This recent, brilliant (as usual) post of Phlox's references a setting's animating conflict. It's the first time I recall seeing it on a blog, though I could swear it was in the zeitgeist before then. This is proving an increasingly useful concept for me. If I had to define it, an animating conflict is a conflict so essential to a setting it's impossible to describe it without its mention, and that any arbitrary dungeon game problem might be plausibly blamed on- this is in the service of creating a greater sense of cohesion and depth.
Here are d20 generic conflicts that might serve as animating conflicts for a setting.
1 CASTE SYSTEM. Strict social classes delimit who has access to power.
2 CUTTING-EDGE. Technological growth outpaces cultural growth.
3 DECADENCE. A great nation shows signs of collapse from within.
4 FAMINE. Profound, desperate poverty grips a food-scarce mote.
5 FOREIGN CONQUERORS. Distant powers rule this mote by proxy.
6 INHOSPITABLE. The mote’s landscape is difficult to survive in.
7 LOST TREASURE. A world-changing bounty hides somewhere on the mote.
8 LOW-RIDING. The mote sits too close to the Æther’s maddening horror.
9 MONSTROUS TYRANNY. A demon rules unjustly and autocratically.
10 NOBLE HOUSES. Aristocratic bloodlines vie in cutthroat competition.
11 OTHERWORLDLY INCURSIONS. The walls between worlds wear thin.
12 PLAGUE. Disease ravages the land, bringing poverty and paranoia.
13 PROPHECY. A cryptically foretold doom suddenly begins to unfold.
14 REBELLION. A slighted population rises up against its oppressors.
15 RELIGIOUS FRINGE. The CHURCH combats an obscure foreign faith.
16 RELIGIOUS HEGEMONY. A dominant foreign faith combats the CHURCH.
17 RUSH. A boom causes an influx of riches and those who seek them.
18 TYRANNY. An all-powerful lord rules unjustly and autocratically.
19 WARRING MOTES. This mote is a home front in a large-scale war.
20 WARRING STATES. Competing nations carve up this mote in open war.
As a sort of reverse-joesky tax, here's tables of exotic terrains you could encounter in the motescape. I'm thinking of running a limited-length Pb campaign for GLoG server people coming up soon, and I'm coming up empty in terms of putting the pieces together and actually making a game happen, so I'm generating all sorts of tools for myself in the hopes I'll use them. We'll see how that works.
THE SURFACE.
1 ASH DESERT. A terrible burn leaves only a sea of fine black cinders.
2 BLOOD MARSH. Rubidium deposits turn swamp water a violent crimson.
3 BONE WASTE. Titanic, alien skeletons jut madly out from the earth.
4 CHLORIC MOOR. A cloud of grey-green death drives off even the wind.
5 CORAL GRAVEYARD. A living sculpture garden survives a bygone ocean.
6 CRYSTAL FIELD. Raw jewel spires refract endless starlit rainbows.
7 GLASS DESERT. Lightning scours an expanse of silicate geometries.
8 HANGING GARDEN. Miniature vine-strung floating motes drip with life.
9 IMPERIAL RUIN. Shattered idols and fallen pediments choke the earth.
10 IRON SPIRES. Great metal fingers twist hungrily towards the stars.
11 LUMINOUS BLOOM. Carpets of phosphoric flowers glow in every hue.
12 MYCELIAL FOREST. Fungi flourish in the shade of titanic toadstools.
13 NOBLE VENTS. Geysers of pure gas erupt from deep below the ground.
14 PETROGLYPHIC COUNTRY. Every surface bears indecipherable glyphs.
15 ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN. Nail-sharp sugar gravel shreds most shoes.
16 RUST FIELD. Hulking war machines from before history deteriorate.
17 SINGING PLAIN. Hollow grasses whistle in harmony when wind blows.
18 SLAG VOLCANO. Molten metal spews up into the smog-choked sky.
19 SUGAR LAKE. Saccharine serpents swim in the cloying depths.
20 SUNDERED ZONE. Shattered chunks of mote hang limp in the sour air.
THE UNDERDARK.
1 ACID WELL. A great waveless lake devours living matter in seconds.
2 CHTHONIC SEA. Depths untouched by time teem with antediluvian life.
3 MAGMA VEIN. Molten rock burbles forth, boiling all in its path.
4 OIL OCEAN. Rippling rainbows shine against a bed of black gold.
5 OOZE COLONY. Pools and pockets of toxic slime ferment and burble.
6 PHOSPHORIC GROVE. Glowing crystals spell out strange constellations.
7 SALT SPINDLES. Eyeless beasts lick profane glyphs into sodic spires.
8 SCREAMING SHAFT. Howling wind wracks the rock, shrieking as it goes.
9 THE FLESH. Walls of sinew and bone writhe, slick with blood and pus.
10-12 Roll as THE SURFACE.
Thanks for reading, and happy gaming.
(All those tables fit on one line of a google doc. Ugh. You'll just have to wait until they show up in a published version of Pb to see how sexy they actually are.)
