Vimary Zones and Locations

Finally, I completed my write-up of various zones and locations from Vimary. More accurately, I decided to not include Distance stress tracks for the locations. My intention is still to use them, but they a) were a pain to write up and b) I'm actually thinking they shouldn't be set in stone. It's probably a lot better to set Distance stress tracks depending on the journey, time of year, and other circumstances so that they can be varied for each trip (or ignored completely if need be). Anyway, without further ado you can grab the document below. An updated Vimary zone map will soon follow.

Vimary Zones and Locations

Updated Conversion Doc

I've updated the conversion doc with some clarifications on Supplies and Barter. I've also revised the travel rules to include the Distance stress track and some clarifications, and included a method for exploration to use the new random exploration tables.

I just can't leave well enough alone (Exploration, part 2)

So I've been chewing and chewing on my tables, trying to reduce the number of tables and make things flow the way I want them to. I crunched a whole bunch of data on land use from various cities to come up with something that looks and feels about right. It led me to scrap the tables I had previously and come up with a single table subtypes.

The new table uses 5DF instead of 4DF because it's more granular and breaks down easily into the blocks that I need. I wanted to stay with 4DF as a nod to staying "standardized" but the dice for the tables aren't read in the standard fashion so I figured it isn't that bad.

Here's what the first table looks like so far:

There will be sub tables for each to get the specific building type. The table structure sacrifices leanness of the types of areas for having to roll on fewer tables (2 instead of 3 or more) and gives more freedom from the setup I had before.

EDIT: Here's the first of the subtables. Took me 20 minutes to throw together. I've decided to color code the areas so that it's easier to tell which labels belongs to which

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.

Travel and zones, re-revisited

Over at RPG.net, Gullerbutry had a take on travel that I hadn't thought of before and looks pretty solid. Yes, it's adding even more stress tracks, but I'm not sure anymore whether or not you can actually have too many (or, at least, there is no reason a stress track of some flavor shouldn't be in play at all times).

The central concept I'd like to take on his post is the idea of using a stress track to represent progress while travelling. I'm surprised that I didn't think of it before. It very neatly segues into my previous post on Zones and Locations here.

The modification I'd make to the previous rules would be this: zones have a Distance stress track, with stress boxes per level equal to Terrain + Threat. Consequences represent encounters of some kind, or perhaps reaching specific Locations within the Zone. The Consequence only takes place if the first Stress box on that level is hit, otherwise they are ignored. Each roll represents travel for a time increment appropriate for the scale (for Vimary, that's one hour at Campaign Scale but for a larger campaign it might be a day). If the exact distance traveled is important, each rank in Terrain represents approximately 1 mile at Campaign Scale. So a Terrain 6, Threat 4 Campaign scale zone covers roughly 6 miles, with every 6-7 stress boxes representing a mile traveled. More threatening zones make travel more difficult. For large campaigns, the scale can be adjusted but it could just as easily be the same if more granularity is desired. A kingdom could then be composed of multiple zones instead of one large one for more variety.

When the characters travel, they "attack" the Stress track, making a roll with an appropriate Ability against a standard roll plus Terrain. The Ability used is dependent on the Scale - for Campaign Scale it's Endurance for characters or Physical for units; Scene Scale either Agility or Reasoning, and Personal Scale uses Agility. Obviously various Advantages and Aspects may be used to modify the roll. If the roll is failed, the character or group makes no progress for that time increment and must make a roll versus Threat or take Stress. Borders are reworked to be an additional roll that must be succeeded in order to cross the border, taking an attack from the Zone's Threat if they fail.

The beauty of this is that it can be used to represent personal scale movement in conflicts. Hurray for the Fate fractal! Overall I think it is a very, very cool setup. Once I get done with some exploration rules I'm working on, I'll work on detailing Vimary's Campaign scale zones. Kudos to Gullerbutry!

Locations

There are a great number if implementations for locations in various FATE-based games. While I like the rules in The Dresden Files, they have more of a feel for the Dresdenverse as opposed to Vimary. After a little thinking and a couple of Newcastles, the following is what I came up with for statting up locations in Vimary.

Locations have three types of Aspects (Defining, Points of Interest, and Location), two Abilities (Threat and Resources), and an optional Location Stress track.

Aspects

Defining Aspect

Every location has some overall theme, tone, purpose or other fact about it that defines it. Examples would be Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy or Meeting Place of the Tribes.

Points of Interest

A point of interest is a location within the location that is somehow important or noteworthy. Points of Interest often have their own zone maps or location write-ups. Points of interest may initially be hidden, requiring an assessment before they can be entered or utilized. Example Points of Interest include Theren's Den, Junks, The Red Gaol, etc.

Location Aspects

Locations may have additional Aspects that further describe inhabitants, services, threats, or other features. Examples include, "The Watch", "Haunted by ghosts", etc.

Abilities

Threat

Threat represents the inherent danger of traversing the Location. Threat has a Specialty Aspect describing the nature of the danger - it may be a pack of wolves, treacherous terrain, unusual weather or any other imaginable danger. Very safe areas will have a Rank of -1. Every time a character enters the Location, they must roll an Ability appropriate to the Threat versus a standard roll, modified by the Threat rank. The difference is the amount of stress the character takes.

Resources

Resources represents the availability food, items for scavenging, raw materials, etc. in the location. It has a Specialty Aspect that describes the type of Reward - examples include Bountiful Food, Fresh Water, or Untouched Ruins. Reward is added to any rolls for Scavenging; the Specialty Aspect (if known) can also be tagged to get an appropriate effect.

Location Stress

This is an optional stress track. It reflects the amount of attention that those who act out of place within the location receive, and how the residents react. The number of stress boxes varies depending on the size of the location, how easy it is to appear out of place or offend, etc. A good rule of thumb is each level of Consequence should have stress boxes equal to the number of Points of Interest in the location; this is because it is harder to attract attention in larger, busier locations. Once stress boxes are determined a list of various actions that PCs might take that would get attention in the location is created, along with how much stress each action inflicts. 

When a character does something that is on the list, that amount of stress is checked off the Location Stress track. Note that these generally add up. If a character is "Revealing themselves as Fallen in the open" (+2), "Acting disorderly" (+2), and "Stealing From a Stall" (+3), the stress inflicted on the Location Stress track is 7. The Consequences will represent what the reaction within the location is.

For example, a market may have the following Consequences:

Rude Stares and Muttering (Minor)
Refusal to buy or sell (Major)
Arrested by the Watch (P) (Severe)
Attacked by the Watch (P) (Extreme)

If the market only has two stress boxes per Consequence, the above example would get them arrested.

Next up I will be working on a location map for Vimary.

Codes of the Soul

And another retro set of house rules from Warp & Weft/Dreams of Flesh and Spirit. Alternate Experience Rules This rule is from the booklet from the Jovian Chronicles GM's screen. In order to improve a skill, the character must have spent a number of Emergency Dice on the skill equal to the next skill level squared. This greatly slows down skill improvement. Alternately, to speed up skill improvement, the Weaver can count each Emergency Die spent on a skill roll as XP towards the improvement of that skill.  These are guidelines I have used in a modified form in Cyberpunk 2020 and Mekton II. They are written with the intent of applying experience gained directly to skills. They shouldn't be used with the Emergency Dice guidelines above, and are probably best suited for Cycles where the Weaver gives out 4-6 Experience Points per session. It does involve a little more record-keeping. The first time a character uses a skill during a session, the player should place a mark next to the skill on the character sheet. If the skill is used again later in the session, another mark is not made unless the player rolls sixes. One extra check mark is made for each six rolled. Example: A Magdalite Siren uses Seduction, getting one mark on the character sheet. Later, she uses Seduction again and rolls 5,6,6. She will get two more marks. At the end of the session, an Experience Test is rolled using 2 dice for each mark next to each skill. The dice are read normally (i.e., take the highest number, add +1 if a second six is rolled). If the result is above the character's skill level, one Experience Point is gained in that skill. Using this system, characters should still receive "free floating" Experience Points that can be spent on any skill the player chooses or Emergency Dice. These Experience Points should be allowed to be spent on skills that have gained Experience from an Experience Test during the session. Weavers should discourage players from pointlessly using skills just to get Experience Checks, but encourage creative use of little used skills that contributes to the game with an extra check every so often.  Perks And Flaws Common Sense (Innate, 4 points) The character always "looks before she leaps". This translates into the Weaver giving the player a warning when she is about to have the character do something foolish, even if there are no perceptible clues as to the danger. The Weaver does not have to specify the danger or give any details. Common sense has no downside. Double Jointed (Innate, 3 points) The character's entire body can contort and flex in seemingly impossible angles. This is significantly more than her just being able to bend her fingers back. The character can fit into spaces half the size of what regular people can, as well as being able to easily slip out of restraints unless special precautions are taken. The downside is that the character's joints are easily dislocated, intentionally or not. Immunity (Acquired, 1 point) The character is immune to one, and only one, specific drug, poison, substance or disease. This Perk can be acquired because it is possible to build an immunity to toxins or diseases. The downside to Immunity is that the character cannot gain any positive benefits from a substance if there are any. Intuition (Innate, 4 points) The character gets uncanny hunches and bursts of inspiration, and the Weaver can allow her to make CRE rolls whenever she thinks the character might get one, even if there are no obvious clues present. Fumbled CRE rolls for Intuition result in extremely poor guesses, and are Intuition's only downside. Longevity (Innate, 3 points) The character's lifespan is effectively twice that of a normal person's - she will effectively always look and feel like someone half of her age. Longevity's only downside is the envy of others and outliving relatives, friends and loved-ones. Perfect Pitch (Innate, 4 points) The character always knows if something is in tune and gains a +1 bonus to any musically related task. Sense of Time (Innate, 2 points) The character always knows what time it is and always know how much time has passed from any one event to another.

Codes of the Mind

The retro Tribe 8 goodness continues with some additional house rules on task resolution in Tribe 8 first edition.

Codes of the Flesh

It's time to go retro! Here are some house rules from the original Dreams of Flesh and Spirit website for Tribe 8 1st edition.