I’m not very good at making grim portents, even when I have a good setting going and good actors for the fronts. I saw this setting on Tribality today, thought it looked cool. So, DW Tavern, how would y’all turn this setting into fronts?
http://tribality.com/2015/01/14/system-agnostic-the-home-of-the-one-hundred-saved-shelter-dungeon/
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It’s funny you should mention this… I’ve been doing a lot of prep work using imagery recent. I’m not sure I’d use it as a front, but as a lead in to one hell of a starter session…
What evocative name is this place called by? Who is rumored to be here? What’s brought you here? What do you have to do? What happens if you don’t? What’s the greatest threat you anticipate as you explore more deeply? What do the statues symbolize? The image above the doorway is different — what do you think it means? What’s been challenging about just getting here? Who didn’t live up to your expectations during the journey?
Interesting new interpretation of “System Agnostic”
That is a cool little bit of setting. My knee-jerk reaction though is that this would be tough to turn it into a Front as it is a closed eco-system. Good Fronts irrevocably alter the world if left unchecked.
Except for the plot hook where some of the inhabitants wander outside, if left alone, nothing will happen. The shriveled inhabitants will just continue their cycle of murder. That doesn’t make for the best Front.
Eh, fronts and dooms can be local, too. See “Red Nails”
(the Conan story) for a great example of “adventurers stumble into isolated ruined civilizations at the brink of their destruction.”
But I think Brennan OBrien’s got the right idea: use this as an adventure starter (impressions, questions, some creatures, some names, some moves) and get the PCs in there. Then figure out the fronts based on what happens and what you learn in the first session.
You’re absolutely right Jeremy Strandberg; Fronts can indeed be local. Me saying that good Fronts irrevocably altered the world wasn’t a comment on the scale of the Front.
I too was thinking of the Conan story Red Nails while reading that little bit of setting. I think that’d make a poor Front too, as again, everything is internal. If Conan and Valeria hadn’t stumbled across that city, what would have happened? The inhabitants would have continued their feud and wiped each other out. The outside world would have not been affected in an meaningful way.
The outside world might not have been affected, but “everyone in the city has murdered each other” sounds like “irrevocably altered” to me.
I think this is a “does a tree falling in the woods make a noise if no one’s around to hear it” issue. The inhabitants of an isolated city no one knows about killing each other off does change the world. But if no one knew about the city to begin with, nothing has visibly changed. That’s what I’m trying to say here.
Sure, no disagreement. I wouldn’t write up a front for a place like this unless my players were already there or explicitly said “we want to go here to do X.”
But once they were involved, I’d write up fronts, etc. And I think they could be plenty compelling, even if their effects never boiled beyond the ruins.
That’s a good microfront setup: when you stumble on misterious ruins during your travel, you can decide to activate this front.
Since it’s self contained, the players have the choice whether to investigate the ruins or not without direct campaign consequences. Or it could be a master move for perilous journey.
Paride Papadia: YES.
I would also add a suitable and exciting episode name for the microfront.
I have a slightly different opinion of Fronts. As I understand it, Fronts are representations/forebodings of shit that will happen in your game world if the PCs do nothing. So, what will happen with/around the Home if no PCs ever get involved? There are many powerful insane people inside; surely at least a few have ambitions, and possibly factions backing them up. If the seal has broken and the Saved are coming out, then there’s a dynamic of what will happen between the first explorers out and the inhabitants of the region. Also, as you say, the rings alone are somewhat fabulous treasure. Their drawbacks may be too horrifying for PCs to use voluntarily, but they’re certainly not too horrifying for the next wannabe Doom Lord to inflict on his elite company of stormtroopers. Can the PCs let that guy take over the Home and all it contains? (Maybe they can! Or maybe if they pass the adventure by now, you can bring it back later with the Doom Lord already in charge of half the dungeon and threatening to escalate.)
Once you know who your factions are, then write down a few bullet points of what happens if they get what they want. Those are your grim portents. These can (and should) be incompatible with each other, because you’re going to play to find out what happens. If your own notes are contradictory, you can’t railroad the players to “your” outcome. And having factions with conflicting goals means the PCs have the opportunity to get involved and swing the balance.
colin roald I don’t disagree with any of that, assuming the seal has been breached or that there’s some other faction with eyes and designs on the Home.
My main point is that there’s nothing wrong with a front that’s mostly self-contained. I wouldn’t bother writing one up unless the PCs showed interest or got involved.
Jeremy Strandberg, for me, I wouldn’t even offer it as a hook unless I know at least one faction with a few grim portents. It’s a check to make sure I don’t dick around making a fancy map that doesn’t contain any conflict or action. Know who is there (roughly) and what they want (roughly) before doing anything else.
The Home as it stands is an awesome idea, but it’s not playable yet because it contains no specific characters who want specific things.
I can totally picture myself offering this (or something like it) as a hook, then when the PCs express interest in checking it out I start figuring out who the factions are and what they’re up to.
Alternately, at the start of a campaign, I’d take something like this concept and make a Dungeon Starter out of it. Add some names, some impressions, some questions for why the PCs are there and what they’ve heard and what they’re hoping to find. Maybe some random tables for personality & motivations of the inhabitants. Play a session and see what’s up, and then write fronts.
So, yeah, I agree that there’s not enough there right now to make a front. Agree 100%. My main point all along is that the front, once you generate it, can totally be local and still be really good.
Jeremy Strandberg, I think we are mostly in vociferous agreement. A slight difference in style, perhaps, in that I’m old-school enough not to be comfortable as DM sitting down to the table with only a dungeon starter. I prefer figuring out a bit more actual scenario (characters & conflict) when I have time to think about it rather than under the gun at the table.