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I've always wanted to play in a West Marches campaign, but since it's a minor miracle to get just one group over here there's no chance of that. So instead I've been noodling on my own West Marches game basically for shits and giggles, but it's a fun little project for when I get the game design bug. I've been using the Shadow of the Demon Lord system and setting, since I know and like both. It's pretty different from your average OSR game which has led to some interesting challenges, but that's just part of the fun. The hardest part has been map creation, even with an existing world map for inspiration I'm having a hard time getting anything decent from Hexographer.
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Jan 12, 2021 23:07
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 02:43 |
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Speaking of systems, have you seen the Forged in the Dark hack Forged in the Marches by Steven Lumpkin? Still work in progress but it's got some neat stuff going on, and I really like the way it lays out themes and content warnings.
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Jan 13, 2021 11:18
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aldantefax posted:What about this hack excites you, or is otherwise 'neat'? I am not super familiar with Forged in the Dark other than there is a simplified task nonbinary resolution system that generally favors "success with compromise", and has a discrete game phase for involving factions. The thing's 92 pages so I haven't yet dove deep in. Well, since I haven't got any practical experience with West Marches I can't really speak to the setting and fluff and such, though I'd say it does the job in setting up a decent scenario for exploring weird stuff. Aside from the previously mentioned themes and content that they list in the beginning and is bloody awesome (seriously something other games can take inspiration from), the things that I like are primarily mechanical and how it changes the mechanics from baseline FitD to better fit West Marches sensibilities. Like in base Blades in the Dark and many other hacks the players pick a crew type to provide direction and framing, something that's tricky to do with multiple shifting groups so this hack uses just one, 'The Town', but there's still room to specialize by the parties contributing towards a 'great work' that when completed sets the overall tone for how the town will try to survive the ongoing trouble (magical weirdness, force of arms or rediscovering lost locations/items/lore). The way you 'build' quests is interesting, where simply gaining stable access to/through a location is a worthwhile goal, and even just spending time in a location often changes it in usually drastic ways. The Extraction roll is a fun addition, sort of mirroring the Engagement roll, and a decent solution to the 'the session ends in the middle of the dungeon' problem. The playbooks themselves are a bit ehh, I really like how they have multiple exclusive starting abilities, so even two PCs with the same playbook somewhat unique, at least compared to baseline Blades. I'm guessing it's hard to gauge this hack if you don't have much experience with Forged in the Dark systems? I'm not sure how to best explain it to someone with practically no experience with the systems.
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Jan 14, 2021 13:15
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Grey Hunter posted:With more than 1 GM, there would need to be some way to pool resources and info - having no Big Bad would make things simpler, as it would be a simple explore, get rich, retire or die situation. What I've settled on for my own work is smaller, 'regional' threats that slowly grow and make specific areas into 'danger zones' with increased odds of an encounter and more difficult encounters, but never big enough to f.ex. threaten the town. Adds a bit of color to the map, and since SotDL only has 10 levels which could take a relatively short time to reach taking one out permanently is the endgame for max-level characters, granting a big old bonus if they retire after taking out one of these regional bosses.
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Jan 14, 2021 15:54
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Hmm, I could see the use in setting up a google sheets as a combination calendar/diary and a discord bot that lets you upload a bit of text to specific cells/'dates' in the sheet, so GM's/players could go f.ex. "/update 15.01 standard pace northwest, weather change to calm, found landmark triangle rock, encounter large animal tracks (unidentified)" or something like that, real easy record- and timekeeping. Maybe separate sheets for GM's and players?
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Jan 15, 2021 11:24
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 02:43 |
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aldantefax posted:I think upcoming for this I'll be examining the popular assumptions and summarize in greater detail the agreements and disagreements with them again. I am currently thumbing through a Kickstarted "West Marches" type book which has a more in depth treatment of it, but generally speaking it feels kind of phoned in a bit (reserving full judgement after I've had a full read through on the subjects). Was it the Izirion's Enchidirion or something along those lines?
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Jan 31, 2021 02:26
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