Thursday, April 28, 2011

Twenty Questions

Jeff has a great post about 20 questions you should be able to answer about your game world.  His point is that these are the things that your players care about, not the eras of history you have written up in a binder somewhere.

Here are some generic answers for the Deepest Sea:
1.What is the deal with my cleric's religion? - assuming human, you worship the Shepard, a singular god who sent you over the plains to the known world. Has priests, monks, bishops, all that jazz.
2.Where can we go to buy standard equipment? - towns have standard equipment
3.Where can we go to get platemail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended? - Plate does not exist, otherwise, from an armor smith in a larger town.
4.Who is the mightiest wizard in the land? - Martletock, an elf. He's quite mad you know.
5.Who is the greatest warrior in the land? - of all time? Remoos, long since dead.
6.Who is the richest person in the land? - The Emperor.
7.Where can we go to get some magical healing? - Larger church in a town, from random hermits who can heal.
8.Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath? - Larger towns have churches with significantly high leveled clerics. Question is, would they want to heal you?
9.Is there a magic guild my MU belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells? - not as such.  There are secret societies of magic users, and colleges, but access to spells is closely guarded, particularly beyond the first two levels.
10.Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC? - large towns or cities.  These guys are not hanging around cow towns.
11.Where can I hire mercenaries? - pretty much every town will have some muscle that can be hired, either knights who need cash, or bravos/toughs.
12.Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law? - swords are illegal in most towns, particularly if you are not a Noble.  magic is restricted by social custom (meaning they might hang you).
13.Which way to the nearest tavern? - nearest village has a pub.
14.What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous? - depends on the locale, but most areas have sufficiently scary monsters living in the mountains, and failing that, there are always sub-humanoids to slay.
15.Are there any wars brewing I could go fight? - Chénez and Gyor do not get along all that well, and local barons are always cattle raiding one another.
16.How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes? - in the City.  You are most likely going to end up dead though.
17.Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight? - if I told you, they would not be all that secret, would they?  The Empire is reputed to be rife with such things, and you know how those Laténs go for societies and factions.
18.What is there to eat around here? - Mostly simple things like salted mutton and rough bread, the City has the really good stuff like larks' tongue paté.
19.Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for? - The titans left many treasures in their towers and mines, the problem is that people might want to burn you for going there.
20.Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with Type H treasure? - look in the high mountains.

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