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.
Core Homebase Design
☐ 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?
Additional Optional Homebase Design
☐ 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?
Design Worksheet
Create a note card for each possible Homebase:
CORE DESIGN | |
---|---|
HOMEBASE NAME | |
HOMEBASE APPEARANCE | |
HOMEBASE NEEDS / AGENDAS / HOOKS | |
ADDITIONAL DESIGN | |
HOMEBASE RUMORS / CLUES / SECRETS | |
HOMEBASE FACTIONS | |
HOMEBASE GOVERNMENTS | |
HOMEBASE ORGANIZATIONS | |
HOMEBASE LAWS | |
HOMEBASE POLITICS | |
HOMEBASE CORPORATIONS, UNIONS, OR GUILDS | |
HOMEBASE RELIGIONS | |
HOMEBASE CUSTOMS | |
HOMEBASE LANGUAGES |
Additional Resources
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