Hello,

This week for the devlog I'm touching on the world events system that will be included for Courier - Repacked edition.

As briefly discussed in the Factions, Tension, and The Wasteland devlog, Courier - Repacked asks the player to track a world timer uptick after each turn. Once the world timer reaches full, 6 total, a new World Event occurs. These events last one entire world timer and are designed to mix things up for players by taking them out of their comfort zone in the game. For example:

Credit Crash - A recent malfunction in the closed credit tracking system has reduced the available Credits in the wasteland for buying and selling. Items and Gear are unavailable to purchase or sell until the next World Event.

OR

Cargo Drought - Something outside your region has blocked trade coming in for the factions, either war, weather, or logistics. No new Contracts can be generated until the next World Event.

OR

Hostile Robots Released - A surge of robots has swept across the wastes. All Combatant Table results are Haywire Robots (3W, d12, 1H) until the next World Event.

A robot might be the least of your worries out there.

World Events Design

When designing the possible events I wanted to follow 3 design rules: simple, fast, and functional. Many times when I play a game with an lasting timer I will forget to do the big something when the timer fills or even forget to move the timer up at all. My idea to resolve the forgotten timer was using a single d6 , a physical tracker compared to a progress clock. 

A progress clock, also known as skill wedges or TTRPG clock, is a circle divided into equal segments that fills when something happens to warrant it. These have become exceptionally common in the past 5 years and offer the dreaded, and much needed, sense of urgency to the characters actions. 

I've been a big fan of clocks as progress and urgency design, especially when playing solo games. The clocks further functions as a ever-moving force forward, much like how a GM would push you towards the next plot point if you are dallying around too long. As for the designs...

Simple

Players roll on a table of possible events. A few of these events are special events as they introduce a permanent change to the wasteland. Each event takes less than a minute to resolve and implement. For example: a new wasteland faction appears and needs to have a faction base added. They are easily added to the map and follow the same rules as another faction the player is already familiar with.

Fast

No additional rules lookup needed. What you read is what you get from the World Events. The player can make a quick note on their character tracker for the current event if they need it. For example: radiation sweeping across the wasteland adds a single point of RAD to the player at the start of each turn. This requires minimal bookkeeping and time investment from the player.

Functional

None of the world events are fluff or filler. Each event is designed to make changes to the players routine and push the exploration of other mechanics available. For example: Without the ability to generate new cargo for the next 6 turns, will the player take on the less than desirable contracts sitting in their pool or will they instead go explore the wasteland and get into some trouble?

As with the core design philosophy of Courier - Repacked, yet not something I've touched on thus far, the World Events system is modular. If a player wants to create their own world events, or add an additional set of world events, they can do so as easy as changing the die roll or table reference. The player can choose to not play with the World Events as well, as there isn't anything in the events table that would prevent reaching an end to the game.

In fact, next week will be touching on the modular design of Courier - Repacked and how I hope it serves as a strong foundation for hacks and expansions. This is something I've spent a lot of my time look through other indie games and believe that I'm now ready enough to talk about it for my own work.

Until next time,

- Cody