CREATING HOMEBASES

Adventurers do not exist (well, or for long) in a vacuum …

Many gaming groups organize their adventuring around a “home base” village, town, city, colony, or space station when first starting a new Adventuring group.

A homebase provides clues to undertake adventures, essential services the Adventurers need to succeed over the course of those adventures, and places to spend those hard-earned adventuring rewards.

Over time, the Adventurers may “outgrow” a homebase and relocate or start a new one more suited to their growing abilities and influence.

☐ HOMEBASE NAME
What is the home base called?
Choose or generate a name for this home base.

☐ HOMEBASE APPEARANCE
Start with a map …
What first impression does this homebase make on the Adventurers?
How old is the homebase?
What is happening when first encountered? (May depend on time of day…):

• sleep
• morning time
• breakfast
• morning work
• lunch
• afternoon work
• dinner
• relax
• bedtime

Daily activities in and around a home base change depending on the month or season, such as the medieval Labors of the Months:

• Baking
• Butchering
• Collecting and Gathering
• Countryside (Walks)
• Courting
• Digging
• Feasting
• Fertilizing
• Fires/Hearth
• Flowers
• Fruit Picking
• Harvesting
• Hawking
• Hay
• Hunting
• Milling
• Mowing
• Planting
• Plowing
• Pouring wine into barrels
• Pruning
• Repairing
• Rope Making
• Salting and Smoking
• Scaring the Birds
• Scything Wheat
• Sharpening Sickle
• Shearing and Spinning
• Skinning
• Sowing
• Tool Mending/Making
• Treading Grapes
• Tying
• Weaving
• Weeding
• Winnowing and Threshing

☐ HOMEBASE NEEDS / AGENDAS / HOOKS
How does this homebase provide an adventure for the players?

• A need to fulfill? The adventure hook … something adventurers may help to resolve?
• An agenda or task the NPC is set to complete which may aid or conflict with the PCs tasks?

☐ HOMEBASE RUMORS / CLUES / SECRETS
What happens in and around the homebase that could affect, help, or hinder the Adventurers?

• Events - interruptions from the universe at large?
• Interludes - backstory questions and answers which are not conflict based, but further the NPC and the Adventurers' stories
• Encounters / Social Conflicts - things the PCs may have to “talk” the locals into sharing

☐ HOMEBASE FACTIONS
Who are the powers in charge of the homebase and what are their agendas?

☐ HOMEBASE GOVERNMENTS
Who are the public servants of the homebase and who do they answer to?

☐ HOMEBASE ORGANIZATIONS
Who are the other groups organized to action and what are their purposes?

☐ HOMEBASE LAWS
What legal tripwires lay in wait to snare the Adventurers unexpectedly?

☐ HOMEBASE POLITICS
What are the driving attitudes causing conflict between the groups in and around the homebase?

☐ HOMEBASE CORPORATIONS, UNIONS, OR GUILDS
Who are the commercial and professional groups around the homebase?

☐ HOMEBASE RELIGIONS
What do the population of the homebase believe in?

☐ HOMEBASE CUSTOMS
What social tripewires lay in wait to snare the Adventurers unexpectedly?

☐ HOMEBASE LANGUAGES
What languages are spoken or written around the homebase?

Create a note card for each possible Homebase:

Roleplaying Tips #0132 - 11 Town Design Tips
Roleplaying Tips #0164 - 9 Ways To Bring Town Guards To Life
Roleplaying Tips #0492 - 4 Best Ways To Handle Town Guards
Roleplaying Tips #0699 - PC Home Base Tips & Tables
Roleplaying Tips #0705 - A Village Name That's A Funny Puzzle
Roleplaying Tips #0711 - d10 Things You Hear In Town
Roleplaying Tips #0757 - Character Home Bases - Part I: 6 Tips
Roleplaying Tips #0758 - Character Home Bases - Part II: How To Create Villages Fast
Roleplaying Tips #0759 - Character Home Bases - Part III: Example Village of Coldwater

◢ Salvage Space: Setting

▲ Chronology :: ◢ References: Plots and Complications