Sunday 24 July 2016

Mysteries of the Meandering Metropolis in the Hexcrawl Royale

The thing live about gaming most is setting design. My rule mods are a way of shaping games for my settings. My tables are portraits of my landscapes. So the mobile city thing which I started has more submissions. http://mutationapocalypse.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/20-more-mobile-citadels.html

A sample hexcrawl royale setting for all of walking cities and kaiju
Im envisaging a setting where most of world is wasteland with wild animals and monsters. Some primitive survivors live in the  wastes. Others hide in the dungeons and caves while the surface was purged. Then there are the great mobile cities remnants of wars between gods that wrecked the world. These cities battle each other and gigantic monsters.

Players could even represent a city if name level or party could be defenders of city or even rulers. A city or kaiju should die every session or a dungeon destroyed. Wiping out last representatives of a race or finishing off a god possible too.

While seeking resources for cities and dungeons to explore the city lords keep an eye out for kaiju or other cities. A defeated kaiju could be turned into a colony with a building and control device added. Looting a city would help to improve your cities stats but if you lose then you might need to resume life on a new city or take over from within of find a new home. You could also trade if city non hostile or related to your own or both too wary to engage. Some large powerful cities could enthrall smaller ones and run them ahead or use to scout or act as guards or decoys. When cities clash they colide and the populace take arms like ship crew and board each other looting, killing and enslaving.

Citadel Track Sheets for campagn
I could envisage keeping track of campaign area with hex map to record. It could double as a simple wargame and record any local kaiju, cities, ruins or dungeons or resources

City or Kaiju Stats d6
Strength - roll under score to inflict a hit
Defense - roll under score to resist a hit
Sight - range in hexes can see and chance with d6 roll of detecting
Visibility - range in hexes can be detected from
Move - how many hexes per day can move
Size - population capacity and volume (in hectares?)

STR/DEF related for combat
SIG/VIS can also be used for communications range
MOV/SIZ how fast how big

Invulnerable foes battle then get bored and wander off if they fight each other
You can attack any stat and victim gets to make a defence roll to resist losing 1 point
Cities in same hex always see each other
Stat up kaiju same way

d12 City Quest
Thing citizens most want outside resources
1 Statue or monument recovered from enemy
2 Conquest and glory over subject peoples
3 Crusade for a god or some cause
4 Magical secrets of magic or power
5 Special knowledge of some mythic event
6 Slave workers
7 Kidnap new mates
8 Sacrifices of blood and souls, preferably someone else
9 Find a lost thing in a forgotten ruin or dungeon
10 Capture or get revenge on a hated fugitive
11 Seeking to rescue person or group
12 A important item to maintain the city

d12 Encounters 1in6 per hex crossed
1-2 Nothing
3-4 Ground dwellers
5-6 Terrain obstacle
7-8 Resources
9 Possible Kaiju sighting
10 Possible city sighting
11 Kaiju or city trail or former resting place
12 A stranger on the ground spotted

Once a kaiju or city on map the DM tracks them till it leaves local hexcrawl map. They may detect each other and will usualy close. Most Kaiju start with a melee attack only using ranged if city does first or have already battled. They might use ranged on a faster or fleeing foe.

d12 Ground Dwellers
1 Human tribesmen
2 Human barbarians
3 Human kingdom
4 Human cultists
5 Demihumans
6 Humanoids
7 Beastmen
8 Giants, trolls and ogres
9 Undead
10 Mixed dungeon dwellers
11 Elemental beings
12 Outer planar beings like demons, devils angels

d12  Terrain obstacle
1 Pit or pressure or buoyancy drop
2 Terrain collision
3 Volcanic vents or smoke
4 Weather
5 Mountain range
6 Thing falls from sky
7  Awaken a hidden kaiju
8 Debri of wrecked city colision
9 Illusion
10 Force feild
11 Dimensional vortex
12 Collision with divine being

d12 Resource Types
What resources you find in a hex
What resources are required most
What resources most heavily stockpiled
Or roll a resource and a d6 units per size atribute

1 Food resource - edible stuff for city, populace or livestock
2 Fuel resource - for city or for light and heat for residents
3 Slave resource - labourers mostly kidnapped or commercial
4 Mineral resource - metal and other buried goods
5 Building resource - raw materials for building city or structures
6 Ruin resources - crumbled settlements or possibly dungeons
7 Luxury resources - desirable goods that keep people happy or can be traded
8 Knowledge resources - books, scrolls, maps, knowledge of other cities or kaiju
9 Religious resources - holy relics, artworks, sacred scriptures, saint bodies
10 Medicinal resources - medicine to help population grow or trade
11 Alchemical resources - potions, gunpowder and even means to make life forms
12 Magic resource - spells, components, ingredients, magic items

d12 Kaiju
1 Land Type
2 Burrowing type
3 Flying Type
4 Aquatic type
5 Amphibious type
6 Triphibious type
7 Technological construct type
8 Magical construct type
9 Undead type
10 Elemental type
11 Outer planar type
12 Dead kaiju remains with d4-1 points of resources

Kaiju Special
1 Drone or scout pet with better mobility 1in6 inteligent and speaks
2 Ranged attack like fire breath, laser eyes, shooting shuriken, acid spit
3 Regeneration - recovers lost stat point in a day instead of week
4 Chemical cloud d4 1=smoke 2=hallucinagen 3=narcotic 4=poison
5 Alternate form d4 1=gas 2=transformable 3=mimic 4=stone
6 Teleport once a day
7 Plane Shift once a week
8 Has a d4 resource points stockpiled or in body
9 Ability to capture foe with web, pincers, ray
10 Speed burst with leap, hop, rockets +1d3 Move for d6 times a day
11  Party of adventurers aids kaiju d4 1=magicians 2=cultists 3=murder hobos 4=meddling kids
12  Allies d4 1=d6 smaller allies 2=d3 kaiju 3=Kaiju has best buddy or pet 4= city follows it

d12 Cities
1 A old rival for resources
2 Long lost friendly city unseen for decades
3 A trading partner
4 A mystrious city making friendly signals
5 An old enemy city
6 A strange city hanging back warily
7 A city of pirates and scum
8 A city of insane murder cultists
9 A regular partner and military ally
10 City overrun with madness on fire
11 City brandishing troops and weapons
12 City is out of control with population in panic

City Special
1 A mighty vehichle used by populace to scout
2 Ranged attack like fire breath, laser eyes, shooting shuriken, acid spit
3 Regeneration - recovers lost stat point in a day instead of week
4 Chemical cloud d4 1=smoke 2=hallucinogen 3=narcotic 4=poison
5 Illusion feild can be invisible or seem to have fire wall or be a phantom
6 City can teleport to far away if theratened
7 Has a gateway inside to somewhere far away population can use
8 Has a d4 extra resource points in storage
9 Specialist elite troops for boarding cities or raiding surface
10 Can increase defence by +1 if does not move
11  City led by a mighty hero or magician with d4-1 friends
12  Has a d3 smaller cities as companions and scouts

d12 Stranger
1 Fool
2 Spy
3 Herald
4 Merchant
5 Assassin
6 Wizard or sorcerer
7 Priest of Druid
8 Cult preacher or leader
9 Dungeon boss
10 Monster in disguise
11 Adventurer
12 Escapee from enemy

d12 Stranger Special
1 Famously attractive
2 Serves other planar patron d4 1=Law 2=Chaos 3=Elemental 4=Balance
3 Has a famous magic item
4 Has a weird curse or fate
5 Famous expert on a field of knowledge
6 Knows location of resources
7 Knows a enemy cities weakness and location
8 Knows how to add a point to a city stat
9 Can sabotage a city stat point
10 Knows about a dungeon complex
11 Stranger is an Immortal
12 Deity in disguise

You could wander about some off the shelf setting and destroy it for fun like Krynn or Greyhawk or Mystara and stomp everything you dislike. Let local villains make or find a mobbile city. Lead your city on missions from the gods. Each player over a camppagn of a new city a week game. Eventualy each player develops bond to a favorite city. Players unite for a battle each with a mobile city and do some millennial event on a setting. A flying or spacefaring or plane shifting city could be nifty campaign

Such a game could be short or long but controlling a mobile city sounds like a high level adventure which I need more of.

Or use one of these classic hex crawls

http://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/grab-bag/synthexia/
http://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/grab-bag/kraal/
http://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/grab-bag/wastes/
http://save.vs.totalpartykill.ca/grab-bag/hexenbracken/

or try Carcosa or Red and pleasant land or Mars or Dark Sun or Psychon

2 comments:

  1. You might want to also check out Chrome Shelled Regios, since it has a similar idea. Some of the side plots are complex, but the mock battles between mobile cities (when they aren't defending themselves against "Filth Monsters") over resources is quite mineable for ideas.
    I'd also recommend the Predator Cities tetralogy by Philip Reeve.
    Links:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrome_Shelled_Regios
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predator_Cities

    ReplyDelete
  2. A staggerig citadel probably needs air support and luckily eough in a fantasy world there can be a host of options: ornithopters,elemental zepplins, rocs, and griffon riders.

    ReplyDelete

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