Lily Fox wrote:

(Aside: Don't you just hate it when you hit the Back button by accident, hit Forward and your post in progress has disappeared? Take two.)

Alice - That sounds like an intriguing and darkly exciting setting. I hope you make something of it. In regards to shifting locations, I have some ideas how it could be implemented.

1 - Apparently-identical 'moving rooms' Sometimes cards with secretly different move-to-area effects. In this case each room or wing of the mansion would be a different Area.

2 - Assume the mansion is one big Area and give each room their own Sometimes card. Every time a player draws and plays a room card, they are assumed to have moved to it from the previous one they visited/played. I think this would be the preferred style for a SN story.

3 - Area transition could be a challenge tied to an ability. Say that each wing of the house is an Area with Sometimes cards for each room or event in that wing. Players can, uh, play a transition card (either randomly drawn from a Sometimes deck or Pinned depending on how often you want them to be able to attempt it) which has a branch for each wing. If the 'transition' ability check succeeds, they move to the new area. If not, they don't, obviously.

Hope that makes sense and is of some use. I have got to learn to stop writing forum posts in the early hours of the morning.

Thanks for the ideas!

I'll have to think on it some more to decide how I want to do it, but right now I"m leaning toward a combination of the first and third ideas. Most of the rooms would have an identical-looking Sometimes card (something simple like "Try your luck?" with a picture of a door), with some of them being tied to an ability. I think, for the story, each room really needs to be it's own area, with it's own Always and Sometimes cards. I already know I want a "level-up" equatable to Fallen London's "A Person of Some Importance" that will be achieved much later, with parts of the mansion being accessible only for those with that achievement. I had the idea for a few places (like the player's bedroom) being accessible anytime through the use of a special key. In other words, it wouldn't matter what door the key was used on, the person could always return to their bedroom with it. This would only be for a couple of rooms like the bedroom, the library, and maybe the dining room.

Thanks again for the help. You've got my mind buzzing with ideas~