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| Oh, the places we'll go |
This post is part of a series of Blogs where I work on my home-ruleset, 'The Sanic Hack.' You may or may not gain better comprehension from reading the other posts in this series.
This post directly follows after both Kludgebuckets and Costumes. You may wish to skim those first to understand where my head was at when writing the initial bluesky thread that then became this post. I love regurgitating my old skeets into blog posts. it is my favorite activity
Howdy, Farmhands!
A major draw of the media I intend to emulate with the Sanic Hack is their fantastical world design. Mario has his Mushroom Kingdom, Klonoa his Phantomile, and Sonic his various Zones on Planet Mobius. Earth. "Sonic's World." They've retconned a lot about Sonic's setting in the past, don't think about it too much. Unlike video games though, Tabletop Roleplaying is not necessarily a visual medium. This leaves a lot of the heavy lifting to the DM to properly describe with words, and as much as this project has been "Gadda Complicates An Odd-like", I do still want there to be simple solutions to the problems I'm inventing. How do I make the act of preparing a wacky video-game level setting for players to imagine their blorbos running around in easy for the DM? How do I keep them from feeling rote, without needing to write a full on Gazette for hyper-specific examples? OSR is no stranger to Gonzo settings, but there's a difference in mouthfeel between, say, The Dark of Hot Springs Island and Donkey Kong Country's Jungle Japes.
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| I'm FAIRLY certain Jungle Hijinks doesn't have any sex slaves in it. I could be wrong; they never clarify the relationship with Rambi the Rhino. |
The first draft of this idea is something I'm calling "Themes." In theory, during prep, a DM would draw 2 and combine them into the core premise of the location. "Rainy" and "Jungle" would have overlap but still be distinct from "Rainy" and "Woodlands", for example. Each component Theme would then include a list of resources, lootables, and key items for the DM to populate the bespoke location with. This template would, theoretically, be just enough for the DM to run that location quickly and inspire on the fly npcs and adventure sites without the Theme prescribing those parts of play. Preferably, these would each fit on a single page, allowing for one's personal collection of available themes to be added to or removed from to match the table's needs. A table with an arachnophobe would remove the "Webs" Theme, for example, and play could continue with no hiccups.
For each location theme, you'll need the following:
- 3 Costumes: +1, +2, and +3
- Accessories for the +3 Costume to be craftable, plus 3 unrelated.
- At least 1 of each category of weapon: Light, Heavy, Ranged, etc.
- Core Kludgebucket Parts: Between 1 to 3 should do.
- Auxillary Kludgebucket Parts: I would prepare at least 3, though these can be bs'd in the moment if needed.
My running tally puts this at 16 items per theme at the low end. This seems like a lot, but keep in mind Themes will be reused and no one location should contain every possible option for the theme. A Jungle/Carnival Island might only have 1 Costume from the Carnival List, and the Core Parts from the Jungle List. Part of the DM prep involves determining what from each theme your location will pull from their lists and what will be saved for later. There's no harm in deciding that an item you hadn't planned on including was there all along, should your players take an interest in seeking them out. Alternatively, if players spot a doo-dad that was there for flavor and want to take it with them, DMs can just quickly slot it into one of the item types.
Let's make an example-
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| buzz buzz the posts must flow |
Theme: Beehive
| Weapons | ||
|---|---|---|
| Light Wp | Bee Stingers | (1d4, Dual) |
| rMed Wp | Bear Claw Gloves | (1d6) |
| Heavy Wp | Giant Honey Wand | (1d10) |
| Light Range | Pollen Arrows | (1d6, blast) Creates a Pollen cloud on impact, works as smokescreen |
| Heavy Range | Beezooka | (1d8, blast) Fires a cloud of Bees, 3 Charges, must be placed near an active hive overnight to repopulate |
| Accessories | |
|---|---|
| Honey Pot Lid | (+1 AMR) |
| Striped Dungarees | (+1 AMR) |
| Buzzy Bee Slippers | (+1 AMR) |
| Suspender Bee Wings | (+1 AMR) |
| Antenna Headband | (+1 AMR) |
| Costumes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Honey Bear Suit | (1 Armor) | (A Fuzzy Ear Headband and a Red Pullover) |
| Apiarists Suit | (2 Armor) | (Beekeeper Helmet, Gloves, and a Thick Coat) |
| Hive Knight | (3 Armor) (Craftable) | Giant Honey Wand Honey Pot Lid Striped Dungarees |
| Core Kludgebucket Parts | |
|---|---|
| Bee Nest (0 Star) | (-3 STR) |
| Box Hive (1 Star) | (+1 STR, -2 SPD) |
| Propulsion Parts | |
|---|---|
| Large Bee Wing (0 Star) | (req manual flapping) |
| Random Guff | |
|---|---|
| Honeycomb Hex | (It's very sticky) |
| Pollen Pod | (Hope you're not allergic) |
| Empty Honeypot | (Careful, it's ceramic) |
| Saxophone | (Do ya like Jazz?) |
Actually, now that I'm looking at all this, it DOES feel a smidge overkill, especially as I'm meant to mix and match this with a second, equally long list. The hope, though, is that once these Themed lists are done, they will pay for themselves as quick and easy reference sheets for multiple sessions of play.
This draft obviously is focusing on lootable items, but the vision for this includes descriptors of flora, fauna, and weather for these themes. I think that's probably best saved for the post on the second pass, as I've whacked at this post long enough.
Additional Thoughts:
I'm playing with the idea of Costumes innately containing a weapon as one of their component parts. This slightly alters the math, making a comparable setup for +3 AMR with a lower level Costume + Weapon 1 card more? I don't know if this would be that noticable to a player. I'm also considering codifying a rule where a player can only have 1 Costume in their inventory at a time? Changing your costume entirely on the fly feels easily abusable, and I KNOW we're not supposed to design while assuming the worst of our audience, but it's still a concern. The only real balance I can think of is in the possibilty that if you have to drop the Costume for whatever reason, it's component parts go with it. insert gif of mario 3 losing a suit power-up here
Perhaps changing costumes in the middle of an adventure would require a Bulky "Costume Closet" item that can hold multiple Costumes and a turn to "Quick Change" into a different one. Then I'm not really removing the ability to do so, just locking it behind a little extra effort on the player's part to seek out the means to do so. How Delightfully Devilish, Seymour.
Until Next Time,
Farmer Gadda
