A Place to Call Home


#1

While many games I’ve run are wandering adventures, I’ve been considering lately a campaign that has a common area for the PC’s. This can be a location, like a house, town, or stronghold. It can even be mobile, like a seagoing ship or starfaring vessel. It’s somewhere they regularly return to for rest and recovery, invest their time and resources, and will defend to the end.

My open question is, how do you create a “home” for the PC’s in an RPG?


#2

Having a common area or home for your adventures is a great idea and a good way to add some interesting elements into your game. I don’t think there is any one way to establish a home base as there are a ton of ways to go about it. Don’t be afraid to start it a little unfinished and let it grow organically over time. Let the story and the characters shape what the home base is (and also listen to player feedback, they will always have great ideas!). I find that having a home base allows for an influx of players that can really add a cool dimension to your games.

I run a Warpshell game consisting of one-shots where the players stay aboard the ship and use that as the “home base” so to speak. I have grown it over time so now there are some NPC characters aboard who offer goods and services for the characters such as equipment stores and repair shops. I also have designated different area of the ship where characters can spend their between game downtime (and may receive bonuses in-game depending upon what they did).


#3

I think it was Cory Doctorow who first pointed out to me at a con once that there are two types of story: people go on a trip, or a stranger comes to town. ( @Alex has a funner version by the way, but won’t steal his thunder.)

I’m running the second type now after a long burst of the gaming default of Journeys. The thing I’m focusing on in the early sessions:

—First is asking the PCs lots of questions that connect them to the community… and why their character cares.

—Then give some problems where the PCs become more invested by responding to threats against their connections.

—Then showing ways their actions have direct ramifications on the home area, as well as unintended consequences.

—Coming soon, once there’s a good critical mass of investment, I’ll start building toward a dilemma or two. A forced choice between two valuable connections where “win-win” is not an option.

Hope this helps.


#4

I think Home should be a place that holds meaning for the Heroes, either where they’re from or a place they defend that becomes important.


#5

This is a great topic.


#6

I would highly recommend you read “Strongholds and Followers” by MCDM (Mathew Colville)… he has some great ideas for party strongholds and ‘common shared areas’…

game on!


#7

I have used CHUNKS to represent upgrades to a home. I ran a spelljammer style space opera game with my home group, their ship became dear to them. They invested time and resources to change their old junker into a sleek warship.

Things to consider for upgrades; Hull (defense), sails (speed/ maneuverability), armaments (firepower), magical enhancements, aesthetic changes (make it terrifying to behold, or a beacon of hope), mess hall (food could give temporary bonuses when prepared), hiring crew (navigators, sailors, chef, on ship merchant, gunmen, doctor, heck even butlers.

Another way to go could be inheriting a run down mansion, and they could renovate rooms or places surrounding the property to serve functions; barracks, stable, medical facilities, kitchen, laboratory, war room, fortifications, traps, hidden passages (a personal favorite), training grounds, an exotic herb garden, a mote, etc. (each of which would give them access to some kind of ability or boon when they return home)

I hope this helps to get the gears turning and remember, if they earned it they have to keep it. Make something too nice and folks might just get jealous enough to try and take it for themselves, which could be an adventure in and of itself!


#8

I’m not sure I see the dilema. In Warpshell you start with a home, it’s a weird home…but a home none the less. They unlock aspects as needed (and GM is ready).

The above recommendations are solid.

In a longish wandering adventure…a gifted/haunted/captured/assigned home can provide good filler sessions (sessions that widen/enliven the world but are not the main story line). It also gives a place for the members to store their loot.

Introducing a home, can be game changing…both increasing the agency of the players, and locking them down.

But it needs to be organic in how your table wants it. Not how the GM wants it. For some, a better, faster, more weapons…spacecraft will always be better. For others, the resource management that having a home would entail, is fun…for others it is the most boring idiotic waste of time imaginable (I game to kill goblins, not do accounting, but curtains and crop rotations!!!)

@Ezzerharden has What I would recommend if this is taking up brain time. I’ve seen this done well, and done badly with the same GM…table dynamics really play into this.

For some it is further mental investment into the world, for others, it’s a wake me when we have something to kill/plan/investigate moment.


#9

I like this topic

Agreed. If this is the case, as long as its not a labour intensive effort that slows down the game,Then the players that care about it can run the ‘home’. those that don’t care can just declare what they do with their turn. The ‘homekeepers’ can suggest things to you during non playing time also. Again, if that’s what they want to do.

Yep. And i like the idea of threatening their beloved ship or whatever. See how much they really want it.

My players in my new game have acquired an airship after session 1. Trouble is that it’s a thieves guild ship. So it depends on what they want to do with it. I’ll let them do whatever. Keep it as is. Destroy it. Rework it to be neutral. Build workstations inside it. Whatever really.
I’m fully ready to use hearts, chunks and effort as progress towards building, learning and improving the ship.

Either way, they have to use it for at least the next session as they’re on an island… Unless they feel like hard con saves for 4 hours to swim until they find land.


#10

I totally agree with this sentiment. accounting and resource management are not my cup of tea. when i think of a CHUNK added to the home base i imagine a static benefit when in that area, a temporary passive boon that renews when you rest at home, or a new activate-able ability for defense or offense that a player can spend an action or build a heart of effort to use. then you dont have to track anything across multiple sessions. it basically gives em a buff to use during the session or a new attack option or whatever. i want the players to have new options available to them that they dont have to open up a spreadsheet to keep track of everything.


#11

Lol!!! I tried to encompass all my historical gaming friends, in long campaigns.
We had “book keeping sessions” that 3 players loved!!! Strategic planning sessions that 2 players loved, combat sessions that most liked but pissed me off, exploring sessions, leveling sessions, shopping sessions…that was always a mixed bag.

It is sooooo odd, what some people get into…crop rotations was one of those things that I thought was idiotic but the GMs wife and best friend loved…except I had done it in real life, but not the way they where doing it…
Hitting players suspension of disbelief while playing fantasy or sci-fi is soooooo odd. And homes can get you there!!! So be careful, but for some it is great fun!

Ruling a feudal territory can be great fun!!! But do I include serf/yeoman/freeman/township rivalries? Are my players going to be into that aspect? Are they an imaginary council, or is the territory lorded by just one player?

Are summers, campaigning periods? Or do we go with real wars?

I have never run that, cause I don’t think I ever ran a group that would be into it…but internet can probably get me there!


#12

Here is a screenshot of my opening screen of my Warpshell game on Roll20. This map hosts different areas of the ship where the characters can visit. This map is useful in keeping track of where characters have spent their time between sessions. I also use this as a fun flavor kind of thing during the sessions depending upon what is going on in the story/mission.


#13

Sounds like a awesome game set up.


#14

I am trying to get a game off the ground where the players can be from all over the ICRPG worlds. The game is one-shot so they can pop in & pop out if they want. And the reason why a player would disappear if the mission takes more then one day to complete is they were portal away. I am playing around with the idea that the thing that is pulling the players is a living ship in the middle of a realm that can pull people from different places & times. That is best suited for a mission. So at one time, they could find themselves in Ghost Mountain, & the next to a Fantasy setting. And the players could be from whatever setting they want to be. They will be either a fish out of water for them or they will have the advantage because they are from that setting. But to have a home base they can call home could be nice. I love how @rpgerminator does it.


#15

This is so cool. I’m going to be making one of these for sure!
They’re like fancy index cards


#16

I never thought of my setup as looking like index cards but now that I think of it that totally works. Using home base specific index cards for a tabletop game would be an awesome way to do a setup!