Saturday 22 January 2022

Social Currency in your campaign world





I've had an idea tumbling around in the back of my head ever since I read Patrick Stuarts post about using food as a means of granting XP instead of gold:

Optional Rule - XP for served food. I strikes me that one diegetic element which serves this softer play in a manner similar to that in which Gold serves standard Old-School play (encouraging ambition, conflict but also lateral thinking and problem solving), is food.

Sharing food with someone, being tolerated in their personal space, talking to them, being invited to share, are all major social milestones.

Kids bloody love food, as any kids series will show (I am also a fan myself). Getting special foods, and especially being *served* special foods, and sharing food and certain drinks, is almost a marker of your integration into local societies and your ability to integrate others.

If the old witch serves you Tea, that’s one point, if you can get her to bake you a cake, that’s another, or provide a feast for the Village, that’s a treasure hoard.

It's kind of percolated into the idea of having a social currency in your campaign/setting world that is different from the hard currency like gold or silver or whatever. Partially as a means to add an interesting dimension to your setting and partially because I think it fits in well with how most player/NPC interaction tends to go where it's transactional.

Or well in most of my games it tends to be transactional. If the NPC has no reason to not tell the players something I tend to just tell them whatever they want to know. As, the more information the players have the better decisions they can make and the more interesting the game is. I tend to not hide information from players.

If the NPC does have a good reason for wanting to withhold information, the players usually have to make some kind of deal with the NPC to get it. In a lot of games this tends to end up as vague favors or deals that they owe the NPC. So in this sense there is already an unintentional sense of social currency, the "favor".

However, I also find that most of the time favors aren't really followed up on and tend to be vague. I think it's much more interesting to define an explicit social currency for your setting. 

This could be something simple like food. Where, as mentioned in the False Machine post, each NPC is a simple village person who has a favorite food. Getting to know people's favorite foods and getting them for them goes a long way to getting them to open up and deal with you. Food in this way functions as a social currency and gives the setting a certain theme and aesthetic. 

But a social currency doesn't have to be food. It could be something like humiliations. Like if you're setting is a high court full of scheming lords and ladies they might want to have nothing to do with you unless you humiliate a rival lord, the more public the better.  The players then have to think up a creative way to humiliate a rival NPC and get away with it. Performing humiliations has a social value in the setting and grants it an interesting theme.

Or if you want to go a more classic route, you could use true names. Where characters or monsters or spirts have a true name. When you discover somethings true name it serves as a bit of a commodity, where you can let others know it in order to gain something you want, perhaps at the risk of betraying the persons whose true name you know.

Another one could be secrets. Where each NPC has a dark secret and if you find it out and tell other NPCs you can gain their trust. Although I find secrets a bit abstract. I think it's better to try to have something with a bit of tangibility to it.

Like maybe signet rings or letters of renown which signify official trust? Or handkerchiefs from maidens who have chosen the party as their champions? Or medals? There are a ton of things in the real world that we use to signify things socially to each other. 

Overall by having a defined social currency, maybe even a list of them if it's something like letters of renown, I think can really flavour a campaign and make it interesting. It gives the players something to look out for that they know will give them an edge in social interactions that are transactional in nature. 

I think the most important part is having the social currency recognized as being valuable by more than one NPC. It stops the players from having to do a boring favor for one NPC they want something from and then another favor for the next boring NPC to gain their trust. They can come up with their own schemes and ideas on how to get the social currency and drive the adventure that way and then 'spend' the social currency on whomever they want. 


Tuesday 11 January 2022

17th Century Character Starter



So I've decided to start a new campaign. I like to run my campaigns in a quasi-historical earth set in the 17th century. Kind of low magic, gritty at times, a sense of pitiful or pathetic characters who are trying to get by, rather than heroes.

It includes things like:

  • Random nationality chart including sample names.
  • Comprehensive system to handle languages.
  • A way to generate the base 6 stats that creates an interesting backstory at the same time (based off of 5 Torches Deep Origins).
  • Some starting equipment packages by class.
  • A list of 117 interesting starting items to roll on in addition to basic starting equipment. This list was largely taken from (http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2018/02/when-all-you-have-is-hammer-item-based.html). The items in it are non-magical items meant to help in out of the box problem solving.

You can view it all here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14YD565KW862IdoNdNEaQoc8SF9UwkkwF/view

I've put everything in the PDF as it is way easier to display that way rather than copy-pasting it all into my blog which tends to format all the tables wrong anyways. But you can view a sampling of some of the tables the PDF contains:

Nationality


(Continued from above)

7

Holy Roman Empire

Austrian or Prussian or Bavarian

German

Adam, Benke, Eggerd, Ewald, Hans, Heinz, Hermann, Jakob, Johann, Kurt, Lutke, Mathias, Michael, Thomas, Volrad, Wulff

Angnes, Beatrix, Clare, Dorothea, Elsebeth, Engel, Fye, Katherina, Margarete, Gretel, Martha, Ursula, Walpurg

Asch, Bärendorf, Blumberg, Dietrich, Dürnbach, Faust, Frankenhamer, Gottschau, Hart, Kelheim, Leipzig, Martin, Raun, Schlaggenwald, Stein, Wildstein

8

The Mugal Empire

Indian

Persian or Hindi

Aamir, Abhay, Adnan, Ajit, Ashwin, Asim, Beibek, Chandan, Darshan, Deepak, Farrukh, Gohar, Haroon, Jagdish, Kavi, Mandeep, Nadeem, Naveen, Pardeep, Raja, Sandip, Sujay, Vasu, Vivek

Aarthi, Anisha, Chandra, Diksha, Gita, Hira, Indrani, Jayanti, Kala, Kasi, Leela, Mitra, Nilima, Rina, Sadia, Shanta, Sona, Tara, Zarina

Atwal, Babu, Balay, Chatterjee, Johal, Kapoor, Kumar, Madan, Raval, Saraf, Shetty, Walia

9

Principality of Transylvania

Transylvanian

Romanian or Hungarian

Anton, Apostol, Cezar, Cosmin, Costache, Dacian, Darius, Dorin, Fane, Filip, Florin, Grigore, Ivan, Leonard, Mihai, Sebastian, Stan, Valerian, Vlad

Adriana, Amalia, Anca, Bogdana, Cecilia, Corina, Emanuela, Lavinia, Magda, Monica, Rodica, Sofia, Violeta

Adam, Alexandrescu, Barbu, Cojocaru, David, Fischer, Gheata, Grosu, Hofer, Ion, Lupu, Matei, Muller, Popa, Zamfir

10

Maritime Republic of Venice, or Genoa, or Ragusa

Venetian, Genoan, or Ragusan.

Italian or Croatian

Achille, Alberto, Amore, Battista, Bernardo, Carlo, Cleto, Dino, Enzo, Fabio, Franco, Giacomo, Giovanni, Giuseppe, Leone, Nero, Omar, Peppi, Roberto, Teo

Agata, Ambra, Ave, Celeste, Concetta, Diana, Dina, Elvira, Felicita, Flora, Gisella, Leonara, Lisa, Luna, Orietta, Rina, Rosanna, Silvia, Teresa, Vita

Accardi, Ajello, Barone, Bianco, Bruno, Costa, De Luca, DeVille, Fabbri, Fontana, Guiluliani, Longo, Marino, Pepe, Sartori, Vinci

11

Kingdom of France

French

French

Adrian, Baptiste, Benoit, Claude, François, Frédéric, Guillaume, Hubert, Jacques, Jean, Martin, Pierre, Philippe, Simon, Valentin

Aimée, Ambroise, Béatrix, Catherine, Colette, Dauphine, Éloise, Hélène, Jacqueline, Judith, Louise, Madeleine, Olive, Rachel, Rose, Robine, Yolande,

Bascon, Bertrand, Boucher, Chevalier, d'Aigneville, de Bessay, de Champanges, de Fumechon, de Lagny-sur-Marne, Dumont, Dupré, Gasteau, Martin, Pichon, Rousselle, Thiboust

12

Ottoman Empire

Ottoman

Greek or Arabic or Turkish or Persian

Abd al-Aziz, Abdul, Alekos, Abu Bakr, Akram, Anwar, Asif, Bassam, Fareed, Gamil, Hamid, Jaffar, Kareem, Mehmed, Noor, Omar, Kara, Raheem, Saeed, Wael


Alekos, Angelos, Costas, Giannis, Lazaros, Nikos, Silas, Stavros, Stephanos, Thomas

Adila, Aya, Farah, Fatima, Hadya, Jameela, Latifah, Raja, Safiya, Waheeda, Yara, Yasmin, Zakiah,


Angela, Domna, Eleonora, Evi, Fotini, Ioanna, Kilo, Olympia,

Sophia, Tasia, Thalia, Zoi

Ahmad, Ali, Ayad, Burhan, Darwish, Faez, Habib, Hakim, Hussein, Jabal, Kazem, Maamoun, Taleb, Zaman


Alexopoulos, Artino, Cirillo, Drakos, Hatzi, Kazan, Leos, Lykaios, Nephus, Othonos, Tsitak


Lifepaths

Each character starts off with 8 in each ability score. Then they make three lifepath rolls to determine their past history which modifies their ability scores accordingly. Each lifepath roll beyond three forces a roll on the Misfortune table. Players can roll a maximum of five times.

Lifepath Rolls:

  • Drive + Early Life
  • Drive + Failed Career
  • Drive + Fallen in With


1d6

What drove you onward...

Modifier

1

Salvation and Redemption

+2 WIS, +1 CON,

2

Love and Passion

+2 CON, +1 CHA

3

Restlessness and Curiosity

+2 DEX, +1 INT

4

Boredom and Apathy

+2 INT, +1 STR

5

Misery and Suffering

+2 STR, +1 WIS

6

Ambition and Delusions of Grandeur

+2 CHA, +1 DEX


Early Life

1d12

Description

Modifier

1

Militaristic: coming from a long line of men who have served, you grew up playing with toy soldiers and hearing stories of war. You longed for the day when you could serve gallantly and bring honour to your family.

+2 STR

2

Itinerant: you grew up with your family living in a wagon, trading items here and there, your father doing odd jobs where he could find them. Whether because of persecution, or the call of the open road, your family lived in many places and spoke many languages.

+2 CHA

3

Servant: your mother was a scullery maid, your father unknown. You grew up in servants halls of your employer. Working for them just as your mother did, always seen, never heard, until you decided enough was enough.

+2 DEX

4

Seafaring: you grew up on a small town or village on the coast. The open sea called to you every morning and the gulls awoke you. Songs were sung as the catch of the day was delivered and all eyed the ocean carefully when storms rolled in.

+2 DEX

5

Agricultural: you grew up in one of the many small agricultural villages that dot the land. One of many brothers and sisters, you worked the farm and life was hard. Life was dictated by the seasons, both spiritual and earthly, a time and place for everything.


+2 WIS

6

Nomadic: you grew up taking care of your families herds. Moving with the seasons, you brought them to graze upon the open grasslands in the summer and sheltered in the forested vales in the winter.

+2 CON

7

Nobility: once upon a time you had it all. You lived in an ancestral hall with a silver spoon in your mouth. Then one day it was gone, the rest of your family killed.

+2 CHA

8

Religious Urban: you grew up cloistered in a tight knit religious community. You attended religious schools and celebrated religious holidays with your community. At times persecuted, the pain of one was shared by all within the community.

+2 INT

9

Mountain Folk: you are from the mountains and the proud folk that fill them. Forestry, mining, it doesn't matter, you learned much from the hard but friendly folk that you grew up among.

+2 STR

10

Town: you grew up in a tall house in town. Your father was a tradesman and your life was filled with the teachings and gossip of the town.

+2 INT

11

Impoverished: you grew up in the streets of a big stinking city. Wild dogs your only friends, cats your competitors, other orphans your comrades.

+2 CON

12

Pastoral: you took care of your family's flocks, letting them graze upon the hilly meadows in your youth. Long hours you spent guiding them, watching life slowly move by.

+2 WIS


Fallen in with...
1d12
Description
Change
1
Musketeers of the Guard
+2 STR
2
Conspiracy of the Black Hand
+2 DEX
3
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge
+2 INT
4
East India Trading Company
+2 DEX
5
Church of Starry Wisdom
+2 WIS
6
The Merry Mountaineers
+2 CON
7
The Butterfly Troupe
+2 CHA
8
The Cult of Diana
+2 CHA
9
Veterans of The Thirty Years' War
+2 STR
10
Grand Freemason Lodge of Scotland
+2 INT
11
Northern Outfitters
+2 CON
12
Society of Jesus, The Jesuits
+2 WIS