Okay, so I was recently turned on to a minis wargame called No Quarter (http://www.wargamesunlimited.net/noquarter/index.html), which looks pretty cool. It's free (apparently Open Source), and it has mechanics for designing your own units, making it compatible with literally any fantasy miniature figurine out there; there's a sci-fi version, as well as a ship-based sci-fi game in the works.
All in all, I'm thinking this looks pretty cool. So what's the catch? It's setting-less. Well, to be fair, it has the default setting of Genayria. near as I can tell, the extent of the design for Genayria is... a name. That's it. This seems to lead to a setting that's even less coherent and/or consistent then Living Greyhawk multiplied by Faerun. Being the world-builder that I am, this is likely to make my eye start twitching as I start to babble a chant of the word "but...", and as a member of the CBG, I probably should try to take precautions against this very plausible scenario.
So naturally, I'm thinking of creating a setting for this game. I don't have much in mind yet, but this being a wargame, I think I might already have some parameters. Specifically, I want multiple warring factions, and I want to do away with absolute morality. These allow players options for play, and help make each option equally desirable, respectively.
Without absolute morality, the next best source of conflict for the factions seems to be ideologies. So far, I've considered three possible factions: an institution-based faction (for all of the "upstanding humanoid citizen" characters), a sorcery-based faction (for humanoid characters that are more unorthodox; "sorcery" in this sense would probably be viewed closer to the archetypal "evil wizard" then to the standard D&D Sorceror), and a nature-based faction (for all the so-called "monstrous" humanoids, as well as individuals that explicitly shun the civilization development of the other factions).
Other then this, I have no idea where to go to next. As always, any response is welcome, and that goes double for responses that help me develop this further.
Well, that's the POINT of NQ, was to give you mechanics with no setting to stifle your creativity. You're supposed to invent your own setting; that way it can be different between each gaming group.
I told you that :p
Also, their website has a few factions to use as a reference point.
M.
Well for a starting point for the institution, maybe take the Harpers of FR lore and bring them into the shades of gray.
Sorcery wise, maybe take some influence from WoD with Mages and Vampires?
Nature based, I'm not too sure here. Drawing from WoD we have Werewolves, a cool "natural" monster is the Ochu.
From what I've seen with WoD (mostly Vampire), it doesn't seem to be the right sort of moral ambiguity I'm going for. Vampires, and possibly werewolves and other WoD creatures are rarely-- if ever-- presented as anything but monsters. They just happen to have an existential fight against that part of them. In this setting, I think I want the struggle to be more ideological then existential.
I do want this to be compatible with standard fantasy, so that there's a place for a good number of fantasy minis. Taking some inspiration from FR actually doesn't sound like too bad of an idea, really. Actually, now that I think about it, I am sort of closing the gap a bit between the Harpers and the Red Wizards, aren't I? Maybe I should make a mental note to add a distinguishing feature or two to the factions...
Fair enough but vampires in general, could they be fit in somewhere? Everyone likes vampires.
Generally in war-games you should (IMO) have armies that handle these kinds of tactics/kinds of armies
-Tons and Tons and Tons of units (golbins/skaven)
-Lots of weak fodder units with some big really-strong units (Vamps in warhammer)
-Lots of high cost but powerful units (chaos/elves in warhammer)
-Magic/Melee/Ranged centric
-Magic/Melee, Magic/Ranged, Ranged/Melee hybrid armies.
Quote from: LlumFair enough but vampires in general, could they be fit in somewhere? Everyone likes vampires.
Generally in war-games you should (IMO) have armies that handle these kinds of tactics/kinds of armies
-Tons and Tons and Tons of units (golbins/skaven)
-Lots of weak fodder units with some big really-strong units (Vamps in warhammer)
-Lots of high cost but powerful units (chaos/elves in warhammer)
-Magic/Melee/Ranged centric
-Magic/Melee, Magic/Ranged, Ranged/Melee hybrid armies.
I fully agree.
What's the difference between a Fighter and a Rogue? The Fighter has a large number of hit points and wears heavy armor but only hits for moderate damage. Meanwhile, the Rogue has fewer hit points and worse armor but deals massive situational damage. Likewise, different armies in Wargames should have different strengths and weaknesses to help differentiate them on the field and help the game, as a whole, appeal to more people.
Okay, then how about this:
All factions will have both large and small (in terms of power) units, however the institution faction will have the highest amount of smaller units (lead by the ruling elite), and the sorcery faction will have the highest concentration of larger units (with a few magically manipulated minions). The nature faction will be much more mixed.
I'm not sure yet how I'll have the factions deal with various tactics like that; that might be something that's a bit more of a game-to-game basis, or I might establish stuff like that inside-out (game-to-game basis being worked into canon).
one thing I'm thinking about including is some sort of major or semi-major stealth-based sub-faction for each of the factions. Maybe the institution could have some sort of assassin's guild, maybe the nature faction has a bunch of scouts, that sort of thing. This whole setting idea is still fairly new, and it's not really well thought out yet. Hopefully more feedback will help me develop this further.
Alright, so you want all three factions to be able to emulate any style of play? That is fine, so like you mentioend in mIRC I think breaking each faction into sub-factions will help.
Now here you could add more rules depending on how you want to limit soldier selection. Like lets say your "General" unit determines what sub-factions you have access too, so an Assassin "General" would let you use Assassin units, some other kinds but not "Paladin" sub-faction units, something akin to this.
Anyway, this will mean that your factions should be pretty large (multiple sub-factions) just to have enough of every kind of unit.
So for "heavy" "melee" units maybe the institution could have elite knights, the sorcery faction could have "magically mutated horrors" maybe some kind golem? The nature faction (since it involves monstrous-humanoids) could maybe have Ogres, Treants/Ents, things like that?
I thinkt he inside-out world building could be pretty cool way to handle history after a arbitrary point :D
Just design each faction with a few different kinds of units and allow mix and match.
For No Limits (the sci fi version), my faction had both heavily equipped main line infantry and lightly equipped light infantry.
My limited NQ army was supposed to have rank and file troops (spears and pikes) as well as skirmisher troops (sword and buckler men).
M.
Quote from: LlumAlright, so you want all three factions to be able to emulate any style of play? That is fine, so like you mentioend in mIRC I think breaking each faction into sub-factions will help.
I think this probably might be the best way to go. For those who weren't in IRC when I mentioned this idea, the examples I gave for possible sub-factions were:
Institutionassassin faction
"power suit" (mage tech?) faction
Naturescout faction
archer faction
I probably could come up with a few more, too, but that's it for now. I sense the ball starting to roll on this project, though.
QuoteNow here you could add more rules depending on how you want to limit soldier selection. Like lets say your "General" unit determines what sub-factions you have access too, so an Assassin "General" would let you use Assassin units, some other kinds but not "Paladin" sub-faction units, something akin to this.
Anyway, this will mean that your factions should be pretty large (multiple sub-factions) just to have enough of every kind of unit.[/quote]So for "heavy" "melee" units maybe the institution could have elite knights,[/quote]the sorcery faction could have "magically mutated horrors" maybe some kind golem?[/quote]The nature faction (since it involves monstrous-humanoids) could maybe have Ogres, Treants/Ents, things like that?[/quote]I think the inside-out world building could be pretty cool way to handle history after a arbitrary point :D
QuoteI think, even if nothing else, it's great as an idea generator. It might be a bit more fun with a wargame, since the memorable historical battles, in one sense, actually did happen.
This being me, I'd probably create lots of nation-factions, but that's just because I'm annoying and keep trying to replicate the real world. :P
I don't have all that much to add to this conversation that hasn't already been said, but if we're going with a stealthy mini-faction for each, witch hunters (for the institution-based faction) might work. It depends on the feel you're going for with the institution - do you want it to be more Warhammer-y, 'suffer not the witch to live' etcetera etcetera, or more egalitarian. For the nature faction, you could have those people of other races (i.e. humans) you said denied the progress of their own peoples and joined the beastmen. The magical faction could have shadow creatures or something like that? Perhaps some kind of demon, although on the other hand, if you ARE using demons, you might want to reserve them for heavier troops.
I don't think I quite want it "suffer not the witch", but I don't want it quite egalitarian, either. I still want at least some sense of a ruling elite. There's definitely a tone of social conformism, though.
I've considered having rebellious "regular" humanoids joining the nature faction, and I think elves would probably be most likely to do this, as a general rule. Although I normally don't care for overly broad racial generalizations, I think they might fit a bit here; certain races might have started with some affinity to a certain ideology, and over generations, it likely became a part of the racial culture.
Demons might be a nice heavy troop for the sorcery faction....
The Institution could have an Amazon sub-faction, hm?
A map, and a globe to go with it. Keep in mind, I wasn't paying any attention to geography or whatnot when I created these, just some simple scripts.
(//../../e107_files/public/1248091872_93_FT66324_untitled_.jpg) (//../../e107_files/public/1248091872_93_FT66324_untitled.jpg)
And the globe.
(//../../e107_files/public/1248091926_93_FT66324_wargameworld.gif)
Edit- I'm probably going to work out those deserts that are connecting the landmasses, but this should do for now.