[TSoY] My little corner of Near, what do you think?

[dindenver]

All,
  OK, so I am setting up some factions for a small corner of Near.
  I created a little place called Sanctum. Its a new Marldor castle town with an old Maldor city nearby. Its on the border of Ammeni (also, near the back woods of the old Zaru nation).
  The idea is to have stuff happening so that the place feels alive when the game starts (this is how I prep for a game, I learn the rules and then setup factions so I can make NPCs on the fly). Then chargen and I adapt to what the players want/need.

So, here is a google spreadsheet with the faction info I have so far:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pJsDLey3h-2mj8SZibHu2Vw

 Lemme know if anything doesn't make sense or if you have anything cool to add to it.

[Eero Tuovinen]

That's a rather comprehensive preparation, I like it. Perhaps building it into a non-linear representation, such as an adventure map or several, might make it easier to use?

Did you create the factions by taking the three cultures and the issue of reform as binary political leanings and then going through all variations? Interesting approach, that. You seem to be lacking one faction, somebody who supports the existing order but resists all three cultural spheres. Perhaps there just isn't anybody like that in the city.

Do you have any further material on the different factions and NPCs, or are you going to improvise as necessary when the game happens?

[dindenver]

Eero,
  The process was like this:
1) Read up on Zaru, Maldor and Ammeni (cuz I was fascinated with the Zaru magic, but didn't want to make a campaign based on slavery as the centerpiece).
2) Came up with a setting that seemed like a good centerpiece for conflict. I came up with Sanctum, a struggling Maldor city on the Ammeni border and within spitting distance of the old Zaru territory.
3) Populated it with interested parties. I wanted at least two factions for each major factor (Maldor, Zaru, Ammeni, Merchants). But I kept going with what seemed to fit. Then came up with a faction leader and a starting contact for each faction.
4) Thought about what issues would divide them (reconstruction/reform, etc). And prioritized them from most divisive to least divisive.
5) Good catch, I did assign each political issue binary values. I used the binary values to determine who were real enemies and allies. The idea was to break free of stereotypes and find factions that had real issues that probably could not be overcome.
  The math stuff is not necessary, but it helps force me to think outside of the box. Its tricky though, I have to get a lot of the creative stuff out of my head before I start the maths, or the following material ends up much less creative and more methodical.
  Yeah, I don't like to go too much deeper than this until the characters are made and I have a lens to come back and view this all through.
  Does that answer your questions?

[Eero Tuovinen]

Yeah, that answers me. Your thought process about wanting to play with Zaru but wanting to avoid making slavery a centerpiece resonates with what I've been thinking about lately in relation to campaign frameworks - didn't I write to you about how Zaru and slavery are a very common campaign framework? It'll be interesting to see how Zaru shape up outside their slavery context.

[dindenver]

Eero,
  Yes you did.
  Actually, that was my thought process as soon as I read the Zaru write up.
  I understand how slavery is a big issue and it is certainly a core problem with that culture. But I don't think that can be addressed properly without blotting out every other setting element.
  To me, the pacifism is a much larger issue tht can more interestingly addressed with this setting. In fact, that is probably why they are slaves, no? I mean with the power of Zu, they could forge their own destiny, but the language itself, reinforced by the culture, has subjegated them more than the Ammeni, I mean Khale has been able to resist them...

[dindenver]

All,
  This is what I had in mind when I made this:
http://tsoy.crngames.com/Dave%27s_Life_Path_System
  I need to come back to it and see if I can tweak it to match this sub-setting better.
  Does anyone have any ideas?

[dindenver]

[Eero Tuovinen]

Do you know, this scenario is really expansive in scope. Epic, even. You've got threecornerists, ratkin, traders, slavers, vampire goblins and all sorts of weirdos all mixed up. Inspiring.

[dindenver]

Eero,
  Thanks for the compliment.
  I have a process.
  Its hard to explain, but it is repeatable and so far has made some good political structures like this one.
  I did this for Lanasia, the KOTOR universe of star wars, a space game I made and I did a limited version for Exalted, CP2020 and Mekton.
  I can try and explain it if you are interested.

[Eero Tuovinen]

You should perhaps write about your process just to understand it better. This is something I've been interested in recently, as my own currently on-going fantasy campaign Alder Gate is all about method over rules - I'm focusing on the parts of play that are not and maybe traditionally cannot be rules-quantified. It's good practice to learn to explain how a method with no rules-backing works.