Boldly Going, Part 2

An explorer and his pet human.

Okay, before the the second Great Flood descended upon Duluth, I was discussing exploration for my ATOMIC tabletop role-playing system. I talked about landmarks and Schrödinger's manhole.

One thing I hadn't gotten to was that random locations can be used within the controlled environment of a dungeon (a self-contained, generally interior location for adventuring that is somehow isolated and distinctly different from the external environment and populated by hostile "others," and which, in ATOMIC's case, includes derelict auto factories, abandoned sewer systems, the husks of skyscrapers, etc.) in the same way. Perhaps the location itself (a particular room) is known, like the radioactive swamp in the previous post, but its contents are undefined, and the random location can fill it in. In other cases, perhaps there is a hidden panic room behind the pile of collapsed rubble. You get the idea.

However, I promised to talk about the way a system's rewards drive play, and how exploration can benefit from that. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten. We'll get there.

It has been noted by minds greater than mine that outdoor travel in tabletop games can be problematic. Part of the problem is that we are used to hand-waving travel at the table unless a random encounter is rolled (this is reinforced by fast-travel options in video games like Fallout: New Vegas and World of Warcraft). Another part is that the outdoors is so huge, we can envision it easily (we see it every day) but how do we begin to describe it? Just like any other aspect of an RPG, the central focus needs to be what -C at Hack & Slash terms "player agency," the ability of players to make meaningful choices in the game. This means the GM needs to tell players environmental information that they can actively apply to the decision-making process. Ideally, no more, no less. In a dungeon environment, this is simple, as movement is restricted by things like walls and line of sight. Outside, however, they could literally wander off in any direction.

This requires a subtle bit of gaming when using a system that does not require maps. The GM should describe visible landmarks to give the players a star to guide by, and randomly-rolled locations become visible from a distance that makes sense. This, of course, is made easier if the characters use their travel time to discuss strategies, or backstories, or other party interactions, so finding locations becomes more organic, and it feels like the characters have actually been traveling instead of their travel being "interrupted" by encounters or discoveries. If players decide to explore, they can tell the GM how much time they want to spend doing so. Random encounters are rolled every hour while exploring, so the players can have a concrete idea of the risk up front.

To reward this behavior, ATOMIC GMs have two simple, powerful motivators. Skill points (SP), which are spent to upgrade skills, and experience points (XP), which are used to purchase perks, which improve character abilities, and whammies, which are fun and interesting new abilities that the bad guys probably won't like. Discovering a new location by physically arriving there (not just seeing it off in the distance), awards 1 SP and 50 XP. To give an idea what impact this has, it takes 25 SP to improve a skill and 500 XP for a perk and 1000 XP for a whammy. Now if a given area of about 25 square miles has three landmark locations, and half a dozen Schrödinger's manholes pop up, a party spending a day exploring that whole area (taking the time to risk random encounters that may shoot them or eat them or set them on fire or some combination) will gain 9 SP and 450 XP--almost enough for a perk by itself, without any XP from quests.

Combat in ATOMIC is intentionally lethal and monster kills do not earn XP, so it is a balancing act, an active and interesting choice for a group to decide whether to risk it and explore or stay safe and advance in character ability more slowly.

Questions, comments, snide remarks?