The Island

• About the size of East Anglia
• Ruled by King – chosen leader by rite
• Good farming, materials and craftsmanship to support internal trading
• Druidic
• Self-sufficient
• Close to mountainous main-land, but no (little) interaction as mostly unpassable.

An oppressed society

I’m think something akin to present day Iraq, Nazi Europe, or any number of occupations throughout history. In fact, I’ll probably post on a forum asking for notable oppressed societies in history and fiction. One of the reasons I’ve been a bit anti-GMing is that if there are historical nods they must be correct.

I like the idea of the heros being away when the takeover happens and them coming back, prehaps years later and everything is changed. A society scared to speak out and unwilling to openly help. Small pockets of resistence groups here and there, but hidden away. As corny as it was, Total Recal was to some extent an example of this.

It is a fairly dark subject, but the campaign must be fairly light-hearted for the players. Prehaps for the most part the people are content in their situation. Prehaps life can continue, albeit with a dark vale over it all. Maybe for those not being persecuted and keeping quite life is ok and they may cover up and possibly over-compensate for their situation and fears.

For now I need to work out the world / land. In fact I like the idea of a|state being stuck in a defined area, although I think I’d like a large island, instead of a city. In fact a remote island gives a reason for heros to be away for a long time. Like Robin Hood, going overseas to the Crusades for many years.

The group

My group have a number of requirements that must be in this campaign for it to succeed. I’ve noticed from several years of playing with the group that games have succeeded or failed from some key items.

Have a reason to not run away

In the face of adversity there is always the temptation to go elsewhere. It has been said several times in various games we’ve played “Fine, lets move to another city”. In fact its been purely out of character reasons to carry on, such as no alternative game, saving a game for the sake of the GM’s efforts, etc. I need a reason for them not to do this, unless escape is possible, but an adventure in itself…

Have a reason to want to fight oppression

This is similar to fleeing above. If players get bored, or there is too much against them they may give up and decide to join with society. I’m not sure what could be done to stop this, unless the cannot escape, but are also not supposed to be there. Eg, no official papers, or to obtain them would involve some kind of major sacrifice.

Achieve character advancement

I’ve got a feeling that this is something that I only like and is not representative of the group. One reason I love D&D is the character advancement. Buying feats and skills when I hit certain levels. I know that in all other games there is usually skill points gained, but it doesn’t feel like such an achievement. Maybe its because its less of a big thing made of it in other games, eg, Cthulhu, Cyberpunk 2020.

Dungeon bashing and some character clue gathering

I’m really enjoy charactersation however only one of the other members is also. The others play the game to win. I need to have a good balance of character interaction and dungeon bashing. There is often a view that all NPCs are red shirts, I’d be interested to find out how other GMs discourage this. I want the NPCs to be real, distinct and necessary. If one is in trouble then I want there to be a feeling of loss.

With too much much character interaction there can be pauses to the gameplay for the others. This happened often when the Fixer in Cyberpunk had to go sort stuff, while the others were waiting to go bashing people’s heads together!

Don’t like linearity

The players must feel in control, I cannot make this too linear. I think this can be done by offering the group a range of missions at a high level. At the lower level there must be a feeling that they are influencing the game. For example the trap doesn’t have to go off just because it was scripted. If they make reasonable steps to get around a problem then they should achieve that. Eg, the guard that always sees them and calls for backup regardless of how careful the group are.

Enjoy theatrical fun

Torg is great, and one of the best things about it are the cards. The way they allow feats of heroism, straight out of the movies. Another in our group is going to try something similar in his game, I’ll be interested to see how this works out. I’d also like a possible alternative, something potentially random, but is a real reward if used well, like the Torg cards. I’ll go investigating for ideas.

 

I may add to this over time, but I think that sums up at least a few of the concern / care-points of running a game. I’m now out of time to scribble down a few game ideas I have, oh well, maybe later!

Purpose

This is just a place for me to be able start pulling together ideas for a RPG I’ll be running at some point in the future!