[add on] I’ve been pondering a random action generator for ongoing campaigns. Certainly a new gang will make allies and enemies with factions through their deeds, but sometimes you need the factions to be active and don’t have a clear idea what they would be doing. I see it as a list of possible activities, and a a list of which faction is responsible. Possibly with another list of complications…
[add on] I’ve been pondering a random action generator for ongoing campaigns.
[add on] I’ve been pondering a random action generator for ongoing campaigns.
I actually question this a little bit. Under what circumstances would you “need a faction to be active” but not know what they would do? It seems to me that if you need a faction to be active, that you probably have a reason for them to be acting and that should guide you in selecting their action?
You might need a random faction to perform some form of random action – if you needed a possible plot seed and don’t mind if it gets picked up or not. Or if the current plots with factions are winding down and would like to go for a change of pace.
Well, if all you need is a random excuse to have a score, the game actually already contains tables for that part. 🙂
Isn’t that with PCs as active participants though, rather than bystanders? Or caught in the crossfire?
Peter Cobcroft
Er, not necessarily? It just generates random scores. You can tie it to a PC with a table if you want, but it’s not a formal process or anything. But why would you need to generate a score if you didn’t at least think there was a possibility of the PCs being involved?
I’m honestly confused. You seem to be trying to develop “systems” to answer questions that don’t mean anything?
I’m wanting to build an infrastructure for a city that implies things happen without any kind of PC involvement for the purposes of creating future plots, history and backstory. It’s only if you want to do bottom up planning for games, rather than top down (ie, faction A hates faction B so wants this done by the PCs, therefore in the past we’ll say A and B did this)
Aha! That’s more clear, thanks!
How about:
When the crew earns x heat, roll Entanglements and apply the effects to two factions that are a tier apart (one being the recipient, the other an involved party). This could be the opportunity they’ve been waiting for..