The nature of a sandbox game is that it goes where the players go. It asks "here are some hooks, here are some locations, what do you want to do?" Generally I don't like sandbox games. They tend to get bogged down in confusion as to what to explore. They tend to require over-planning of locations in the world and hooks and story arcs. While they can be generally fun, they also suffer from potential discontinuities in story. How do you create a story arc when you don't know which arc they're going to follow? Now there are ways to do this, such as moving the plot you want to run to the locations the players go, but that also invalidates what I think is so important to a good story: the purposeful placement of the NPCs and other story elements.
The Aftermath
Coming off the tails of our fight last session, the party had time to talk more about the world. They learned that Delilah had also fled from her village when Cormag the mad appeared and began taking control. The two sisters were separated; Lindy found her way towards the highway and her own capture while Delilah followed others and established a small temporary community. Questions were asked and mostly answered and the universal need to learn more about the Evil Forge God was established.
Also, Pond ate her first Twinkie as an adult. It was funny.
What also came up with the conflict between the sisters, something that the party could delve into.
The Lore Burn
There was a lot of lore that dropped this episode, some of it through an NPC telling a story, some of it just from discussing within the party, and lastly from just exploring. Things that the party learned:
The Metal Warriors are taking live prisoners
The Empire is not popular outside of the main city walls.
They have a reputation as little more than sanctioned thugs and are more likely to demand taxes than they are provide protection.
The Empire has been sending troops into the area to try to block the Metal Warriors where ever they're coming from.
The efforts are more token then a concerted military effort as at least on regiment has taken serious casualties.
It could be a stalling tactic while the Empire plans to defend the Imperial Cities at the walls.
Cormag the Mad, the priest of a Forge God (not Kati's god) learned his magic through some book he found while adventuring.
Cormag is said to be building an army to confront the Empire.
The Imperial City arrived in the early years of the Age of Convergence, fully intact from another universe. With the chaos and confusion surrounding it, the Empress set out to restore order to lands she felt were hers to command. Hundreds of thousands were lost from Reality Prime when the Imperial City merged into our reality.
It's About the Hats
One thing this group has going is a strong investment in the role of the hat in determining status. In this case it was about who was in charge of the Imperial troops that the party stumbled into. For comparison this was the icon for the enlisted:
Where this is the officer:
Now you might focus on the color of the coat and the small clothes. There is also the red sash or that the officer has a sword rather than a pole arm. Instead the party clued in directly to the fancy hat.
These were men and women of the 5th Regiment, known as "The Duke's Most Loyal Regiment". Part of the fun of world building is establishing the royal lineage and titles. The challenge of having an Empress at the top is that there are nearly limitless ranks below that, all of which more or less work in the way you describe them. For this particular empire, the siblings, children other relatives below the empress are given titles of either Count and Countess or Duke and Duchess. The Empress's younger brother is a Duke and this regiment is "his" regiment.
The regiment is a relatively young one in the grand scheme of things, raised first after after the convergence event of recruits who were from Reality Prime but willing to join the armed forces of the Empire. While the regiment now counts among its ranks a number of half elves, every member can trace their lineage to someone resent in Reality Prime when the Era of Convergence began.
The party found themselves crossing paths the last 6 members of Bear Company.
Much of the design of the Imperial forces are based on the common conventions of the 18th century militaries. Regiments are numbers and generally kept together. However some, such as Dragoons (mounted infantry that rode between engagements and fought on foot) or regiments assigned to guard detail (such as the 5th) were broken up by company and dispatched as needed.
No One Trusts Anyone
As we moved into the scene that wrapped our last session, a great deal of tension was set. The party didn't fully trust Delilah. Delilah was sure that the 5th was going to attack Kati and Sam. The 5th were sure that Kati and Sam were up to something to be out in the wilds "traveling". No one was sure how the bandits had been maintaining a road block while there were Imperial troops patroling.
But then came the offer to Aveline: Would you consider joining Cormag's army as an officer? Would you be part of the resistance against the Empire? Would you fight to contain the invaders that arrived and imposed their idea of order on the world?
And we have no idea what Aveline said.
It was a fun tense moment to end on, the kind of cliff hanger that leaves players weighing the pros and cons between sessions. It was meant to be that and more and I think we nailed it.
Comments
Post a Comment