The TTRPG Revival of PC Bases, Strongholds, and Communities

[hawkeyefan]

But it's also, IMHO, not just an anti-murder hobo trend but also an anti-setting tourism one, which I believe you also allude to.

I think these two factors are likely the main ones. A base of some kind not only gives the characters some sense of home, a place that’s theirs, but also the players. Here’s a place in this fictional world that you will create and shape through play.

Very often it also gives the campaign a sense of home as well, as a place that becomes central to play. NPCs Will often connect to the PCs through the base, and events will often revolve around the base. I’ve had a couple of campaigns that have essentially become about the base, they’re so central to play that we think of the campaign being about that place and the people in it.

 

[Aldarc]

One variation on the theme is the travelling base - often some kind of ship.

Scum and Villainy has a Firefly-esque or Cowboy Bebop-esque ship that the crew shares, but even going back to the early days of roleplaying, Traveller and the various Star Trek and Star Wars games have all had a PC home ship by default. Warbirds has all the PCs flying fighters from a single carrier airship...

Yeah, if I was running a sea or space-faring adventure, I would probably have the ship serve a similar purpose. Having a ship doesn't really stop the party muder-hoboing their way across the high seas or galaxy, but it's still a base of sorts. One could also potentially double the ship up with a harbor or port town that also can serve as a base of operations.

 

[overgeeked]

But it's also, IMHO, not just an anti-murder hobo trend but also an anti-setting tourism one, which I believe you also allude to. What's one way to prevent your PCs from being turned into tourists for the game master's world? You make the tourists into residents of a village/city, community, or headquarters who have all invested personal interests in that place. It also keeps the locations (generally but not always) smaller scale, and I also am growing to like smaller scale settings (e.g., OSE's Dolmenwood).

If you mean tourists as in wanderers, I like the PCs wandering around seeing the setting. If you mean tourists as in not connected to the setting, then yes, I agree that’s bad.

 

[Argyle King]

Edge of the Empire starts with the group having a shared ship.

 

[Aldarc]

If you mean tourists as in wanderers, I like the PCs wandering around seeing the setting. If you mean tourists as in not connected to the setting, then yes, I agree that’s bad.

More the latter where the game seemingly exists more for the purpose of the GM to showcase their world-building to the players, with the adventure dragging the players along a GM-guided sight-seeing tour across the world.

 

[overgeeked]

More the latter where the game seemingly exists more for the purpose of the GM to showcase their world-building to the players, with the adventure dragging the players along a GM-guided sight-seeing tour across the world.

Yeah, forget that.

 

[Lord Zack]

Edge of the Empire starts with the group having a shared ship.

Also, in Age of Rebellion you can start with a Home Base, though it's not like the PCs control it. Though that could change as the campaign proceeds.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Mutant Year Zero has extensive base-building rules.

 

[Argyle King]

Mutant Year Zero has extensive base-building rules.

I want to check that out sometime.

I recently played through the Road to Eden ps4 game and highly enjoyed the concept.

Only recently did I learn that it based upon a ttrpg.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I want to check that out sometime.

I recently played through the Road to Eden ps4 game and highly enjoyed the concept.

Only recently did I learn that it based upon a ttrpg.

It is an interesting approach.