I'd always seen conflict in the game as the element that would bring out the personality of the players. It's the part that lays bare all our prejudices (through our characters) and lets us take a look at what really matters.

That being said, I'm finding that the process of putting together towns, as the GM, is doing the same for me. I've just finished my fourth Branch and, looking back at them, I realized that there's always been some kind of father-son conflict. In the first town it's a father separated from his son unjustly. The second it's a son done wrong by his father who wants revenge. The third was a son abandoned by his pa and the last has a father trying to redeem his boy from the vices of sex and alcohol. I didn't do any of this intentionally, nor did I notice when I put the towns together.

Strange. *grin* Anyone else notice themselves building patterns into towns?

So far I only have a town and a half, but I find myself inexorably drawn towards the ideals and dynamics of the whole polygyny thing and wanting to include some sort of example of it in my towns, whether or not they're the subject of the pride/sin/etc progression.

If we had somewhere central to store our towns -- where people wrote up their town details, we might have an easier time noticing such trends and themes, particularly as they cross people/groups. :-)

Thank you, Christopher, for turning my thread into a shameless plug. *grin*

I kid.