Sunday 29 March 2015

Yoon-Suin Part 2: putting it into practice!

OK, so in my previous post I talked about Yoon-Suin, which I think is a cool resource for generating exciting gaming settings. So on Friday I took it for a test drive, rolling up a random campaign setting within the Yellow City, the ancient metropolis at the heart of Yoon-Suin. I created the names for the groups, but everything else is pretty much random. First, I rolled the groups within the PCs' social circle.

The House of Imperishable Pronouncements is an archive. I rolled "ambition" as the source of conflict. For NPCs, I rolled Sri Ja, a bookish neophyte, and Luhagala (I am not doing a good job with the capitalisation and accents, because I jotted these down in all caps), the archive's wealthy benefactor. Meanwhile, another archivist, Chan Chal, is sabotaging the archive by destroying ancient records on behalf of a mysterious patron.


The Fane of the Coral-Hued Devourer is a shrine. I rolled "love" as their source of conflict. They worship a chaotic crocodile god which rules the concepts of death and pain. It demands sacrifices of birds, which I envision as being like the little birds that clean a crocodile's teeth. The NPCs for the shrine are Ven Dan e, a hardass traditionalist priest. Rumour has it that he has miraculous gifts. Meanwhile, Gun Jit a is a pissed-off reformer who opposes Ven. One of the randomly-generated NPCs was Dar shak, a dyer who is a dandy with dusty and ragged clothes. I decided that his dapper appearance was because he was trying to impress a girl, and so I made him be in love with Gun. 


The Lower Green Temple District Mob are a cockroach-herding clan, which is about as low as you can get in the Yellow City's hierarchy if you're a human. Their conflict source is "folly." The first NPC I rolled was Ga Gan, husband of the head of the clan. Kala, a former challenger for leadership of the clan, grumbles and plots in the shadows. They are also harbouring an outcast from a noble house, although I forgot to generate this guy. I didn't have a good sense of how these guys collected to the larger plot, although they might have something to do with the missing explorer under the next item.


The Society for Cartographic Rectification are an association of explorers. Their source of conflict is "treachery." Their chief guide is a Lamarakhi headhunter named Ha Rij, and the Society has a contact named Pa Nit A, a crooked fence who buys the artefacts they find. But they have a problem: their wealth was all being held by one of their members -- and that member is missing. I pondered having the body found by the cockroach clan, but haven't decided yet.

After that, I rolled up some random NPCs. I've already mentioned Dar Shak, the lovestruck dyer. I also rolled:

A jit, a legless fakir with a burning desire for knowledge.

Chi dat ma, a hunchbacked, skeletally thin goldsmith afflicted with jealousy for the possessions of others.

Polaha vo, a slugman botanist who carries a cane. He has a rival he seeks to outdo.

Wu U, a hedonistic narcissist slugman who is an apprentice mathematician. He lives only for pleasure.

I also rolled some random rumours:

  • A tea shop owner is trying to intimidate the proprietor of an opium den. 
  • Whisperings and moanings are coming from the catacombs of a long-forgotten sect. 
  • A mine in the Topaz Isles has discovered a new type of gemstone with strange effects. 
I think that's plenty to be starting with. This isn't meant to be a full suite of plots, so not everything has to be interconnected. It's meant to be the backdrop for a starting campaign. But it's definitely full of adventure potential, whether the possibility for conflict among the characters or the different groups sending the characters off to retrieve or explore the things they want. I have a notion that Polaha vo may be involved in developing new and exotic types of tea, which would be a fun thing to do: send the PCs all over the shop looking for rare blooms. 


1 comment:

  1. Pretty cool stuff :)

    I'm increasingly wanting to run a Yoon-Suin campaign "as is"...

    Well, the "hot seat" in my Sunday game will be up for grabs soon, I might have to pitch this their way :D

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