#glowinthedark
Last crew (for now): The Dealers
Dealers are weird. They have Convoy as a default crew upgrade, which means their lair/settlement and most of their claims are mobile, whether that’s a train or semi trucks or covered wagons or huge tracked compounds. They’re half Hawkers and half Smugglers, except in the wasteland there’s no laws to interfere with smuggling. That said, barter and trade are a big part of my source material (the constant traders in Fallout, Bartertown in Mad Max, the trade between Gastown, Bullet Farm, and the Citadel in Fury Road). In the fiction, the Dealers should need other factions to keep their trade going. They have some abilities to help them out with rep, supplies, and friction, and one wartime bonus focusing on defense.
I’m not 100% on their claims, however. In fact, I’m looking over all my crews’ claims and I’m seeing more of an RTS building/tech tree rather than turf to be carved out of competing factions.
I want to embrace the scarcity that’s part and parcel of post-apocalyptic source material, so I think I need to reinforce the claims somehow, but at the same time I like the implicit worldbuilding in having unique claims for each crew. It works hand in hand with the special abilities and upgrades to paint a clearer picture of what each crew’s about while leaving plenty open to interpretation.
I mean, it’d all probably work okay as-is, because for the most part I’m just renaming stuff and remixing some abilities. Maybe it’s enough to speak on what might need to happen to open up an opportunity to seize a claim, and have it be fictionally more in line with the post-apocalyptic theme rather than claustrophobic, crowded Duskwall.
Obligatory Google Sheets link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DBV7m2DnqVsLTq-L_yCTHFQozitUYaTa7jaLdchhHuA/edit?usp=sharing
Maybe for claims you could list traits with a point cost, and assign a point value to claims. Each claim could be part of a big vehicle that the crew owns (they may share it with other factions) or a fleet of small vehicles, or one self-contained vehicle.
As one vehicle is trashed, maybe parts can be salvaged and put on other vehicles, and salvaging wrecks in the badlands can increase the claims.
You’ve got a fleet of six claims, with values ranging from 2 to 8.
A side-by-side system could be claims as trade agreements with factions. You’ve got strong ties with the Skid Rows to transport vehicle parts in exchange for a cut of parts to keep your own fleet going. The Salmon Lotus sell their skink-skin-petal drugs that dissolve on the tongue through you ONLY, which irritates rival transporter in more than one trade hub. You had to fight for the right to transport prisoners for the Thunderdome to the Spiral Gully.
In case that’s unclear, say you’ve got a claim vehicle with 6 points. You buy a high security cage for 2 points, outsize engines for 2 points, a harpoon gun for 1 point, and thrash tanks that immolate the vehicle with its own fuel if it is at risk of being taken, for 1 point.
Or for 6 points you get 3 points of Skirmishers for dirt bikes, and 2 points for Hanger because they run up to park in the back of a dump truck, and Sturdy with the last point so it can shrug off some damage.
Both are a claim of 6, but can be customized, and that capacity affects what trade claims the crew can take on.
I like the concept (and you are a worldbuilding savant – your examples sound effortless and yet convey tons), although I’m leery about sticking too many point-buy mechanics into something the group has to decide on. IME either it comes down to one person getting saddled with the mechanics or it devolves into lengthy dithering.
I DO really like the “claims are what you make of them” idea. I’m going to come back to this after I start from the top and look over the crews’ XP triggers. I think I got lost and forgot these crews aren’t really set up to fight each other. They have to provide interesting hooks to interact with the world. Maybe I need to do a round of worldbuilding.
Well thanks! One possible way to deal with the vast possibilities and narrow it down is to make something like a percentile chart with claim possibilities for the GM to use to generate possible claims. Then dangle those in front of the crew as wrecks to salvage, vehicles for sale cheap, or adversaries on the road.
If the players are looking for elements or vehicle types, then they can guide the planning that way. Also, if there’s stuff you think is cool, then that guides you in that direction.
They can only buy what’s available, so you can minimize the choice paralysis. And to insulate the GM from that, a random table can provide quick decisions if needed.
I continue to love what you’re doing Adam Schwaninger!