Just wondering if enough people are here for posts and discussion about what people are creating for their table top games. If you are and want to share a snippet about what you’re working on, that would be great!
Just wondering if enough people are here for posts and discussion about what people are creating for their table top games. If you are and want to share a snippet about what you’re working on, that would be great!
I think it’s the subtlety across multiple factions that I struggle with. It’s easy enough to do a monster of the week and be subtle about what and why it’s there but the interrelations are a challenge.
I’m not sure if my approach would work for everyone, but I like to have a strong faction leader so I can clearly define their character and think of them like I would think of my own PC. If I have a solid understanding of their motivation, their personality, how smart they are and how they deal with conflict, I can determine how they’d react to moving and shaking in their sphere of influence. A warlord might bristle at the slightest insult, or perceived insult, and be ready to settle a dispute with fists rather than even entertain diplomacy. Depending on which faction he’s picking a fight with, they might ignore his posturing, get intimidated and back down, or try and goad him into doing something stupid.
Other members of a given faction will tend to reflect the leader’s personality, since realistically, that’s the sort of follower a strong leader often attracts: imitators. It’s a bit of a shortcut so I don’t have to create 50 different NPCs that the party may or may not ever meet, but still. I also think that when AI chatbots get a bit more sophisticated, I could use those to literally simulate conversations with characters I design.
That sounds a lot like Icons from a game that I can’t remember the name of atm. The idea being to make faction leaders the definition of the faction. Maybe sometime I’ll remember that advice, lol.