I'm really enjoying
Brendan's Hazard System for procedural timekeeping.
My brain is already brimming with potential hacks. I hope that this
kind of tinkering/spitballing is okay.
The first: To address the “Reasonable
Resolution” clause for Dungeon Turns and Resource Depletion and
Fatigue, I'm thinking about reading the initial Dungeon Hazard Die as
a d3 (so that it will result in only Encounter/Percept/Locality
results) and overloading this roll to generate the number of
subsequent Dungeon Turns that need to elapse before the die is read
as a d6.
I think this kind of roll dependent
escalation could add a neat wrinkle to the system, without too much
overhead. Naturally, the mutable duration of the “turns” might
still need to be taken into account fictionally, but I rather like
the idea of more challenging/dangerous results becoming more likely
over time. Looking at the Wilderness Turn, the same principle could
be easily applied (closer to a Haven, it's harder to get lost, for
example).
I don't know if the principle of
“something needs to happen each turn” is sacrosanct in this
system, but I think I'd almost prefer it. The only place where this
can potentially occur seems to be the Haven Hazard Die results
(“Ignore results of 4-6”) and this seems fine (an “uneventful”
visit to Town after Adventuring is probably welcome), but I'd be just
as likely to pad the table with “good things” and shift the
existing Haven Hazard Results down (to allow for the above-mentioned
escalation). I'm a sucker for system symmetry :) and this might help
model how PC's that frequent the same Haven become a little more
embroiled in the local events.
Something akin to this:
- Generate/Disseminate New Rumor
- Haven Event*
- Clue about next Haven Event*
- Complication
- Clue about next complication
- Abatement of haven condition
*Haven Event is a placeholder name for
something akin to a Complication, but my line of thinking involves
results that are potentially more beneficial/less ominous. Need a
better name/antonym for this and probably some of the results, but
here's the start of a d20 table:
Haven Event
- Holiday/Festival
- Localized Celebration (Dedication/Wedding/etc)
- Election/Visit from important Personage
- Fellow Traveler (Elaborate Existing Rumor?)
- Discounts/Sale on standard equipment (Ye Olde Bloodbath & Beyond)
- Resource Windfall (Harvest/Abundance of Export Item/etc)
- New Fad, Fashion, Local Custom*
- New Construction (Temple, Tavern, Fortifications, etc)*
- Arrival of a Trade Caravan (Exotic Goods?)
- Establish a potential new NPC Contact*
Starred results could potentially
persist, as conditions.
Now I'm thinking of some kind of Hazard System Worksheet/Aid for keeping track of Haven Escalation, Conditions and "Events" individually.
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