Scenarios (part one (of three (maybe))) - Casing the Warehouse
Today we’re going to try creating a game scenario. There are already some resources in my mockup document that will help us but I’m also going to lean on some previous campaigns and notes for ideas. I also want to discuss the kinds of games that I find fun to prepare and to play.
Untitled (Own work, digital collage, 2021).
The starting idea is going to be very simple - the characters have to break into a warehouse and get something. This is also going to be a small throwback to the first session of the most successful campaign I ran in this setting!
So, what are they getting? Well, this can be any number of things like treasure, evidence, company records, etc. Let’s say they’re going there to steal an incriminating note that singles out a local club owner and patron of the hajduks.
We need to generate this person and for that we’ll start with a name. I first roll a d4 with 1 and 2 being male and 3-4 female to determine the NPC’s gender, it’s a 1, so a guy. I rolled 52 on a d100 on my list of names, and that comes up with Tufar Chani. Then I’ll use the super convenient nightclub name generator from www.fantasynamegenerators.com/ and the first thing that shows up is “Loophole“. I think it’s a great name so we’ll stick with that and this guy Tufar is our owner.
Do we need a map for our warehouse? It could be useful but in this case I’d say it’s not actually necessary. We do need to know what’s there and how the place functions. Because this is a kind of heist we need to know about the available entrances.
main entrance - there is a guard that knows most of the workers that have worked for a while. He or she will also give a safety lesson to any new employees, of course while keeping an eye out for trouble. The guard also has a dog that can sniff out weapons. The docks around the warehouse are patrolled by groups of d6 private soldiers and it is possible to nab their uniforms somehow.
sewers - if the players decide to take the entrance through here, they will emerge smelling very badly. This is going to attract a lot of attention and suspicion, disabling any (or at least most) attempts at diplomacy, as well as penalizing the exploration roll by -2*.
roof - scaling the sides of the warehouse will require a DEX saving throw from the holder of the lowest score. Let’s say they won’t fall if they fail but will trigger a wandering encounter that comes to investigate. There is still one guard on the roof, guarding access to the stairs which lead into the offices. There are also skylights from which the shelves of the warehouse can be accessed. This would require rope, a particularly agile character, or something else the players come up with.
*will be explained in a future entry, the exploration roll replaces random encounter checks and is done on a 2d6. This penalty guarantees that the best possible outcome is “Trace of an encounter that passed here recently“. Basically the characters’ stench is causing a lot of activity and trouble.
Istanbul customs. (n.d.). Büyük İstanbul Tarihi. https://istanbultarihi.ist/560-trade-in-ottoman-istanbul
I think you can see the kind of game I enjoy through the content made here. This is only the start of developing a scenario but already the possibilities of play are emerging. The warehouse remains nondescript and we barely have a thread of information for why we’re there, but once we are there are options for what we can do and each one carries a simple, logical, and maybe mechanical condition or drawback.
Next time, we will add more content into the warehouse, rooms, loot, people and things that are there, also their stats and information just like today. And in the third entry we will tie everything together by detailing the Loophole, Tufar, adding a list of wandering encounters, as well as whatever else is needed for a nice game session! See you then.
