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 Powerfull 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 captian/explorerer
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 primatives and others around
Melinar vs Movia
Oslo decaying loosing 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 seperate 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 gladitorial game)
War (miniratures 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 ====
Ka’im no holds barred wresting with leather fists for damage
Ka’im bones using goats ankles
- ==== 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!”