ADDITIONAL INFO CHARACTER INDEX OUT OF CHARACTER WORLDBUILDING The Roads We Take | a Wanderhome game

[tapedeck]

band - song name

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Current Party

Husun • played by littlekreen
he/him
Raggamuffin
Smart, ornery, but full of anxiety, Husun lives and travels with a "house dragon" — a large jumping spider, named Miss Webbins, that carries a house atop her back. Known only to himself, Husun is able to glimpse snippets of the future; though he has no control over it.​

Stevens • played by lorebard
they/she
Guardian
Stoic only in appearance, this protective Lynx cares for a young dragon, nicknamed Kite; though neither of them are very public about him being such a rare species. Stevens herself is not from the Haeth, but fled here to better ensure Kite's safety after she rescued him.​

Burble MacBufo • played by bone2pick
he/him
Poet
A writer on the search for battlefields of old, Burble is upbeat in his journey to document historic sites of the old rebellion's battles. While many assume him to be an overly self-important author who never misses a detail, he's anything but; friendly and disorganized is the current he follows.​

code by MaryGold

 

[tapedeck]

Starflood Carnival

This place we're in is...​

A sprawling Carnival. Full of celebration, decadence, and excitement. This place can always...

• Describe the lights and the crowds.
• Demand attention and adoration.
• Ask: "What will lure you deeper into the chaos?" Give whoever answers a token, if they follow what they describe.

A lonely Moor. Quiet, where sharp winds whistle through a stretched-out landscape. This place can always...

• Describe what makes someone feel lonely.
• Hint at something eerie.
• Ask: "What weighs on your mind?" Give whoever answers a token, if they give a satisfying answer.

A secluded Glen. Overflowing with creatures and bugs, alive with movement and presence. This place can always...

• Describe the world teeming with life.
• Show a conflict between wild creatures.
• Introduce a new buggy creature. Give someone a token if they engage with the insect as an equal.

It's aesthetic elements are A Mysterious Performance & Soaring Dragonflies, A Thin Mist & Watchful Caterpillars, Masquerade Accoutrements & A Shiver Down Your Back. The local folklore is about The Arcanomers' Fallen Star, The Lost Library Of The First Queen, and The Neverending Wine Glass.

code by MaryGold

 

[tapedeck]

@littlekreen @Bone2pick
alrighty, now that we've got the minimum number of players, character sheets are ready, & i've finally got this thread in working order... let's start some brainstorming >:D

if we want, we can discuss how/why our characters are traveling together, or leave those details on the table for later. either way, that leads into making our first place. info on how we make that is below, or can be found on page 33 of the rulebook pdf~

Our First Place

We will always begin our journey by arriving in a new place. In order to create such a place, pick out three different natures, or choose randomly. Each of these natures will serve as one of the building blocks of that place. Natures are the elements that — literally or metaphorically — represent various aspects of our place.

After we've selected three natures, consult them (starting on Page 131) and make choices for them. Make a conversation out of it, tossing around ideas and mixing things together. These natures determine the look and feeling of a place, and you are welcome to interpret these natures as literally or as metaphorically as you'd like. For example, while your place might literally be a hillock, it might also metaphorically be a tower.

Once we've got a pretty good idea of what this place is like, we'll go around and have everyone say one common type of animal-folk that live in the area. This doesn't mean everyone in this place is, for example, a salamander; it just means that if we're in a hurry, we can quickly imagine some newtish friends.

Then, the person who's spoken the least during this entire process describes what forms the many small and forgotten gods of this place take.

Last but not least, give the place a name.

 

[littlekreen]

Well, the natures that Husun would be actively wandering in would be
Comfortable(farm, garden, market)
Verdant(field, glen, hillock)
Liminal (bridge, lake, road)
Sprawling (carnival)
Lonely (Moor, Wilderness)

I imagine him heading to a carnival would result in gawkers and confused carnies wondering, "Is this one of ours?"

Edit:
Guest playbook (bathhouse, commune, dhaba, orchard, pier, shore)

 

[tapedeck]

Well, the natures that Husun would be actively wandering in would be
Comfortable(farm, garden, market)
Verdant(field, glen, hillock)
Liminal (bridge, lake, road)
Sprawling (carnival)
Lonely (Moor, Wilderness)

I imagine him heading to a carnival would result in gawkers and confused carnies wondering, "Is this one of ours?"

ooo, i like that approach to picking natures! i'll have to look at the lists to see where Stevens would most likely travel toward~

updated with said list~!
Comfortable; farm, garden, market, workshop
Verdant; glen, field
Liminal; bridge, island, lake, road, tavern
Sprawling; furnace, carnival
Lonely; cave, moor, wilderness
Desolate; mountain, ruin
Guestbook Natures; battlefield, commune, dhaba, icehouse, pier, shore

 

[littlekreen]

So current shared locales:
Comfortable( farm, garden, market)
Verdant(field,glen)
Liminal(Bridge, Lake, Road)
Sprawling(Carnival)
Lonley(Moor, Wilderness)
Desolate(none) [Husun doesn't want to go back to the mountain, and the others are hostile]
Guestbook Natures (Commune, dhaba, pier, shore)

My thought is that if bone2pick makes a set, this narrows the list further for commonalities we all share and creates a list of outliers that two have and one does not. So, everyone is either in that given nature or alternately finding someone in a nature alien for them while already going about their business.

 

[Bone2pick]

I designed my character with a McGuffin that can justify placing/moving him nearly anywhere. That said, the below Natures looked the most Burblely to me.

Comfortable: farm, market, tower
Verdant: field, glen, hollow, hillock, swamp
Liminal: bridge, lake, port, road, tavern
Sprawling: carnival, castle, metropolis, university
Lonely: graveyard, moor, wilderness
Desolate: mountain, ruin,
Guestbook: battlefield, dhaba, library, ship

 

[littlekreen]

So, shared locales:
Comfortable: Farm, Market
Verdant: Field, Glen
Liminal: Bridge, Lake, Road
Sprawling: Carnival
Lonely: Moor, Wilderness
Desolate: [none]
Guestbook: Dhaba

Outliers:
Comfortable: Garden - bone2pick
Verdant: Hillock - lorebard
Liminal: Tavern - lilkreen
Sprawling: [none]
Lonely: [none]
Desolate: Mountain/ruin - lilkreen
Guestbook: commune/pier/shore - bone2pick, battlefield - lilkreen

 

[tapedeck]

ooo, i'm liking what's in the shared natures. i really like having carnival as one of our three; it just seems like a really fun opener, be it literal or metaphorical, so i vote we have that in the mix!

as for the other two... for me, the most stand out natures in combination with a carnival is a market or a dhaba. some kind of really big, showy flea market, or extravagant roadside tea-house type place~ maybe the third aspect could be a road, glen, bridge, or wilderness, if we go with something like this? wilderness or glen specifically strikes some really vivid mental imagery in my brain.

 

[littlekreen]

Carnival is somewhere you could get away with a giant house spider just sitting in a square as Husun is off exploring. While Miss Webbins has to discourage children/people from trying to climb up onto the house. [waggles leg] [stop touCHING mE!] *angy spider noises and sign language gesticulation.*

I don't think Husun would have much money and would probably be ogling food at the Dhaba for something that smells nice. I doubt he's had much prepared food on the road. A flea market might be centered around a food locale of that kind nearby? Especially if the carnival is in town since it'd bring customers.

Wilderness would be something that Husun is used to; a moor with someone eying a house slowly scuttling about above the fog is an interesting picture, too. heh.

 

[Bone2pick]

A foggy, bustling carnival located on a "lonely" moor would be wonderfully atmospheric and contradictory. I like that combination. Market, dhaba, or road — any or all would be perfectly fine by me.

 

[littlekreen]

Well, they need wide open space for tents so either you clear wilderness or go somewhere it's already rocky and flat. You'd be lonely too if you were a moor that only had friends visit once or twice a year. :D

 

[Bone2pick]

There's a theme that's now calling to me like a siren: discovering places and structures where you would never expect to find them.

A crackin' carnival virtually hidden within a lonely, foggy moor. A charming tea house inside a graveyard. Breathtaking gardens overtaking a dank cave system. A university on a ship at sea...

 

[littlekreen]

Ooh yeah that definitely fits the theme of a nomad for husun. especially one with a wooden sword and half a mind to find interesting potentials. I imagine the spider would be less enthused about being at sea.

 

[tapedeck]

There's a theme that's now calling to me like a siren: discovering places and structures where you would never expect to find them.

A crackin' carnival virtually hidden within a lonely, foggy moor. A charming tea house inside a graveyard. Breathtaking gardens overtaking a dank cave system. A university on a ship at sea...

ooOH i love this as a theme for our places !! we 100% have to visit that graveyard teahouse & university ship, and the idea of an underground botanical garden sounds so pretty. i'm so down fro opening with a sprawling carnival in a lonesome moor, tho, that's too perfect~

so, our definite picks are Carnival & Moor; all we need is the third nature, then we'll be ready for the next steps~

 

[littlekreen]

Pier or Shore? it could lead into these hidden places and would be low lying enough to make sense for fogs rolling in. And somewhere you might find a gravebound teahouse for sailors lost at sea. then Heading out to sea in some manner perhaps to a university on a derrick-style building? native Sea folk would have a lot easier maintaining offshore platforms than humans do. Underground gardens of moria in a mountain locale or an undersea botanical garden. though I'm partial to large open mystical spaces like that :D

 

[tapedeck]

reading over the two, i honestly feel like Shore would work really well as a metaphorical element for the moor carnival. i mean, just look at this description:

A shore is a liminal place where daily life ebbs and flows with the tide.
This place can always:

• Describe the contrast between opposite forces.
• Show the tide beginning to turn.
• Take someone far out of their element and give them a token.

this kinda feels more than perfect for the stuff we have in mind for a misty, lonesome moor brought to life every year by a boisterous carnival~ maybe the carnival itself could even be a little ocean or tropical themed? kind of "bringing the beach inland" vibes :0

 

[Bone2pick]

I like the shore as well. The fog could continuously roll in from the sea. And like lorebard mentioned, the land/water contrasting elements metaphor is right on the money.

 

[tapedeck]

I like the shore as well. The fog could continuously roll in from the sea. And like lorebard mentioned, the land/water contrasting elements metaphor is right on the money.

i was thinking more of the location of the moor being pretty far inland, but i do like the idea of the fog itself being from a distant ocean >:3 maybe that's specifically why the carnival visits this spot?

 

[littlekreen]

North York Moors park is one that's by the ocean and cliffs it's largely dependent if there are mountain/barren features near the coastline. Fog rolling in like some snake through it between the hills makes a lot of sense if it's being driven by the ocean. would make for a neat sales feature for such a carnival. beach theme by midday then ocean mystery in morning/night in a sense.