Thursday Teaser

[higgins]

What he said.

[EinBein]

I thought about something like a Renegade Crowns setting (from the Warhammer RPG) combined with player goals. So the player characters would definitely be in charge...

But I'll work it out in more detail as soon as the beta is released

[Marras]

Renegade Crowns style game would be great. Whether you start as a "border prince" or climb your way up would be fun to play or watch from a position of GM.

[Agamemnon]

Renegade Crowns style game would be great. Whether you start as a "border prince" or climb your way up would be fun to play or watch from a position of GM.

My group playtest is actually about to start with the same idea, only they want to start as a street gang and essentially make it a Saints Row / Gangland style renaissance game. It's going to be very interesting. Fortunately, the factions setup scales nicely for this sort of thing.

[Marras]

My group playtest is actually about to start with the same idea, only they want to start as a street gang and essentially make it a Saints Row / Gangland style renaissance game. It's going to be very interesting. Fortunately, the factions setup scales nicely for this sort of thing.

Sounds interesting. Do you plan to have many competing gangs? What other factions you plan to use?

[Agamemnon]

My group playtest is actually about to start with the same idea, only they want to start as a street gang and essentially make it a Saints Row / Gangland style renaissance game. It's going to be very interesting. Fortunately, the factions setup scales nicely for this sort of thing.

Sounds interesting. Do you plan to have many competing gangs? What other factions you plan to use?

It's still in some sort of preliminary brain-storm territory at the moment - I haven't had a lot of time for gaming, with all of the game-related writing. Irony, right? - but I'm thinking you would at least one a few rival gangs or organizations 3-5, preferably. Any more than that and it gets hard to keep track of who is whom, any fewer and it becomes too easy to get Gang A to team up with you to eliminate Gang B.

In addition, I'll probably run the local legal authority as though it were its own faction for our purposes, which will let me track both the level of "heat" the gang has brought on themselves as though it were a factional relationship, as well as create a situation where the state may actually wind up bankrupting itself or the like trying to bring the streets under control.

The interesting thing for this kind of a scenario is to think non-linearly. It doesn't necessarily have to be "each faction is a rival gang controlling X amount of territory." It's just as plausible - and perhaps more interesting - for there to be other factions/gangs (we have been calling them Warbands, as a play on the title of the game) that are influential or powerful but not in direct competition with the gangs fighting over the streets: the Church could be secretly profiting from or involved with the crap going on, a fencing guild maintains relations with one or more of the gangs (or is their enemy), a band of smugglers operating outside of the city, a mercenary company, perhaps even the legitimate merchant guild.

Creativity can go a long way here towards making things very interesting and flavorful. If our scenario is about rival street gangs, then our direct competition is those other street gangs (or fencing guilds, or whatever our direct competitor is), but all of those other factions could still be in play and become assets and allies for us - or enemies we've made.

It's definitely a different kind of campaign to play, but it that's part of why we have that discussion in Session Zero to talk about what it is the players want to do in this campaign and the rules to help facilitate multiple game types.

[Marras]

It's still in some sort of preliminary brain-storm territory at the moment - I haven't had a lot of time for gaming, with all of the game-related writing. Irony, right? - but I'm thinking you would at least one a few rival gangs or organizations 3-5, preferably. Any more than that and it gets hard to keep track of who is whom, any fewer and it becomes too easy to get Gang A to team up with you to eliminate Gang B.

I can really well understand why your gaming time is in short supply when writing the game book. But it is ironic, I'll give you that!

Having a proper amount of factions is important and it is a balancing action partially based on the abilities of the gaming group (and the GM). Higgins was wise to point out that I was getting too ambitious with active factions in my own adventure write up.

In addition, I'll probably run the local legal authority as though it were its own faction for our purposes, which will let me track both the level of "heat" the gang has brought on themselves as though it were a factional relationship, as well as create a situation where the state may actually wind up bankrupting itself or the like trying to bring the streets under control.

That "heat" aspect sound really interesting. Also the prospect of state running out of money while keeping the criminals in control could very well change the direction of the whole campaign! Imagine the possibilities for stories as well as for PCs to carve nice slices from the rumbling state. High stakes high risks.

The interesting thing for this kind of a scenario is to think non-linearly. It doesn't necessarily have to be "each faction is a rival gang controlling X amount of territory." It's just as plausible - and perhaps more interesting - for there to be other factions/gangs (we have been calling them Warbands, as a play on the title of the game) that are influential or powerful but not in direct competition with the gangs fighting over the streets: the Church could be secretly profiting from or involved with the crap going on, a fencing guild maintains relations with one or more of the gangs (or is their enemy), a band of smugglers operating outside of the city, a mercenary company, perhaps even the legitimate merchant guild.

Creativity can go a long way here towards making things very interesting and flavorful. If our scenario is about rival street gangs, then our direct competition is those other street gangs (or fencing guilds, or whatever our direct competitor is), but all of those other factions could still be in play and become assets and allies for us - or enemies we've made.

True, multiple layers of factions are a really nice touch. This really creates a wealth of information that can be used to get upper level faction to pressure your immediate enemy (or friend) to act the way you want to. Works also both ways

It's definitely a different kind of campaign to play, but it that's part of why we have that discussion in Session Zero to talk about what it is the players want to do in this campaign and the rules to help facilitate multiple game types.

True, it really sounds like it is mostly up to players how they want to handle things.