Friday, January 21, 2011

Scene Lord's Advice of the Day: Population

A SLAOTD for SL's...
Any place that one goes, there are many other things that inhabit that place. So, it at once seems odd when a victim finds itself alone.

Specifically, the tendency to subject players to large tracts of nothingness, takes away from any believability of the setting. Granted, it can be hard to populate every square inch of a Dominion, but there are some "easy" ways to do it (like random charts or on-the-spot monster generation). There is a need for roaming beasties, and the things that eat them, in the wastes. A forest should be alive with critters, and the things that eat them. Cities should be filled with all manner of people, and the things that eat them.

Why? Some games only have encounters every measured amount of time (or distance) but that is not realistic. Other entities can be used by players as tools, sources of info, and an infinite amount of other uses. And, like I said before, it adds to the believability. Players want to interact with stuff, so let them.

Ricalope, SL.