I put forward a pitch for a new campaign last night. It’s about colonists on an island.
I had a thought about resource cycles for such a game and concluded that it’d be whenever the king’s boat leaves the island. Every so often the Kings boat will arrive to bring forth new tradesmen, criminals and materials and it’d leave with treasures and valued goods of the colonists.
Previously when I’ve run games I’ve used the resource cycle as an abstract game mechanic that comes up regularly to see whether you are poorer or not for the season. This time it represents something solid and as such I’m questioning to what degree it can be interacted with. Could someone evade the tax man, alter the tax records and get away with it? Sounds like a good game situation.
Do you use the resource cycle as an abstract thing that happens during the downtime or as an event with characters that demands its own scene to see what happens?