culture Sheet is basically going to be the reverse of the "Character" sheet for the relevant area. Regions and Cities will already have their own sheets as part of the Exploration mechanics, and while I haven't put much work into it, it makes all of the sense that Domains will have their own sheets. So already we have a useful organizational tool thats conveniently compressed into already existing (or soon to be existing) tools. +1 for my integration mantra. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px">What the Culture Sheet will include is already described in the document, essentially listing all of the KPCs and their Passions, which will incidentally serve as a handy quick reference for those KPCs, and then setting aside a space to list out and rank the shared Passions. </span></p><p></p><p>Most likely there will be a few variants of these sheets; as described, there should be plenty of room to cover virtually any size Culture. But many will be smaller, and so it might be worth it to have variant sheets that include other information that might be relevant. And others might indeed be bigger than a single letter page can realistically hold. I don't personally shy away from mega settings, so I could see a variant thats more of a packet than a sheet. </p><p></p><p>Between these sheets and the Calendar, managing the system in the aggregate should be pretty simple, and thats shown out in testing. As noted in the document, the system does its work in the long term, so even with rudimentary organization tools, it proved to be very manageable. </p><p></p><p>However, it did become apparent that care has to be taken in terms of how Quests and Questlines are designed, written, and included. </p><p></p><p>Hence, the core tool here being the Quantum Quests, which once realized should help this. The Quest Blocks will be critical for reference and for integrating with the Calendar (as while digital would make spacing concerns irrelevant, I do want to support a full paper environment), providing short hand so that Quests can be easily recognized, and also so it doesn't get out of hand if Quests end up being gated on the same dates. </p><p></p><p>Another critical issue thats revealed here, perhaps the most critical with the entire system is visibility. As it stands, the bulk of this system is invisible to the players as it does its thing. Part of that is necessary, as the point is for a living world to live regardless of whether the players are there to see it first hand. </p><p></p><p>While seeking rumors and such will be an obvious gimme in terms of letting the players seek out the goings on in the world, I think it'll be prudent to increase the visibility. Reactivity, as shortly covered in the document, speaks to that. Further iterations are probably going to see Questlines in particular introducing unique Complications and Encounters (as covered in Adventuring), but I believe Passions and Motivations will also be doing this as well.</p><p></p><p>Indeed, most likely the Encounter and Complication section is going to be overhauled take in and integrate these ideas, and it'll be on the Keeper (and more often me as writer of what I'm calling the "Campaign Builder", which will basically be the setting/adventure book for this system) to prep these ahead of time. </p><p></p><p>Hopefully, this should increase the overall visibility while also driving the desired Reactivity needed to sell the living world. </p><p></p><p>Another observation is that Motivations, funnily enough, ended up being a tabletop reinvention of the Wants and Fears mechanics from the Sims games. Which actually makes a lot of sense, given the Sims is actually doing a lot of what this system is aiming for, up to and including the desired "AI" functionality. </p><p></p><p>As its desirable to see KPCs acting on their own in this system, up to and including acting as adventurers in the same way that players do, Motivations and Passions are going to have to be carefully designed, and as such thats why they're not as elaborated on in the rules document as I'd like just yet. </p><p></p><p>In general though, I expect it should work out. The uncertainty right now is mostly on whether or not the system is going to involve a fixed number of generic Motivations and Passions, or if it'll be completely open ended and arbitrary, or something inbetween.</p><p></p><p>Given what I've already explored with the Quantum Quest, most likely that inbetween is going to be the way to go. That could involve a healthy variety of generic typed Motivations and Passions, that can then be elaborated on with specifics by the Keeper and the Campaign Builder. </p><p></p><p>For example, a simple Motivation, and one that'd be marked as a Global, would be <em>To Adventure</em>. What the KPC would pursue is entirely open-ended. They could be pulled by the Keeper arbitrarily to fulfill other Quests and/or Questlines, or, if the KPC happens to have another Motivation centering a Quest, the Adventure Motivation could be used to say the KPC does their own Quest. If none of these are options, the KPC might be open to being hired by the Players as a mercenary or some such. </p><p></p><p>During Domain play, that KPC could also be employed as an adventurer, with the Player having the KPC complete Quests within their own Domains. </p><p></p><p>What would be very interesting though, is exploring what an entire Culture that carries the Passion <em>To Adventure</em> would do in the gameworld. I could very easily see such a culture basically becoming Viking-like. How neat is that?</p><p></p><p>Overall, at this stage, the system is more or less solid mechanically, which is where I want to be at the moment. The next stage is going to be content development, which will see the full design and creation of the Motivations and Passions, as well as Quest Blocks and eventually the slow work of writing Questlines to populate the gameworld with. </p><p></p><p>In the long term, it will become apparent that theres going to be shortcoming to this system, in that while Quests are more or less endless (the intent is going to be for Quest Motivations to roll over into new Quests; basically a radiant quest system but less stupid), Questlines will eventually run out. </p><p></p><p>But, thats not necessarily a bad thing; just means that further supplements focusing on adding more will be a valuable product. </p><p></p><p>Suffice to say, this is an exciting time, as getting this to this stage has been occupying my design time for just too long lol. I am looking forward to getting into some of the even juicier parts of my game that I've been sitting on.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Emberashh, post: 9261250, member: 7040941"] [B][SIZE=6]PART II: Refining, Implementing, and First Observations[/SIZE][/B] [SIZE=4]So it's been a hot minute, and I've been plugging away at this. Attached is the current draft of what was described, with some of my refinements and initial observations already integrated. Also attached is the full "Adventuring" document, which includes these rules as well as the bulk of the others that will be integrating The big thing I've had to come to grips with is that this system is deceptively complicated. Its a lot to take in, but in practice it is absurdly simple. As noted in the Adventuring document, this system assumes the use of the Time Pool mechanic being utilized to govern the turn to turn of the game. As such, just by playing the game normally, the group is already doing 90% of the effort required for this system. The remaining 10% is the Keeper's management of the Calendar and Culture sheets. The Calendar itself would just be a literal calendar, filled in with Questlines and anything marked for Global updates, as well as anything else the Keeper thinks should be tracked. Easy enough. The Culture Sheet is basically going to be the reverse of the "Character" sheet for the relevant area. Regions and Cities will already have their own sheets as part of the Exploration mechanics, and while I haven't put much work into it, it makes all of the sense that Domains will have their own sheets. So already we have a useful organizational tool thats conveniently compressed into already existing (or soon to be existing) tools. +1 for my integration mantra. What the Culture Sheet will include is already described in the document, essentially listing all of the KPCs and their Passions, which will incidentally serve as a handy quick reference for those KPCs, and then setting aside a space to list out and rank the shared Passions. [/SIZE] Most likely there will be a few variants of these sheets; as described, there should be plenty of room to cover virtually any size Culture. But many will be smaller, and so it might be worth it to have variant sheets that include other information that might be relevant. And others might indeed be bigger than a single letter page can realistically hold. I don't personally shy away from mega settings, so I could see a variant thats more of a packet than a sheet. Between these sheets and the Calendar, managing the system in the aggregate should be pretty simple, and thats shown out in testing. As noted in the document, the system does its work in the long term, so even with rudimentary organization tools, it proved to be very manageable. However, it did become apparent that care has to be taken in terms of how Quests and Questlines are designed, written, and included. Hence, the core tool here being the Quantum Quests, which once realized should help this. The Quest Blocks will be critical for reference and for integrating with the Calendar (as while digital would make spacing concerns irrelevant, I do want to support a full paper environment), providing short hand so that Quests can be easily recognized, and also so it doesn't get out of hand if Quests end up being gated on the same dates. Another critical issue thats revealed here, perhaps the most critical with the entire system is visibility. As it stands, the bulk of this system is invisible to the players as it does its thing. Part of that is necessary, as the point is for a living world to live regardless of whether the players are there to see it first hand. While seeking rumors and such will be an obvious gimme in terms of letting the players seek out the goings on in the world, I think it'll be prudent to increase the visibility. Reactivity, as shortly covered in the document, speaks to that. Further iterations are probably going to see Questlines in particular introducing unique Complications and Encounters (as covered in Adventuring), but I believe Passions and Motivations will also be doing this as well. Indeed, most likely the Encounter and Complication section is going to be overhauled take in and integrate these ideas, and it'll be on the Keeper (and more often me as writer of what I'm calling the "Campaign Builder", which will basically be the setting/adventure book for this system) to prep these ahead of time. Hopefully, this should increase the overall visibility while also driving the desired Reactivity needed to sell the living world. Another observation is that Motivations, funnily enough, ended up being a tabletop reinvention of the Wants and Fears mechanics from the Sims games. Which actually makes a lot of sense, given the Sims is actually doing a lot of what this system is aiming for, up to and including the desired "AI" functionality. As its desirable to see KPCs acting on their own in this system, up to and including acting as adventurers in the same way that players do, Motivations and Passions are going to have to be carefully designed, and as such thats why they're not as elaborated on in the rules document as I'd like just yet. In general though, I expect it should work out. The uncertainty right now is mostly on whether or not the system is going to involve a fixed number of generic Motivations and Passions, or if it'll be completely open ended and arbitrary, or something inbetween. Given what I've already explored with the Quantum Quest, most likely that inbetween is going to be the way to go. That could involve a healthy variety of generic typed Motivations and Passions, that can then be elaborated on with specifics by the Keeper and the Campaign Builder. For example, a simple Motivation, and one that'd be marked as a Global, would be [I]To Adventure[/I]. What the KPC would pursue is entirely open-ended. They could be pulled by the Keeper arbitrarily to fulfill other Quests and/or Questlines, or, if the KPC happens to have another Motivation centering a Quest, the Adventure Motivation could be used to say the KPC does their own Quest. If none of these are options, the KPC might be open to being hired by the Players as a mercenary or some such. During Domain play, that KPC could also be employed as an adventurer, with the Player having the KPC complete Quests within their own Domains. What would be very interesting though, is exploring what an entire Culture that carries the Passion [I]To Adventure[/I] would do in the gameworld. I could very easily see such a culture basically becoming Viking-like. How neat is that? Overall, at this stage, the system is more or less solid mechanically, which is where I want to be at the moment. The next stage is going to be content development, which will see the full design and creation of the Motivations and Passions, as well as Quest Blocks and eventually the slow work of writing Questlines to populate the gameworld with. In the long term, it will become apparent that theres going to be shortcoming to this system, in that while Quests are more or less endless (the intent is going to be for Quest Motivations to roll over into new Quests; basically a radiant quest system but less stupid), Questlines will eventually run out. But, thats not necessarily a bad thing; just means that further supplements focusing on adding more will be a valuable product. Suffice to say, this is an exciting time, as getting this to this stage has been occupying my design time for just too long lol. I am looking forward to getting into some of the even juicier parts of my game that I've been sitting on. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
(+)Theorycrafting: Systemic Cultures and Questing
Top