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Adventure seeds – 10 for you to use

 Adventure, RPG  No Responses »
Oct 082012
 

1 – battle an army in a fane, and must contend with a conspiracy while being confronted by language difficulties.

2 – escape from some gems in a sepulcher, and must contend with a dragon .

3 – chase a magical beast at a manor, and must contend with a time dilemma while being confronted by side-tracking.

4 – save an animal at a fort, and must contend with a gang while being confronted by desperation.

5 – race a prophecy in the desert, and must contend with a criminal while being confronted by squabbling.

6 – encounter a government at a sepulcher, and must contend with a fanatic while being confronted by magical complications.

7 – escort an aberration in the east, and must contend with a puzzle .

8 – protect a magical beast in a sepulcher, and must contend with a warrior .

9 – resist a humanoid in a guild hall, and must contend with an outsider while being confronted by a disaster.

10 – negotiate with a wizard in a forest, and must contend with a Godess .

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Dev Blog #2 – The Number 4

 Blogs, Easthalen  No Responses »
May 302012
 

Forgive the rather confusing title, it will make sense, I promise.

The number 4 is a sacred number to those who in habit Easthalen,for many many reasons. There are 4 continents, the gods are arranged around groups of 4 etc.

This is the rule I’m having to keep in mind when working out the details of the game world. This is not a hard and fast rule.

So far there is :

  • 4 Continents (major islands not counted and neither are the minor islands). This will have a major impact on the size of the world.  The ratio of land to water is about 50/50, but this does not take into account the as yet undesigned minor and major islands. As I’m adopting what is called a “bottom-up” approach to design here
  • Each continent has approx 4 major powers
  • 4 Major political factions
  • 4 Major cities, although of them is now, shall we say, missing
  • The gods are arranged with 4 Major deitys for each Divine Faction, each of them having 4 minor deity under their command
The only major point I’ve yet to decide on is regarding race. So far i have two options:
  1. Only have one major race, like say humans, being native to the world. This does not stop other races being in the game, just rare. The explanation being that they are stable mutants or have come from other realms
  2. Have several major races(Back to the 4 again)
So far I’m leaning to the first option, but this needs to be decided and added to the brief before much more can be done, as it will shape the world and it’s denzins
The design reason for this approach is that it helps me to focus and cut down what is needed, plus it does give me flexibility if I feel that say more gods are needed or less major cities.

World Brief can be found here

Latest copy of Setting/rules can be found here

 

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Dev Blog #0 An intro

 Blogs, Easthalen  1 Response »
May 232012
 
Dice for various games, especially for rolepla...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Intro

The main purpose of this blog is to help chart the progress of designing a game world, from concept, to writing,to editing and formating. Plus everything else along the path to publication. Hopefully there will be at least 1 or 2 dev blog posts a week, maybe more if time allows.

However, a warning now – I have family members who are seriously ill and they take priority in my life. Real Life rarely allows all of our plans to work out 100% they way we want. Plus those pesky jobs that help pay the bills.

To help fill the gaps there will be other articles and items along the way, such as NPC’s, items,plot lines, deitys etc. Each of these should be featured in the game world at some point. But by following this blog you get a free preview and also the chance to give feedback and contribute to the design(If you like, not trying to make you do my work..but would be nice for ideas)..all for free.. which is good, yes?

Each post be will go over one aspect of the game design. This includes the practical side such as Rules, races, etc. Also theory and thoughts behind the design process and decisions. Some of the more detailed posts will be spread over 2 or more Dev posts in a week.

 

Basic Format

The game world will be DnD 3.5 & Pathfinder compatible, mainly as that I the format I have played most and understand. There is nothing stopping it being convertered at some point to other systems, just not a priority.

Resources

I’m going to be using a few books and PDF’s to help along the way. Have found over the years that having some form of structure is very helpful for me. I can print out the ideas/sheets as and when I need them.

  • Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design
  • Fantasy Maker’s Handbook
  • Plus many more books and pdf’s from my extensive RPG collection
  • Online – There are many blogs and resources on the internet these days.  These are going to  be mostly used for brainstorming and research, such as DnD Wiki  and the very useful D20 Pathfinder SRD
  • NPC’s will be designed using Hero Labs.
  • Any dungeon tiles or maps will have been done with Campaign Cartographer 3. The actual game maps will be done differently, but I have found this program is excellent for both dungeon tiles and maps that give a good idea of layout

Timeline

At interesting question. At this point, there is no real time frame set in stone. However I would like to get the intial concept and rough design done within a month.

I would much rather take time and get things right then rush and make a pig’s ear of things. As the process goes along and more of the design takes shape, then a more  solid time will be put in place.

The rough order of things will be:

  • Outline of the game world and background, Covers the basic of the game world. No rules will be brought in at this point, but features will be mentioned and talked about
  • Major Game features outlined – This covers classes and other crunch material. This time period will probably be the longest and most intensive.
  • “Fluff” or background material done. Could, in theory, be as hard as the rules section
  • Testing – Although this will also be an ongoing process
  • Revisions and cutting
  • Images and artwork done
  • Editing and last min revisions
  • Published!
  • ???
  • Profit

 

Next dev blog will be talking about the game world itself.  A World Brief can be found here

Latest copy of Setting/rules can be found here. This is VERY rough. It’s almost a combined rule and note book. There is no editing and grammar has been shot and buried.

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