[Townsfolk] Power 19 2.0

[chronoplasm]

[Greg 1]

Do the PCs co-operate?  For instance, is the lumberjack going to help the farmer fight plants?
Are the players expected to get into roleplaying situations?  If so, what sort?
Is the game only supposed to last until one winter arrives?

[chronoplasm]

The PCs are supposed to cooperate, but mostly by filling their respective roles. The Lumberjack can help the Farmer to fight vegetables, but the Lumberjack won't excel in that type of  battle like the Farmer would.

They players are supposed to role play, but I'm not sure how at this point. I guess it would be mostly bartering and 'town counsel' types of situations.

The players do continue to play past winter, beginning a new year in game time. Each year is more difficult than the last. The monsters are powered up and new monster varieties could appear (to be added in expansions like 'Infernal Almanac').

[dindenver]

Kevin,
  I think that you need to build the interdependence into the system. But not through niche protection or whatever, but through the resources themselves. Like the Lumberjack can't make enough firewood to for the entire village to survive the winter without a little help. And the same goes with all the professions. If each Class goes about their job without help, maybe its enough for half the village to make it through the winter. BUT, if they get help (even from people that don't have that class), it's enough so everyone can live, no?
  And maybe suggest (don't make a rule for it, but you know, lay it out in the setting) that the ones who help the Lumberjack are the one's most likely to get firewood, if there is not enough to survive, right?

[chronoplasm]

That makes sense.
Cool.

[chronoplasm]

OK, so I guess I'll go over the 'professions' again.

Everyone starts out with basic skills from all of the professions, but the professions can increase your skills in their respective areas. You can take multiple professions or you can specialize.
Professions are divided up along two dimensions: Role and Resource.

The four roles are:
Runner (mobility based. Explore and transport.)
Gatherer (extract resources from monsters.)
Processor (transform resources into useable goods and tools.)
Maintainter (safeguard against the unpredictable and make sure things run smoothly.)

The four principal resources are:
Mineral (abiotic, immobile, bludgeons animals)
Water (abiotic, mobile, dillutes mineral)
Plant (biotic, immobile, soaks up water)
Animal (biotic, mobile, eats plant)

The four resources also correlate to each of the roles and add secondary roles to each of the professions.
Mineral = Maintainer
Water = Collector
Plant = Processor
Animal = Runner

The 16 Base Professions:

Mineral Runner = Merchant (bring resources and goods to other towns to do business.)
Water Runner = Ferryman (transport goods, resources, and goods across water.)
Plant Runner = Trailblazer (clear away tree monsters to build roads.)
Animal Runner = Postman (ride your trusty steed to deliver mail and parcels.)

Mineral Collector = Miner (dig through defenses and use your pick to chip away at ore monster HP.)
Water Collector = Fisherman (use bait and traps and lots of patience to catch fish monsters.)
Plant Collector = Farmer (use your scythe the mow away at fields of veggie monsters.)
Animal Collector= Hunter (use stealth and tracking skills to find and kill beast monsters.)

Mineral Processor = Blacksmith (use fire to weaken ore monsters then beat them into submission with your hammer.)
Water Processor = Distiller (seperate impurities and create brews from liquid monsters.)
Plant Processor = Carpenter (saw and hammer wood monsters to create items.)
Animal Processor = Butcher (slaughter beast monsters with your knives then carve up their meat for good eating.)


...OK. I need your help, The Forge, to come up with the Maintainer classes.
I need:

Mineral Maintainer
Water Maintainer
Plant Maintainer
Animal Maintainer

Each one of these needs some skills that are applicable to defending against monsters.
Your thoughts?

[whiteknife]

If you want some ideas, heres a couple:
Mineral Maintainer: Geologist (figure out the stress points and composure of rocks in order to defend against them/ help attack them. Also helps in amking rocks into useful things)
Water Maintainer: Marine Ecologist (this doesn't sound very genre appropriate, but I can't think of anything better) (Study currents and habits of fish and the water in order to predict when they will be spawning/aggressive/etc., also when water is safe to drink)
Plant Maintainer: Gardener (learn the ways of plants in order to defend against them and help the friendly ones (if any) grow.)
Animal Maintainer: Trainer (bond with beasts and attempt to calm them down, also studying their like and habits in order to protect against them).

Well, I'm not sure if that helps, but there it is anyways. I like what you've got so far. I'm also interested in seeing where the idea of a town council as a central thing could go. Anyways, keep going! I want to see more.

[chronoplasm]

Thanks whiteknife! Trainer sounds like a pretty good idea actually...
I'm considering Miller for plant maintainer though.

For Town Counsel I was thinking players would debate and vote to decide the towns next course of action and give some opportunities to role play and progress the plot.

I like how 'relationships' work in Dogs of the Vineyard so I'm thinking of incorporating a similar idea.
Players could get a certain number of points to invest in their characters families.
In addition to choosing your characters name and profession, you choose the names and professions for your characters parents. Your parents professions give you a bonus to skills from that profession. You could also leave these spaces blank  to play as an orphan.
You also get to create your characters spouse and give her a profession. Furthermore, your character can have children. They can't have professions unless you choose to be a more aged character with grown up children, but they can still perform tasks depending on their age.
You can also choose to list any family member as deceased to give your character a certain amount of 'sorrow'. I'm not sure what this will do, if anything. I might just be making this overly complicated, but I'm just brainstorming here.
Players can even choose to be part of the same family and pool their family points together. For examples, two players can choose to be husband and wife or players can choose to be siblings.

[dindenver]

Kevin,
  Regarding relationships, don't forget that for many people their relationships to their friends are more valuable than their relationships to family. In fact, when I GM ditv, no more than half of the Relationships on the sheet are family members. Maybe that is just a weird artifact of how I GM or the people I associate with, but maybe it might be an idea on how to make/use Relationship mechanics for your game.

[chronoplasm]

Hmmm... thanks!
That also makes me think of pets too.
This makes me think maybe the relationships part of the character sheets should have a 'mouths to feed' section.
Hey...
The game is all about resources, right? Maybe relationships should have an effect on this.
Parters You and your partners all pool together your resources then take even shares.
Parterns can be friends, spouses, associates, anyone that you cooperate with.
Dependents A portion of the share you recieve must go toward supporting your dependents. Whatever is left is for you. Dependents can be children, elderly family members, sick friends, pets, etc. Your dependents can do some work, but it won't be equal to what they are recieving from you.

Your thoughts?

[chronoplasm]

Pardon my spelling. Parterns? Heh.

Anyway, I also wanted to ask you guys how you visualize the characters in their world? That is, how do you see a farmer fighting a bunch of veggie avengers? How do you guys see a blacksmith fighting an ore monster to try and pound it into a plowshare? I already have my own ideas, but I just wanted to see what you guys think as it might give me some ideas.