I have a lot of questions about designing Crews from scratch. This kind of got buried in other posts last time I posted it and maybe bears further clarification:
I’m writing a crew type for a Hack I’m doing. Things are going mostly well, except I’m hitting snags on where the lines should be drawn between crew upgrades, claims, and whatever generic name exists for the “hunting grounds / products / smuggling routes / artifacts & supplications” feature is. I’m also having difficulty figuring out what’s the most important to design first, and what can just be figured out through playtesting. Almost entirely sure, I don’t I need to design an entire claims map for an alpha playtest, right? How many crew upgrades should I start with, and how should I go about brainstorming them? What does my “hunting grounds, etc” part of the character sheet need to fulfill?
If you want my examples to draw off of, my 2 crews are Flippers (a crew who buys and renovates houses to sell within the same year) and the Blaze (revolutionaries, whistleblowers, anarchists, and arsonists)
Thanks, y’all!
John Harper Any advice?
– The difference between upgrades and claims is one of style for that crew. Upgrades can be had as part of the crew’s nature, with xp. Claims are part of the world outside the crew and must be seized from someone else. The same fictional thing might appear as a claim on one crew and an upgrade on another, depending on the crew’s nature as you see it.
Claims exist to invite growth that hurts other factions, so they have a concrete reason to resist that growth. If the setting of your hack is such that “there’s enough for everyone” then claims can change or be dropped entirely.
– Resources (hunting grounds / products, etc.) exist to give a crew opportunities for scores. When they’re not tangling against other factions directly, how does this type of crew generate opportunities?
John Harper Perfect! Thank you!