Empires in the Dark : Thoughts on Regions
So I’ve been thinking about regions, and region development, and it feels like existing 4Xish roleplaying games fall into two categories :
1. In Wrath of the Autarch and Houses of the Blooded, domains have Regions which they develop and exploit for resources.
2. In Reign and Legacy: Life Among the Ruins, domains have stats which abstract away resources, regions and development.
Personally, I’m torn.
On one hand, I feel like Blades in the Dark would most likely fall into category number two. In some ways, you could argue that it already does abstract away resource exploitation and region development into Turf and Claims.
On the other hand, I feel like one of the pleasures of a 4Xish roleplaying game would be acquiring and developing your territories, producing or trading the resources you need to build your lightning towers and charter halls.
What do you think?
Listening.
I think it is a question of how do you want the GM to use this information and reflect it to the PCs. Where are the PCs. If they’re in enemy domains then maybe having flavor or what regions are there is good. If they are never going to see the regions then maybe its wasted processing power.
Aaron Berger that’s a really good point!
My general assumption is that Regions provide 3 core elements:
A. Stage-building – Regions provide story hooks and locations for events such as unrest, enemy occupation, uncovered ruins, etc.
It also gives a tangible, countable sense of scale which can be channeled to power other mechanics (unrest in both WotA & HotB, for example)
B. Set Dressing – Especially in WotA & HotB, regions communicate to the player the kingdom that they control and the world it exists in.
They encourage the player to build a physical diagram of their world and its inter-relations, and arguably to think about it strategically.
C. Economic Gameplay – Regions, regional improvements and regional resources give the player a sort of base-building and resource management gameplay.
Players can trade and allocate resources between regions in a Settlers of Catan-esque manner, which would feel less tangible if regions were abstracted away.