OOC II

[Rusty Tincanne]

The cost should for based on what sort of treasure we're likely to find. If we only hail out 150 go per excursion, 100gp for a scroll is a lot.

[dmw71]

Scrolls are expensive to make BtB in Moldvay B/X: "Creating items that duplicate a spell effect once usually requires 500 gp and 1 week per spell level." The book lists examples of a scroll with 2 magic missile spells for 1,000 gp and 2 weeks or a potion of healing for 500 gp and 1 week. Also, "There is always a 50% chance (at least) that magical research or production will fail. This check is made after the time and money are spent." Harsh.

This is meant to be a BX game, so we will go with the above. I clearly had copying spells from one spellbook to another in mind last night, but creating or copying scrolls is a different animal.

That will obviously call for a revision to AdaRue's plans. Apologies.

[Zhym]

Sorry, folks. Shoulda kept my mouth shut.

FWIW, I think B/X also contemplates larger treasure hauls. Frankly, I think we're going to need to find a lot more to move off of 1st level before 2020.

Speaking of which—were you planning to award item and treasure XP at some point?

[dmw71]

FWIW, I think B/X also contemplates larger treasure hauls.

I know it took a while, and it felt like more,
but you guys really didn't explore that much yet. The one organized room, with the boss, had a decent amount of treasure for a 1st level encounter. There's plenty more to be had.

Speaking of which—were you planning to award item and treasure XP at some point?

Did I forget to issue something? Per this:

"Characters only gain XP from treasure of a non-magical nature, at the rate of 1 XP per 1 gold piece (gp) value of the item."

You should have received XP for the monsters killed, plus threasure obtained, of which there were only coins in this haul. I already did award the XP for both, here.

Are you talking about mundane items (e.g. weapons, goblin armor, etc...) that you picked off creatures killed?

[dmw71]

What are the benefits of the healing herbs in game, out of curiosity? They seem like they'd be relegated to the camp phase, when teas, poultices, etc can be made.

Maybe I misunderstood, but I took this as being a role-playing opportunity, and not a formal request for healing. Looking up (an) official definition of poultices, they are: "a soft, moist mass of material, typically of plant material or flour, applied to the body to relieve soreness and inflammation and kept in place with a cloth."

At the price I quoted, it wouldn't have any translatable healing effects (e.g. hit point restoration), but could be used to increase role-playing when binding wounds, etc...

If you're looking for something with actual healing properties, that would cost more. Let me know and I can come up with some quotes.

[Zhym]

Sorry - for some reason I thought that was only the monster XP. Man, it's going to take longer to level than I thought. At a rate of 164 xp (plus bonus for high attributes) per 4 months, the first PC should level sometime around January 2020. Keebler may get there around June 2025.

Which I guess means I should stop worrying about XP because odds are very good our PCs will all be dead before it matters.

[dmw71]

Get your arses back into the dungeon and start finding yourselves some treasure!

[Zhym]

Hey, making us RP out our restocking run in town was your idea.

[dmw71]

That is kind of true, but there's been very little actual role-playing. Most of that has been conducted via PM. As requests come in,
I jump characters there and at least try to resolve it in my first response to the request (e.g. "...the item will cost 5 gold pieces if it's still wanted.").

I think, for next time, we'll just have players dump an entire wish list of to-dos up front, and we can resolve most of it in one fell swoop.
Things are taking longer now because requests are dripping in.

We're close, though.

[Zhym]

One thing that would help with the XP progression, if you want, would be to ignore the part about magic items not counting towards XP. Keehnelf's LL Basic game used that (plus XP for finding things and encountering things) well, I think. XP awards on returning to town were neither so large that everyone leveled every time nor so small that they seemed pointless. Over about two years of play (IIRC), a couple of the longest-running PCs had just hit level 3.

[drpete]

I've been thinking about this, since leveling up does seem to take forever in pbp in these systems. I'm starting to think that the logical reaction to that is to go back to 100 xp per hd for level appropriate monsters in pbp, following this: http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2016/01/x ... -pt-1.html Another mod I tried was xp for clearly recognized magic items, and that didn't seem to hurt anything.

That said, I'm fine with living the 1st level life, just starting to think that levelling is kind of written out as far as pbp goes.

[Zhym]

FWIW, if we used the 100 XP / HD method, then the current XP award would be about 2100 xp total from monsters (treating 1+1 and 1-1 HD monsters and such as 1 HD). That'd be 300 XP per PC, plus the 135 in treasure, for 435 each.

That doesn't seem game breaking to me.

Oh - and non-coin treasure brought from the dungeon, like Keebler's longbow, should definitely count for XP IMO.

[dmw71]

Oh - and non-coin treasure brought from the dungeon, like Keebler's longbow, should definitely count for XP IMO.

I have no problem awarding experience for the value of non-coin treasure that is sold. I haven't been tracking who took what,
and what was sold (and for how much).

Is this something you track in your 'Treasure Accounting' thread? The attachment is missing.

[dmw71]

I'm starting to think that the logical reaction to that is to go back to 100 xp per hd for level appropriate monsters in pbp, following this: http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2016/01/x ... -pt-1.html.

I'll have to give that a read (I don't have time to read all three parts here at work), but I do really like Delta's blog. A lot. I previously attempted to implement a few of his ideas (e.g. no clerics, target 20) without a lot of success, but I'll definitely give it a read.


I've always kind of liked the whole experience from treasure system in BX, with the actual monsters being kind of irrelevant. BX is admittedly a fairly deadly game, so not needing to constantly battle monsters in order to gain experience is a good thing. If a group can think of a way to somehow "acquire" the treasure without actually overcoming the monster in possession of it... all the better.

Still, I will consider the xp rules and see what we can do about speeding advancement up a bit. The more I think about it, I'm not sure just throwing gobs and gobs of coins at the group is the solution (yes, money is nice, but it will quickly lose its luster if its so abundant), so I'm sure a happy middle ground can be had.

I'm still open to suggestions if anyone else has other thoughts.

[dmw71]

The role of the "fighting man" will be played by Alethean.

Welcome back to the game.

[drpete]

I totally agree with you about the value of treasure for xp. The thing I found interesting about this 100 xp per hd system was that it would let beating the monsters and surviving the meat grinder gets you up out of the low levels. Then a few levels up, that same logic about treasure comes into play as the monster xp can't keep up with the xp curve for long.

That said, finding that huge treasure and finally being able to level up is also great. I just fear it taking like a year plus.

And: Welcome back, Alethan!

[Alethan]

Thanks!

I guess I'm not worried about leveling as long as the monsters don't level, either!

If I wanted to level, I wouldn't be in a PbP. Hahahahahaha

[dmw71]

Sorry for the lack of an update yesterday. We're having some housing issues, and last night was a late one.

I should be able to move the group in town again later today.

[Alethan]

Sorry for the lack of an update yesterday. We're having some housing issues, and last night was a late one.

I should be able to move the group in town again later today.

RL always comes first, Dave. No worries.

[dmw71]

RL always comes first, Dave. No worries.

Thanks... because there's an outside chance today won't happen, either.

We put an offer on a home, which was accepted. The day we had the home inspection (which came back with a few minor issues, but otherwise fine), we learn that a raccoon had gotten into their attic. So, their attic, which is just rafters stuffed with air blown insulation, is full of raccoon feces, and urine, and maybe even a raccoon carcass since it hasn't been seen... but a nasty odor remains.

Apparently the owners had it taken care of today, but I am awaiting the official report of what "taken care" of means. In the meantime, we're scrambling to locate a backup property or two, just in case.... but inventory is super low right now.

We have until Thursday to back out of our current deal, which we're kind of looking to do. In fact, we put in an offer on a different place last night, but it already had three offers on it before we saw it, and they had already made up their minds and accepted one of those. It was on the market for four days, and had four offers. It's crazy right now.

Anyway, am going to be super pressed for time (between house hunting and work) until this whole housing situation resolves itself.

Good times.