Area of Conflict

[Razorwing]

While the entire world is under the iron grip of the Machine, I am guessing that most groups that play Splicers tend to narrow the scope considerably.

For example, the default area of the surface controlled by the House of the Barren Marsh is roughly 100 miles in radius (roughly 31,400 square miles; a little smaller than the area of South Carolina).

So I am wondering how much of an area does the Great House your groups serve actually protect? Is it a small area like the Barren Marshes? A larger area (say the size of the east coast? A truely large area like maybe the size of the USA (roughly 3.8 million square miles)... or a huge area like all of North America in size (9.5 million square miles)... or even world wide?

The main reason I'm asking this is because I'm trying to set up an area for me to work in... either for a game or for submittion... and I'm curious as to the scale I should work on (my current estiate would make the area somewhere between the size of the USA and North America in square miles). I know I can reduce this further through the use of terrain (high mountains, the Great Sea and such), but it still seems like a rather large area to cover for the size of the Houses I want to include. So I thought I'd check to see the scope and scale other groups work with and then try to find a way to scale things down if I am being overly ambitious (which I probably am).

[The Galactus Kid]

We've always assumed that the area that Barren Marsh claims is smaller than that. I'll have to check the book again for a definitive reference.

As for our great houses in our game world, they each claim significantly smaller areas since they are all smaller houses. Our main house only has one librarian and one engineer, but there are more that are about to reach maturity. The largest great house (Sawgrass) in our area that the party is directly engaged with has three librarians and five engineers.

[Razorwing]

Pg 66 of the main book, 2nd paragraph of the Geograpgy topic says the surface area controlled by the House of the Barren Marsh is roughly a 100 mile radius... which is just a little less than the 32,000 square miles that South Carolina covers.

I understand, I originally thought the area was maybe 100 miles across.

Now then, I know that most Houses are no where near as big as this one and would have a lot less area they actually control and almost all of it below ground. The real question is how far apart are the major Great Houses?

The area I'm working on will be between 1500 and 2000 miles across with maybe a 500 to 1000 mile wide area; most of it will be nearly impassible mountains with numberous connecting valleys. At one end will be a massive Industial Complex and Robot Repository (probably supplying the Machine's costal defenses and the robots that patrol the area. At the other end is the ruined remains of one of the old cities, with a massive boneyard ring arround it. Both of these will have an entrenched Computer Core that covered a large section of the area between them (and has a 200 mile wide overlap near the center). At the center of the Mountain Valley network is one of the largest Nature Preserves on the planet and despite the Far Northern Climate (think Alaska), the majority of the Preserve maintains a Subtropical/Temperate enviroment year round (possibly due to alien plants or some other feature).

There will be at least 9 retro-villages in the various valleys (and most of the valleys open into the basin where the preserve is), while 3 Houses fight the machine within this valley pass network. There was a 4th House that committed such attrocities with bio-tech that the other three banded together to destroy it (though there are survivors that are slowly rebuilding their fallen house while doing their best to remain hidden). Additionally there is a tribe of Technojackers who have made a small sactuary for their kind (accepting any technojackers born into the three Houses of the area and sending anyone from their clan who isn't a technojacker to one of the Houses or Retro-villages). Finally, there is a hidden faction within the Three Houses of the area that have banded together and made a deal with the Machine that would see the resistance in the area all but wiped (though what they get in return I have yet to figure out). In all, there will be only about 100,000 human in the area.

While each of the 3 Houses only control a small area on the surface (100 square miles or so each), they all operate throughout the area... with talks of uniting their Houses into a single House (most Great Houses outside the area tend to think of them as a single House already). Only the distance between them is limiting their ability to unite (and the sabotage of the hidden faction).

I'm deliberately keeping more specific information on this area vague until I have a chance to write it up. Hopefully I will have something to share with this community soon.

[Premier]

Hey Razorwing,

You are right on track with what Slappy and I have devised for developing Great Houses and the surrounding habitats. We have already submitted the info to Palladium Books and hope to see it published soon or at least by the end of this year (fingers crossed). If this script sees print then it will be much easier to design Great Houses and the surrounding habitats that contain them.

A few suggestions I have for those seeking to develop Great Houses:
I. The size of your Great House(s) should also be validated by the supply of resources it has to viably sustain the house and its needs. The greater the needs of the House, however the greater the chances are that various opposition will seek your territory and or its resources. Great Houses should have reasonable abilities of defense and refuge, yet, should not be so exposed or heavy in traffic that obvious threats and attention from NEXUS would be undeniable consequences.

II. Great House evolution. The more developed the house is,the longer it should appear to have been secured at its location, unless it is partnered with a Great House who is providing such advances either intentional or unintentional.

III. The smaller or younger the Great House is,the more influential the players "might" feel in their campaigns towards the House's success and developments. This tends to build a greater loyalty and personal respect or bond for such houses that are in these earlier stages. Such houses may also be easier to hide from opposing or opportunistic Houses or other threats and certainly not as easy for NEXUS to detect or ferret out.

IV. The more intriguing the surrounding habitats are, the more influential they will play a role with your Great House(s). This may involve the influences and reactions of other Great Houses, alliances, blood feuds, Retro villages, Wastelands, Preserves, Ghost towns, etc. Designing or adding signature land marks or weather conditions/aftermath or habitats also helps sculpt and define the game setting.

There is a ton more but I hope this will help give a good start.

[The Galactus Kid]

3 and 4 on Chucks list are very true. We have a small, relatively young great house in our game and the characters have been tasked with scouting the area and making contact with other houses in the region. They have encountered two houses directly and one indirectly, but the players have been instrumental in building the setting. This won't always happen in larger houses. To chucks last point, many of the houses are fighting for the same resources so we have multiple allies houses on one side fighting other houses while also still being concerned with the machine. It is truly a deadly situation.

[Razorwing]

Good to see that I'm on the right track with my own effots.

I originally wanted a fairly isolated location that few people would want to live in, but with a fair amount of resources that both Splicers and the Machine would desire, thus I selected the Mountain Highlands as the predominant terrain (and makes a good barrier to keep the Houses, and thus the players, in the area).

The high mountains and northern climate makes the area fairly unatractive to most Houses, as they don't realize the area also has a large Nature Preserve (how could anything grow in the ice and snow is their reasoning). The boneyards surounding the ruins of one of the Old Cities is seen as potentially the only real resource, but with a Computer Core and legions of Bots, it isn't seen as worthwhile by the majority of Houses (not with easier sources within reach).

Of course, those who live in the area see things a bit differently. They see the harsh magesty as something worth fighting for... and they know the land's secrets... that the ice and snow and mountains hide secrets... secrets that might save humanity... secrets that could doom them all. Secrets that might have been best left burried in the ice... if not for the insanity of the Machine and the curiosity of Mankind.

Bet that has you intrigued now doesn't it? Let me work on my idea a little more and I'll share some more soon.