The Region Info Packet is available for download. Here’s how to use it.

I was a pretty big advocate of the Dresden Files RPG when the books Your Story and Our World dropped back in 2010. So much about the game just made so much sense, from how the magic system played out to how characters were designed with a backstory that integrated the party. In practice, these subsystems didn’t always work as I envisioned they might, but that was either due to player apathy or maybe just me, as the GM, wanting more out of my game than others at my table. In the long run, he Fate system itself turned out not to be my group’s preferred system, and we moved on to other things.

I managed to port the DFRPG Character Development Sheet to the Star Wars RPG some time ago, but never got around to putting together my favorite campaign prep tool. Evil Hat Games included a set of “city sheets” with Dresden Files, made up of a high-level sheet that detailed a sort of macroscopic view of the city, along with location sheets for fleshing out specific locales, and a faces page for putting some background to the NPCs your players are liable to meet.

This idea seemed genius to me, and so I have stolen it, taken it without regard to consequence, and reshaped it for use with Genesys.

I’m just a bad boy that way.

“But,” you might ask. “How? How do I use this new magic to organize my campaigns?” To that, I answer with a riddle. What’s the difference between a hippo and a Zippo? One’s real heavy, the other is a little lighter. Likewise, I have two ways to answer your question. Let’s start with the lighter of the two.

The Simple Answer

There’s a link to the packet at the end of this post. Grab it. Peruse it. Use it. Bend it to your will. Fill in all the information you can stuff into its sixteen pages. Or not. You may not need that much. But who knows?

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, right?

The Slightly More Complex Answer

If the easy answer didn’t contain the key to unlock the mystery of this PDF, allow me to offer you a much longer explanation, by way of detailing the first page in the packet. Let’s start with the header.

A simple place to begin, wouldn’t you agree? And yet complexities abound! Let’s look at the game I’m currently running for my Friday night group, a fantasy campaign set in the world of Scryr. In a small corner of the world is a nation known colloquially as the Realm. (Colloquialism aside, it’s probably because nobody wants to go around calling it The Sacred Realm of the Nine, and the other option, Larry, seems a bit silly.) The heartbeat of The Realm is the city of Solace, a bustling metropolis by fantasy world standards. The Convocational is the temple district within Solace, the place where people go to learn about the Nine, the ascended founders of the Realm, or to take part in their worship.

To the right of the name there are two lines: Who is in charge? and Who is in control? At first blush, these might seem to be the same – or at least a very similar – question. But lo! What do we have here? Two divergent answers! That’s right, the city of Solace has the same problem natural to all hierarchies of power, in that corruption has made its way into what was once pure. While the Ministry of the Ascendancy – the religious council made up of the heads of the nine temples along with two laypersons from each – is technically in charge, it seems another element is really running the place. Corrupt clergy, in cahoots with criminal types, have taken to fleecing the people to line their own pockets!

Who would’ve thunk? Let’s move on!

Danger, Will Robinson (Maybe)!

Up next are the Greater Themes and Threats affecting the district. The sheet gives you room for three. It’s best not to make them all threats, nor to make them all themes. Mix things up a bit! In our case, we’re going with two themes and a threat.

The Idea of a theme or threat is just a simple statement to define what is going down.

The Status is where it stands right now.

The Faces are some of the people involved with that theme or threat.

Party Time in the City

The Celebration of Lights is a recurring Solace honoring Aluma. Without going into too much detail, Aluma is the goddess of the moon, associated with night, rest, and healing. The status tells us the people are awaiting her arrival. Why? Well, the Celebration of Lights only comes around every fifty years – it’s a year long festival after seven sets of seven years – and Aluma makes an appearance, historically, at every seventh Celebration, or every three hundred and fifty years. That just happens to be right now. Imagine that!

Beyond that, we get into the Faces. These are people of interest, NPCs your players are going to want to meet (or who are going to want to meet the PCs). They’re tied in some close way to the Idea.

Alishki of the Night, for instance, is a Priestess of the Moon, but she isn’t without her flaws. She may be righteous, but she’s also self-righteous, which might not set well with our heroes. There’s also Hazar Un’Tarriv, an envoy from the distant nation of Dun’Hajjir, an old ally of the Realm, who is curious about these foreign gods. (His own society is monotheistic, serving Bel’Hamut, a living dragon and protector of the Hajjiri people.) Taking advantage of the crowds full of religious fervor is Beaka Fink, who might not be as good a cutpurse as she believes herself to be. We round it all out with Rummel Southpaw, a former templar (temple guard) who has his own reasons for wanting to see Aluma.

Oooh, allusions!

Gone in 60 Seconds…

Next up is our threat. Something is amiss in the Convocational, and folks seem to be disappearing. There have been signs of struggle, strange footprints in mud and blood, and other clues, but so far the unknown assailant remains unknown! Not good at all. Maybe the players can help out. Or maybe the story will never go that direction.

(Side note: This isn’t about setting up story, it’s about setting up background. Your game world is a living place, so you should be able to keep track of what’s going on within it even if it doesn’t relate directly to the PCs and their storylines. And who knows when those will intersect, right?)

The actors in this particular drama include Zaithe Vothranzi, a crime boss with something to hide. (Don’t tell my players, but his name might be an anagram for Azthrovizithane, which is either a new male enhancement drug from Pfizer or a name of the more hellish sort.) Narza the Kind is part of a group of vigilante monks looking to put an end to these disappearances. Ansel Ironsword just wants a break. Ghurgorio, a domesticated hobgoblin, is suspected by some of putting the wrong kind of meat in his pies. Shades of Sweeney Todd! And then there’s the witness, Dunthar Nancaster, a former adventurer who lives on the streets of Solace and survives by the generosity of those in the temple district.

How’s the Weather Up There?

As a second theme, we’ll go with something totally background. Much like Kansas, the region around Solace is a bit topsy-turvy when it comes to the weather. Summers can get blisteringly hot, while winters see blizzard conditions with deep snow. Spring and autumn are where the real fun lies. You see, behind the scenes, elemental spirits vie for the control of a convergence of lay lines that happens to lie in under the Convocational in the ruin of an ancient city known as Khazarul. Their constant war causes all sorts of strange meteorological phenomena.

Reluctantly investigating this scenario is Ardune Threefeather, a shaman who has traveled to Solace to determine what is causing the massive storms, wild tornadoes, and wicked droughts plaguing the Realm. The Nock Brothers, self-styled “Lords of Nothing,” have been funding a project digging under the temple district. Maybe they stirred some supernatural hornet’s nest. Rathlem D’Vin assures everyone that nothing is amiss; this is just weather-as-usual. But Lucinzica Borealis, a mage and council member from the Lyceum of Arcane Inquiry, is pretty sure D’Vin is full of more than just himself.

The Status is Not Quo

Now that we have escaped the Land of Themes & Threats, let’s move on to the status quo. This is divided into two segments. The first, What is the Status Quo?, asks just what’s going on in the district or region. In this example, we see the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and those on the underside of society being taken advantage of by corrupt clergy and criminals alike.

When you ask the question, What is going on behind the scenes?, the picture becomes more complete. The magical energies rippling out from the elemental war are causing not only strange weather patterns, but an unrest that comes with knowing a storm is coming. Fortuntely, there are people out there trying to fix the problem – a group of badass vigilante monks who call themselves The Unseen Temple. Will their mystical abilities and martial skills be enough, or will the heroes of the story have to step in and take charge?

What is the Matrix?

Finally, we get to the fun part, the matrix of information and action titled The Current Order.

This info grid is the spinning engine of this entire packet. It keeps you apprised of what everyone knows by asking four questions:

Who wants to maintain the status quo?

Who wants to shake things up?

Who is in the dark?

Who is in the know?

For instance, Zaithe Vothranzi is deeply in the know, but wants to keep things as they are, for his own (probably selfish) reasons. The Nock Brothers, on the other hand, aren’t utterly clueless, but they’re clearly not aware of the greater issues surrounding the temple district. Still, they want to shake things up.

Not all of your NPCs listed in the themes and threats above are going to make it to this matrix, and there will be some people or groups on the grid you did not include in those prior boxes. The Triumvirate, for instance, is the ruling council of triarchs who rule the Realm. While they don’t have a direct hand in either the threats or themes surrounding the Convocational, their decisions affect the entire city – and the entire nation – and so it’s good to keep them looped in.

The Other Fifteen Pages

There are 15 more pages to the packet, but they’re pretty self-explanatory. Two of the pages are for detailing the various locations in the district or region, and the remainder are broken down into pages for Major Players (Nemeses), Heavy Hitters (Rivals), and Lightweights (Minions). Its enough to detail out 18 locations, 9 nemeses, 12 rivals, and 36 minion groups! And if you need more of any one sheet, just print them out. You should be able to figure those ones out with ease. Right?

Of course you can.

I’ve included two copies of the packet, listed below – both a high-resolution printable packet and a low-resolution screen packet (for those who want to use it with their tablets). Enjoy!

Share this: Facebook

Twitter

Google

Reddit

Email



Like this: Like Loading...