Shared World

The Wednesday night group of +Ken H, +Chris C. and myself are finally getting around to doing our experiment of round robin GMing.  Chris finished a three session adventure that I wrote about in previous posts.  Ken is taking up the reins next.  While we agreed to do the round robin we really haven't setup any rules inparticular.  Other than deciding to use Pits & Perils for the system to use.

Here's my strategy on how to use the imagination of my fellow players to my advantage:

Chris generated a handful of colorful characters that live within a small village of Inwood.  What we know about Inwood is they are fairly friendly, but are quick to judge.  Their judgement of a young boy caused him to flee into the forest and shortly after he was killed by wolves.  This may not have been the first time these villagers have banished someone falsely.  Could be used for future fodder.

Chris also mentioned a Cult of Lycean (I am probably spelling that wrong).  He did not go into detail, but he created a symbol for it and it played a critical role in the adventure.  A wolf cult!!!  Shit yeah that is something I can run with.

A few things Chris mentioned was a larger settlement, Raventown, to the east.  While I won't presume anything about the town I can use the location to tie in other NPCs. While using a shared world I want to create a cohesiveness within my adventures. And using locations that Ken and Chris create will do a lot in that area.

Abandon abbey in the hills.  Loved that setting.  That's where we hunted the wolves during the second session.  And within that abbey was a saint, whose name I cannot remember.  So this is a twofer.  This makes me think, why is there an abandon abbey?  What happened?  Lack of funds?  Killed?   The saint lost favor with the church?  No clue.  But this is area I can mine for ideas and add to our campaign's religious background.  I've already seen Ken's map and he's using a saint something or other, so I think the religions of our world are going to be some psuedo-Christianity with a heavy sprinkling of pegan gods.  Still, religious oriented adventures are some of my favorites.

The lack of any guards or patrols or noble presence...a loosely ruled region?  There were no Sir Buttercups being bossy anywhere.  While Chris is not going to detail every little detail, I tried to pay attention to the details he thought were important to include, but also the details he decided not to include, that lacked importance.  Maybe the kingdom is struggling?  At war?  Maybe the local nobility only interferes if it doesn't get its taxes?  This is a blank slate that can be expanded on later.

Chris used only a gold piece system.  I'm cool with that.  Keeps things simple.  I like to play with currency sometimes, like different eras of coin and values, but in this case I'll probably stay away from that element.  I think our primary goal for this game is keeping things as simple as possible.  Despite what this post may seem like.

And knowing Ken's pssion for real world history, he loves to infuse that into his games and has done a masterful job in the past.  I'm sure I will have a ton of material to chose from once Ken's sessions are done and it becomes my turn.