(TFT) Rough and Ready Campaigns

["Jay Carlisle" <selfinflicted_wounds@boardermail.com>]

Rough and Ready Campaigns.

Style 1
History and Geography on the fly.

I run Civilization 2 as a tool. (a common example)
Warlord level (20 year turns)
Premade World, Large World Map, Earth
Seven Civs, I did not randomize starting locations, or resources.
Jay starts as the first great Chief of the mighty Sioux, Types While Drunk.
100 turns representing 2000years of History, 4000 to 2000 B.C.
I didn't allow huts to become barbarians.

Notes;
First City @ 4000 BC

Alphabet @ 3180 BC beginning of records

Writing @ 2920 BC beginning of written history

Literacy @ 2800 BC beginning of written legend

Philosophy @ 2680 BC (Golden Age)
Monarchy @ 2680 BC
Revolt @ 2680 BC

First King @ 2660 BC

etc.

At 2100 BC the Sioux Nation has a population of 1,290,000 souls, and holds nine cities, each one of which I have descriptions for.
I have a pretty good idea of her technology and military power and can build a timeline of important historical events, as well as a basic outline of the cultures pre-history (before writing).
I also have 6 computer opponents who may decide to start a War at any time.
Of course 20 year turns at this scale leaves a lot of flexibility for fitting events into a TFT campaign as 20 years is a rough estimate of a generation.
I also have a good idea of what's going on at different parts of the empire and what is being worked on currently.
Tying all this to the map of Earth allows me to use other information like Atlas, Encyclopedias, etc., for additional information as needed.

This method gives a GM a quick model that provides several forms of depth in a campaign, but the main advantage I see is in an empire that is formed on a logical basis.
If the parameters aren?t set properly, the empire will suffer ill effects in the future.
All of these are potential for adventure.
Even exploring the Map can be considered as an adventure opportunity.

So here's a rough outline for a campaign built off of the above.

BACKGROUND
In the time before time, when the gods still walked with us, one Chief became favored above others.
Chief Types While Drunk watched the gods as they walked the land, and anon he came to walk behind them and listen to their stories.
>From the gods, Types While Drunk learned the way of the bow and befriended the horse.
These gifts he passed on to his people, and with them they roamed far and other tribes were awed by the people and made haste to pay the Sioux tribute.
When, after many moons, Chief Types While Drunk finally rode to the sky, he passed his mantel on to his son, Spells For $#!^.
As a young boy Spells For $#!^ was always looking to the ground.
So much was his preoccupation that many stories are now told, and none in the tribe expected him to be named Chief.
As Chief, Spells For $#!^ was able to show his people the gifts of the Earth, clay and bronze, and from his son Can Not Write the people were shown cold iron and the beauty of gold.
The final of the mighty Chiefs of yore was Chief Needs More Coffee.
Like his father, and his fathers father, Needs More Coffee gave the people a mighty gift of the Earth, the gift of stone, but it was Needs More Coffee that reminded the people that they to were of the Earth by showing the people how to properly house and care for their ancestors by building tombs.
These are the pillars of our people.
Long may we prosper and far may we roam.

"words used to open council fire as spoken by village Chief"

(see Imhotep as one of many semi-mythological figures tied to various trades or skills)



To my Brothers at Little Big Horn upon my arrival at Wounded Knee,

It is the same at the Library here as it was at Cedar Creek.
There are no records archived here that are older than those we have in Little Big Horn.
There seems little doubt that Chief Is Easily Misunderstood codified our Laws within two generations of our ancestors' abilities to keep records.
As I know of no other place where our people keep such records I shall return to you by the shortest possible route, once my copies are complete. 

"beginning of letter from Master Scholar, Can't Make Sense, to his home Library"




A Concise History of the Sioux Nation
as compiled by Royal Scholar to the King, Reads Too Much, in the 95th generation of our people

3180 BC, 1080 years or 54 generations ago.
Wise Men of Chief, Is Easily Misunderstood, formulate the Sioux Alphabet

53 generations ago
Early records show the foundations of our modern Scholarship.
(Mysticism)

52 generations ago
Chief, Is Easily Misunderstood, records his Code of Laws.





And blah, blah, blah.
This is just off the top of my head, but I think it gets the idea across.
Please see http://www.civfanatics.com/civ2/reference/hist_realism.php 
Historical Realism: Notes on Recreating History in Civ2 Scenarios
Author: Morten Blaabjerg
This is a very interesting discussion of the relative merits of scenario building in Civ 2 but the parallels are very pertinent to this discussion, especially 3. THE DRAMATIC PREMISE.
 


DYNAMICS
As I focused on exploration and agriculture in development, these cities are pretty weak.
Only two currently have a military Unit in defense. With reports of hostile tribes (raging hordes) it's a fair bet that military jobs will be on the rise in the next few years of game time. This hasn't been a priority until now as the Sioux have the Western Hemisphere to themselves.
Now as a focus area for a party of adventures I picked the northern most city, Three Forks (23, 15)9.
This is a discovered city. (hut)
In this case, I take discovered to mean that the city is of a smaller ethnic group that joined the Sioux.
Seeing as it's so far north, why not Alaskan Natives?
I also see that Three Forks is large (pop5 150,000), and resource rich (2 whales, fur, yak) which means there's money to be had here, and not all of it is above board (6 trade, 4 corruption).
There is only a Granary in Three Forks at this time, although much work is being done on the Market. (extra labor focus)
There is a work group (settlers) that is engaged in road building, but as the next city is 14 spaces away (Kill Deer) this is an isolated area and can expect to remain so for some time.
Also, as every square but 3 are tundra, there's a LOT of work to be done in the way of improving the land.

Now I pluck a microquest and drop it on an appropriate square, TL on a woods about 2 days walk from town works.

Put rumors in Kill Deer and in Three Forks of its existance.

This covers the "traditional" Tavern driven approach and often is all that's needed to get a group into the dungeon.
But if they go off on some weird tack, I have a bunch of information to run with.
If they just start walking, make 'em a warrior Unit and let 'em explore the Map for instance, there are 6 other Civs out there.
There are also clear areas of improvement to be made, each of these offers basic adventures, like a journey to the nearest iron source (20 spaces) to obtain materiel for the new Temples altar.

Etc., etc.
 


NOW that I have a working knowledge of the gameworld, I can look at where my major antagonist Joe Darklord fits in.

This is yet another layer of  dynamics for quick spin off adventures.

It's probably not a good idea, from the players PoV, to leave the Dark Lords queue/plots uninterrupted.



So now I'm at Story.
I can't tell others anything about their Stories.
I'm not even sure what Story means in terms of an interactive RPG.

I'll stop this babble with an observation.

There is a form of RPGing  I call Screenplay gaming.
In this form, I am given a strict role by the GM.
I am expected to adhere to the role, and follow the Storyline as it's laid out by the GM.

I find no problem with this, it has been several years since I've ran anything myself, excepting soloing programmed adventures of course!
Often short, to the point adventures are the best fit for a particular group.

I will say that if I am being constrained in my characters actions, and I am focusing on someone else's narrative, I expect the Story to have structure.

I believe in the past I used the example of Twin Peaks as opposed to The X Files.
One had a Story with a definite ending that was planed from the start.
Signs and portents meant something in that Story.
The other one was making it up as they went along.
If there ever was a big secret behind it all I'm not aware of it.
I would hate to have to play Mulder, motivated by an obsessive search for a secret that wasn't ever really there.

In response to issues like the endless onion, I suppose some think I have gone overboard.
I actually think something like this example can be tailored for TFT.
It'd basically end up as an expanded Action Table.


Yes, there are more styles for Rough and Ready Campaigns.

Jay

P.S. Did I mention that I model the Orcs off of the native indians in my gameworld?

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