I’m working on a few projects based on Grain Into Gold, including the long awaited Coins of the Road. So I’m trying to make certain that I am consistently using the same prices and reasoning. The list of prices for Grain Into Gold is between 590 and 600 items depending on how you count. 600 prices for individual items, and clearly I don’t think that this is enough. Stop me before I continue!
Oh well, no one stopped me before I posted this, and now we’re at >1,500 and growing fast. The truly crazy thing is that I have the narrative written for so many more things that are not yet on the charts.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Wonders of the World
A lot of us GMs have played some version of Civilization. I think that game has had a major impact on the way I design cultures. It has made me think of what technology level different cultures might be at, especially in comparison to other cultures, and what the impacts of those differences might be. It has made me think about what resources might be available to a city and how ample resources really make a difference between a city succeeding or failing. But oddly enough, I guess it never made me think about wonders of the world.
Fletnern’s got a couple of wonders of the world, but they’re not very impressive. Port of Brinston is supposed to be the biggest in the world and perhaps more impressively the longest pier in the world. The Cathedral of Lady Vlodsdock in Parnania, considered the most beautiful temple in the world. If I thought really hard about it, I could probably come up with a couple more, but really, I’ve never documented those brazenly enormous projects that seem to mark previous civilizations (or current ones).
I think it’s because I’m way too practical to think about stuff like that. You’ll never catch me on the side of a mountain blasting stone away to carve four presidents or three generals. I don’t see the point of throwing away money on “spires” to pretend that some building is taller than it actually is in hope of tricking others into thinking you have just constructed the world’s largest building. I was going to say “vain hope”, but lots of stupid people were tricked into believing that the world’s tallest building was in Malaysia. Now it’s in Dubai. The building’s empty, but it’s really tall. See - I don’t have the whimsical (foolish) personality for these enormous wastes of time, ego building projects.
But role-playing isn’t about what I would do; it’s about putting yourself in that situation and acting as those people would. So I guess I have some work to do.
Fletnern’s got a couple of wonders of the world, but they’re not very impressive. Port of Brinston is supposed to be the biggest in the world and perhaps more impressively the longest pier in the world. The Cathedral of Lady Vlodsdock in Parnania, considered the most beautiful temple in the world. If I thought really hard about it, I could probably come up with a couple more, but really, I’ve never documented those brazenly enormous projects that seem to mark previous civilizations (or current ones).
I think it’s because I’m way too practical to think about stuff like that. You’ll never catch me on the side of a mountain blasting stone away to carve four presidents or three generals. I don’t see the point of throwing away money on “spires” to pretend that some building is taller than it actually is in hope of tricking others into thinking you have just constructed the world’s largest building. I was going to say “vain hope”, but lots of stupid people were tricked into believing that the world’s tallest building was in Malaysia. Now it’s in Dubai. The building’s empty, but it’s really tall. See - I don’t have the whimsical (foolish) personality for these enormous wastes of time, ego building projects.
But role-playing isn’t about what I would do; it’s about putting yourself in that situation and acting as those people would. So I guess I have some work to do.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Urban Development now Available
Hey everyone! Urban Development is now available at RPG Now. Urban Developments does for your cities and towns what Grain Into Gold did for their economies - and it does it in almost the same manner. It starts you out at the most basic concept - Why do you want to create this community? - and it takes you all the way through crafting a complete and realistic place for your world. I love how this works! I have been fretting over the thing for a couple years now trying to get it just right, and I am now content that I have gotten there. It even has you use decisions made in the Terrain and Climate chapter to determine what type of military forces you would have. After all, if they live on a plain with relatively few trees, are they really using long bows? Probably not, because there aren’t that many of the right types of trees. Anyway - please go check it out! We’ll post an update when it is available on e23. (RPG Now is entirely automated, so I can put stuff out there whenever I want. e23 requires human intervention, so, I have to wait for them to be at work. Please don’t think I favor one distributor over another!)
Ages and Longevity
First let me say, that it has been about twenty years since I played that first and most popular FRPG. In know a lot has changed, but not everything. I have a bone to pick with the age of the characters. In my games, elves, dwarves, humans, halflings, etc. all have about the same lifespan. That other game has elves living over a thousand years and dwarves going on for centuries. The problem is - They don’t give them any credit for it.
Here’s what I mean: A human is ready to go adventuring at age 18-25. I forget what it is for elves, but it’s about 300 I think. Within five to ten years of adventuring (assuming survival), a character can get to level 10+ depending on the GM. OK - So let’s assume that the human adventurer calls it quits as he/she approaches middle age. The elf is just getting started. He’s got hundreds of years to go before he hits middle age. But look at your books. The average elf is about as experienced as your average human. All they get for hundreds of years of training is +1 with bows / +1 with swords. Oh, and some extra languages. Same with dwarves. A one hundred year old dwarf is considered ... wait for it ... only as good as some 21 year old human. What? The dwarves aren’t training their militias? Fifty years of dwarven drill sergeants and the guys is level 1? I don’t get it. Oh, it’s game balance. call the PC police, it’s game balance again.
What about the cultural impact of eternal life? If I were going to live for 1400 years, I would be a pacifist. Why would you ever risk another 1,000 years of life over a battle? Don’t worry if the orcs enslave your entire people, you’re going to outlive them, or at least outlive this current empire. After they are all dead from civil wars, you can go back to your gardens. And if all the oak trees are dead, grow some more. After all, oak trees would be like corn to a 1400 old elf. OK, maybe like a rose bush. (For those of you who don’t know, you cut rose bushes down to next to nothing every year. It’s the only way to get them to really grow.)
What about retirement? Do they amass huge sums of money so they can live in retirement for 400 years? OK, the dwarves would. What about the really active ones? I know there are good GMs out there who have monumentally powerful elven wizards and druids. After 1,000 years of learning and experimenting, you should be beyond incredible.
So how do I balance the game? Well, not by being a slave to Tolkien. Everybody lives the same 75-100 years (depending on the state of their health care abilities, both mundane and magical). I mean, I like Tolkien too, but my world isn’t Middle Earth.
I can’t help but think about the elven peasant. Here is a guy who farms a plot of land for 800+ years. I mean, really, 800+ years on the same plot of land. The assumption from that old style game is that after being there for, let’s just say, 500 years, he’s a level 1 guy. If he were really going to farm that piece of land for centuries, wouldn’t he go to night school for druidic magic? I mean, ten years of night school should triple his crops for the next 1000 years. Even if he didn’t, he’d probably have named every earth worm who lived on his land or at least know its genealogy.
OK, I’ve gone on long enough, but I really am interested -What am I missing? Did they fix the game so much that any of this actually makes sense now?
Here’s what I mean: A human is ready to go adventuring at age 18-25. I forget what it is for elves, but it’s about 300 I think. Within five to ten years of adventuring (assuming survival), a character can get to level 10+ depending on the GM. OK - So let’s assume that the human adventurer calls it quits as he/she approaches middle age. The elf is just getting started. He’s got hundreds of years to go before he hits middle age. But look at your books. The average elf is about as experienced as your average human. All they get for hundreds of years of training is +1 with bows / +1 with swords. Oh, and some extra languages. Same with dwarves. A one hundred year old dwarf is considered ... wait for it ... only as good as some 21 year old human. What? The dwarves aren’t training their militias? Fifty years of dwarven drill sergeants and the guys is level 1? I don’t get it. Oh, it’s game balance. call the PC police, it’s game balance again.
What about the cultural impact of eternal life? If I were going to live for 1400 years, I would be a pacifist. Why would you ever risk another 1,000 years of life over a battle? Don’t worry if the orcs enslave your entire people, you’re going to outlive them, or at least outlive this current empire. After they are all dead from civil wars, you can go back to your gardens. And if all the oak trees are dead, grow some more. After all, oak trees would be like corn to a 1400 old elf. OK, maybe like a rose bush. (For those of you who don’t know, you cut rose bushes down to next to nothing every year. It’s the only way to get them to really grow.)
What about retirement? Do they amass huge sums of money so they can live in retirement for 400 years? OK, the dwarves would. What about the really active ones? I know there are good GMs out there who have monumentally powerful elven wizards and druids. After 1,000 years of learning and experimenting, you should be beyond incredible.
So how do I balance the game? Well, not by being a slave to Tolkien. Everybody lives the same 75-100 years (depending on the state of their health care abilities, both mundane and magical). I mean, I like Tolkien too, but my world isn’t Middle Earth.
I can’t help but think about the elven peasant. Here is a guy who farms a plot of land for 800+ years. I mean, really, 800+ years on the same plot of land. The assumption from that old style game is that after being there for, let’s just say, 500 years, he’s a level 1 guy. If he were really going to farm that piece of land for centuries, wouldn’t he go to night school for druidic magic? I mean, ten years of night school should triple his crops for the next 1000 years. Even if he didn’t, he’d probably have named every earth worm who lived on his land or at least know its genealogy.
OK, I’ve gone on long enough, but I really am interested -What am I missing? Did they fix the game so much that any of this actually makes sense now?
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Gates
So I’m torn. I’ve been working on Brinston, the biggest trade city in Fletnern. While trade is important and there is likely enough food - Why do 800,000 people live there? What is there for them to do? So most of that is honestly working itself out, but I turn to gates. The city is about 7 miles by 4 miles and has 9 gates. Still - this seems way too few. Historic Paris only had six gates, so I guess nine sort of makes sense. If you want to pretend that the city wall has any defensive use, you can’t make it into Swiss cheese by adding dozens of gates. So is 9 the right number? I think I’m going to have to live with it for a little while to figure that out.
I admit that Rhum’s gate situation was partially accidental and partially intentional. There are only two gates (north and south), but there are only 40K people in the town. The gates are also small - only about 12’ wide when both halves of the gate are opened. There was supposed to be something about rival breweries (from other towns) using wider beer wagons, and the gates were intended to stop the competition. (If you think major industries don’t control public policy in this fashion, then you aren’t watching your government. That goes for just about every current world government.) Anyway, once I started mapping the city, it became pretty clear that a third gate was going to be needed and I had accidently left the perfect spot for it. (The west gate is due to be built in 657.)
I like that there is a problem in the city. You need to wait in order to pass through the gate. They try various things to get around this. If the city ran too smoothly, I don’t think it would be realistic. Ever try to get a driver’s license? But in the Brinston issue, a major wagon could have to travel an extra 10 miles to get from the northwest side of town to the main gate on the eastern wall. (The gates on the NW side of town are either pedestrian gates or for military or noble use only.) That’s almost a full day’s travel for a huge wagon. That seems excessive. Also - what does it mean within the city? If the city is seven miles across, do the people who live on the west side stay at inns outside the eastern wall before they travel onward? So it’s more than the gates - it’s the size too. Groceries on the west side of town would have to be more expensive than on the SE side of town, because they have had to travel further. I’m still working out the bugs. I think I’m on the right track, even if I’m doubting. Then again, I’ve only been working on Brinston for, oh, let me see, 31 years. Yeah - Rhum too. I use to have Brinston’s rough map painted on my gaming table. Good thing I never did that with Rhum; I’ve changed that map at least five times.
I admit that Rhum’s gate situation was partially accidental and partially intentional. There are only two gates (north and south), but there are only 40K people in the town. The gates are also small - only about 12’ wide when both halves of the gate are opened. There was supposed to be something about rival breweries (from other towns) using wider beer wagons, and the gates were intended to stop the competition. (If you think major industries don’t control public policy in this fashion, then you aren’t watching your government. That goes for just about every current world government.) Anyway, once I started mapping the city, it became pretty clear that a third gate was going to be needed and I had accidently left the perfect spot for it. (The west gate is due to be built in 657.)
I like that there is a problem in the city. You need to wait in order to pass through the gate. They try various things to get around this. If the city ran too smoothly, I don’t think it would be realistic. Ever try to get a driver’s license? But in the Brinston issue, a major wagon could have to travel an extra 10 miles to get from the northwest side of town to the main gate on the eastern wall. (The gates on the NW side of town are either pedestrian gates or for military or noble use only.) That’s almost a full day’s travel for a huge wagon. That seems excessive. Also - what does it mean within the city? If the city is seven miles across, do the people who live on the west side stay at inns outside the eastern wall before they travel onward? So it’s more than the gates - it’s the size too. Groceries on the west side of town would have to be more expensive than on the SE side of town, because they have had to travel further. I’m still working out the bugs. I think I’m on the right track, even if I’m doubting. Then again, I’ve only been working on Brinston for, oh, let me see, 31 years. Yeah - Rhum too. I use to have Brinston’s rough map painted on my gaming table. Good thing I never did that with Rhum; I’ve changed that map at least five times.
Invisibility
I have a bone to pick with a lot of game designers out there. What’s this about invisibility being canceled just before the person takes an action? That rule is like a politically correct version of game balance. There is no reason that picking a pocket, shooting a bow, opening a lock, etc should cancel out someone’s invisibility. What’s the point? No where in fantasy fiction (ignore the books based on these same stupid rules) is there an example of an invisible creature becoming visible, just because he was going to kill someone else. Was Bilbo visible? Frodo was fighting with Gollum but stayed invisible until the finger bite happened.
OK - So since no sane rule of magic should negate the spell due to activity - How do you keep it fair? Well, it does make sense to me that only those things that you actually possess at the time of the spell would be turned invisible. This means you cannot turn invisible, pick up a sword and have it automatically vanish from view. This also leads to fun situations like a sword “flying” through the air as the invisible thief runs. But this rule is far more important. If you (the one not invisible) can give the invisible person something new, you can mark where they are. We especially like flour. Throw a few handfuls of bread flour into the air, and they will tend to land on the invisible guy like snow - marking where he is. You can also just listen really carefully. You may not be able to know exactly where he is, but you’ll have a good idea of the direction. What about dogs or any other smell sensing animal? In a high fantasy world, there should be dog trainers who train dogs to give an alarm when they smell something but do not see it. Water is good too - Make the person walk through a small stream, and the water will flow around their feet, marking their position. And what’s wrong with fighting a person who’s invisible anyway? Sure they’re tougher to hit and a lot tougher to parry, but you can slash around wildly (just like they do in the movies) hoping to connect. If you do, then the blood drips on the floor and connection itself will make the next attacks that much easier.
Invisibility is one of those really cool, really powerful types of magic, and its power needs to be given back to it! Don’t be the PC Police and downgrade it simply because it’s powerful. Attack it in genre; not with some silly rule!
OK - So since no sane rule of magic should negate the spell due to activity - How do you keep it fair? Well, it does make sense to me that only those things that you actually possess at the time of the spell would be turned invisible. This means you cannot turn invisible, pick up a sword and have it automatically vanish from view. This also leads to fun situations like a sword “flying” through the air as the invisible thief runs. But this rule is far more important. If you (the one not invisible) can give the invisible person something new, you can mark where they are. We especially like flour. Throw a few handfuls of bread flour into the air, and they will tend to land on the invisible guy like snow - marking where he is. You can also just listen really carefully. You may not be able to know exactly where he is, but you’ll have a good idea of the direction. What about dogs or any other smell sensing animal? In a high fantasy world, there should be dog trainers who train dogs to give an alarm when they smell something but do not see it. Water is good too - Make the person walk through a small stream, and the water will flow around their feet, marking their position. And what’s wrong with fighting a person who’s invisible anyway? Sure they’re tougher to hit and a lot tougher to parry, but you can slash around wildly (just like they do in the movies) hoping to connect. If you do, then the blood drips on the floor and connection itself will make the next attacks that much easier.
Invisibility is one of those really cool, really powerful types of magic, and its power needs to be given back to it! Don’t be the PC Police and downgrade it simply because it’s powerful. Attack it in genre; not with some silly rule!
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Necromantic Surgery
As you can probably tell, I sit around and ponder the silliest uses of magic. Here’s one that occurred to me: Necromantic Surgery. What do I mean? Well, most games have some manner of necromancy - making dead things come to life again, well, unlife. In Legend Quest, a healer’s resuscitation will not work if the body is in a state that cannot sustain life. So you cannot resuscitate a body without a head or with a spear still sticking in the heart. You have to repair the damage and then bring life back to the body.
What if the reason the person died was more normal? What if they had a bad heart and it failed? I guess in some games, they would just resurrect the guy and everything would be alright, but that isn’t how I work it. Imagine this: A necromancer casts a spell similar to zombie on a heart inside someone’s chest. The zombie heart then starts beating as would have been considered “normal”. He then heals up the chest cavity and resuscitates the person. The guy with the bad ticker now has a zombie heart keeping him alive. There should be a risk of disease from the undead thing sitting inside his chest, but wards against disease are damn near common.
Truth be told, there are probably other ways to accomplish it - curing the diseases of the heart, “healing” the damage to the heart (something I always think is WAY too easy in fantasy games), something like that. But for a strictly “cool factor”, I love this idea. Maybe the guy is an evil warlord and none of the goody goody healer priests will do a cure on him, so he has to resort to the use of necromancy. Don’t get me started on alignments, because I hate those, but evil gods aren’t usually too quick with those healing spells.
There are more applications to this possibility, even undead “people” that function as lab equipment. Sure it’s gross, but this is HIGH fantasy right? Sometimes you need something way over the top or your players will just “been there/ done that”.
What if the reason the person died was more normal? What if they had a bad heart and it failed? I guess in some games, they would just resurrect the guy and everything would be alright, but that isn’t how I work it. Imagine this: A necromancer casts a spell similar to zombie on a heart inside someone’s chest. The zombie heart then starts beating as would have been considered “normal”. He then heals up the chest cavity and resuscitates the person. The guy with the bad ticker now has a zombie heart keeping him alive. There should be a risk of disease from the undead thing sitting inside his chest, but wards against disease are damn near common.
Truth be told, there are probably other ways to accomplish it - curing the diseases of the heart, “healing” the damage to the heart (something I always think is WAY too easy in fantasy games), something like that. But for a strictly “cool factor”, I love this idea. Maybe the guy is an evil warlord and none of the goody goody healer priests will do a cure on him, so he has to resort to the use of necromancy. Don’t get me started on alignments, because I hate those, but evil gods aren’t usually too quick with those healing spells.
There are more applications to this possibility, even undead “people” that function as lab equipment. Sure it’s gross, but this is HIGH fantasy right? Sometimes you need something way over the top or your players will just “been there/ done that”.
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