heretic

 working title for ttrpg

idea:

the kingdom you're in is a state run religion. (to the king?)

you work for the gov. 

You receive a vision for the true god. your goal is now to free the kingdom from heresy! 

you're now a double agent for god. 

join/make an underground religious rebellion. 

character:

classless system

pick profession? mostly for flavor?

you work under the state as a soldier, clergyman, admin, ......

play is your boss sends you on jobs. create or roll them

examples

clear a dungeon for the state 

deal with rebels

set up a religious event

protect this person

etc

successfully completed jobs gives you xp to level up which is a promotion in your job. This gets you bigger jobs and opportunity to fulfill your ultimate goal of overthrowing the gov. 

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The design goal/feel i'm going for is a tense double agent feel. Try to advance in the gov to learn more but not get caught as a heretic of the state. You play both sides trying to get info for the rebels while the gov sends you on jobs to kill/deal with said rebels! DOES MY BOSS KNOW!? DOES HE KNOW I KNOW!?? ARE THEY COMING AFTER ME? IS THIS A SET UP!?!? 

Rumors on the dungeon.

 For rumors about a dungeon that the DM gives to the players before they go: if they could be a lie. 

Then I'm inclined to disregard them all. I'd rather not indulge any of them if one could be a lie. 

This is an overly pessimist view. 

How do you do rumors and what are your thoughts about them and what have you learned in using them? 

Do you have a philosophy about them? 30% true, 50% half true, 20% lies? 

What's the design point of rumors? to wet the players appetite? To give them clues of what they'll be facing? A clue on how to beat them? 

If they can be lies, then is that to intentionally misdirect them? 

What if the rumors are only true and half truths? 

I don't have answers for this. Rumors certainly aren't needed but they could be a hook for why the players are going to this dungeon. Maybe that's reason enough?

Something to experiment with.... 

Dungeon idea

 Take or make a generic dungeon. Reuse one you've already done and reskin it. 

THEN 

add 4 other adventuring parties exploring it.

The 1 in a million chance. Not only is then another party there's 4! 

roll for their dispositions. Hostile to friendly. Maybe one attacks, one talks, one suggests teaming up!? etc

Have they cleared a room or two? Roll to see if they already got the treasure of some of it?

If you want to add complexity roll to see how they're exploring the dungeon as the players do. 

They could meet up after the initial meet and one or some of them were killed.

They could interact with each other. The players meet both groups and later in the delve find that one group killed the other! Your players come across a room with their bodies stabbed and looted! 

Have a big enough dungeon for this but it can have more than normal empty rooms and increase the chance of meeting the other parties. 

You can have fun and plan things out. Give the different parties themes, flavor. etc 

but this can also be used with minimum prep of rolling to generate them and see what happens! 

On Design

Thoughts on the idea of worldbuilding for a story/game:

What's most important is what will be interacted with for the characters and thus the audience. What will add conflict/resolution. 

For making a ttrpg game/setting/adventure your players don't need to know histories and backstories of the world. 

You need conflict to have something to do. From the conflict add details/explore the world that are relevant. 

thoughts

 I want to keep a list of ideas without feeling overwhelmed or defeated by how big it is but wanting to do it all. 

I want to have a list of focus's that i'm working on so I finished projects instead of jumping to another one. 

I want a way to make a daily list where I'm taking items from my focus list and working on them. 

 

Colette’s greedy pendant

This pendant made by the witch Colette is cursed that upon seeing it a person is drawn to it depending on their willpower. The person will want to wear it but by doing so it kills them over a few months.

 

Magic item: Bluestar Herb

An herb able to cure curses, hexes, and dark magic. A useful and lightweight item for every adventurer.