Top Seven Lists

From http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issue127.html#1

Top 7 Religions

  • Portfolio: (i.e. Weather, Death, Magic)

    • Alignment:

    • Page#:

    • Goals:

    • Recent Actions:

  • Kjoran demons

    • Fist’s King of gods

    • Pelos

    • The three

    • The nine

    • The many others

    • Secret the priests those who dwell below

Top 7 Kingdoms and countries

  • Name:

    • Population/Races:

    • Major Traits: (i.e. what makes the nation different?)

    • Government:

    • Beliefs/Religions:

    • Recent Actions/Conflicts:

  • The Pelos Empire

    • The Pelos Republic

    • Fist & Nomamds

    • Kjore

    • Darsis & Wildlands

    • Sunesh

    • Dwarves of below

    • Sun Empire (snakes)

Top 7 Power Groups

Not all political and social influences are determined through the gods or countries. So, I wanted to list the most important cults, societies, military orders, cultures, sub- cultures, secret organizations, and other significant power groups who could be plotting in the game world.

  • Name(s):

    • Membership:

    • Purpose/Goals:

    • Affiliations:

    • Recent Actions:

  • The Priests

    • 4 who wander (child, knight, brain, monk)

    • Pelos Gnomes

    • Darsis Merchantile Guild -

Top 7 Powerful People

  • Kings, Queens, rulers

    • Great mages

    • High priests

    • Famous adventurers

    • Powerful nobles

    • Wealthy merchants

    • Major villains

    • Real name:

    • Aliases:

    • Core game stats: (i.e. class and level)

    • Alignment/Morality/Ethics:

    • Key powers:

    • Personality:

    • Goals:

    • Current plots:

    • Allies:

    • Enemies:

  • Melinar the Wizard

    • Monrovia skull mtn chicka

    • Prince of Oslo

    • Pelos captain/explorer

    • High Priestess of Kjore

    • Frontag (fear the day) Dragon

Top 7 Conflicts

For each conflict, I outlined the following:

  • Title:

    • Participants:

    • Description/Overview:

    • Key individuals involved:

    • Key location(s):

    • Core time line: (i.e. just the key past, present, future events)

  • Kjore vs Pelos (everyone really)

    • S Pelos vs N Pelos

    • Fist vs primitives and others around

    • Melinar vs Movia

    • Oslo decaying losing status power

    • Conflicts between Kjore Priestesses

Top 7 Recent Events

Now we’re starting to pull things together. Scanning the entries from my world book, and looking at what I wrote in the recent conflict entries in the various Top 7 lists I made, I had many recent events to choose from.

This was a nice bonus, because I often find recent events a little tricky to come up with on-the-fly. Plus, all the events, including the book ones, had a solid rationale behind them, and that’s a great GM feeling.

I plan on using the events Top 7 list for a variety of purposes:

  • Roleplaying (i.e. small talk)

    • Generating rumours and gossip (i.e. clues)

    • Plot hooks

    • Story seeds

    • Background flavour

    • Campaign realism

While I had many to choose from, I just focused on 7 to keep things manageable. From an NPC’s perspective, most people only chat about the weather and 2-3 current news items important to them anyway, so I didn’t need a mile-long list.

For each event, I recorded the following:

  • Title:

    • Who:

    • What:

    • Where:

    • When:

    • Why:

    • How:

    • Who cares about it:

Top 7 Standard Opponents

If every encounter involves a completely different monster, foe, or opponent, the world soon feels like a zoo. So, I wanted to establish some common opponents for my PCs so that they could develop some:

  • Rivalries

    • Knowledge

    • Tactics

    • Campaign information

This list was pretty quick to make. I skimmed the book looking for new monsters, races, and character classes (to initially surprise the characters and give them some mysterious opponents to learn about). Then I turned to my Top 7 Conflicts, Power Groups, and Movers & Shakers lists to fill out the remaining spots.

I’m actually contemplating making three separate lists:

  • Urban

    • Rural

    • Dungeon/Esoteric

But for now, I mixed all the categories together, with most of the foes being in the city the PCs are currently exploring.

Pelos

Top 7 arms/armors

  • Breast Plate

    • Crested Helmet

    • Leather, Banded, Scale

    • Crossbow

    • Broadsword (fwd curve) Gladius

    • Javelin / Lt Lance

    • Longspears(pikes)

Top 7 herbs

-
-
-
-
-
-
-

Top 7 games

  • Fates (dice game)

    • wrestling, nude

    • foot races, speed and distance

    • Arcanis (magic gladiatorial game)

    • War (miniatures war game)

    • 20 questions -

Top 7 Movers and shakers (Regional)

  • Agents

    • Fences

    • Informants

    • Local politicians, nobles, community leaders

    • Leaders of underground organizations

    • Merchants and wealthy people

    • Consultants, advisors, sages - - - - - - -

Top 7 Power Groups (Regional)

  • Tricademies

    • Gnomes

    • Freaky elves

    • Paidia’s

    • Of the Three

    • Commercial Guilds

    • Families of power

Top 7 Interesting Places

Next, I listed the most interesting places in the local campaign area for:

  • Adventures

    • Encounters

    • Conversation

    • Background events

    • The Whirl

    • Lost Isle

    • Melinar’s Tower

    • Capitals of - - -

I drew upon my pool of conflicts and my source materials to create this list. For each place, I described:

  • Name:

    • Location:

    • Importance:

    • Interesting feature(s): - - - - - - -

Top 7 Praises And Curses

I listed 4 curses and 3 praises, in order of severity, and I based them primarily on the world’s religions and villains. For example, the god of death always makes for a good curse: “May Osiris take your bones!”

-
-
-
-
-
-
-

Darsi & Wildlands

Top 7 arms/armors

-
-
-
-
-
-
-

Top 7 herbs

-
-
-
-
-
-
-

Top 7 games

-
-
-
-
-
-
-

Top 7 Movers and shakers (Regional)

  • Agents

    • Fences

    • Informants

    • Local politicians, nobles, community leaders

    • Leaders of underground organizations

    • Merchants and wealthy people

    • Consultants, advisors, sages - - - - - - -

Top 7 Power Groups (Regional)

-
-
-
-
-
-
-

Top 7 Interesting Places

Next, I listed the most interesting places in the local campaign area for:

  • Adventures

    • Encounters

    • Conversation

    • Background events

I drew upon my pool of conflicts and my source materials to create this list. For each place, I described:

  • Name:

    • Location:

    • Importance:

    • Interesting feature(s): - - - - - - -

Top 7 Praises And Curses

I listed 4 curses and 3 praises, in order of severity, and I based them primarily on the world’s religions and villains. For example, the god of death always makes for a good curse: “May Osiris take your bones!”

-
-
-
-
-
-
-

Fist & Nomads

Top 7 arms/armors

-
-
-
-
-
-
-

Top 7 herbs

-
-
-
-
-
-
-

Top 7 games

-
-
-
-
-
-
-

Top 7 Movers and shakers (Regional)

  • Agents

    • Fences

    • Informants

    • Local politicians, nobles, community leaders

    • Leaders of underground organizations

    • Merchants and wealthy people

    • Consultants, advisors, sages - - - - - - -

Top 7 Power Groups (Regional)

-
-
-
-
-
-
-

Top 7 Interesting Places

Next, I listed the most interesting places in the local campaign area for:

  • Adventures

    • Encounters

    • Conversation

    • Background events

    • Great Sandy

    • dry river / dead forest

    • Skull Mtn

I drew upon my pool of conflicts and my source materials to create this list. For each place, I described:

  • Name:

    • Location:

    • Importance:

    • Interesting feature(s): - - - - - - -

Top 7 Praises And Curses

I listed 4 curses and 3 praises, in order of severity, and I based them primarily on the world’s religions and villains. For example, the god of death always makes for a good curse: “May Osiris take your bones!”

-
-
-
-
-
-
-

Southern Continent

Top 7 arms/armors

  • Sunesh Khopesh

    • Sunesh Obsidian Flail

    • Sunesh square/round egyptian shield

    • Sun Kingdom green metal shields, armor, weapons(kama)

    • Ka’im hide, crude weapons

    • Sandmen Psionic Bola -

Top 7 herbs

  • Ash Worm liver

    • Caffar (from Caffar nut, Ka’im brew into sweat smelling beverage often mixed with goat’s milk

    • Blackroot Ka’im poison

    • Jaffray cactus flower

    • Nightcall, small flowering root, nightvision

    • Dragon dung - ground mineral

    • Jungle Creeper Juice

Top 7 games

Top 7 Movers and shakers (Regional)

  • Agents

    • Fences

    • Informants

    • Local politicians, nobles, community leaders

    • Leaders of underground organizations

    • Merchants and wealthy people

    • Consultants, advisors, sages - - - - - - -

Top 7 Power Groups (Regional)

-
-
-
-
-
-
-

Top 7 Interesting Places

Next, I listed the most interesting places in the local campaign area for:

  • Adventures

    • Encounters

    • Conversation

    • Background events

I drew upon my pool of conflicts and my source materials to create this list. For each place, I described:

  • Name:

    • Location:

    • Importance:

    • Interesting feature(s): - - - - - - -

Top 7 Praises And Curses

I listed 4 curses and 3 praises, in order of severity, and I based them primarily on the world’s religions and villains. For example, the god of death always makes for a good curse: “May Osiris take your bones!”

-
-
-
-
-
-
-