How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

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How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#1 Post by Keehnelf »

This thread will orient you to the practices and expectations of the game forum and provide information essential for all players in this sandbox.

Links:
Labyrinth Lord Original rules (everything you'll need to play)
West Marches blogposts (about the structure of the game)

Table of Contents:
1. Setting
2. Rules of Operation
3. Calendar and Time
4. Combat
5. Rewards
6. Disposition of Property
7. Modifiers, Death Dying & Healing
8. Critical Hits and Misses
9. Construction and Improvements
10. Magic and Magical Items
11. Mixing Melee and Ranged Attacks
12. Monuments, Tributes, and the High Life
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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#2 Post by Keehnelf »

1. Setting

When the Men of the South first arrived at the steep and forbidding mountains, they encountered a lone hermit living in a shack among the foothills. The old hermit claimed to be over three hundred years old, and awaiting their arrival. The mountains, he said, were called Sheol's Teeth and the home of ancient beings of inestimable power. To walk among their peaks was to invite doom upon oneself and wake slumbering entities best left alone.

The Men of the South, a superstitious lot, let well enough alone and built their empires in other directions, ignoring Sheol's Teeth but keeping a careful eye on them for signs of stirring powers. Raging storms often ravaged their slopes and made hard living for those who would reside in the foothills or the oft-flooded plains below, and over centuries the wariness of the Men of the South waned. Eventually, the descendants of the settlers sought out new sources of wealth and influence, new territories to settle and new challenges, and so they made out to cross the Teeth.

Many expeditions failed along the way, or perhaps succeeded and were never heard from again. Finally, however, a group of explorers managed to cross and returned along the same path, having discovered a navigable pass through the desolate mountains. The journey took six weeks of hard climbing and dangerously twisting paths along scree-covered slopes, but it was done. A wide valley was discovered beyond, with rolling plains and forest and a twisting river off in the distance. Blue-shrouded mountains could be seen at the edge of sight, and the place seemed peaceful. Settlers arrived, and began to till the land and construct a place to live, hoping to make their fortune off the new- found territory.

Unfortunately, the place was not as idyllic as it first seemed. Troupes of goblins could be seen prowling the forests and wandering the plains, coming within sight of the new settlement but not attacking. They seemed wary of the newcomers, but the settlers knew from history that it was only a matter of time before trouble struck. Word was sent back over the mountains that support was needed, and the Lords of the South sent Baron Vaul, a disgraced minor member of the nobility, to take ownership of the fledgling settlement with a handful of troops. The Lords of the South deeded Vaul the entirety of the land beyond the mountains and gave him the title of Arch-Duke to support his claim. Embittered by the slight, by the remoteness of his territory and the very minimal support he was given, Vaul nonetheless set to the work of civilizing his new land with a will, ordering massive stone walls built around the new town (which he christened in his own name) and turning his eye toward settlement of the surrounding lands.

The goblins seemed to him the first major obstacle to civilization. Their proximity to the town would prove dangerous to any new settlements that he wanted to construct beyond the walls, and would limit access to the forest's supplies of lumber or whatever else it might hold. He ordered runners back to the South with word of a 1,000 gold piece reward, a huge portion of the Arch-Duke's remaining treasury, to any explorer or adventurer who could discover the goblins' lair and either destroy them or drive them out of the forests around Vaul.

Thus, the exodus began--those with a need of money or a love of adventure began to trickle, slowly but surely, in ones and twos across the mountains in search of reward: and once there, they found companions who might help them achieve their aims, and a pristine wilderness full of its own strange temptations and possibilities. Vaul has made it clear that those who support him in his goal of civilizing the region will find more reward than simple gold at their disposal.
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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#3 Post by Keehnelf »

2. Rules of Operation

This sandbox has a few oddities that I will outline as best I can below.

-1 - This game is structured around multiple expeditions/adventures occurring "simultaneously". They may happen at different in-game times, but they take place on the boards co-synchronously, including different characters doing different things out in the sandboxy-world.

0 - The campaign ID for this game is 217. Character sheets for all PCs must be managed through the US interface, and all game rolls will be tracked the same way or they will not be counted. I will run all my GM rolls the same way and all rolls will be posted for the sake of transparency.

1 - This game will be run using Labyrinth Lord basic rules, freely available from the Goblinoid Games website. It is essentially a retroclone of Moldvay basic edition D&D. All character options in that version of LL are fair game and no others at present. I apologize to those who don't like level limits or race-as-class, but those are non-negotiable.

2 - My preferred method of character creation is 3d6 straight down, but for this campaign feel free to rearrange the numbers to taste. There is no point-buy option and no stat trading or exchanging. You must introduce your new PC in the Rogues' Gallery thread, but don't need to share any information about the character that wouldn't be clear from a visual inspection or brief personal interaction. All character sheets will be private in general, except that I will share out the character sheets of individuals you embark on an expedition with. You learn a lot day in and day out from traveling with someone.

3 - You may play any number of PCs in this campaign, with two caveats: first, you can never play more than one character in a given expedition, and second you must complete at least one expedition with each of your existing characters (successfully or unsuccessfully) before you can add a new one.

4 - Each character will have a unique time stamp tracked in the rogues' gallery thread. This will tell us all where in time that character is. If you have multiple characters, you must play the oldest character to start a new expedition, or choose to have that character "catch up" to the latest time stamp you have by spending or wasting time. This is to prevent the buildup of "backup" characters with a big bank of unused time while history is marching past them. No one needs to get trapped though, because...

5 - An adventurer can choose to "retire" at any time they are in town. This can take a number of forms:

-Head south back to civilization.
-Take on a level and status appropriate role in one of Vaul's existing institutions.
-Use resources on hand to set up new amenities in town.
-Something creative of the player's devising.

In all but the first of these cases, the PC will be converted to an NPC, and in all cases may not be converted back.

6 - There is no overarching campaign "plot", though there are storyline by the dozen hidden throughout the Archduchy. Thus, the story of what happens is the campaign's focus-remember that your PCs are at the center of this and embrace it.

7 - Each hex on the map will have a basic terrain type and at least one but no more than three areas of interest. Each time you travel into or out of a hex, your party has a random chance of stumbling upon either a clue about one of these items or the location itself, depending on what sector of the hex you are traveling through. Imagine each hex as a pie divided up by side (so six pieces). As you enter the hex you travel through one pie piece toward the center, and as you exit you do the reverse. Locales in that pie piece or near to it are most likely to be encountered, though if you get lost or turned around you may be traveling through a portion of the hex you didn't expect (or even a different hex).

8 - All expeditions into the wild will be player-organized, based on who's around town and looking for something to do and has a goal in mind. This work should take place in the Tavern thread. That's what the tavern is for! Apart from the hook that I'll be using to set the first adventure in motion, there will be no other NPC-generated "missions", though if you're interested in helping NPCs out they will usually be in need of something or other. They just won't go seeking you out to get it.

9 - Each active expedition into the wilderness will have its own stickied thread, and only those who are on the expedition will be allowed to post in it (plus me, of course). It will be time-stamped in the title based on when the expedition leaves civilization. For now these will be open to other readers for the sake of lurkers, but if too much unfair metagaming happens based on that info (there are some things out in the wild I can guarantee people will want to keep secret if they can) I'll just start running the threads as private forums/group PM chains. The expedition thread will be closed and un-stickied as soon as the group gets back to town, and interaction from that point can take place in the Town Business or Tavern threads, as appropriate.

10 - The world will change based on PC actions, in reactive ways but also proactive ways. You could stir up a hornet's nest of hobgoblins and cause them to go on the warpath, or choose to build a fortress out in the wilderness somewhere (or take over one you find and clean out!)--these things will cause repercussions in the world, since the PCs are generally at the center of what's happening in the wild in the Archduchy, so expect locations to sometimes be different depending on when you visit them.

11 - I will provide one map and one map only, and that is a big blank hex map that lays out the borders of the Archduchy and will provide you with the blank canvas to do your thing. Only a couple of items will be marked, and it is entirely up to the players to update, add to, change, etc. that map and include that as they like in the mapping thread. You can also make and scan maps of specific locations if you like, but I will not provide these.

12 - The Town is Not the Adventure. The Town is where you rest and recuperate between expeditions, marshal resources and make plans for the future. It has nice tough walls, and beyond some really unthinkable circumstances for the near future it is sacrosanct. There are no adventures to be had within its walls, and it is not in imminent danger. It is your home base. Treat it poorly and you will be kicked out on your own. Good luck if that happens.
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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#4 Post by Keehnelf »

3. Calendar

Tracking the passage of time is important given this style of play, so below are the details of timekeeping:

The Years:
The Arch-Duchy uses a newly-minted time system called the Vaulic Calendar (the Arch-Duke is a narcissist, yes), and the game begins on March 1, VC 1.

The Months and Holy Days:
The calendar is divided into 365 days, just as ours is, and 12 months, just as ours is. The names of the months remain the same for ease of use. Each month has exactly 30 days, making 360 "standard" days.

In addition, there are 5 High Holy Days, that are not parts of any month. they are:
Winterveil (Between December and January)
Harrowing (Between March and April)
Greenleaf (Between May and June)
Sun's Crest (Between June and July)
Harvestide (Between September and October)

Granularity and passage of time during play:
Any non-combat action taking place during an expedition will consume a minimum of one Turn (ten minutes of in-game time). Travel and especially complex actions may take longer, but one Turn is the minimum passage of time that can take place outside of combat.

While in town, a character can choose to "skip" time forward as desired, so long as funds are available to do so (for inn costs and the like).

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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#5 Post by Keehnelf »

4. Combat

Combat will be run as follows:

Once a battle situation has been determined to be taking place, the expedition leader (or his/her designee) will roll a D6 for the party's initiative. (Before this stage I will have rolled to determine surprise, etc. as appropriate)

Then, each member of the expedition shall declare an action for the round of combat, including any rolls that would ordinarily be necessary to complete that action (I.e. To hit and damage for weapon attacks).

Finally, I will roll initiative for the enemy and reveal actions and rolls for those, postin a narrative/mechanical summary of the round's actions. Once the necessary bookkeeping is complete, the expedition leader can roll initiative once again to repeat the process until combat has ended.
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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#6 Post by Keehnelf »

5. Rewards

Rewards come in three flavors: material, narrative, and experience points.

Material rewards will be distributed directly to PCs, or they will be listed as available. The two most common types will be rewards and loot. Rewards are not worth experience points, while loot generates 1xp per gp (sale) value for the party at the end of the expedition if the item is recovered, even if it destroyed, consumed etc. (but not abandoned) during the expedition in which it was found.

I will only list loot items and treasure found when they are found. It is up to the party members to determine and to declare who is taking what, and anything unclaimed will be considered abandoned. Loot items provide xp shared amongst the entire party regardless of who claims it.

Discussions about distribution of treasure should take place in the Tavern thread if they happen after the end of an expedition. If someone enters town in possession of an item, they will be considered it's lawful owner by the authorities.

---

Narrative rewards can range from learned skills or abilities to reputations to titles of nobility. They are always acquired immediately by specific PCs, and will be noted in the narrative. These rewards never bear an xp value--they are their own reward and almost always create new adventuring options for the enterprising PC.

---

Experience point rewards are distributed to the entire party at the end of an expedition, in the final post of the thread as it is closed and the party returns to civilization.

The party earns 1xp per gp of treasure and sale able loot they return with or recovered and used during the expedition. Additionally, the party receives xp for enemies slain or otherwise defeated. Then, the party earns xp for locations of interest uncovered (100 x the general level of the location) or for good clues about new locations that they do not visit (50 x the level of the location).

Finally, the party receives xp for any miscellaneous accomplishments achieved during an expedition (GM's discretion) based on the scale or scope of the achievement. For example, killing 50 goblins would net xp equal to 50 goblins but if that were the entirety of a tribe and the group' so tended goal was to eradicate the tribe or drive them out, that would merit an additional xp award.

Xp awards are always shared evenly among all members of the party surviving at the end of the expedition.
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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#7 Post by Keehnelf »

6. Disposition of Property

All land in the Arch-Duchy of Vaul belongs to the Arch-Duke. If buildings or other improvements are placed upon his land, his assessor will perform a valuation of that property every year and assess a fee of 1% of the assessed value of that property by sundown of Winterveil annually. The assessor will issue a deed for the current year, valid until Winterveil of the following year, giving full use and ownership of those facilities to the deed holder. In the absence of a deed, control of the property reverts to the state.

Deeds may be transferred from one party to another at any time through the assessor's office for a fee equal to 5% of the deed's value.

---

Wills may also be issued via the assessor's office, and cost 100gp to draft or 20gp to revise. They may include any number of beneficiaries, and only cover material property (treasure, deeds, items) accessible at the time of the will's execution.

For example, Tristram the Mighty falls in battle defeating the Balfog, but his body (including his two-handed sword of balfog-slaying, +5) falls into a deep chasm. He also has a castle in the goblin forest. Both items are covered in his will, but when the will is executed (the day after the party returns from the expedition in which he was slain) nothing on the body is affected by its execution. This, Tristram's son Fistram is not the legal owner of the sword as stipulated in the will, even if the body is later recovered, along with the sword. The law of the Southmen has very liberal salvage rights.

Similarly, any individual who dies without a will retains legal ownership of all possessions until the Harrowing following his or her demise, if the body is "intact and recovered", thus in a position to be raised. If the body is raised later than the Harrowing following death, all property rights are forfeit.
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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#8 Post by Keehnelf »

7. Miscellaneous Modifiers and Death, Dying & Healing

Modifiers - At my discretion, positive or negative modifiers can be applied to any roll to represent adverse or beneficial circumstances affecting that roll. This can include penalties for firing a weapon at range in bad lighting, using a large weapon in close quarters, attempting to employ relevant materials to magical research, or a host of other ad hoc situations. Any modifiers of this type will be announced before dice are rolled.

Death & Dying - The LL rules as written state that at 0 HP the character dies. In our game, this will be modified thus: at 0 HP, the character is considered to be rendered unconscious and in critical condition. If they receive treatment within one hour of being rendered so unconscious, including warming, provision of a restful and safe environment, etc. (dungeon rooms converted to campsites are dank, crawling with all kinds of horrible diseases, and do not count), then the PC will recover consciousness 6 hours after being provided for, modified by the PC's constitution modifier (so a +2 makes it take 2 fewer hours). The PC will remain at 0 HP until they are able to get a full day's rest.

If the character is reduced to -1 HP or lower in combat or via other means, the PC has one complete combat round to be attended to by another character before they are on the quick slide to death. No check is required to stabilize a character, but they must be provided for afterward according to the rules above, with the exception that they do not recover consciousness until their HP reaches 0 through normal or magical healing (see below for more details). If they do not receive attention during the combat round following their reduction to negative HP, the player may elect to attempt to self-stabilize. This requires a Save vs. Death roll at a penalty equal to the number of negative HP the character has. If successful, the PC stabilizes (but must still be cared for later), but will suffer a long-term injury based on the nature of the wound inflicted. The exact nature of this can be negotiated between me and the player OOC based on the circumstances and the severity of the injury.

Healing - We will follow LL rules for natural healing: 1d3 restored per full day of rest. This includes no overland travel, no adventuring, etc. Healing can take place while in a semi-permanent camp in the wilderness, but bonuses may be available in designated houses of healing in civilization based on the quality of those facilities, and of course there are no random encounter checks in civlization.

-A character with negative HP will regain consciousness overnight following the day in which he or she is restored to 0 HP or higher.

-An unconscious character with 0 HP who receives magical healing will wake the following combat round and use it recovering his or her wits, but be able to act without penalty in the round after that.

-An unconscious character with negative HP will wake one turn (10 minutes) after being restored to positive HP via magical healing. If the character is merely restored to 0 HP, the character follows the recovery rules above as though they had been rendered unconscious at 0 HP.

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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#9 Post by Keehnelf »

8. Critical Hits and Misses

About 10% of the time, a natural 1 or natural 20 will come up on a ranged or melee attack roll. The following are the special rules to govern these circumstances, in addition to the rule that a 20 will always hit and a 1 will always miss, no matter the target.

-A natural 20 on an attack roll will allow the active player the option of dealing minimum possible damage with that attack (as though all relevant dice rolled 1s) and inflicting a context appropriate impediment on the target. This could be a disarm, a hamstring attack that slows movement, knocking the target over, etc. I will be the final arbiter of whether the desired effect works within the context, but in general the goal is to provide some extra oomph to the attack.

-Alternately, the attacker can choose to maximize the possible damage from the attack, as though all dice rolled their maximum values and doubling all modifiers from strength.

---

-If an attacker rolls a 1, I will inflict a context-appropriate impediment on the active character, roughly analogous to the impediments created by critical hit rolls. These could be: broken or dropped weapons, lost actions, minor penalties, undesirable interactions with the environment (such as striking a flask of volatile fluid with a stray sling stone), and so forth.

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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#10 Post by Keehnelf »

9. Settling In, or Building the World one Brick at a Time

Now that some adventurers have at least a little bit of money, I thought I'd add some info about improvements. These may be essential (or at least useful) for long-term prosperity in the region of Vaul.

Right now, the town of Vaul has a small number of utilitarian buildings, a stout stone wall around it, and enough residents and residences to keep all of this functioning. There are really no luxuries (unless you count the Tavern), and there are no specialized services. This will limit the PCs in the long run as their needs grow in proportion to their abilities and accomplishments (and loot).

Thus, there are two main routes to upgrading the Arch-Duchy's infrastructure: player-initiated improvements and player-responsive improvements. I'll tackle them in reverse order.

1. Player-Responsive Improvements

The PCs need stuff, and they will need even more stuff as time goes by. Ideally, the residents of the town (both current and future) will be eager to make a profit by targeting those needs with services (like the ad hoc Assessor's office money-changing service for a nominal fee to limit coin loads).

However, this won't happen automatically in response to every expressed need. Basically, I will always be watching and thinking about two things: 1) does the expressed need recur and is there a likelihood that it will recur often enough to create the incentive for someone to set up a service like this?, and 2) are there resources available for this service to be provided?

In the case of the coin-load issue, it's easy to say that the official treasury has a reasonable stock of platinum coins that can be issued to adventurers. On the other hand, gems are a bit harder to come by because they are not quite so ubiquitous. If someone struck a lode and set up a gem mine in the region, suddenly converting to gems might be easier, and various related and necessary services might grow up around that new resource.

This will be the case for pretty much anything, including needs the adventurers might observably have that they never directly express, if there is market opportunity staring me in the face. Basically, any situation in which there are adequate resources and I find a way to bleed money out of the adventurers' pockets (willingly), something will likely crop up. It might not be ideal, but it will be something.

2. Player-Initiated Improvements

This is a much bigger and broader range of upgrade, and is built upon the players' desire to create amenities for themselves based on their own agendas and desires. It can be anything from personal housing to fortifications to financing of new services or establishment of organizations within or outside of the town's limits--in fact, a lot of expansion will have to be outside the town's current limits, given how narrow the area within the walls.

Essentially, the PC will go into Town Business and say "I want to find someone to do X", and I will assess what natural and personnel resources are available, and provide a cost and time estimate to make this happen. It could be the crafting of a small item that you carry on your person, or the construction of a monolithic citadel on the side of the Finger of Doom--these are both possibilities if you can get the resources aligned right. I will provide some basic guidelines for structure building here, to get the ball rolling since some of the PCs have money and might be considering something like this (remember that any building will require a deed once it is constructed).

A single-person or one-couple house of modest design will cost about 100gp in imported wood or 200gp in imported stone (there are no native harvesting operations at present) and require one month of labor to construct for a single worker. That worker will early approximately 1gp per day to do the necessary work, so the sum would be 130gp for wood and 230gp for a stone house and take 30 days to complete start to finish. If multiple workers are available, they will earn the same sum per day, but each worker will decrease the time the construction takes according to the following formula, where N is the number of workers:

60 days/N+1

So 2 workers would take 20 days, 3 workers would take 15 days, 4 workers would take 12 days, and so on.

This time and the material costs will all be established when the construction (or an estimate) is sought, and the PC is free to provide some of the materials if they are available from their personal stocks.

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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#11 Post by Keehnelf »

10. Magic and Magical Items

In LLO by the book, it is very hard without lots of cash or access to an obscenely high level magic user to reliably identify magic items, leaving parties primarily to rely on trial and error. I am introducing the following house rules to make this SLIGHTLY easier given the lack of high powered resources in this campaign (making even huge sums of cash ineffective at present).

-spell books and scrolls
Any elf or magic user can recognize either arcane or divine scrolls as such without the aid of a detect magic or other spell, though not the exact contents, which requires Read Magic. Any cleric can recognize the contents of a clerical scroll, and employ any clerical scroll no matter the level of the cleric or the scroll.

Any elf or magic user can recognize a spell book from its cover and the ubiquitous wizard's sigil, which is present as information and warning. Most powerful wizards widely publicize their sigils, inscribing them in all their works in some way, a de facto warning to any who would usurp or abuse their property about who they would be crossing. The elf or magic user will be able to tell how many spells are inside, and of what level, but will only recognize spells they know without Read Magic support. Even with Read Magic, a caster can only decipher spells up to one level higher than they can currently cast--higher than that and the principles are simply too complex.

-magic weapons and armor
Upon discovery, any character can immediately determine whether a weapon or piece of armor they are capable of using is magical, and what its base enchantment level is (the +x bonus). If it possesses any secondary traits, spell-like abilities or intelligence, those must be discovered via trial and error or extended arcane study (see the section below).

-miscellaneous magical items
Items that are not armor or weapons will be impossible to identify as magical without arcane study or the use of Detect Magic. Their abilities can only be discovered via trial and error or extended arcane study.

Extended arcane study consists of an elf or magic user closeting him or herself with the item in a secure space for up to eight hours every day for a week or more, making detailed notes on the item's various properties and comparing these with known arcane principles and correspondences until the nature of the item can be derived.

This process requires concentration, relaxation, and good lighting. It can take place in an inn room or suite, a castle or a wizard's tower, but not in the wilds or while adventuring, or in the public sleeping room of an inn.

At the end of an uninterrupted week (7 days) of arcane study, an elf or magic user can test to determine one property of an item, by rolling their level or less on 1d20. The researcher gets a cumulative -1 on that roll for each of the following: regular access to a magical library; a personal workshop space with equipment worth 1,000gp or more; if the research is taking place in the caster's own wizard tower. Only one ability or trait of the item is discovered per successful test, any any command words for discovered abilities must be separately researched or discovered via trial and error. Research to discover command words gets a base -2 bonus to the test, and can be explicitly sought in advance if the ability is known.

The first successful test after the last ability of the item is discovered with confirm that all abilities are known.

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#12 Post by Keehnelf »

11. Mixing Ranged and Melee Combat:

If a character fires a ranged weapon into melee combat, any miss will strike another target in the same melee if the die roll is odd (the 1d20 roll, not the result after modifiers). It will then deal damage to a randomly-selected target among all the combatants in the melee.

The criteria for being in the same melee are that the character must either:

1. Be the target of attacks from the original target.

2. Be attacking the original target in melee.

Or

3. Be actively engaging one of the characters in 1 or 2, above, in melee.

This means that multiple distinct melees can be taking place near one another if there is no overlap in character engagement between them. I.e. A and B can be targeting one another while C is attacking D and D, E and F are all attacking C. In this case, a missed attack against C could strike D, E or F but neither A nor B. If either A or B were attacking C, then everyone would be in the same melee.

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#13 Post by Keehnelf »

12. Monuments, Tributes, and the High Life

OK, based on some hard-thinking on rewards and on some of the conversation going on in the discussion thread on rewards, here are some additional ways you can pick up rewards, this time by spending cash.

A. Monuments to Fallen Adventurers

Sometimes you want to do more than tell stories. Sometimes, you want everyone to know, even those that come long after you pass on, that there was a hero or heroine or trusted friend or ally, or vigilant protector, or wise wizard, or noble leader. You want their memory to live on.

When an adventurer has died or disappeared during an expedition, and news of it reaches town OR six months have passed since the adventurer disappeared (in the case of a whole group going lost in the wild with no survivors, for example), a PC who traveled at least once with the missing/lost PC may initiate a collection to establish a monument to the individual.

Any PC, while in town after the date that the monument fund collection begins, can donate up to 100gp in cash or other valuables to the fund per level of the lost character. Only one donation, at one time, may be made per character. Any number of PCs may contribute to the memorial fund.

The organizing PC can close the collection at any date in which they are in town, and construction of the monument will begin based on the money collected and the desires of the organizing PC (and local zoning laws). Once the monument has been constructed, the next PC created by the memorialized PC's player will gain starting XP based on the total value of the monument, on a one-to-one basis (so a 2,000gp monument would give their starting character 2,000xp to begin). At the same time, all PCs who donated to the fund will immediately receive XP equal to half of the cash or item value donated.

B. Tributes to Living Adventurers

There is a reason that Big Bad End Guys all have rooms full of statues of themselves: it's called self-investment, and it is an effective strategy for consolidating your power and building your influence. Once per level, any PC can elect to create a tribute to themselves or any one other living PC. That tribute involves a cash or item-value contribution of 100gp per level of the tributee, and the result is some kind of marker or work that promotes the good (or bad) name of the tributee, determined by the one making the tribute. The tributee immediately gains XP equal to the value of the tribute.

C. Living the High (Communal) Life

Throughout the year are scattered a number of festival days, all of which have different purposes and meanings depending on the population, but they are all commonly celebrated by the people. PCs can get involved in the life of the community by contributing funds or goods to assist in the celebration of these holidays. If a PC is in town on a festival day, he or she may donate any amount of cash (and cash only) to assist in the celebrations. That PC immediately gains XP equal to the number of gold pieces donated, and of course the appreciation of the community.

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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#14 Post by Keehnelf »

13. Festival Days

Festival days come five times per year and are days of high pageantry, transition and confluence. They are the days most likely to have import for the gods and their relations with mortals, and they are a good opportunity for socialization.

To represent the somewhat unique chance that this gives on a number of fronts, and seeing as we are approaching the first of these on the calendar, this is how they will work.

When the first PC's time stamp reaches a festival day and they are in a settlement, I will ask them if they plan to remain there during the festival. If so, I will create a new expedition for the festival in that location and populate it with that PC.

As PCs reach that time stamp and are in the same location, they will have the option to join that expedition as well. These expeditions are exempt from the rule of one PC per player. Since it will mainly be socialization, information-sharing and the like, there is no real down-side.

Festival day threads will have another purpose as well. Higher-profile consequences of PC actions during the season prior will generally play out in the festival threads: knighting or conferring of titles, public recognition, inauguration of new orders or christening of new facilities will take place then, as it is an auspicious time. Other, less expected kinds of things might also take place, some subtle and some less so.

Finally, there will be the chance to see how the PCs' donations have been put to use to improve the festivities and the community.

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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#15 Post by Keehnelf »

14. Divinity and Clerics

The gods are real, and they are not far away, which any fool knows just by observing the miracles that are performed on a regular basis by the faithful. In some parts of the world, the supernatural powers of one clergy or another are the only thing keeping humanity from ruin.

That said, the gods are jealous of their powers and use them to support and sustain their faithful. With a plurality of deities, each with their own agenda, their miracles are both a boon and a recruitment tool. If miracles are for the faithful only, it's a good reinforcement of piety where the clergy exists.

On festival days, the boundaries between the mortal and divine realms weaken and unusually powerful divine occurrences are more likely.

In addition, gods often communicate with their most faithful via dreams and, at a higher order, through direct manifestation. Each time a cleric increases in level, he or she will receive a visitation from his or her deity indicating how he/she can most be of service to the faith at that time.

Further, if the cleric engages in behavior contrary to his or her faith in an ongoing or egregious manner, a visitation is also likely to attempt to correct this behavior. If it persists, revocation of clerical powers is likely until a suitable atonement can be made. For clerics of sixth level or higher, a specific atonement is never mandated: it is the burden of the cleric to find a suitably challenging task that will benefit the faith to undertake and complete, or die in the attempt to be redeemed.

To guide the behavior of their followers, all deities have three foundational tenets that inform all their circumstantial beliefs. For Branwyn, for example, they are the following:

1. The order of existence benefits all things in existence, each in its own way.
2. It is the responsibility of the strong to protect the weak.
3. Harmony comes from understanding and wholly accepting one's duty.

If a PC wishes to introduce a new deity, please provide the three tenets of the faith.

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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#16 Post by Keehnelf »

Critically wounded characters:

If a character is at 0 HP, they can be safely transported while being carried by someone or on a stretcher or similar device.

If they are at negative hit points, they must first be stabilized by resting overnight before they can risk being moved. After that, they cannot safely be moved by being carried directly, but they can be borne by a stretcher, litter or wagon. However, doing so inflicts 1d2 points of damage per day of travel in this fashion.
Last edited by Keehnelf on Tue Dec 16, 2014 12:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#17 Post by Keehnelf »

Titles and Rank

Within the Southlands, because of the strong influence of Branwyn over the ages, the traditions of nobility are well documented and consistent. Below are some of the highlights.

Many of the ranks listed below are invested, or inherited. This means that the title will continue through the heir of the family so long as one exists and the title does as well. Even the liege lord of the. Oboe cannot remove the title in order to assign it to another: the only remedy if the liege is dissatisfied is to expunge the dynasty and dispossess the family in order to grant property (and a different title) to another. Because this is a violent process and creates mistrust and upheaval, it is avoided at all costs.

Ranks and Positions:

1. Sir or Lady - this title is an honorific bestowed upon a property-holder who has provided support to the reigning lord of the region. It is not hereditary, and may not be combined with a suffix. Upon the death of the honoree, the liege has the option of reclaiming direct possession of any holdings if there is no viable heir, or if the liege does not trust the party bequeathed with the holdings.

2. Knight - this title also accompanies the title of Sir or Lady and is not hereditary, but is almost always appended with a location-based suffix. Many knights gain the rank by training in the families of nobility and becoming trusted soldiers and leaders of men. A knight is expected to keep a garrison, or a retinue of men at arms that can defend his/her territory and property as well as that of the liege lord.

3. Baron - if a knight or other individual is granted the power to retain land-holding vassals as a liege in his or her own right, the traditional title of Baron or Baroness is accorded. This increase in rights and status must be explicitly given by the noble's liege, who must be a Duke or higher.

4. Duke - if the noble's liege approves and is a Marquis or higher, the noble may be granted the power to promote their vassals to the rank of Baron, thus allowing them the right to keep their own vassals. This is a significant jump in authority and responsibility--while a Baron might have four to six land-holding knights under his responsibility, each with up to several dozen military men on hand, a Duke could potentially be responsible for the same number of Baronies, without direct access to and getting of the Barons' vassals, since the authority to retain vassals lies exclusively with the liege in question. This move simultaneously multiplies the scale of personnel while creating distance between the noble and the individual knights, who are generally the problem-causer a. Thus, a Duke generally needs to have a strong power base and a great amount of test in his or her Barons or internal conflict is likely. In fact, most Dukes' public lives are spent holding off an inevitable-seeming stream of civil wars in waiting.

The title of Arch-Duke is given to a Duke with a broad scope of territory to control, and this an unlimited capacity to retain Barons (the traditional limit is 7, rarely exceeded except by an Arch-Duke).

5. Marquis -

6. Prince -

7. King -

8. Emperor -
Last edited by Keehnelf on Mon Mar 23, 2015 2:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#18 Post by Keehnelf »

Dogs and Trained Animals

I've begun thinking about animal training, due to some recent questions but also generally. This is the first sketch of a plan to make sure you understand how trained dogs are governed. Note that currently this only is relevant for dogs bought at character generation. Nobody in Vaul trains dogs, although at least one person COULD do so if motivated, and certainly nobody sells dogs or trained dogs.

---

Dogs that you'd want to use for adventuring all use the wolf base stats (2+2hd, AC 7, d6 damage, ML7), and you start with a guard dog as your base. It has two trainings for its 25gp cost: defend its master and bark at strangers that approach too closely.

For each 15gp you want to spend in addition, you can get one of the following abilities: (choose up to 3 maximum)

-Attack on command (creatures same size or smaller than itself, not humanoids--basic hunting training)
-Fearless (will defend itself against larger opponents and attack larger on command if it is trained to attack, +1 Morale bonus)
-Tracking (can be instructed to find traces of and follow the scent of a single creature type--birds, dogs, goblins, humans, dragons, etc.)
-Fetch (can be commanded to retrieve an item in sight that it can carry in its jaws)
-Messenger (can be commanded to return to a specific location--must have been there for a full day to train it to recognize the location so the command can be understood)

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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#19 Post by Keehnelf »

On Magic:

A couple of quick notes that hopefully will prove useful to those playing the game as we get farther in.

I like to think of magic as half art and half science, no matter the type we're talking about. Clerical magic is a mix of the established ceremonies and prayers of the faith, a deep understanding of the principles by which the patron deity operates (science), and a powerful faith, passion and desire to do the will of that patron in whatever form is necessary (art). This is a combination of the personal and the impersonal.

The same is true of magic-user magic. There are countless volumes of theory on the subject, principles at work and formula that must be closely followed, but in the end those external realities must be translated into a language and symbology that speak directly to the mind of the practitioner, that make the sometimes contradictory and always complex jumble of magic transparent to the caster.

What this means is that magic that is externalized also possesses both of these qualities--the universal and the personal. Thus, every magical item or cast spell bears the imprint of its maker in some distinctive (if often subtle) way. Every magical item a wizard crafts will bear her mark.

This can provide vital clues to figuring out the function of an item if the creator is known. Certain tendencies and habits are passed along a wizardly lineage from master to student, and isolating the idiosyncratic elements from analysis of an item can bring the important functional qualities into sharper relief.

On the universal side, there are several principles at work, and they form the bulk of what is considered arcane experimentation or research.

First, divinely-oriented objects will always have a deity to which they are consecrated and from which they draw their power. The iconography of this deity will always be prominently displayed on the item, but given the age of some items it may be of unusual or obscure design, or relate to a deity no longer worshipped--or even a different aspect of a known deity.

Second, all magical items have their functioning enhanced beyond a mere background trickle of magical energy through the power of sympathy. For deities, specific materials or shapes are special and create a stronger conduit for the flow of energy. For arcane items, specific shapes, images and materials have strong sympathetic/representational resonances with different activities, elements, or domains. The most commonly-recognized by non-wizards is the strong bond between rubies and fire. Rubies have many more connections of varying strengths, but much of a wizard's arcane library is records of these kinds of associations, histories of past use, and comparative strength tables. Referring to these texts, carefully collected over generations, offers the ability to effectively analyze items as well as to craft their own with a good chance of success.

Any time you find a magical item, these principles are at work: no exceptions. Especially in an environment relatively limited as this one is, every magical item has its own distinctive origin.

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Re: How This Works: Welcome to the Archduchy of Vaul

#20 Post by Keehnelf »

Transcription: Or, the Subtle Art of Spellomancy

In order for a magic-user or elf to memorize a spell, they must have access to that spell in a spellbook carried on their person.

There are three avenues that a spellcaster can following to add a spell to his or her book:

1. Transcribe from a Spellbook

Spells written in another spellcaster's book are completely useless to you, until they have been transcribed into the magic-user's own magical idiom. To transcribe spells in this way, translating the necessary symbols and formulae into a new spellbook, requires one empty page (standard spellbooks have 25 pages and can be purchased to have up to 50), one day, and 50gp in materials per spell level. These days must be spent with uninterrupted access to the source text, and the end result is automatic success in transcribing the spell. A spell of any level may be so transcribed, regardless of the magic-user's level, and this will preserve the source spellbook pages for another's use.

This process can be completed more quickly and cheaply, however. To transcribe any spell from one spellbook to another of a level the magic-user can cast requires one hour and 10gp in magical ink per spell level, but the source spellbook pages are destroyed in the process.

2. Transcribe from a Scroll

This process is identical to 1, above, except that instead of a spellbook, a scroll of the spell is needed. It takes the same amount of time and resources, and the scroll is consumed in the process of transcription.

3. Research (Science!!!)

This process requires a spellcaster to be name-level and to have equipped laboratory facilities and a library in which to work. The spellcaster can elect to attempt to re-create a spell that they are aware of (or have heard about), or one they have seen in action, or to create an entirely new effect, without texts to work from.

The basic needs are: 1000gp value laboratory facilities; 1000gp value library; gold; time.

The spellcaster describes to the LL what effect they are attempting to research/create, and the LL decides what spell level this will be. Then, the spellcaster devotes one week of uninterrupted research time per spell level along with consuming 250gp per spell level in raw experimental materials.

At the end of this time period, the spellcaster rolls 1d20 to determine success, with the following modifiers:
+1 per level of the PC
+1 per apprentice involved in the research
+1 per full 10,000gp value of library used
+1 per previous unsuccessful attempt to research this spell (continuous)
-1 per spell level

If the final modified roll is 20 or higher, the research is successful and the proposed spell may be added to the spellcaster's spellbook.

If the roll on the die is a 1, and the final modified total is 10 or lower, something has gone wrong in the course of the research. Roll 2d6:

2: Conflagration! The spellcaster takes 1d10 points of damage per spell level of effect being researched (not reducible), his or her home is destroyed, and each apprentice or other occupant of the wizard's home survives the effects only on a 1 in d6. The same is true for each spellbook or magical item in the magic-user's possession or those of the occupants of the facility.

3: Mishap! Roll a d6. On a 1, the spellcaster is damaged by the magical forces unleashed and receives 1d6 damage per spell level of the researched item. For each die of damage received, if a 4 is rolled then the spellcaster gains a magically-induced deformity that may reduce an attribute by 1 or influence their appearance in a significant way.

4-5: Oops! One of the spellcaster's apprentices is slain in a laboratory accident. If there are no apprentices supporting the activity, one of the spellcaster's magic items or spellbooks is destroyed on a d6 roll of 5+.

6-8: Library Fire. d4 x10% of the spellcaster's library is lost.

9-10: Forgetful. One of the lowest-level spells the spellcaster has in his or her spellbooks is randomly erased, and all knowledge of the spell disappears from his or her mind as well. The spellcaster may never re-learn this spell through any means, including research. It is gone for good.

11: Tapped Into Something. The spellcaster gains a new and unusual feature somehow connected with the effect being researched, that will always be unpleasant and distinctive but not actively deleterious.

12: Opened a Gateway. This is the sort of thing modules are written about. Meddling with powerful forces sometimes opens a doorway to somewhere else, and it's usually not intentional or safe. The strength of the resulting effects are based on the level of spell being researched, and are determined at the LL's discretion.

---

Scribing a Scroll

A spellcaster can create a spell scroll of any spell they current know (this includes clerics), at the cost of one sheet of parchment, one day and 75gp per spell level, in addition to the cost/sacrifice of any special casting components that have unique prices or rarities. Clerics, however, pay double the cost in materials (150gp per spell level) as donations or tithes to their deity.
Last edited by Keehnelf on Wed Nov 02, 2016 5:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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