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Old 04-18-2020, 03:05 AM   #1
RogerBW
 
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Default Scale, Scope and Boundaries

I've been looking through GURPS Horror again and I'm not sure I've worked out just how Ken's campaign parameters interact with each other. (I think this isn't a system-specific question, though.)

Scale I get: how "big" are the stakes? Is the monster going to eat your granny, or crack the world?

Boundaries, OK: is the action going to happen in this city, this province, this country, or across the world?

But scope? What is scope insofar as it isn't boundaries? The discussion is all about geographic area; that isn't "what, who and sometimes how"

So how is scope not just boundaries? I'm sure it's not intended to be, but I can't really see the difference based on this text. Looking elsewhere I've seen it used for "the amount of different stuff" (e.g. is crossing the desert "you cross the desert" or "you cross the dunes; you stop at the oasis; you follow the trade road") or "the power level of the NPCs you're interacting with"…

Thoughts?
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Old 04-18-2020, 07:19 AM   #2
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Default Re: Scale, Scope and Boundaries

I think Scope is sort of the where/what/who it affects. For example, you could have something with small Scale (personal survival) and tight Boundaries (limited to a small village), but a large Scope would mean the characters' actions (or lack thereof) could have a serious impact elsewhere in the world. Perhaps disrupting the cultists here brought you to the attention of their higher ups overseas, and now they are sending other cronies against you (or building up power to do so by committing atrocities elsewhere - read some of Icelander's quasi-campaign logs for ideas). Perhaps the monster you evaded rather than destroyed goes elsewhere and starts causing havoc there. You're limited to the village, sure, but the ramifications of your actions are not, and said ramifications can end up rippling out to affect you as well.
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Old 04-18-2020, 08:25 AM   #3
ericthered
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Default Re: Scale, Scope and Boundaries

Just read it again. As far as I can tell:

Scale is who gets hurt if everything goes south. You can also read it as "stakes".
Scope is about the power level of the people involved. Raw character power is slightly different: NPC and Monster power matter as well.
Boundaries is about the physical locations the action is confined (or not confined) to.

So for examples:
  • A ghost attempting to take over the body of a single teenager in a haunted house has low scale, scope, and boundaries.
  • Heroes of chance stopping an otherworldly invasion from occurring in the backwoods of their town has high scale but low scope and boundaries.
  • A powerful vampire controlling the local police department to kill a professional monster hunter that lives in the same town as him has high scope
  • A chase across the globe by mundanes to recover a captured friend has large boundaries but low scope and scale.
  • Chance heroes who become aware of a world-ending curse, and travel to five ancient cities looking for clues to counter it, has high stakes and large boundaries but low scope.
  • A demon that chases a world class mage across the known world has low scale but large boundaries and high scope.
  • A full team of hunters that stop 200,000 baby vampires from being unleashed on the world but do it at a single castle is an adventure with small boundaries but high scope and scale.
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Old 04-18-2020, 11:21 AM   #4
RogerBW
 
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Default Re: Scale, Scope and Boundaries

Hmm, interesting - thanks to both of you. I think I'll take it as something like "societal power level of the NPCs you deal with" - which might interact interestingly with the more general power level (not so much "how many points are you" but "what sort of people are you").
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