So I’ve been tweaking and adding to the Steading rules from Dungeon World for my own fantasy (Exalted) hack. Are there any other hacks or games out there that have done more work on them as well?
So I’ve been tweaking and adding to the Steading rules from Dungeon World for my own fantasy (Exalted) hack.
So I’ve been tweaking and adding to the Steading rules from Dungeon World for my own fantasy (Exalted) hack.
#Stonetop deserves a look!
The Perilous Wilds by Jason Lutes has some great stuff for building places, too.
Ooh, #Stonetop does have some interesting stuff there. I don’t think I want to go that deep in my first iteration, but it looks very mineable for ideas, thanks Matthew Everhart !
I like the idea of improvements for places, as I want to add in support for ongoing projects that change the world around the characters. The idea of requirements that you need for an advance, rather than some kind of XP mechanic, could work very nicely for that.
Michael Sands, yeah, the Perilous Wilds is part of what got me started on this. I like the idea of wonders and dangers that can be encountered as you explore, that fits very well with the huge, weird, wonderful world in Exalted. I also like the enumeration of Resources, that’s something that could a lot in terms of setting flavour, I think.
Richard Greene have you looked at the AW: Dark Ages stuff? The holdings mechanics might be relevant.
Legacy: Life Amidst the Ruins and No Country for Old Kobolds might be worth looking at, too. Both feature the community-as-character type of thing I’m going for in Stonetop. Possibly the Hood, too, though that’s certainly a lot grimmer and more modern.
No, I keep seeing AW:DA mentioned, but I haven’t actually gotten hold of it all. Is there an official PDF/draft kicking around somewhere? I like the idea of settlement as character in general but I suspect that it wouldn’t be the focus for the Exalted hack. The characters are a bit too mobile and powerful to be fully tied to a single settlement. I do like the idea of using the AW tactics to give a bit more depth to locations and setting though. Might be interesting to see how that plays out for regions/tribes/organisations though.
The sign up for the AW:DA playtest was here: http://lumpley.com/index.php/awda
Not sure if Vincent Baker is still granting access to it… I understand it’s more-or-less indefinitely backburnered.
I totally get you regarding settlement-as-character not being appropriate for a more mobile game.
From what you’re describing, it seems like you’d want something that:
1) helps detail a new steading when PCs encounter it (like DW’s tags, maybe with something like Surplus & Wants from AW’s hardholder or hocus playbooks)
2) generates situation when the players first arrive, or return, or spend significant downtime there (like Wealth or Fortunes in the AW playbooks, and maybe Outstanding Warrants in DW)
3) gives the PCs some guidance on how to accomplish long-term projects that can change the details of a steading they care about (possibly using something like the savvyhead’s Workspace rules)
Regarding #3, check out Johnstone Metzger’s post on designing quests (and follow the rabbit-hole he links to). https://redboxvancouver.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/designing-quests/
I’m actually planning to add something like that to Stonetop’s steading moves, or maybe even as a basic move.
Yeah, that’s more or less what I’m looking at:
1) I’ve been tweaking the Steading stuff in DW to have a list of options that better matches the fiction of Exalted. I’ve also added an additional tag/stat, Culture, that defines the settlements level of knowledge and artistic development. It can factor into increasing and decreasing the settlements other traits as per the list of interactions at the end of the steading section in DW. Having looked at Perilous Wilds, I also plan to create a list of Resources and Crafts that match up with the setting as well. Oh, and I included a Metropoplis level above CIty to represent that the world has places almost on a level with modern cities, albeit very few of them.
2) There’s a little bit of that at the moment, with the Entertain move from DW reskinned to fit the setting fiction. I suspect that further ones might be custom moves for the cities in question?
3) Yes, my set of Basic Moves for the hack has an Organise Project move, that works using countdown clocks for defining projects, and wants and needs to go with them. Various of the Playbooks have Moves that can interact with this, so the characters should be able to get quite invested in the settlements and politics around them.