The Unseen Servant forums

Part two of the survey... What kind of terrain? You can pick multiple options for this part.

I love the idea of polls for this. If one were to make 2 villages or 2 hamlets, then we could have a seaside village and a hamlet in the woods a few hours away (for example... not trying to buy votes )

Afterall, the traveling between towns is where a lot of the action generally happens...

Oh, I like that idea of building a second community a day's travel away, especially if one is river/sea side and the other is forest, with a river near by.

Immediately I start seeing ideas of trade and relations between the villages (probably by using the river for convenience). Plots can be developed within a village or, as onlyme suggested, between villages (something disrupting trade routes, for example)

I think building smaller communities, at least at first, seems to be an easier task, at least at first...

Sounds good, but I think we should concnetrate on 1 thing at a time.

build the first village, when it is nearing completion gather requirments for the 2nd hamlet, etc.

wolfpack wrote:Sounds good, but I think we should concnetrate on 1 thing at a time.

build the first village, when it is nearing completion gather requirments for the 2nd hamlet, etc.

Come on... every good project manager knows you have to understand phase 2 before you can sign off on phase one's scope...

We can certainly write it down and put it in the backlog, but we need to keep our scrum focused on what we can complete now.

onlyme wrote:

wolfpack wrote:Sounds good, but I think we should concnetrate on 1 thing at a time.

build the first village, when it is nearing completion gather requirments for the 2nd hamlet, etc.

Come on... every good project manager knows you have to understand phase 2 before you can sign off on phase one's scope...

Don't know if you're joking or not, but it is quite a valid point. In our company, we've radically changed the way we approach our software and our Members/Owners/Customers. Instead of a business model that is designed to deal with the highs and lows of income source (as a software cycle peaks and then wanes), we've adjusted our development methods so that at least one of the various software products we develop is in its peak of the cycle. It took us about three years to get everything in line, but it has been working very well so far. Our company is incredibly sound, financially, and we are able to easily fund the development of new software from within without putting any kind of financial burden on ourselves. Even during this poor economic time, we've been expanding and hiring (albeit slowly and responsibly) and developing and taking advantage of other larger companies that are faltering by going after their market.

Obviously this is more like comparing apples to oranges, but... my point is I don't see any problem with thinking ahead, especially if decisions we make today will affect what we're doing in six months or a year. Besides... if this first town ends up being small-ish (and it looks like it is), then we're pretty close to being done.

I have to be honest with you, in my mind, I've already figured out where I'd like to stick this little town in Margant, which is ToniXX's campaign world I've been working with him on building. I was thinking of making the second town, which would be situated by a sea or ocean (in this case, a landlocked sea), based on Valek's Landing (the map/city I had to use for the writing contest I unabashedly won with aplomb). Since the map of that city was offered up as free to use in your own campaign, I thought it would be interesting to take up the challenge of building the next city with a slightly different twist - use the gazetteer write-up I did for Valek's Landing, then assign certain buildings in the provided map a number or letter and anyone who wants to participate is assigned a number or letter on the map and they have to write about the corresponding structure (or people can pick letters/numbers on a first-come-first-serve basis).

Alethan wrote: Obviously this is more like comparing apples to oranges, but... my point is I don't see any problem with thinking ahead, especially if decisions we make today will affect what we're doing in six months or a year. Besides... if this first town ends up being small-ish (and it looks like it is), then we're pretty close to being done.

I have to be honest with you, in my mind, I've already figured out where I'd like to stick this little town in Margant, which is ToniXX's campaign world I've been working with him on building. I was thinking of making the second town, which would be situated by a sea or ocean (in this case, a landlocked sea), based on Valek's Landing (the map/city I had to use for the writing contest I unabashedly won with aplomb). Since the map of that city was offered up as free to use in your own campaign, I thought it would be interesting to take up the challenge of building the next city with a slightly different twist - use the gazetteer write-up I did for Valek's Landing, then assign certain buildings in the provided map a number or letter and anyone who wants to participate is assigned a number or letter on the map and they have to write about the corresponding structure (or people can pick letters/numbers on a first-come-first-serve basis).

I like these ideas. I think we have our first hamlet done (or very nearly done) and we can start looking ahead.
Also, I've added the ability for everyone to make polls in this forum.

Alethan wrote:

onlyme wrote: Come on... every good project manager knows you have to understand phase 2 before you can sign off on phase one's scope...

Don't know if you're joking or not, but it is quite a valid point.

Well, in that case... No, I was serious. My company has always had both problems. They build phase one of a project without worrying about what other functionality would it be leveraged for. And then phase 2 comes and have to re-do a lot more than we should have. But, on the IT side, we are constantly chasing the newest technology, to set us up long-term, even though by phase 2, we are already on to the next next new thing.


I do think the first one needs the detail. Just like a movie or TV show. Concentrate on character dev in the first one, then expand to the big picture with the sequel/2nd season. But, to build that detail, I think you need to know the macro-level meta stuff like:
Where it sits in relation to other towns, landforms?
How many towns are in the adventuring area around it?
Is the kingdom/barony prosperous, militant?
Are the towns at war, trade partners, etc.

Then, concentrate on town#1 with just a few hooks mentioning town 2. (Say one of the merchants travels there monthly for trade, etc)

onlyme wrote: I do think the first one needs the detail. Just like a movie or TV show. Concentrate on character dev in the first one, then expand to the big picture with the sequel/2nd season. But, to build that detail, I think you need to know the macro-level meta stuff like:
Where it sits in relation to other towns, landforms?
How many towns are in the adventuring area around it?
Is the kingdom/barony prosperous, militant?
Are the towns at war, trade partners, etc.

Then, concentrate on town#1 with just a few hooks mentioning town 2. (Say one of the merchants travels there monthly for trade, etc)

Good ideas, but we're creeping out of the initial scope of the project, which was to build a town that could be dropped into any world. Obviously, I think it's OK to dictate a few terrain basics (which we've been voting on). But to then define the political situation of the region, if the village is at war, etc., begins to become too constrictive and thus it cannot easily then be used in any world. Let the DM who ultimately uses this make those calls and make changes as necessary.

just my two cents...

I agree with Tomix, it needs to be plug and play.

It needs to be detailed enough to be of use, but generic enough to be of use anywhere.

So a well fleshed out town with generic basic terrain elements could fit anywhere.

I agree. I was just thinking of where I was going to plug-n-play it.

I clicked and voted for forest edge, but then i immediately thought that it would not matter for my 'funeral business.'
walls would be good, but again, im good with whatever consensus brings.