As I touched on initially, I'm really keen on exploring what I've come to think of as the second layer of story. This sort of thing is largely ignored in many RPGs, but I've actually dreamed of this many times in the past. For example, a Dark Sun campaign setting is screaming for a game in which players are both the gladiators dealing with flashy arena combats and also at the same time the political manipulators behind the scenes ensuring their candidate(s) win. A recent comment reminded me that there are games that explore these kind of rules, but they may not lend themselves well to an RPG. Even Wizards of the Coast designed a game like this: Lords of Waterdeep.
I've toyed with whether a game like that would better focus on the rules of minions or broader pools of influence. A spymaster game might have each player take the role of spymaster and have a set of agents as their resources. They send agents hither and yon to attempt to do the legwork but ultimate the game could be about those manipulators. For Alexandria, I've decided to keep the focus on the more complex set of rules for abstract influences, but by making backgrounds each represent more concrete aspects of the world, I hope to add in a sense of how an agent-based game would work. Allies, Mentor, and Retainers all do this with the Vampire rules.
I've toyed with whether a game like that would better focus on the rules of minions or broader pools of influence. A spymaster game might have each player take the role of spymaster and have a set of agents as their resources. They send agents hither and yon to attempt to do the legwork but ultimate the game could be about those manipulators. For Alexandria, I've decided to keep the focus on the more complex set of rules for abstract influences, but by making backgrounds each represent more concrete aspects of the world, I hope to add in a sense of how an agent-based game would work. Allies, Mentor, and Retainers all do this with the Vampire rules.
