Monday, August 13, 2012

Exploration

With the help of the wonderful Fate triangle tables, I was able to bang out some random tables for exploration. I'm pretty happy with the results, but I likely will tweak them once I actually use them. The tables were written with some specific ideas in mind:
  • They are for post-modern, post-apocalypse settings.
  • They are intended to be general, instead of very specific.
  • They are not a great big bucket list of buildings. There are plenty of other lists out there for other games such as Gamma World.
  • They are meant to have some semblance of logic. That means no top secret research facilities in residential areas; it also means that (hopefully) buildings that are out of character for an area will be rare.
  • The intention is to only roll as deep as you want. Sometimes all you need is a little kick in the noggin; sometimes you're just completely stuck. These tables should be an aid, not a crutch.
Before actually presenting the tables, some explanation is in order. The tables are predicated on an area for potential exploration being divided into five types:
  • Residential: Self-explanatory. Primarily residential areas will include schools, churches, community centers, educational buildings, etc. May include some retail or commercial buildings. This is the only category that does not include Special buildings
  • Retail: Primarily service-sector, restaurants, shopping malls, etc. May have some residential and commercial buildings mixed in.
  • Commercial: Primarily warehousing, transportation, office buildings, and business parks, with some retail or industrial buildings.
  • Industrial: Primarily manufacturing, milling, quarrying, etc. May include some commercial and the occasional retail building.
  • Public: This means parks, reservations, and other undeveloped land. No table is provided for buildings for what should be obvious reasons.
For those unfamiliar with the triangle table concept, rolling 4DF, and then counting over for every "+" or down for every "-". The genereal area is either determined or rolled. Then the second table comes into play to determine the building category. Finally a specific table is referenced for the building type. That is all I have for now; at some point I will create some detailed building types.

Entries marked with a (+) or (-) denote adding an additional "+" or "-" result when rolling on the next table. The idea is that building categories different than the area's (like a Commercial building in a Residential area) are skewed more toward certain types of buildings. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep them, or even if I've distributed the results correctly for it to work.

Finally, without further adieu, the document containing the tables is here. Also, I may make a new set of...prettier tables.

3 comments:

TKimWrSvc said...

Grabbing the file and checking it out.

TKimWrSvc said...

Grabbing the file and checking it out. I might have to modify it a little bit for Protodimension Magazine submission and greater distribution.

Rivetgeek said...

Thanks a lot, I'm totally okay with that. I'm trying to hammer out a prettier/more graphically aesthetic graphic using the hex version of the Fate pyramid that was on the original RPG.net thread. I'll throw that up when I'm done.