Campaigning in Kerren

1. Campaigning in Kerren

   #1

   Campaigning Notes:
   
   This is a rough collection of notes that I will do something about soon.
   
   Kerren is mostly a pulp game, with larger than life actions. Swords and Planets, like John Carter of Mars held to all the Pulp Tropes. This holds for all the true threats and the tourney threats.
   
   Goto my notes and pull up pulp tropes
   
   Kerren in mostly a "soap opera", so there is a lot of interpersonal relationships stuff going on. The interwarren politics and intrawarren and tourney threats, are all soap oprea-esk.
   
   Goto my notes and pull up soap opera tropes
   
   In some ways, Kerren is mostly a "romantic fantasy". It follows the tropes for that genre.
   
   Goto notes and pull those tropes
   
   It is raw science fiction in the early 70s tradition. Ideas are not as developed as they could be.
   
   So what is it? I is Kerren. Stop hanging on to lables and get over it.
   
   You can have any mix of these and still have a proper Kerren Game.

2. Campaigning in Kerren

   #2

   You see drama is what it is all about. The setting is dramatic. The monsters create a setting of constant physical danger. The real danger and drama in the world comes from the human conflicts. First the personal ones, between people at the ward. Then you will get into larger conflicts.. intra ward, intrawarden, political... you get the idea. However, if the conflict gets stale, you can inject a new source of drama.. star people, dragonoids, aliens from under the sea, a new plague, a plague that strikes only dragons, or any number of disasters. If the game does not have tension, if the gamet does not have the potential for change, if it has no inherent drama, then it become less interesting... potentially boring. We all know what happens to boring campaigns? That is right, They end, either mercifully (by the GM) or players begin to vote with their feet. So every campaign suppliment should always have a section on how to help build and maintain the drama of the campaign setting.
   
   
   
   I am creating a listing of adventure/ plot ideas for a Kerren campaign. With some creative application, it becomes a chart. The raw types of plot lines are....
   
   In process...... When properly formatted, it looks like a list with some small indentions, but it becomes a weighted "encounter chart" for scenario ideas. The numbers are two to three sizes smaller.. almost ignorable... The formatting sucks, need to work on this...
   
   This current format is very much a chart. The Chart uses 1d20. The convention is to roll the given number and up to the next number listed. I need to play with these numbers to better represent things (as well as add a few entries).
   
   
   01 Patrol
   
   
   01 Outlands
   
   01 Patrol for Storms
   10 Patrol for Zhan
   18 Patrol for Saurians
   
   06 Wilds
   
   01 Patrol for Storms
   09 Patrol for Zhan
   16 Patrol for Saurians
   
   13 Settled Lands
   
   01 Patrol for Storms
   11 Patrol for Zhan
   13 Patrol for Saurians
   
   18 Other Wards regions reroll for type
   
   01 Patrol outlands
   10 Patrol wilds
   18 Patrol Settled lands
   
   08 Wing Duty
   
   01 Alarm-
   
   01 Zhan Storn
   15 Zhani
   18 Saurian
   
   07 Defend
   
   01 Outland Village
   11 Transport Tower
   12 Free Ward
   15 Cluster
   
   09 Transport
   
   01 Messages
   06 Good
   15 People
   
   12 Escorting Traders
   14 Wing Practice
   
   01 Duty
   11 Tournament
   17 Tournament-non flight
   
   
   13 Cluster Duty
   
   01 Patrol the City- Watch
   
   01 Mischief
   06 Maintain the Peace
   15 Ryders
   18 Crime
   
   06 Investigate-
   08 Low Justice
   14 Construction
   16 Goods
   
   01 Collecting goods for central stores
   11 Distrubing goods from central store
   
   18 Guards for High Justice
   
   16 Warren Duty
   
   01 Digging Warren
   06 Warren Chore
   16 Hunting for wild dragons
   
   
   18 Complications
   
   01 Events
   
   01 Festival and Tournament- Wing
   07 Festival and Tournament- Ward
   09 Festival and Tornament- Region
   10 Festival
   14 Celebration/ Party
   
   06 Natural Disaster
   08 Community events
   
   01 Birth
   07 Death
   10 Illness
   12 Hand Fasting
   
   11 Challanges
   
   01 Challange Bet
   12 Challange Honor
   16 Duel
   [list/]01 Duel-honor
   09 Duel-justice
   13 Duel-romance
   
   12 Community Conflicts
   
   01 Conflict with a Cluster
   
   01 Trade
   06 Personal-Leaders
   15 Pride
   
   06 Conflict with a village
   
   01 Trade
   06 Personal-Leaders
   15 Pride
   
   09 Conflict with a free Ward
   
   01 Trade
   06 Personal-Leaders
   15 Pride
   
   15 Conflict with another Ward
   
   01 Trade
   06 Personal-Leaders
   15 Pride
   
   16 Personal
   
   01 Romantic Interest
   07 Loss of Romantic Interest
   xx Gain a friend
   xx Lose a friend
   18 Gift: needing to get one/
   20 Gift: receive
   
   18 Dragon Related
   
   01 Wild Dragons
   06 Chirpers
   11 Bonding season
   15 Hatching of a dragon egg
   18 Dragon Death
   
   20 Odd
   
   01 Discovery of OldThing (tech or items from colonists)
   14 Supernatural?
   18 Mythic
   
   
   Plot Inspiration Summary
   Conflict between friends
   Conflict between Allies
   Conflict between opponenets
   Conflict between two other groups
   Personal, Economic, Political, Social.
   
   Revenge upon someone because of
   
   Birth in a Warren/ Cluster/ Village
   Death in a Warren/ Cluster/ Village
   *********************************
   **********************************
   
   
   
   Plot Inspiration Summary
   patrolling for storms
   Patrolling for Zhan
   Call for Zhan Storm
   Patrolling for Saurians
   Helping another Ward
   Hunting Zhan
   Hunting Zhani
   Hunting Saurian
   Transporting people
   Transporting goods
   Messanger duty
   Patrolling the Cluster/ Guards duty
   Investigating a crime
   Holding Low Justice
   Collecting goods for central stores
   Distrubing goods from central store
   Watching Central Store
   Escorting Trader
   Tournament- Wing
   Tournament- Ward
   Tournament- Region
   Practice for Tournament
   Challenge-
   Romantic Interest
   Challenge Honor
   Challenge- Bet
   Gift: needing to get one/
   Loss of Romantic
   Gain a friend
   
   Conflict between friends
   Conflict between Allies
   Conflict between opponenets
   Conflict between two other groups
   Personal, Economic, Political, Social.
   
   Event: Celebration/ Party
   Event: Festival
   Event: Festival with tournament
   Event: Tournament or Grand Tournament
   
   Conflict with a Cluster
   Conflict with a village
   Conflict with a free Ward
   Conflict with another Ward
   Conflict types: Trade, Personal between leaders, Pride (because of crews), or other.
   
   Defend a location from.. Zhani…
   Defending a location from Saurians
   
   Discovery of OldThing (tech or items from colonists)
   Hunting for wild dragons
   Warren Duty, Clean, Dig, etc
   Revenge upon someone because of
   Duel-honor
   Duel-justice
   Duel-romance
   Birth in a Warren/ Cluster/ Village
   Death in a Warren/ Cluster/ Village
   Bonding season
   Hatching of a dragon egg

3. Campaigning in Kerren

   #3

   When creating a Kerren campaign, there are three considerations...
   
   1) Strength of the Prime Warden
   2) Strength of the Warden
   3) Relationship to other Wards
   
   For your campaign, you will need to make a decision for each of these points.
   
   1) Prime Warden
   In times of a strong prime warden, wardens tend to toe the line. Things are orderly, static, and very traditional. Trade is controlled by the Prime Ward and may Wards end up doing things or trading things that are not always in their best interst.
   
   In times of a weak prime warden, wardens tend to do what ever they want. While the prime warden and his people help keep things somewhat organized, the Wardens control what trade, manufacturing, and the resources of their Ward. They run things in such a way to benefit their ward, even though that might not be in the best interest of everyone. Times of weak prime wardens tend to be chaotic, ad hoc, and innovative.
   
   There may be something in between, with the Prime Warden being weak in some areas, and strong in others. You will need to set up the relationship between each power block and the Prime Warden. Each Power block controls/ made up of a group of Wards, has a certain ideology (progressive, traditional, independent) and promotes a certain person for the next Prime Warden.
   
   You will also need to determine if the Prime Warden is Young, Middle, or Old. If young, power blocks will be either currying favor or trying to discredit the Warden. (If discredited, the Warden will resign and a new one selected). If old, the jockying for position on who will be his replacement will be the primary topic. If the Prime Warden is middle years, then the various power blocks will try to intrigue against each other, trying to discredit or dishonor key members, to promote their own position in the Prime council.
   
   
   2) Warden:
   What will be said for the Warden, will be the same as was said for the Prime Warden, but the scale will be different. The Warden has to deal with each Wing, The Crafters, The Warren folk, HighBloods, and each cluster, in much the same way the Prime Warden has to deal with Each Warden and the Highbloods.
   
   3) Ward relationships.
   The history of ward relationships reflects the line of Wardens and the People of each ward. Just like there are rivalries between cities and states, their are rivalries between clusters and wards. These can be based on trade, on tournaments, something else that is prideful (Best Apples?), or some perceived slight (They allegedly did not support the Ward when Zhan came down/ or certain megafauna destroyed a cluster, so bad blood exists).
   
   Note: Warfare is unknown on Kerren. Humans do not kill other humans on a large scale (though duels, near lethal brawls, and murders) do happen.
   
   This is just a quick doodle on the subject, more will be coming.

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