assault Posted August 31, 2022 Report Share Posted August 31, 2022 The other day I reread Autoduel Champions. The most obvious thing was that building characters for it was quick and easy. Part of it was that the setting was well defined and what characters did was also straightforward. It wasn't a case of "you can play anything". Instead it was a case of "you can play any of these options that fit into the setting". The result was a decent range of choices that didn't require you to sit around fiddling with the system. So that's what I want. I need a setting where what PCs do is simple and obvious. But going down a damp and smelly hole in the ground isn't the default... And now I am drawing a blank. Chris Goodwin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Ruggels Posted August 31, 2022 Report Share Posted August 31, 2022 Town guards? having to solve the problems in Campaign Town? So all the characters have to be members of the local unit. Soldiers? Family of Merchants? Crew of a ship? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted August 31, 2022 Report Share Posted August 31, 2022 How about a game where elves return to the land thousand of years after the accident and go exploring? What about a diplomatic mission? Or the classic we need to find the Macguffin? Mr. R 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted August 31, 2022 Report Share Posted August 31, 2022 Part of the problem starts with defining the power level. It’s pretty easy to make 50 or 75-point town guards, policemen or soldiers, but a bit more challenging to make 500 or 750-point superhumans. In Hudson City, you could do a pretty focused police campaign with 100-point Normals dealing with street crime, or you could have masked vigilantes of 300-points all working to take down the Card Shark organization. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted August 31, 2022 Report Share Posted August 31, 2022 This can be accomplished by drastically limiting origin stories. There are no superhumans except for those who were exposed to the Mystical Element Artifact, now you have Earthen Bricks, Aerial Flyers, Watery Shapeshifters and Fiery Energy Projectors. There are no superhumans except for those who were chosen by the Alien Sorting Hat, now you have psionic psykers, time warping speedsters, gravitational bricks, and electromagnetic EPs. You're just using Hero to build classes rather than characters--big package deals, IOW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Goodwin Posted August 31, 2022 Report Share Posted August 31, 2022 You need rationales for warriors to fight, wizards to cast spells, rogues to roguishly rogue, and priests to heal/minister/interface with the gods. There are a number of ways to do that: War: There's a war on, and the PCs are part of it. It works better if they're part of a small unit of what we'd call "combined arms" IRL. Pro's: defined roles and missions. Every PC gets a chance to do their thing. Cons: PCs are part of a military organization and players might not take kindly to having to follow orders. May or may not be a lot of available rewards ("loot drops"). Players expecting "traditional fantasy" might be disappointed. References: the Black Company series by Glen Cook. The Misenchanted Sword by Lawrence Watt-Evans. West Marches: Based on a campaign idea by Ben Robbins. Overland exploration, mapping, fighting, and treasure hunting. Pro's: Defined roles. Amenable to drop-in players by design. Cons: Dungeon crawl overland, if you're looking for not-a-dungeon crawl. City-based vigilante adventurers: Fantasy Dark Champions, essentially. Characters can solve crimes, find missing persons, help the poor and weak, and so on, within the walls of a city. Pro's: Mission-based. Cons: Even less traditional fantasy than the war campaign; characters who need the tropes will probably not enjoy this. References: the Garrett, PI series by Glen Cook. Probably others I'm blanking on. Steve 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoneWolf Posted August 31, 2022 Report Share Posted August 31, 2022 First thing to do is to make sure you players are onboard. If that is not the type of campaign the players want to play in it will not work out well. Talk it over with your players and get their input. They may actually have some ideas on the setting and that could make it easier and have a better chance of them buying into the concept. Look for something to tie the characters together before the game starts. You could have all the characters belong to an organization of some sort. The type of organization will put some limits on what type of characters are needed. If the players are all agents of the crown working for the spy master the characters are going to be different than if they were knights defending the land from its enemies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. R Posted August 31, 2022 Report Share Posted August 31, 2022 3 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said: How about a game where elves return to the land thousand of years after the accident and go exploring? What about a diplomatic mission? Or the classic we need to find the Macguffin? Patricia Wrede wrote a novel based on this idea called Shadow Magic. Humans thought they were alone. They were wrong! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted August 31, 2022 Report Share Posted August 31, 2022 How about a game set in Earth’s far past when the Slug’s race ruled the world and you’re a group of escaped pit fighters/slaves? Steve 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted September 1, 2022 Report Share Posted September 1, 2022 A variation if the exploration theme could be that the party is dwarves. Centuries ago your stronghold was put under a protective sleep spell to protect you from the disaster that was coming. You’ve awoke but no longer know what’s going on the outside world. Further, you’ve got no response from any other stronghold. Whats happened to them? Steve 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted September 1, 2022 Report Share Posted September 1, 2022 7 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said: A variation if the exploration theme could be that the party is dwarves. Centuries ago your stronghold was put under a protective sleep spell to protect you from the disaster that was coming. You’ve awoke but no longer know what’s going on the outside world. Further, you’ve got no response from any other stronghold. Whats happened to them? Post-apocalypse fantasy is a good idea and can be fun if done well. Using dwarves could be like a fantasy version of the Morrow Project or Fallout. Who knows what they will find on the surface as they look for the other vaults…err, I mean strongholds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Goodwin Posted September 1, 2022 Report Share Posted September 1, 2022 I would go back to the original edition of Fantasy Hero for inspiration. An extremely limited number of professional templates, likewise race templates. Maybe even convert the FH1e game stats. For magic, use the grimoire rather than building a bunch of spells and magic systems. Or use your favorite magic system. Add one or more organizations (guilds?) for PCs to belong to. Use the guilds as a framing device; have them hand out missions liberally. (You could do worse than to borrow the first-gen agency rules from Danger International and reskin them for guilds...) Missions include delivery, escort, rescue, eradication of monsters or bandits. (Maybe the occasional fighting tournament...) Offer monetary rewards, maybe minor magic items as well. I'm really looking at autoduel-universe types of adventures and putting a fantasy skin on them. The main thing is, make it obvious what the characters are "supposed to do". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted September 2, 2022 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2022 5 hours ago, Chris Goodwin said: I'm really looking at autoduel-universe types of adventures and putting a fantasy skin on them. The main thing is, make it obvious what the characters are "supposed to do". If you wanted to be literal about it, autoduellists are a landless warrior class. Knights of a low-rent sort, who have to eke out a living as professional jousters, mercenaries or bandits. Obviously, over time, such riffraff will either become part of a ruling elite, be crushed or some mixture of both. But there could be a period of a few years before that in which a game could be set... The question is what kind of situation would give rise to this? It wouldn't have to be particularly plausible. War, plague and magic could all contribute. During the Hundred Years' War, there were plenty of Free Companies wandering about creating havoc at various points. That could be a possible influence. The Anarchy in England during the conflict between Stephen and Matilda could be another. But in both cases, regional elites remained in place, and tended to use the chaos in their own interests. The Irish Fenian Cycle could be another influence, with warrior bands existing outside the "normal" social structures to a degree. Such groups existed outside Ireland as well at various points. Arthurian myths could work too. Chris Goodwin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MordeanGrey Posted September 8, 2022 Report Share Posted September 8, 2022 I've done the "road patrol" option. Basically citizen militia assigned to a low-level military leader who patrol the roads as part of their service to stop bandits, monsters, whatever. Totally open as to what they discover and deal with in the game. Another great option is the small band of mercenaries who have wide backgrounds and abilities but rely on each other to survive the next mission. (Think Glen Cook's "The Black Company" series or similar.) Both of these allow fairly diverse character types who are required to work together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted September 9, 2022 Report Share Posted September 9, 2022 I’m rewatching Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. A definitely a sea/merchant game would be fun. tkdguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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