Location, Location, Location

Last year I backed the Location Cards kickstarter intending these to be useful tools when I eventually get around to running that RPG session I've been muttering about for the last year. Well, they arrived yesterday and it looks like they will have far more uses than I'd originally thought.

These will be great for adding in some extra flavour, or table setup ideas for any skirmish game.

Say we've rolled the standard face-off style scenario, what do we know about the table layout? At this point... not a lot to be honest. The campaign had three Locations decks (Rural, Urban and Epic) to choose from. I would imagine Epic locations are more suited to large showdowns, so lets take the Rural deck and see if it's of any use in giving our table or game something special.

Here's an example card from the Urban deck that could work just as well in a rural setting

This tells us that our table has a commune full of people wanting to escape from the realities of this world. It's also a fertile area, so there's likely to be lots of trees and crops on the table too.

We've also been told that they have a pack of dogs to keep people away, so this can add a couple of interesting optional rules for the scenario too.

1) As the commune is trying to keep away from the sinful world, they probably boarded up the house as soon as people started to appear, so the building is inaccessible to anyone.
2) They also have a pack of guard dogs that attack anyone going near the building. I'd be tempted to have an NPC pack of dogs that will attack anyone that goes near the barn. Most skirmishes have stats for dogs, so we'll say that the pack is 3 dogs and they will attack anything within 8" of the building
3) The commune is full of Holy scriptures in a lost language. This may be an additional bonus to the winner of the scenario. The bad guys may decide to kill the dogs, kick in the door and steal the treasures, whereas the good guys may be rewarded with a portion of the treasure if they have defended the building and not attacked any dogs.

Alternatively, it could be that one of the two sides in the skirmish is actually from the commune and the other side is specifically attacking it, which would adjust the deployment zones for the game.

While aimed specifically at a fantasy setting, 99% of the cards will spark plenty of ideas for other genres as well