A Happy Easter Circle

Dear heroes,

First, a very happy easter to everyone. I hope you're feeling good resurrection (or at least reanimation) vibes.

It's a bit of an art and creative process post today instead of the Purple Lands because ... well, the Golden Age is taking me on a bit of a detour in the way it wants to be written and I suspect you might find the detour interesting.

Writing and Using a Region

By now, if you've seen some of the previous regions (Orange, Red, Blue), you'll have an idea of how they're structured:

• a spread with a big picture and the map and an intro text

• a spread (or two) of travel options, weather, misfortunes, and encounters

• a shopping spread with local equipment and souvenir and accommodation options

• a general overview of life and factions, with one hook for each faction

• a deep dive into a central city or location

• a few other, more remote locations

I've attached the Blue Land Complete teaser - it compiles all the previous stuff, plus a few new pieces. Now, since I'm a bit more verbose than I should be, I guess each region runs to around 20 pages. Oh well. Fine.

My idea behind writing the regions in this way is that the referee can use the first spread to get by on vibes alone, then, layer in additional detail as required the deeper the players decide to delve. Does the weather play a factor? Are they traveling around? Are they getting involved in local politics? Are NPCs or strange ruins now a factor?

It works a little bit like a magazine or travel guide. The headlines and pictures give enough to make a first impression. Then a line to give more ideas. Then a paragraph of general stuff. Etc. Etc.

Horrors D'Oeuvre and the Meat

So, the regions are the meat of the Golden Age. Great. And the overarching idea I'm writing it with is a travel guide for ... travelers / tourists / science fantasy tintin-style characters. I'd figured out this "theme" for the book years ago, but I struggled to figure out how to open and I felt I needed the opening lined up before I built out more lands.

Then it struck me - pull off a UVG, start with the players' characters getting the call to to adventure. Open the book with the horror d'oeuvre, so to speak.

Dive into loose world-building, setting up contacts, the hook ... all before we actually need to know our characters. After all, in most games or books or movies, we start getting to know the characters over time - we don't need to know up front who or what they are.

After we have that first scene, "the call to adventure", established and played out, we dive straight into the voyage itself - also highlighting the difference from UVG (and taking a leaf from Vaesen, I suppose).

Here we meet the characters as they're traveling. We learn a little about who or what they are. Obviously, some players might decide to start with higher level characters, and that's fine ... but for a cold open to a series of adventures, this works fine.

And then ... we run into the first encounter ... either on their way or when they arrive at their destination ...

Interruption - Tripping

And here I had to jump from writing the opening to finally nailing down the travel mechanic to my satisfaction. I want travel to offer some simple mechanical benefits while also serving as a place characters can invest goldcash.

So, from writing up the Purple Land I had to skip to writing up the opening, and from there I had to skip to writing up the Tripping system.

Previously I had this:

Now, this is serviceable, but ... eh. The speed system is a bit tacked on, really. Saving days per week ties into UVG, but here for a tintin-style trip, it's really clunky. The cost, including extras for baggage is ... again, clunky. A whole line for baggage? Really? And finally, the risk mechanic is ... well ... ok. Wow. A random d100 roll with different things going wrong with every kind of conveyance, huh?

I didn't like it, which is why I'd left it stranded for a few months.

I toyed with revising it using a modifier system based on the fibonacci sequence, where players would spend cash on a type of travel: fast, comfortable, and/or safe ... the PC could then use the travel bonus instead of their skill bonus or in addition or ...

Honestly, I wasted more time making the triangle than I would have liked, and in the end the system still kind of stank.

But I needed it in a serviceable state for the opening, because after introducing our characters in the second spread, I want to introduce the travel system, so it ... uh ... kinda has to work before I write up it's simple introduction!

Then, one evening, in a moment of despair, an inspiration daemon alit and axed, "what about the hero dice?"

Hero Dice and Travel Dice

So, SDM uses HD (hero dice) as a kind of all-purpose benny for the characters. Each character gets HD equal to their level and they replenish at a rate of 1 per session (or every few hours or like inspiration in 5E). Then characters can use them to adjust their rolls or to recover life.

That whole thing about natural rolls is to encourage players to use HD to turn, say, a roll of 17 into a natural 20 and score more criticals.

And, of course, villains could also get villain dice ... but I digress. Travel.

So, I realized I could break the travel triangle into travel dice.

In this system, travel dice (TD) function like specialized hero dice. Spending on comfort lets the PCs recover faster, security and insurance, well ... that's easy (the reaction roll implies that they look intimidating to bandits or such), and tempo ... good if in a hurry.

And I broke the triangle into a simple table:

Recall that 1 cash = a day's salary for a median worker in the setting. In the USA this would be around $200 ... though when I first came up with this concept, it was closer to $100 ... uh ... not sure what could explain that change. Inpayshun? Dunno. Dunno.

The travel dice the players start with as a result of the ticket purchased by their contact also mesh very neatly with the fact that 1st level characters have no hero dice, so benefit even more from being able to boost their survivability.

What's left now to wrap all this together neatly is a table of random events, with columns for speed, safety, and comfort ... then to lay it out pretty like and also set up an opening with the PCs arriving at their first destination.

And, of course, outline the end of the first adventure, which ends with the PCs getting an inheritance, a basic bit of real estate that serves as their initial base - and taking control of that will serve as the second adventure.

Then, the third adventure will finally introduce the PCs' town in more detail, conveniently also using the settlement generator in the OGA.

But, before that, we're going to get into that sweet roasted realm of the Purr-Purr. Now that we've got a travel mechanic, I can tie it better into the encounters ... (and then tweak the encounters in the other lands, too).

(Purr-Purr might be temporary)

Till Soon

Thanks for reading so far and see you soon with the ... uh ... next new 10-20 pages!

Oh, and for those who love the world of the UVG but prefer to avoid the patreon or discord, let me mention the 1.2 kilomember facebook group ... yeah, I'm astonished too.

Cheers, Eggs, Bunnies,

—Luka

P.S. - the cover image is the not-yet-totally-finished relief map of the Circle Sea. Yep. The OGA map is going to come in two styles. Physical on one side, political on the other. A testament to the wonderful maps of the Interdimensional Geographical Ancient Aliens Society Magazine of the Third Bronze Idol Age.