Imagine a city

To build this campaign from the ground up, the first step is to start with a city. A city not unlike the Denver Metro area. A relatively dense inner core, but surrounded on 3 sides by a vast amount of modern suburbia.

To the west of the city is a large mountain range, semi-populated, with only 1 major travelling route up into the mountains. To the south is some foothills, littered with some formerly exclusive gated suburbs, then some smaller bedroom communities, with a major highway to travel on. To the East is plains, lots of ranch land and some small farming communities. To the North is a mix of ranch land and foothills.

There is a major semi-elevated highway travelling east. Along with a variety of county roads connecting ranches and farms. It will all seem familiar to a group from El Paso County waking up near that major highway. However, as they begin to travel west they will being to notice the subtle differences.

The road signs will be in a familiar language that they will determine to be Latin. The architecture of the farm building they first see will be different from what they are used to. When they hear the first communication from the natives it will be in Latin, not any modern language the characters will know.

They will discover the city name is Mons Montis Porta, or Mons Montis as it's citizens call it. The city is a major gateway for the locals into the mountains, and on the other side of the large range is a lush land leading to the sea. But that is a discovery for another day.

Unlike our cities built on grids, this city design was originally a wheel and spokes, then gradually more wheels of varying sizes, getting connected. There is no linear design, save for a few major elevated highways. There is a major river bisecting the city north to south, with creeks and canals leading off it.

Most citizens live, work and play within their Affinitas (the wheels mentioned above). Each of the seeming suburbs will be found to be separate areas.

However, the outlying areas, including the ranches and most of the outer suburbs, are abandoned. Emptied in the face of some major disaster. So there is a swath of these empty houses and communities, left to decay, and in some cases populated by squatters.

These are the main features the characters will encounter as they make their way into the city core. My goal is to establish an atmosphere and theme for what the characters will see. It is not to map everything out, there is no reason to do that. The players will get their chance to develop in their own mind how it all looks and feels.

How to create a game world

One of my biggest obstacles I run into in designing a campaign is getting bogged down in the details. Now with Savage Shadows, my original intention was to use a post apocalyptic earth as a starting point. Which frees me up for the problems of languages, maps, currency etc. Which is nice. But every once in a while I think to myself: 'self, aren't you bored with earth?'

And then something comes along like the map I referenced in my last post. And this really spurs my imagination to do something really different, challenge myself and my players. And then 'reality' starts to seep in. What languages do these people speak? Where are they? How does their monetary system work? Basically all of the social and cultural anthropological questions. And then I start to feel overwhelmed, because I just have no idea how to answer those questions.

But then I harken back to the primary motivation of Savage Worlds: Fast! Furious! and Fun! And it struck me, I don't have to create the whole world! I still plan to keep the skeleton of the scenario that I already wrote: how the characters start, and the idea of a post-apocalyptic society. And there is no reason I can't do that in another world. I can drop this group into a new world, and have them discover the world at my own pace. So the initial adventures will all take place in a small area where I can keep the focus simple. Then as they get comfortable I can have them travel. But to start, there is no reason to force travel.

So I basically have to create a geographic area roughly the size of a county, with a large urban center. And since I will be working with an area everyone is a stranger to I won't have to worry about the problem of player knowledge v. character knowledge.

In order to keep it simple and fun, I will subscribe to the Star Trek theory of everyone speaking the same language, even alien like creatures. And the technology level will follow our own, because that was my original goal. The overarching theme of the campaign is roughly Shadowrun meets World War Z meets Wild Cards. And I can still pull that off in a different world.

Great Map - spurs great ideas

So I came across this on the Gamers Haven web site yesterday and I can't get it out of my mind. I'm not a 'world builder' when it comes to my role playing plans. And my plans for Savage Worlds so far have been built around a near future version of our world. But, this map just gets my mind and creative juices flowing.

I think I could craft a similar campaign style to what I already have, and in fact could make it even more chaotic, if I wanted. And it would free me up to get more exotic as far as cities etc.

It would mean considerably more work for me, but I think it could be a lot more fun.

More things for Savage Shadows

More things for Savage Shadows

1. Money, resources and experience

One of the characteristics of most of my current role playing group is that the players are not overly concerned with advancing their characters.  Either as far as acquiring 'stuff' (money, new weapons, gear etc.) or gaining the new skills etc. that come from advancing their characters experience.  Which makes life fairly easy for the GM, because the group becomes fairly easy to guide, as they just flow with whatever story the GM wants to tell, instead of worrying about what they will get from this mission, adventure, etc.  

But I am not like that, I like to advance my character, get new things etc.  One of my fondest role playing games was when I ran a Shadowrun character for so long that he was maxing out his capabilities in amazing ways, which allowed the GM to keep escalating the adventures.  

One of my goals with this game is to force this group start to think about their characters.  I want them to realize that there can be a lot of fun, and new horizons that come from increasing skills, and acquiring new 'stuff'.  

I will implement this in 2 ways.  First, by dropping the characters into what amounts to a new world, with nothing but the clothes on their back, they will be forced to think about things like "how do I get my next meal" or "how can I afford more ammunition for my gun".  Second, because there is a very real chance that some, if not most, of the party will have the potential to wield cool new powers and/or belong to a different race, they will have to apply some time to learning these new things.

And I will gear my sessions around missions or runs where there is a defined goal, be it monetary or loot or both.  And there will be a defined (for me at least) number of 'experience points' to be gained for completing the missions.  So there will be a regular reward for each mission, making it fairly easy to advance.  Of course as the players advance the toughness of the missions will escalate, but that's part of the fun. 

2. Our group has become rather inconsistent in attendance of late, so much so that we haven't actually played in 2 months, and probably won't return to doing so for another month.  This is because some players have had things come up, and the GM doesn't want the group to go on without everyone there.  Which is understandable.  However, one of the things I will make a priority is to write each weeks adventure so it is not dependent on everyone being there.  And while I dearly love 'cliff hangers' I won't write them into an adventure unless I am 100% sure everyone can be there 2 sessions in a row, which is unlikely based on recent experience.  Because I want to play, and I know other people want to play as well, even if circumstances keep 1 person from showing up.     

James & his legos

 
 
 

James has become quite the Lego builder recently. I had turned over the use of the pool table to him for a couple of weeks and this is what he created. He constructed a base, and then set up a big battle between Droids and the defenders of the base, a mix of rebel troops and clone troopers.

It is actually quite clever how he arranged the battle very symmetrically, with 3 troops versus 3 droids, or big droid versus the walker. It is fascinating to watch how he develops his building skills, and then combines that with his Star Wars obsession.