In any sort of series — television, novels, comics, films — there are stock locations, places that we see every episode, that are familiar to the reader/viewer and provide something to the characters as well. Typical locations are homes, offices/headquarters, hangout (the local tavern, the favorite bar or coffee shop), and even battlegrounds (the field where we duel, the alley where we brawl with rival gangs, and so on). Watch any television show, and see where the majority of the scenes take place.
Gamemasters should have those stock locations, as appropriate to the game of course. A band of fantasy adventurers might always return to the game guild hall or inn between raids. Superheroes likely have a base. Are there roles beyond the obvious, though? Where does a character go when he needs to feel safe? It might be home, it might be a friend or relative’s house, it could be someplace like a library or a the grave of a loved one. Where does the character go for healing? It might be a hospital, a temple, the home of a skilled ally, or his own living room where his butler patches him up.
What sorts of emotional roles do places play, that players and gamemasters should take into consideration where coming up with stock locations for a game? Should there be a list of the types of scenes that can and cannot happen there, rules like “no fighting in church”, so that there’s more emotional impact if the bad guys break that rule?
And what types of recurring locations, other than homes, HQ’s and restaurants should be on the list, that are universal for all genres and settings? What stock locations should be mentioned in the Official Series Bible Core Book, and perhaps fleshed out in Official Series Bible settings?
It almost sounds like you advocating Shemping for locations, which I don’t think is necessarily a bad idea. In fact a few years ago on the Risus Talk mail group, there were some who were assigning cliche’s to locations and using those to determine a PC’s ability to succeed or fail. It would therefore be a simple matter to have a stock location, like Seedy Dive Bar (3). If the PC needed to get information, the GM would roll against the bar’s cliche to determine if there was information to be gained from this particular bar.
The home base could also function as a shared cliche; everyone has “Rangers’ Rest and Good Old Hank (2) to represent their veteran mentor and the bar he owns in his retirement. Any one can use the cliche – or I was thinking Aspect.
Perhaps one of the advantages of such an Aspect is the players can use to help their comrades in a more direct way than ordinarily possible. But, this is all mechanical stuff.
It does sound like shemping locations, which is sort of what we all do in our heads. The TARDIS control room, the Falcon cockpit, the bridge of the Enterprise; they all serve much the same purpose to the plot. Or, the diner from that show where everyone is a reaper and the stock fantastic tavern (which, I might add, given its source material is NEVER stock, yet people complain about it being boring all the time… Weird).
I feel like every group – depending on the players and the tone – need a common place they can go to for sanctuary and succor. A road house for monster hunters or a rec hall and mess for space navy ensigns… whatever. I say this, because the group I usually play with plays pretty serious games (more cable network drama, less eighties network action) and we all tend to come back to one place or another and having it get wrecked or having a character (NP or P) taken from it some how is ALWAYS more affecting when it is less generic and more personalized.
I think it should be true of all games that are going to last for any length of time that every player needs to contribute something to the HQ. Whether it is narrative or mechanical might vary from system to system more than setting to setting.