Thinking about Games by J.A. Dettman

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September 17, 2022

Making the world larger without doing too much Prep

Focusing on one thing is hard for me, even when I really want to work on something. A writer whose blog I used to read (I would link but I don’t remember where is was anymore) once wrote that most people don’t have motivation to do the thing they want to do or, at least, they don’t have the motivation first. First, they sit down and start the work then the motivation hooks them. Thus it is with most of what I work on.

Recently, I’ve been working out the second phase of our 13th Age game. The first phase was levels one through four and focused mainly on the situation under the mountain where the dwarves live. As we reached toward fourth level, the game expanded into the outside world.

Now, the outside world has become the primary concern. The King in Green and the Raven Queen have juked up the world and maybe our heroes can help do something about that.

The characters (players?) have decided that they want to tackle the Raven Queen first, in large part because Glarna, the communist paladin, had developed a history with the Raven Queen and is ready to bust heads. Cool.

So I need to chart some points of interest that may help our heroes figure out how to defeat, or at least, banish the Raven Queen. Simultaneously, I don’t want to spend a huge amount of prep building out parts of the world that the characters will never see. We’re deep into the railroad vs open world conundrum now.

And that’s what I’m thinking and working on today.

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