Lore24 Week 7

18 Feb, 2024

This week in my continued Lore24 work on my "Sablevine" region/setting, I ended up picking away at Factions. I realized that despite having a good sketch of the setting and powers-that-be, I was having a hard time translating these into more gameable Factions. So I spent most of my time this week dissecting Faction archetypes as a way to crystalize these thoughts. See more here.

Week 7

Day 38

I rolled a 5 on the Lore24 quick table, which calls for a new faction write-up. I want to splash some wizards! into Sablevine... but I feel like I need to do some more work on the factions of the setting first.

When I say "Faction," I don't want a mundane organization or group, but one with a clear agenda that can intersect with the adventures of the PCs. For instance, I hesitate to flesh out a trade guild unless they are up to something nefarious besides barter. Or maybe a quasi-governmental trade organization like the East India Trading Company. Or, I might include a standard trade guild if the adventure heavily focuses on trade, and they might be clients or rivals.

• So instead today I'm working on sketching out faction archetypes in my notes.

Day 39

10 - add a hook or quest to an NPC. I'm going to raincheck this in favor of working on Factions, and bring this forward into next week.

Day 40

10 again! I'm not feeling that so much today, so instead I'm going to copy over some other setting details from earlier writing. These will detail more about how Beasts that are growing Runestones will manifest strange, disruptive attributes and effects on the world around them. The idea with Manifestations is that they are a tool to do two things:

1. Easily make "ordinary", if huge, animals into monsters. This gives the players a touchstone for a given monster, and hopefully the balance of familiarity with something being off elevates the encounter to something really evocative.
2. Built-in risk and reward. The more world-affecting Manifestations will yield the more rare Runestones from the encounter. This also means that players that are searching for a given Runestone, whether on a quest, searching for an enchantment, or wanting to learn a Spell Circle, will be eventually learn which Manifestation lines up with that Runestone. The player can then use this knowledge to quickly determine how to look for a certain Runestone.

Day 41

16 - for a random Faction, add a hook, quest, or rumor. I'm going to raincheck this in favor of working on Factions, and bring this forward into next week.

Day 42

Today I'll be adding a rumor to a random article: Dwarves. I've decided that they need a secret magic, like the Elves, and so I added a rumor about "Chwedlium", a mythical stone-metal.

Day 43

1 - reread an older entry and spruce it up. I let fate guide me to Dwarves, which is fortunate as I was just thinking of those little guys yesterday. The idea that sprung forth is on hibernation.

One philosophy, if you want to call it that, that I feel needs explored in fantasy settings is that of immortality of otherwise mortal beings. Elves and dwarves are sometimes immortal, sometimes just very long-lived, but either way when they're depicted in fiction they're often just a little quirky or different humans, with pointy ears or glorious beards. I am injecting a little bit of ennui into my immortal humanoid races. I have something planned for the Elves, but didn't have anything for our dear Dwarves. Now, I am thinking about hibernation.

As a Dwarf toils away, year after year, decade after decades, the longing to reach perfection in their craft and in their actions weighs on them. They will often get to a point where it is too much to bear. When this happens, the dwarf will sulk off, find a cave or dig a hole, and enter a deep hibernation. This can last for many years. The dwarf will usually wake up renewed and even a little changed, and almost always describes the wildest dreams.

Day 44

Sunday Funday. Rolled a 7, for creating a new situation, or, a mechanics tie-in. How do we make the setting more "sticky" for the players?¹ Creating a Situation could wrap in the thinking on Faction's earlier in the week. First I'll post my faction thoughts in a link at the top.

^{Last edited 2 months, 4 weeks ago}

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