It almost certainly won't last past the initial sketch. It's a bit too silly, and a bit too "loud" for a game about exploration.
Plus, it's a post apocalyptic game with robots; I need to avoid the Fallout tone and this does me no favours.
Still, though. Still.
Working on my first #Scavenger adventure today, as a way to organize my thoughts for the exploration chapter.
I was trying to think of neat things to put in a rural area of water treatment plants and farms, and wrote down "The World's Largest Potato".
Ive been giggling about it for five hours.
There was a lot I digged about it, in particular that it ran large combats relatively quickly.
I could run a game with five PCs and their five hirelings, against twenty orcs or whatever, and have it run faster than a typical dnd fight.
OTOH, it didn't really keep our interest, so it fizzled out.
Each region has two tags, like industrial, or commercial. Each tag has a list of common buildings in that area. Gm rolls on a table, and then places them about.
Plus, additional sites, basically dungeons, are added as well.
Basically, players explore based on going to areas that they're at least a little aware of. You don't stumble around as much.
If a player says "we go east into the forest" with no knowledge of where they're going, it's a hex crawl, I guess.
It's more a way of framing things. In a hex crawl, it's very easy for a GM to place things on a map and players say "I guess we go east" or just follow a road.
A pointcrawl instead says "we leave the ruined and hotel, and follow the signs to the lighthouse we saw".
Oh yeah, one million percent.
Shot of my word document, describing how scavengers explore the mosslands. "Rather than exploring an area hex by hex, scavengers instead explore areas that pique their interest (or stoke the ever burning fire for loot, Loot, LOOT!)"
Writing is getting punchy.
Just saw a local guy arguing confidently on Facebook that Vikings were the first people in Canada - he accepted that an indigenous site was 14,000 years old, but also that "Vikings were here first".
The stupid, people. It's growing.
youtube.com/shorts/iAxqI...
Yeah. Come to think of it, my high school also had a kiln, and a whole pottery studio attached to the art class.
Part of it is that the schools were built back to back, and were intended to be used by the community, not just as a school.
So we also had a commercial kitchen, a theatre, etc.
Just yours.
My middle school had a whole ass kiln ROOM, built into it. And all the elementary schools nearby would send the stuff there.
A charcuterie with toasted baguette, hummus sprinkled with sumac and olive oil, cashews, gin soaked olives, pickles, blueberries, smoked cheddar cheese, cucumbers, and a poached egg topped with chili garlic sauce.
Made my wife a brunch tray. Of course I had to take it outside to do the photo justice.
One of my favorite dnd moments of all time had the PCs kill an evil wizard, but were unable to catch his apprentice. They did find her spellbook though.
There wound up being a whole arc where she was trying to get it back, with meetings through proxy, dead drops, and so on.
Was GREAT.
I know, I'm a ~monster~. ;)
The spider shapeshifting Aranea probably don't get translated to Traveller rules. Neither do the dragons, or any of the lycanthropes.
I like the idea of multiple scouting parties besides the PCs trying to "solve" the isle.
The PCs are here because they know there's some big Ancients tech. The Hivers were looking for it a thousand years ago, and got stranded, and went all Colonel Kurtz over the years and set themselves up as gods.
The dinosaurs are actual dinosaurs though.
They were brought here by the Ancients. And the droyne were the dinosaur keepers before they turned into Chirpers.
Instead of the villagers of tanaroa using animate dead on their ancestors, they instead have ancient artifacts that animate corpses.
The phanatons are droyne chirpers.
And the pirates become space pirates. Or smugglers. Or a rogue corporate faction.
I had a great idea today while using the restroom (where great ideas are born).
What if we took the classic d&d adventure Isle of Dread, and converted it to Traveller?
The isle is now an uncharted planet. The rakasta are savage Aslan. And the kopru are deranged Hivers.
Plus, y'know, dinosaurs.
The black plague wiped out half of Europe. And in Italy, it wiped out even more
It lead to farms becoming more productive, an explosion of art, culture, and science... As wealth and freedom of movement of the survivors surged
The Renaissance and enlightenment don't happen without the Black Plague.
It is my firm opinion that, should the bombs fall and most of humanity is wiped out, the resulting world would not be mad Max.
There would be a few rough years, maybe a decade, as survivors learn to farm and work together.
And then it'd be like the Renaissance.
So... You avoid Stella Montis and stick to the safe parts of Blue Gate until you extract at 21:00?
Because, same.
Yeah, but Squirtle is cuter, so shaddup.
(Best pokemon in my absolute unknowing opinion is Sandshrew)
You absolutely do!
This is a game where players are explorers in an abandoned world, scouring the ruins for anything that can be used to build a new society.
The PCs fight robots, monsters, and psychic phenomena. It's not "realistic" AT ALL.
It's also very much political. And I'm okay with that.
Had a good conversation today with @hellsbellsami.bsky.social regarding my first draft of #Scavenger, particularly in regard to Politics.
It's a game where humans are inherently good, but where people are inherently bad.
It's really cool that he got it, and understands where the game is going.
Idea: a choose your own adventure-style " make your own rpg".
It gives a basic rules set, and the gm picks and chooses elements to add, and then, voila, product is done... And unique!
Great game. Had a lot of fun with it - it's a pretty good base to build on if you want to add your own crazy designs.
A scrap piece of cardboard, covered in my messy handwriting, outlining the big ideas of my exploration chapter (at least, the big ideas I need to organise).
This is how I prep individual chapters for #Scavenger.
Lots of notes, arrows, and little spurs to refresh my memory.