(Question) Game mechanisms for buildings in RPGs?

[baron samedi]

Hi,

I'm working on a design idea and wondering...

Has there been any RPG out there that integreated the role of *buildings* or places into the game system? I'm not talking about magical places, but mechanical effects due to common buidlings (e.g. a mill, a forge, a palace...) in a game, as per Civilization or Age of Empires?

Thanks!

Erick

[Adam Dray]

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking. Mechanical effects of buildings? Effect on what?

If you mean on game play, sure. D&D does it. Lots of games do it. If you mean in terms of player currency, I can't think of an example.

[joepub]

For the game I'm working on right now, Boulevard (pathetic punk kids fighting battles they don't really understand), I'm considering doing something like this:

Which physical location you are in determines your Impact, Targets and Victims.
I'm not really sure on the details yet... but ranting in the Kingston&Jupiter alleyway causes a vastly different impact than ranting in front of the Mayor's Office.

Is that what you're thinking of?

[baron samedi]

OK guys, here's a fictional example of what I'm thinking of:

In D&D, a FORGE would bestow a +2 damage bonus on characters fighting within it because a varity of good weapons is available around.

In Herowars, a MARKETPLACE would provide a +3 bonus to success rolls for buying and selling objects within it.

In My Life With Master, a CHURCH would lessen by 2 points a Minion's Weariness when inside it.

My question pertains to a Narrativist system, of course; the D&D example above is absurd. Is this clearer?

I'm considering this in option that a Setting would have a number of points available to "buy" buildings according to its size. Such points would confer benefits on specific character actions at this place under appropriate circumstances.

[Adam Dray]

I haven't seen anything like that but it sounds cool. Do it up!

How do you get away from having enormous lists of buildings and their modifiers? Maybe have a simple rule that says, "Any player can narrate elements of the setting into his actions. If the thing he narrates in is AWESOME, he gets a +3. If it's COOL, he gets a +2. Otherwise, it's just a +1. Each player can narrate in only one item per turn."

[Valamir]

Well in Universalis you create buildings the same way as anything else...the same way as you create a character.

So if you have:

Spooky Old House
Weak Floor Boards
Rickety Staircase
Strange Noises
Smells Musty

Then you can use any of those Traits during a Complication, same as you would for any character Trait.  So I can grab "Weak Floor Boards" and narrate how an opposing character's foot crashed through the floor and got stuck, thereby removing a die from the player who controls that character.  They could turn around and grab "Strange Noises" and narrate how a character I control is distracted by the sound and take a die from my pool, etc.

Is that the sort of thing you're talking about?

[Adam Cerling]

In D&D, a FORGE would bestow a +2 damage bonus on characters fighting within it because a varity of good weapons is available around.

Iron Heroes actually does a lot of this, I hear, although it focuses more narrowly on the scenery instead of broadly on the building. Up-front before the battle begins, an Iron Heroes GM gives the players information like "You can use the ashes from the fire at a -4 to attack if you want to blind your enemies" and "the candelier will do 5d6 damage to anyone beneath it if you cut the rope." Next thing you know -- the ashes are flying and the chandeliers are falling.

[Josh Roby]

Full Light, Full Steam has the GM create "sets" in the Situation Engineering chapter.  Sets have a description (what you'd expect), situation effects, and complications.  Situation effects are blanket bonuses and penalties that apply to everybody in the set: +2 to sneaking around, -1 to gossiping, +3 to blowing shit up.  Any roll of that kind that happens in the set nets that bonus or penalty.  Complications, on the other hand, are things that might happen in that set: waking the sleeping guards, setting off boobytraps, haunted by spirits, or, you know, the ancient temple falling into the volcano it's perched on top of.  These are used as stakes and counterstakes in die checks, and are more-or-less purely inspirational.

So a sample would look something like:

Set: Abandoned High Martian Temple
Description: A series of stone corridors burrowing into the ground, slowly replaced by corridors of a strange metal alloy.  Light tubes still glow dimly in the corners, and there's evidence that something alive has been making this its den.
Situation Effects: +2 Sneaking Around, -1 Keeping Things Lit, -1 Navigation
Complications: Tunnel collapses with sand from above; Sandbeasts attack from the shadows; Ancient technology activates

The idea is that the set is a sort of playground that anybody around the table can make use of.  PCs and NPCs enjoy the same bonuses, and can incorporate the complications into their stakes when they roll dice.

[baron samedi]

Thanks guys!

Thinking of it, RUNE allows something similar, but I'll avoid point-building mechanisms for I want something minimalist.

I'll be doing something very more lightweight than this but this had my thoughts rolling. I had already a place's name as a usable Trait (e.g. The City of the Eternal Fog), I'll be treating buildings as large-scale objects that provide a given bonus in certain circumstances, like the church example above.

e.g. The Forge of Scorching Iron gives a bonus (e.g. +5) when armies fight with iron weapons inside the city but not those from outside it (invaders), etc.

A given scenario would have a number of points to spread among important landmarks (e.g. 10 for a town). My game's very oneiric in tone (e.g. fairy-tale like), so having only say a forge, a mill and a palace in a city with the rest being generic and unspecified (e.g. "a forge") isn't a problem.

Erick