As I continue to nail down the gameplay loop of Bug & Claw, I've been exploring point crawls (pun intended).

Goals:

• Each "phase" of the game has straightforward mechanics.
  • Where a "phase" means things like world travel, town activities, dungeon delving, and so on.
• The game is easy to understand for new players, or to jump back into for those who have to miss some games.
• Players feel like they're actually shaping a world and their actions have consequences.
• New campaigns can optionally use the altered world from a past campaign.
• The items and skills characters gain can help them in unique ways in different phases.
• It's easy for others to create for Bug & Claw, adding new events, maps, and so on.
• Connections between points are as interesting as the points themselves.

Influences so far:

• Gloomhaven
• Pandemic Legacy
• One Page Dungeon Compendiums
• Final Fantasy Tactics games
• Apawthecaria
• Ultraviolet Grasslands

What I'm exploring:

• The starting area, Western Entomara, for the base game
• If a group wants/needs to go off-path, can they? What's the cost?
• Labeling, symbols that don't require people to learn. Ubiquitous.
• Easy ways for people to label the map with new things.
  • Stickers? - I don't really want to cause people to have to buy more things, though
  • Pencil?
  • Symbols?
  • Spots reserved or allow anyone to place anywhere?
• What happens when a path gets blocked?
• Can points and paths ever be skipped?
  • Certain skills, events, equipment, mounts could help.
  • Get a giant flying mount and it gets you over dangerous terrain.
• Can certain types of locations only be revealed/found after requirements are met?
  • What would an intuitive way to handle that be?
  • E.g. adding new tables to roll on.

What I'm not interested in including/exploring:

• Filler. Things should be interesting.
• Hexes if it can be avoided.
• Resource spending/planning to travel.

What do you love or hate about that various phases of TTRPGs? Point crawls? The time in between dungeons? Reach out on social media, I'd love to find out!