Blueprints

A blueprint is a tool that helps you quickly create things and put them into the game world. Each one lets you build groups of creatures and even the places they inhabit. When you need to build something new, find the related blueprint. At the top of each blueprint you will find themes that give you broad strokes. Pick the theme that matches your need, and it will tell you related creatures, features, and locations. This is often enough to continue play, but below the theme table are details of each item, which you can look up as needed. You may never need to, but if and when more details are needed, simply find them and follow their directions. What you will get is a coherent element for your game: a fishing village with a wharf and boats, a temple with its clergy and politics, or even a whole city with a king and a colosseum.

As you use blueprints, note that they often refer to each other. A city will refer to a different blueprint to build its magical academy. A town blueprint tells you about its walls and guards, but needs another for its thieves' guild.

Though blueprints give a wealth of information at your fingertips, you do not need to build everything before play. In fact you shouldn't; build only as far as the game needs. Sketch the place the players are in and the creatures they are interacting with. You can always come back to the blueprint for more when you need.

And of course, remember that blueprints are a starting point, and something you can depend on, but it is your own inspiration that will lead to the best creations.

Quick start at the table

When the party arrives somewhere you have not prepped, this is the shortest path from cold start to running the scene.

1. Find the blueprint that matches. Settlements live in Places. Factions and social groups live in Creatures.

2. Pick a theme. Every blueprint opens with a list of themes. The theme sets the flavor and drives what everything else looks like.

3. Read what the theme brings. The theme table lists the creatures, features, and locations for that theme. This is often enough to keep play moving.

4. Follow references only when you need to. Every item in the theme table has details below, and cross-referenced pieces have their own blueprint. Look up only what the game needs right now. Skip the rest.

5. Play. Come back to the blueprints whenever the characters dig deeper.

Advice

When you have time between sessions, or you are building something from scratch, blueprints reward digging in. A few things worth knowing.

Blueprints work together. A settlement blueprint tells you what is present. It points at creature blueprints for who is present. The Market Town theme tells you the town has Merchant Caravans; the Caravans blueprint tells you who is in a caravan, what it trades, and its route.

Build outward. Pick the settlement, make the rolls, then follow the references your players are about to encounter. If characters are in a seedy part of town, knowing about the Thieves' Guild is more important than the Merchants' Guild.

Worked example: Magic academy town, in ten minutes

Say the party is traveling to a town called Westhall. You know from the map it is an Academy Town. No other notes.

1. Open the Town blueprint. Read Academy Town. The theme table tells you Westhall is a walled town of ~3,500 with a Trade district, a Craft district, and another you choose from between Farming, Herding, or Fishing. You pick Farming. Academy Town brings: a Council, Guilds, a Watch, Smugglers, Gang, Thieves' Guild, Merchant Caravans, an Academy, plus Common Shops, Gates, an Inn, Guild Halls, Market Square, and a Town Hall.

2. The Council. Following Rulers to Council, you decide 5 Councilors. You roll Personality (d6): 2 = contested — rival factions on the Council. You roll a name for the Headmaster; the other four you leave blank until it becomes important.

3. The Guilds. Following Traders to Guild, you get one per commercial district so you get two (above you noted that Westhall has a Trade and Craft districts). Merchants' Guild — Personality 2 = political (angling for Council power); Specialty 6 = merchants. Craft Guild — Personality 6 = declining (losing members); Specialty 8 = leatherworkers. You roll a name for the Marchant's Guildmaster because it looks like he will have some power here.

4. The Town Watch. Following Military to Watch, you roll Patrol Pattern (d6): 3 = mounted (patrols the outskirts and gates). Personality (d6): 4 = lazy (paid to look, not to act). You roll the name of the Watch Captain.

5. The Smugglers. Following Criminals to Smugglers, you roll personality 4 = corrupt — the blueprint text tells you outright: "a guard officer or ruler in pocket." Contraband 4 = potions and alchemy. Front 3 = tannery. Trouble 1 = rival cell moving in on the territory. You roll the name the Boss because you figure that could come up soon.

6. The Gang. Following Criminals to Gang, you roll Personality 3 = rising. Rackets 2 = gambling. Turf 4 = a specific alley or street. Trouble 3 = the Boss has disappeared. You skip naming the two Lieutenants, but wonder if you'll need to know who is fighting for control of the gang. And is this something the Watch Captain would be aware of? Or the Thieves' Guild? You roll the name of the gang's Boss.

7. The Thieves' Guild. Following Criminals to Thieves' Guild, you roll Personality 1 = professional. Specialty 6 = forgery. Rules 3 = pay the tithe. Trouble 4 = a huge score coming and half the underworld knows. You roll the name of the guild's Boss. Maybe he is favoring one of the gang Lieutenants.

8. The Academy. Following Arcane to Academy, you roll Personality 4 = impoverished — the blueprint text says outright: "endowment shrinking; the academy is quietly selling books." Focus 3 = alchemy and transmutation. Wards 2 = shielded library. You already decided the Headmaster is on the town council in step 2.

9. The Merchant Caravans. Two commercial districts, so two caravans. Trade caravan has Personality 1 = punctual, Route 2 = regional, Specialty 6 = general. Craft caravan — Personality 5 = struggling, Route 6 = dying, Specialty 3 = wool, hide, and cloth.

Stop. Count what you have so far:

Named characters: a Councilor, a Guildmaster, the Watch Captain, and three underworld Bosses (Smugglers, Gang, Thieves').

Local tensions:

• The Academy is quietly selling books to keep the endowment afloat.
• The Smugglers are moving alchemical contraband out of a tannery, and a rival cell is pressing in.
• The Gang Boss has just vanished.
• The Thieves' Guild is running a huge forgery operation, and half the underworld knows.
• The Craft district is failing on two fronts: the Craft Guild is splitting; the Craft caravan's route is dying.
• A corrupt Smugglers operation implies a Watch officer or a Councilor is on the payroll.
• The Academy's Focus and the Smugglers' Contraband both rolled alchemy. Naturally, this means the Academy is the source of what the Smugglers move.

What you did not have to do. You did not invent all the people and places in the town. You did not have to think about family networks or unified conspiracies or character backstories. The blueprints gave you seeds and characters. All you did was roll dice and read the results. And if players engage with the missing Gang Boss, or the Academy's book sales, or the rising Craft Guild schism, you have more blueprints to give you more details then. Whether the missing Boss is dead or defecting, whether the Academy's book buyer is a rival or a foreign power, or the guild decline is related to outside bandits, all will be revealed through play.

In 10 minutes, the blueprints have set you up with all the pieces of an amazing game.