Engagement Rolls for Regional Position
So I’m working on a hack that, among other things, allows for regional travel.
The players in this hack are a hired company seeking out various things and I had the thought that it would be interesting and appropriate for them to have their tier not be static but rather go up and down based on their standing in the current region and their preparation for journeys from region to region. (This is an age of sail setting).
Players would roll an engagement roll for traveling to the new region and could get a result of 1:Desperate to 4:Controlled. After that they could go on expeditions (scores) to upgrade their position in the region.
What sort of special questions would you ask for such an engagement roll, imagining a large company or crew were getting ready to make a long journey to a new regional base of operations, etc
Not sure I understand what I’m reading.. Is the intention here for the engagement roll to go something like “because you rolled a 1-3 during travel to this zone, all scores upon arrival in that zone will be Desperate (ie no engagement roll later for that; it’s already decided)”? Because that appears to be what would happen
“Do you have any friends ready to help/enemies ready to interfere in the new region?”
“Do you have any special information about the region?”
“Are you well-prepared and well-equipped to enter a new region/are you stumbling into a region under-prepared and under-supplied?”
Mark Cleveland Massengale
The roll determines your tier. So if you got a 1-3 you’d be a tier 0 in that region until you did something about it.
Note, Rep and Tier won’t be connected in the same way so this might not be as big a set back as it would be in default blades.
Justin Ford what if I roll and get tier 3; leave and come back later? Do I keep my tier or does it change from a new roll? Does this engagement roll only coint towards new, undicovered regions?
Questions:
“1 free die for being scoundels (or equivelant)”
“Do you have any friends or connections in the region? (+1d); Do you have any enemies there that may have interfeared with your status in the region? (-1d)”
“Are you well preppared and equipped to enter this region? (+1d); have you been to the region before? (-1d if not)”
“Do you have any special information about the area?(+1d); are there any weaknesses you have that the region can exploit? (-1d)”
It depends on the narrative, but if you left and came back there is a monetary cost and a fictional position to doing so. The idea is that the fortune roll questions favor groups who have done the prep work to be ready for traveling to a new region. If you haven’t, you should be rolling one die at most.