So in the last article, I looked at how to quickly put character into encounter locations. The goal is to make the location memorable, but more importantly, interesting to interact with for the players.
Taking this further, it’s about making a location nearly a NPC. To recap, I used 5 core elements that can be used to create a setting for your encounters. These elements fill it with life and detail without writing page upon page of description.
This is a quick recap of the core setting element framework:
- Time – When the location exists in the world timeline but also in the session timeline.
- Place – Where the location exists in the world setting.
- Mood – How you want the characters to feel about the location.
- Context – Why the characters are here and why this location is even part of the session’s story arc.
- Cast of Characters – Who the characters meet and can interact with at this location
Last time, I started with the biggest trope known to tabletop roleplaying games: the Bar/Tavern. Here’s the result from using the core setting element framework: Living Locations Part 1.
Now, with just these 5 elements I can punch up the Bar setting in different game themes: High Fantasy, Western, and Near-Future Cyberpunk.
Let me begin with placing our setting into a High Fantasy theme. Since I am the most familiar with the Eberron setting, I picked it for this exercise.
- Time –998 YK, the default year for the beginning of play suggested in the Eberron setting book.
- Place – The Quaint Fowl – Stormreach, Xen’Drik
- Mood – Arrogance, Wonder, Excitement
- Context – The PCs are here to find a guide that will lead them to the Temple of the Nine Gods (Nod to Tomb of Annihilation book)
- Cast of Characters –
- Liveried Servants – There seems to be a limitless number of these servants waiting on the guests of the Quaint Fowl. Faceless, and forgettable.
- Male Halfling Bartender – Dragonmarked of House Ghallanda, came here to open the Quaint Fowl and extend the House’s influence. Think Sascha from Casablanca.
- Human Explorers – There are a handful of these characters about the bar. These are adventurers that have been on a expedition or two but really want to live off the tales of their experiences rather than earn glory and gold through risking their lives.
Hopefully, this is already creating at least a bit of mental imagery. Using the framework, I have a location very different from the first example Bar. It’s not just the theme change from space opera to high fantasy. All that does is provide a mental image as a reference as to what this place probably looks like before the location is really encountered.
One technique I failed to highlight in my last post is using characters from movies, TV, books, etc. to help me play the NPC when the PCs interact with them. In my experience, it’s worth a page of notes! I can quickly call on that inspiring character to give an interesting portrayal of an NPC, bringing more life to the location in the process. I can throw in another specific NPC if I need to as a contact or hook for the story.
Moving on to the next theme: Western. Westerns can be challenging to play and GM as they are the direct opposite of High Fantasy. In High Fantasy, the stakes are, well, high. Often the entire world hangs in the balance if not the very cosmos. The story sweeps across the world and entangles the far-flung corners of civilization into the conflict. Westerns flip this; stakes are low often personal, reaching no farther than the current township or ranch involved. There are few places that the trope of a Bar isn’t more of a cornerstone of the plot than the Western. In my opinion, this is the most powerful example of the core element framework:
- Time – Old West, never exactly specified
- Place – Copper Pass, Wyoming a small frontier town
- Mood – Isolation, Greed, Might Makes Right
- Context – The PCs arrive in the small township of Copper Ridge tracking a bounty from Texas. The locals don’t take too kindly to strangers particularly bounty hunters.
- Cast of Characters –
- Corrupt Sheriff – The Sheriff isn’t just paid by the township, he’s on the bankroll of the local rancher who runs the town. What the boss says, is the law in Copper Pass.
- Failed Miners – A group of miners who came to strike it rich in copper are here trying to drown their sorrows in booze and women.
- Local Ranch Hands – Like the Sheriff, they work for the local rancher that runs the town. They make sure outsiders stay for only a piece of time. One way or the other.
Two themes down and the framework is still giving me interesting locations with minimal effort. Note, I’ve now made 3 bars/taverns that are individually distinct with only using using the core element framework. Also, it has given clear mental imagery for further description if I want, or enough detail to improvise mid session.
Now, let me move to the final location. : near-future cyberpunk setting. Cyberpunk, like Western themes, typically have low stakes and the characters are clinging to the edges of society. Cyberpunk has a more desperate mood over all, where lives are expendable to the megacorps while they vie for supremacy. I will use the Android setting for Genesys as the setting, as again it is the setting I am most familiar with:
- Time – Near- Future (The year is wisely left ambiguous as to how far/near this is)
- Place – Abundant Harvest Wine Bar, Vineland, La Costa District, San Angeles, Ecuador
- Mood – Desperation, Technology Everywhere, Paranoia
- Context – The PCs are here to collect the genome of an authentic Italian wine grape root that hasn’t been genetically modified.
- Cast of Characters –
- Mr. Branson – The characters’ contact that has stolen the genome and is trying to complete the deal that will allow him to leave his wage-slave position at the VinoTech agricorp that he is stuck at.
- Bioroid Bouncer – This artificial being stands at the entrance to the bar. It is nicely dressed to reflect the clientele’s tastes. It watches and scans for trouble.
- Bioroid Servers – Like the bouncers, these artificial beings move about the bar bringing guests their orders. Their identical faces makes it disconcerting when they move fluidly about the establishment.
- Business people – The Abundant Harvest is clearly a haven for deals and business meetings. The omnipresent cameras and security makes it ideal for conducting business securely but without corp oversight.
The addition of the bioroids NPCs was a decision I made to bring technology into this setting. Most people have a mental image of a wine bar and I didn’t want to subvert that completely in an effort to “chrome” the bar . However, I wanted to make sure that the PCs were immersed in a completely wired world. These are small details that I can develop quickly within the core element framework without spending a ton of time describing it in minute detail.
I hope that this exercise shows how outlining a few, key points within the core element framework can create a location that has a life and character of its own. I also hope that I was able to demonstrate the versatility of using a single location type, a bar, can be described very differently based on these tools.
So now what? I have breathed some life into the random locations but how does this go further to make a scene work in a game session? Next time, I will work in environmental effects to give the players and their characters something to use in game. Until next time!
Trevor Pope
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