I know I just posted six days ago about Gamex and all, but I feel like I haven't posted anything substantive here in forever. Lately, there's been a very good reason for that: I've been hard at work on material for the Legends of Anglerre Companion -- specifically, chapters on city- and island-based adventures. Also, my random adventure generator that didn't make it into the core book is going to be in the Companion, and that needs an overhaul, too.
Why are two 2,500-word chapters taking so long? Man, I ask myself that every day. Part of the reason is that I've been committed to the idea of a random city generator, and that's proven surprisingly difficult to do. I mean, I expected it to be difficult, and it is, but more so than I'd anticipated when I told Sarah Newton, "Sure thing! Random city generator!" Actually, what's making it harder is the waffling: First I want to do it one way, then I think to myself that it's getting too complicated, then I backtrack and go another way, then something else occurs to me that'll further simplify the process, so I branch out again.... I have pages of notes, but they're like puzzle pieces from different puzzles. I'm confident that if I just keep shaking it a bit more everything will fall into place, but as of right now it's a mess.
I could skip the generator altogether, but I really do think it's genuinely useful, so I'm not inclined to give up on it. I'll have to slip some fluff/advice in there somewhere, but mostly it should be the generator. The chapter on islands, though, is going to have to be all fluff/advice, because I can't really see much use for randomly generating islands. Fortunately, I've actually run a brief island-based campaign (of Fantasy HERO, if you must know) not too long ago, so some of these island-specific issues have already occurred to me. Whether I have 2,500 words' worth of answers to those issues, however, is another question altogether.
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How are you structuring the random city generator? One way would be to start from geography (seaport, major trade route, far from other civilization...), then look at the civilization level when it was founded (did they lay down a grid of streets and sewers, or did it develop in a jumble?), consider the neighbors (do they need defensive fortifications?), and so on. More of a flow chart with options for randomness than a true random number generator. (I’m one of those sorts that loves the hardcore details in the books from Expeditious Retreat Press...)
Pfah. How aren't I structuring this random city generator? Seriously, it's gone through more than a few iterations here.
In general, though, my guiding principle has been to create the city from the PCs' point of view. That is, the end-user experience is of paramount importance.
For example, are the people unfriendly to outsiders, or dwarves, or mages, or whatever? I'm less interested in answering why that is than in determining if it is -- the "why" is up to the GM (and the players -- this is FATE we're talking about, after all). This isn't intended to replace the GM's creativity, but to guide and constrain their choices.
Likewise, grid-vs.-jumble is likely to be a binary proposition -- and an aspect, probably. Whether one city's streets are more convoluted than another's is immaterial; all the players will care about (IMO) is what this one is like. So there won't be a graduated rating of, like, Street Complexity, although right now cities are handled similarly to Organizations.
As it happens, I've been reading A Magical Medieval City Guide, so your mention of Expeditious Retreat is especially apt!
I find that as a gamemaster, having the underlying whys makes it easier to tell a story; coming up with a single source detail like “natural harbor” means you have at least a cosmopolitan district in the city (if not the whole city and surrounding lands), big diverse markets, people from many different cultures, and so on. That could be interesting to turn on its head, so you pick a particular trait that the players will see and get a list of possible reasons that such a feature would exist and what other ones would go with it.
I’ll be very interested to see how you apply the FATE fractal to cities! How soon will we be able to preorder this one?
I find that as a gamemaster, having the underlying whys makes it easier to tell a story; coming up with a single source detail like “natural harbor” means you have at least a cosmopolitan district in the city (if not the whole city and surrounding lands), big diverse markets, people from many different cultures, and so on.
Of the above features, the things the generator would tell you would be that it's a commerce-focused city (e.g., a trading hub of some kind) with a diverse population. You will already know, IMO, if it's a port city -- in a way, this ties into the adventure generator, which includes terrain and climate types. At the very least, if you determine that it's a big city, and you're already on the coast (either because you've randomly determined that, or because, y'know, you're just there already), then you can reasonably say that it's a port city.
The tricky thing (or one of the tricky things) about this is the need to make it as generic as possible, to suit a wide variety of settings and campaigns. I have no idea at what point someone's going to want to gin up a random city, so I can't very well dictate, in the random tables, that they've encountered a port city if the group is currently in the middle of the Dry-Bone Desert. So there's a point in the process where I have to leave it up to the GM to sort out the particulars, as suits their game.
I mean, I can't even say "There's a wizards' college here!" without taking into account that someone's setting may not have any wizards at all, let alone colleges for them.
I’ll be very interested to see how you apply the FATE fractal to cities! How soon will we be able to preorder this one?
Oh, I never know about that stuff -- I'm just a freelancer here. You'll have to check the C7 website for particulars. I think it's already on preorder, actually.
It sounds like this might be a game I need to read more about. The main book is out, I presume?
You can order Starblazer Adventures already from Amazon; I don’t know if Legends of Anglerre is a bolt-on for it or a standalone, but you can already preorder that, as well as the book under discussion here, The Legends of Anglerre Companion. If you’re picking up Starblazer Adventures, I also recommend the Mindjammer book as a cool science fiction setting.
Legends of Anglerre is definitely a standalone book -- at nearly 400 pages, it'd better damn well be. The PDF's out now, and the print version supposed to be out... uh... sometime this month?
*looks at calendar*
Maybe? I dunno.
Amazon US says July 13.
Well, generators are useful even if I don't generate a full city with them!! Simply I find nice to choose some "aspect" as inspiration.
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