lynnlefey

Re: The Cadfael session

Very nice write-up.

I'm kind of glad that I brought this up. I think the character illuminates the idea of forensics in Medieval times, at least giving me a clear understanding of how someone might acquire and apply such skills.

Still, I found it quite amusing the number of bodies they fished from river near the Mill in the BBC Series.

Re: The Price of an Inn?

I think I've settled on building it as a base, and having cost = 5gp per point.

First, I have to confess to having never read the original books, but I recently saw the entire Derek Jacobi 'Cadfael' series on DVD.

So, of course, tonight's adventure started with the PCs finding a dead body floating in the stream by the mill.

Re: The Price of an Inn?

The problem here is I have no real way to figure the cost of the structure, which is the problem. It might be able to be derived by determining the time it would take to fell a tree and make each beam used, how long it would take to quarry the stones, ship them, lay them, etc, but I have no idea what the work rate is for a stone mason, thatcher, and how many man-hours it takes to cut a tree, saw it into timbers, and transport it to a city from where it may be found.

And trust me, I've wasted hours and hours and HOURS looking for any kind of number to base even a basic guess on.

If it helps, the inn's first floor is a common room and storage, the second floor is any guest rooms and main cooking fireplace. Third floor (peaked roof area) is where the servants live. This layout assumes some private rooms, but about half the folks sleeping in the common room. A small stable would be just outside with a small yard, or it may be sharing a stable with other businesses (haven't determined that yet). No real grounds to speak of.

My basis for my price was to look at what money might be made by running such a place, then figuring that ten years of profit would go to pay it off. I guess I just want to know if it sounds like I'm in the ballpark or if the number seems insane. If it is insane, I think I erred on the low side, since the number seems a might low to me. But a gp is worth a lot more in FH that in some other fantasy game system I may have used in the past.

I also know there's the real estate moto 'location, location, location', that could throw the price, which I tried to cover in the first post. Major city, reasonable neighborhood.

Re: If you were a Duke...

The Province Rules on pencil-pushers page look to be just about exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks.

However, I hope the rest of you all will keep those great ideas coming.

Right, so... how much would an inn, one capable of holding let's say 20 guests cost? Assume it's the kind that offer 'standard' room and food, and is located in a large city in the kind of neighborhood that would attract those folks looking for a standard room or meal, and assume I'm using standard prices from FH.

The best price I came up with when I utterly winged it was about 400gp, but I can find absolutely nothing to really base numbers off of.

Re: If you were a Duke...

Since Keldravia is actually a pretty militant kingdom (very much so in my game) I think some sort of holiday in late spring for... um...'free love' might be a good idea, so the young men have a chance to spread their seed before marching off to war.

In a kingdom where growing population is important, I'd think the social stigma attached to being a bastard would be lessened.

Some interesting thoughts, McCoy.

Re: If you were a Duke...

Wow, folks. Thanks for the flood of ideas.

Let me cover the power pyramid, a question that was asked earlier. The dukes answer to the king. There are 36 Dukes (each lording over about 500,000 people). Dukes on average, have 25 Counts under them (each lording over 20,000 people on average). Counts have something like 50 Seigneurs under them (each with a feif, controlling about 400).

In my first post, I stated "You might have a couple sizable cities (10,000 or so people, most likely)". The important word here is MIGHT. Those that do could almost certainly have the population concentration to allow a university, but some Dukedoms have no major cities whatsoever.

Taxing adventurers is a fine idea. And I think getting a salvage license for site excavation (raiding ruins) might be a good way to do this. While weapon licenses might be a good idea in general, the game is in a very militaristic kingdom, and enforcing a weapon license is not realistically managable. I suppose it could be one of those where the law enforcement folks only ask for a license if you skewer a thug or some such, and since no one really gets them, they then levy a fine. That alone might be enough to keep PCs from chopping randomly through neighborhoods of lowlifes.

Canals and such, maybe coupled with work-gangs might have some merit. I need to look into cost versus benefit of such things.

Banks don't seem appropriate to me for this game, but the idea is there. Certainly though Fairs and the lending notes from them might be a good thing.

Settlement... the problem here is that the people that are available are already working the land. There really isn't a huge group of people looking ot expand elsewhere. One major area actually has just opened up, but it's a marsh, and will take serious work to provide for large scale settlement. And then there's the ugly issues of displacing the native seshurma.

Sponsoring adventurers... at very least, offering them very low tax rates for services to the king. Very nice.

Health issues are more in the erealm of the High Church. But health services is not a bad idea. Maybe keep a fund for healing wounded peasants. A lame farmer ain't much good.

Answer to a question of the difference between military expendature and personal guard... the specific 'military expendature' I accounted for was civil law enforcement, keeping a sheriff and his men. Personal guard would be a small retinue of very skilled armed guards to the king. It may be assumed some few are already existant, but some dukes might not feel safe under standard guard... depending on how they'd run their lands.

Keep them fine ideas rolling out!

Re: If you were a Duke...

Running an honest dukedom is absolutely doable. Just keep in mind even an honest duke will want some comforts afforded to someone of his status.

First, if you're in my game, please don't read this thread.

I've been trying to break down some ideas for the Dukes of the kingdom of Keldravia. As I have only about a bajillion other things to do, I thought I'd throw this out to get some feedback.

First, lets assume you are a duke (or dutchess) of about 500,000 people. Your population is spread across 6700 square miles, 3500 of those square miles are developed. The rest are wilds. You might have a couple sizable cities (10,000 or so people, most likely), but the majority of your population are scattered in villages across your dukedom.

Now, lets assume first that we're looking at 'standard' prices from FH. Second, let's assume that military expendature and infrastructure has been taken care of (this means normal road upkeep, payment of normal clerks, scribes, sheriffs, messengers, etc.) You are charging 10% taxes (another ten are charged by the king, and another 10 by count or town, whatever).

Annually, you have about 200,000 gold remaining after military and infrastructure is taken into account. How do you alot it? You can squeeze guilds, levy extra taxes, take bribes, shake people down, toll roads, whatever, charge court costs if you wish, but those actions have repercussions.

What is not included in the expenses so far are bribes, spy networks, court wizards, payments to temples, personal guard, and personal expenses, patronages, entertainment, etc.

Anyone care to give this a crack?

Re: Eberron Hero

This may or may not interest some of you here, but I wrote an Eberron novel that I posted on-line. Wergild

It was written on spec, and sent to WotC, with no response, when they had an open call for fantasy novels.

It's a complete 85,000 word novel, broken into individual chapters on the site linked above, and deals with farily low-level characters.

My gaming group didn't dig Eberron so much as a campaign setting, and we have moved since through D20 Star Wars, Serenity, 7th Sea (still partially active), and are currently playing a FH Turakian Age game.

I very much liked the Eberron setting, and thought it had some great potential.

Re: Once more in English, please?

Steve... COOL! Do I get some kind of geek-cred? LOL

Hermit... that looks good to me, from what little I know of Heraldry.

Mayapuppies. Ah, Crap! I hate when I get volunteered.

I may work on some others, but I got a lot of other stuff eating up my time at the moment.

Re: Once more in English, please?

I know this is resurrecting a very old thread, but as I'm just getting my Turakian Age campaign up and running, I thought I'd add my take on the Keldravian coat of arms.

It wasn't made with a heraldry program, just photoshop. Glad to see that from the looks if it, I got it right.

My Keldravian campaign is still rather new, but doing okay so far, and this was, if I remember correctly, the first piece of art I made for it.

Re: Darkness and Evil -- Examing the Metaphor

Okay... I have to chime in here. The light and dark thing isn't cultural, jungian, whatever. It's born into us at a biological level. Little children, once they've gotten beyond being squeeling poop-boxes, aren't afraid of the light, they're afraid of the dark. Why? As has been mentioned before, it's due to having our primary sense deprived. Some Christians cast most or all nocturnal animals in the mold of evil, even the owl, which is otherwise often seen as a symbol of wisdom.

People wanting to accomplish covert acts do well to use the cover of darkness. Consider the standard view of the ninja, clad all in black, blending into their nocturnal environment.

When humans are in the woods at night, and hear a sound, they wonder what's making it. Without their eyes to assure them it's not a bear, it might BE a bear, when in fact it's most likely squirrels. The idea of things hidden and obscured from darkness is universal.

When we understand something, we say 'I see'. When we are confused, we say 'fumbling in the dark'.

There is certainly cultural additions to these thoughts, but it is for all practical matters due solely to the fact that sight is our primary sense.

Re: Horror Hero: Cliches to Avoid

I have this strange thing where I like to take obvious horror cliches, and come at them from a different angle. Last year (in my yearly halloween horror one-shot) I ran a game where the players had arranged to use a secluded, and abandoned summercamp on a lake, to shoot a horror movie about a bunch of teens ala Friday the 13th. They were only five miles from a small town, and while cell phone service was bad, all they had to do was climb about a mile up a mountainside (low mountains, in the Ozarks), to get clear signal. They felt pretty safe. I had several NPCs that dissappeared, and due to shhoting schedule and whatnot, they had to send a few people off to find the lost folks, while everyone else went on about their business. This is one of the rare occasions where my players voluntarily split up. It was great fun, and in the end, they were facing a supernatural horror that killed most of them. The two who managed to escape (riding big lawnmower into town, LOL) were puicked up by the local police, and executed (since the town basically worshipped the Grendel-like lake-creature).

It worked for several reasons, and my players all said it was scary as hell, but part of it's effect is that I NEVER railroad my players, and don't make any kind of habbit of killing them. This change really freaked them out.

I agree about 'the one' being a horrible convention, and particularly in RPGs, where it must by necessity be a group of people who get things done.

In 'Cabin Fever' it pissed me off that none of the characters could shoot well enough to kill the damned dog that kept pestering them. If that had happened to me and my friends in high school, that dog would have lasted exactly the time it took eight rednecks to raise their muzzles.

I don't like 'teleporting' monsters, those creatures that shamble along but always seem to be just behind (or worse, get ahead of) the fleeing people.

I don't like people who find themselves in obviously gory supernatural situations (Shining, Amityville) who don't just get the heck out. Eddy Murphy did a bit about this that was hillarious.

As for scary children... sorry to say it occasionally works. 'Ring' Worked, 'Grudge' (cat-scream boy) worked, and 'Village of the damned' (the original) worked. The child as monster worked great in the book 'Pet Semetary', though wasn't pulled off so well in the movie, IMO.

As for priests... look, this is now a full fledged fact of reality that some priests are sick f***ers. However, as I like to mess with my player's heads, I'd be more inclined to use a suspicious acting priest as an unknown ally, just to throw them off convention.

I think, into the mix, I'd like to throw Witches and Nazis. For some reason, NO ONE who writes horror seems to know what 'witch' means, or even care. They go with the hollywood pointy nosed crone idea. And Nazis... good GOD! Apparently, according to most horror, they are responsible for every truly evil act in the last hundred years.

Re: Guns on cards

Brother Jim... The Serenity boards are at:

http://wavesintheblack.aimoo.com/

I made equipment cards for a Babylon 5 game two years ago, where the players were raiding a derilict ship. I printed the weapons and gear off on regular paper stock, but otherwise it was the same deal. It worked great, since instead of taking twenty minutes to write down stats of equipment, they all chose the cards that they though each person would need or want. This selection included things like med and mechanical kits, flashlights, etc. I had a bit of fun scouring the net for pictures to accurately represent various things... good flashlight, crappy flashlight, etc.

For a one-shot game, I thought it was fine. For long term stuff, losing the cards might become an issue. But it certainly is neat to be able to look at your cards and know what equipment you have available at any given moment. Maybe if the players kept a deck protector or something similar, it'd work out long term.

Re: Calling All Heroes!

I will post a message when I have acquired enough characters. There's still plenty of space in the book for great characters, so keep sending them!

Susano... my supreme appologies. For some reason, I can't find your characters. Would you please resend them?

Re: 39 point me

I think the stats I gave myself for my upcoming game are more than reasonable, given what can be measured. It's really hard to guess your CON or Body, with virtually nothing upon which to place it on a scale.

I did indeed have one of my players try to argue that he had compbat pilot skill because of the vast number of hours he'd spent on flight simulators. LOL

Another of my players gave himself an 18 INT, but I didn't argue it. He's a Physics professor, and one of the fore-most experts on time-space boundaries in the world. Even if I weren't absolutely convinced it was 18, it's darn close, I think.

Re: Recent Lost World novels

Neanderthal by John Darnton might fit the bill.

Re: Costumes in a Real World Game

I think people in the real world, confronted with real superhuman powers would vary in their mode of dress. Some superpowers do indeed seem ot fit with skintight latex/spandex. Speedsters seem to be an obvious area for this. Maybe the super martial artist as well. I have a psuedo-brick in my world who is a huge Cleveland Browns fan, and wears a browns jursey, and brown football pants. In the real world, Bricks would either grow immodest, or wear something nearly involnerable to cover their bits, maybe kevlar or some very resilliant alloy chainmail mesh.

I think there would be a fair number of military metas, probably in gray BDUs with web belts, some kind of audi link, and standard issue military gear.

There are always going to be flashy, flamboyant types out there who dress to draw attention. These would be your four-color costumed types. However, even some of these are going to opt for at least somewhat functional outfits. For instance... I don't believe there would be nearly as many 5" steleto heals on women's costumes.

Re: 39 point me

There's the other problem that Gamers often have either an over or under inflated sense of self. No kidding. My group, all adults, ranged from 14 to 97 points when they were allowed to stat themelves.

I think psychologist ought to require folks to stat themselves out as a theraputic tool.

Re: Night of the Living Dead Hero Plot Ideas

Personally, I'd really recommend decreasing character power level. As I mentioned in the '39 point me' thread, I and all the folks in my group were built on 50 points or less. At most, I'd allow a Competent Normal point level (50/50pts.)

The folks in Zombie movies tend to be random normal folks thrown together, not something like a rock star, pro athlete, military intel specialist, etc. Giving the players more skills makes the world less scary.

I just watched 'Dawn of the Dead' last night, and rather think such a game would be fun as well.

As for scenarios, just reemmber to never let them get complacent with their surroundings. The thing about 'Dawn' that was great was that their stronghold was eventually ruined, not by zombies, but by a biker gang. In a world where it's everyone for themselves, humans will be humans' worst enemies.

I also like the idea of saddling PCs with responsibilies for DNPC types. Make them find the children that have been living in the ruins, eating out of garbage cans. Overburden them, and see if they make the tough decision to sacrifice their NPCs to save their own bacon.

Even in places free of zombies, the PCs may also have to deal with other real threats. Disease, from all the corpses around, then you have to start thinking about things like packs of dogs loooking for food. If the dogs are immune to the contagion that turns people into zombies, but eat the meat, are they then able to transmit it via bites? That could make every carnivore scary.

I'm not sure how to simulate the effect of stress upon the players, but if the group starts with a reasonable number of NPCs, you'd get the joy of some committing suicide from the pressure.

Hope some of these thoughts come in useful.

Re: Help with alternate U.S. history?

Washington conservative? Ummm... not from what I can find.

It voted Kerry in 2004, and has 6 Democratic representatives as opposed to 3 conservative ones; Brian Baird D, Norman D. Dicks D, Doc Hastings R, Jay Inslee D, Rick Larson D, Jim McDermott D, Cathy McMorris R, David G. Reichert R, Adam Smith D

Re: Help with alternate U.S. history?

Teflon Billy... This is a minor part of a one-session game. It doesn't need to be bulletproof, it needs to be workable. The names... such as 'New England' are working titles. The divisions are a first crack. This scenario is going to have supernatural horror elements. Poly-Sci perfection is not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for workable. This is not a 'it couldn't happen' thread. If that's your belief, feel free to not participate. I've suggested things I'd like, but the parameters are not absolutes. If you don't like the parameters, then suggest what you consider a workable scenario. The only truly important thing is the end product, a fascist state in Missouri in 2006.

Lord L... I understand the benefits that one would get if partnered with Canada, but I'm saying why actually be under a single government?

D.J. some interesting ideas. Thanks.

Steve... I think any state that would attempt to go it alone would be absorbed (possibly by conflict) by another body.A solo state might not be impossible, but seems unlikely to survive, unless it give a benefit to all its neighbors.

Re: Help with alternate U.S. history?

I considered various ideas of northern states joining with Canada, as well as Texas annexing parts or all of Mexico. Neither appealed to me overmuch, but may eventually be the case. I can't see a great benefit to either, but I'm no political economist.

One thing I'd thought wabout was trying to keep the Midwest Union from being landlocked, which is part of why the great lake states got put into the Midwest union.

If the Midwest Union were part of (or strongly allied with) Canada, would it really be a great benefit to the Midwest states?