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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 29 Oct 2016 : 10:35:03
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In my Misbegotten Realms setting, I've taken the 'Adventurer's guild', merged it with the Pathfinder Society (my "Explorer's Society") from Golarion/Paizo, and then further added-in the some stuff from the Citybook series (by Flying Buffalo). In Citybook IV there is an example of an Inn that is a part of a chain of Inns, operated by a large mercantile coster. It has a tavern, stables, and even a small 'general store', and since they are all supposed to be very similar, you can use the one floorplan for all of them.
With my hybrid version, I made them into the local 'Pathfinder' houses as well, and the general store becomes an adventurer's supply shop. Thus, its something along the lines of Aurora's, but a little more grounded in reality (and ones in more civilized regions could even HAVE an Aurora's as part of it), as well as a lot more useful. Its more like a small (walled in rural areas) compound that provides all the services an adventuring group could need, including maps, guides, hirelings, and even a 'mysterious stranger' lurking at a corner table.
Think of it as modern day style 'franchise' for a fantasy setting - like a medieval 'McDonald's' on steroids (or Motel 6). You can pick up all the local gossip there (naturally) as well as check-in with the guild/club/society.
*Pssssst* - and what most folks don't know is that it's owned and operated by The Harpers. The Mercantile Coster is a shell company set-up by Mirt. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 29 Oct 2016 20:59:00 |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 29 Oct 2016 : 20:53:47
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Outwardly you can say that they are affiliated with The Heralds, and then only 'covertly' affiliated with The Harpers.
I would assume someone like Azoun would know the whole truth, and probably even some of the BBG's of the setting. However, just because someone like Szass Tam or Manshoon knows doesn't mean they'd bother to inform their underlings (because stupid ones might start fights or do other dumb things, and sometimes its better when you know your 'enemy's hand', but don't let him know you know).
You know, this might not be a bad idea for a DM's Guild project.
Also, established Inns in the Realms can have been bought by the coster and converted; in fact, in MY Realms 'The Way Inn' was the very first of these.
And if you were so inclined (I'm not), you could even place secret 'Gates' in the cellars, for certain senior Harpers to 'hop about', or even a particular room in the Inn, always reserved for them, where they can say a keyword and then transfer to the corresponding room in another Inn... but thats a wee bit OP for my tastes. Employees at the Inn would know that when a customer specifically requested 'room 7' (or whatever), they would know whats going on and cover for the missing person ("he just up and left in the middle of the night"). |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 29 Oct 2016 21:00:29 |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 29 Oct 2016 : 23:18:37
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I made it continent(world?)-wide in MY version only because my Misbegotten Realms was designed more for 'DM ease' then anything else, so having an 'all-purpose adventurer's stop' wherever I needed one to be was the way to go. I can just use one floor-plan/map for them all, with little 'tweaks' to make them a little different (or not - it would be amusing to pull a 'Pokémon' and have the NPCs all be the same from place to place).
EDIT: Now you have me thinking about doing a floorplan of the Inn itself, using and architecture program I used to use for my real job. With that program you can even do '3D walk-throughs', which I think would be pretty damn cool. The furniture is all modern-looking, though, but if I just use the wooden stuff it shouldn't be too jarring. I've been meaning to port-over my RW skills for some time, and this might be just the right project for this. I could possibly even start to create my own content for the program - I've done that before, and my 3D skills have gotten MUCH better. The program is only around $49, and not too hard to learn, so it could become a 'big thing' for DMs if the community developed more appropriate content for it.
Punch! Home & Landscape Design Essentials
EDIT2: And now that I think about it, because you can do 'landscaping' with it, and make any size 'yard' you want, you could even do outdoor encounters with it! There are a few non-foliage related outdoor items as well that can be used, although I think the gas grills may be a bit too 'new'. LOL |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 30 Oct 2016 17:49:15 |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 30 Oct 2016 : 17:55:17
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Crafting.
I know Pathfinder tried its hand at that, and it was met with mixed reviews. I haven't been on their site in awhile, so I don't know if thats still the case.
Chivalry & Sorcery had the best damn Crafting rules I've ever seen in a TT RPG - the only ones I think really worked. I wish their 'materials tables' would enter the public domain - it would an amazing resource for all games. I've thought about renaming their concepts and just stealing it, but the tables themselves are intrinsic, and I'd have to make the numbers indentical for it to all work... which probably crosses the (legal) line of 'derivative work'.
I should probably look at what Paizo did, instead of just reading other people's opinions of it. Maybe their system is similar enough to C&S' that I would like it. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 31 Oct 2016 09:41:11 |
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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore
Australia
6662 Posts |
Posted - 31 Oct 2016 : 06:42:15
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I've always loved the idea of extensive crafting rules, inspired in the main by the old 1E DMG info re potion ingredients and then Ed's spell ink formulae and constant references to monster parts being good for X, Y or Z magic. In my perfect campaign, it wouldn't be only for magic though, but for herbal stuff, medicines, antidotes and chemical compounds (ala "flash powder"). Of course, to do it properly the time used to make all this stuff would be strictly enforced in game - preventing the said PC from adventuring and lagging in terms of XP and level advancement. This would in turn lead to a more Gygaxian set up where theer were lots of hirelings and henchmen, and as in Ed's campaign NPC adventurer buddies (Dove, Aumark Lithyl, Islif Lurelake etc.) who could be "played" by an individual while their main PC was dormant doing crafting. Dream campaigns - what wonderful things they are.
-- George Krashos |
"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 31 Oct 2016 : 09:40:49
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Yup, thats how C&S was, plus it had well over a dozen completely different magic 'classes' that all worked differently, and all needed their own ingredients for various things. It was a thing of beauty. There were even a few 'synergies', like how a conjurer needed a specific ingredient for his 'cauldron' (Think The Wizard of Id) that could only be obtained from a qualified alchemist, etc. (And that conjuror even had a chance to attract a 'spook' to his pot over time,)
The whole system was based upon something called 'BMR' - Basic Magic Resistance. You had to reduced a substances's magical resistance to zero before you could put magic into it (by casting 'enchant' repeatedly). The only thing that had a natural BMR of zero was dragon's gold. I believe Lead was the highest, with a '10', IIRC. Oh, and the lower the number, the harder it was to get it to the next number. i forget the precise equations, but it got down to where you only had like a 5% chance of reaching the next lower BMR each time you cast Enchant, so it was very time consuming, but a bit of luck could help you out (or bad luck could hurt you). Characters were required to sit-out however many sessions it took to do the thing (everyone had back-up PC's in the game I played). And all of that was just for ONE ingredient - the rest was based on the 'Law of Three'; A first level spell item required 3 ingredients. A second level, 9. The third, 27, etc, etc. Thus, it could take you a year of game time just to enchant all the ingredients down to BMR: 0, and all that before you even began crafting the item!
I think maybe for the enchanting part you were allowed to still be adventuring - just had to cast the spell while out (which cost you energy that you may have needed in a fight). In D&D terms, that would be like giving up 1 spell slot per day. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 31 Oct 2016 16:24:10 |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 31 Oct 2016 : 16:38:33
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IN C&S, I believe 'mortal' items went up to +5, but deity-made items could go up to +10 (+6 thru +10 are artifacts).
However, all of that was offset by the time-consuming nature of enchanting. A +5 item would take decades to make. That means most items over +2-3 would be dwarf or elf-made.
And now I remember a bit more of the system - it was a D100 system, so everything was based on that. You only reduced the BMR of an item by .1 (1%) each time. Thus, if you were trying to enchant steel (lets just say it was BMR: 6), you'd first have to reduce it to BMR: 5.9, then 5.8, etc.
Thus, Lead being BMR: 10 was a big deal - you had to enchant it (successfully) 100 times! And IIRC, your chance of success (enchanting) was proportionate to how far along you were with reducing the resistance. For example, with an item that had a BMR of 4.7 you would have a 47% chance of your 'Enchant' spell working. Getting that last 1% was super hard (even with bonuses, which you were allowed).
So I guess you could say magic items were EXTREMELY rare in C&S, much more so than D&D. You prized a +1 sword if you found one.
EDIT: And I still like the cost of making magic items in earlier versions of D&D, and any system I come up with would incorporate that. Every magic item you make would cost one PERMANENT point of constitution (A bit of your 'soul' {life energy} has to be sacrificed into the item). Thats another limiting factor on magic items - I hate 'Monty Haul' style RPGs (which is nearly all CRPGs). |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 31 Oct 2016 16:44:05 |
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Cards77
Senior Scribe
USA
745 Posts |
Posted - 01 Nov 2016 : 14:03:49
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quote: Originally posted by George Krashos
I've always loved the idea of extensive crafting rules, inspired in the main by the old 1E DMG info re potion ingredients and then Ed's spell ink formulae and constant references to monster parts being good for X, Y or Z magic. In my perfect campaign, it wouldn't be only for magic though, but for herbal stuff, medicines, antidotes and chemical compounds (ala "flash powder"). Of course, to do it properly the time used to make all this stuff would be strictly enforced in game - preventing the said PC from adventuring and lagging in terms of XP and level advancement. This would in turn lead to a more Gygaxian set up where theer were lots of hirelings and henchmen, and as in Ed's campaign NPC adventurer buddies (Dove, Aumark Lithyl, Islif Lurelake etc.) who could be "played" by an individual while their main PC was dormant doing crafting. Dream campaigns - what wonderful things they are.
-- George Krashos
Dream? This is what I do....it's the best way to give meaning to all the wonderful details that the old dungeons had like the ones in the OGB.
I've taught my players to care desperately about those damn jars of hippogriff feathers! And they love it that way.
It's a tribute to you Grognards and how details are supposed to be done. It's a living working world, just like ours. |
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