This is the discussion thread for Capitalism Ho! Here we'll be posting most out of character chat, particularly anything lengthy. I'll get around to some more specific posting guidelines once this coming weekend is over - I'm currently on vacation with most of my extended family, and posting is going to be spotty at best, so I figure starting a new campaign is probably not the best idea. Come Monday, and we're ready to rock.
Thanks for choosing me, I'll do my best to post in a timely fashion and be as entertaining and useful as a little gnome can be. Looking forward to starting next week
Many thanks! Super excited to see how this campaign plays out, especially with all the UCam stuff.
Also quietly considering how many buildings we'll accidentally burn down...
Hiya all! Looking forward to this game and what sort of antics we'll get into! Interesting mix of characters we've got.
Eliam has nothing but utmost confidence.
Forgot to ask this earlier, but is the Valet archetype for familiars permissable?
Reporting in.
Okay then, I'm back in action. Y'all ready to get started on this nonsense?
If so, here's the first few questions you need to answer.
1) What's your best suggestion for a name for the tavern?
2) What's your best suggestion for a name for the town?
3) Do you have your own separate business/livelihood? What is it?
Forgot to ask this earlier, but is the Valet archetype for familiars permissable?
Sure.
Huzzah! Hey there. :D Hope you had a great vacation. Eliam is ready and waiting.
In response to the questions:
1) What's your best suggestion for a name for the tavern?
Eliam's Tavern. *shameless*
The Loose Wolf is a good one, taken from the Old West term 'cutting one's wolf loose' which means getting sloshed.
2) What's your best suggestion for a name for the town?
Speck. Or a Ye Olde Englishe spelling of thereof like Spekk or Speche.
3) Do you have your own separate business/livelihood? What is it?
Eliam's main business is as a merchant and appraiser. While he doesn't like spending much time on anything that isn't his research, he's honed the skill of paying attention to anything potentially valuable in his vicinity and then pawning it off to someone else for a sum of money. While he wouldn't be able to get as much money than if he went to the trouble of selling it himself, it takes much less of his time and effort.
He's also able to be hired as a researcher, but only for good money or on interesting topics. He regards researching something boring as a waste of his time, not to mention beneath him, unless well-compensated.
In desperate times, he can pickpocket, which was that he did when he first started out on his own.
Yes! Fictional go team go!
1) The White Lion Being the most generic name for a bar ever, and so confused for the white lion tavern two towns over... or was it that one in the city?
2) Riffing of ideas for small, maybe Shardstone (Shardstown)?
3) Most certainly do. Angela brews potions and sells them for (currently) minimal profits, mostly to help the townsfolk out. Her potions might not be the most effective, but they are the tastiest!
1) What's your best suggestion for a name for the tavern?
Beer Place - Esmee enjoys being literal.
Though The Loose Wolf has so many enjoyable possible meanings.2) What's your best suggestion for a name for the town?
I rather like Speck. Spelling optional.
3) Do you have your own separate business/livelihood? What is it?
Esmee runs a tinkering business on the side. Her reputation in town is pretty good for it. Some people mutter about it taking overnight to get most things repaired since most people know she is using mending to repair an item (she is oblivious to them knowing, she thinks she has them all fooled with her hammering). She does have a large sign reading Drimpelgatto's Better Than New, Totally Shiny and Fantastically Fascinating Repair and Tinkering Services
Tavern: The Tipsy Mule
Town: Little Haven
Suggestions thus far:
Eliam: Tavern - The Loose Wolf
Town - Speck (Specche/Spekk)
Angela: Tavern - The White Lion
Town - Shardstown/Shardstone
Esmee: Tavern - Beer Place
Town - Speck
Babbles: Tavern - The Tipsy Mule
Town - Little Haven
And previously, I'd offhandedly named the tavern The Rundown.
I think we'll go ahead and stick with Speck for the town (original spelling), which leaves us with the tavern. Let's take a quick vote. Don't vote for your own suggestion, and I'll break ties.
Also, now's a good time to think about previous relationships to one another. Do you guys already know one another at all, or are you just passing acquaintances?
On that note, here are suggestions as generated by Table 1-57 in the background generator. Feel free to ignore these, but it's a place to start if you like 'em.
Esmee: Is to Babbles: (Former Allies)
Is to Angela: (Best Friends)
Is to Eliam: (Follow/Followed the Same Faith or Cult)
Eliam:
Is to Angela: (Former inmates, or former inmate/captor).
Let's try that one again, 'cause that was weird. (Gaming or Gambling Associates)
Is to Babbles: (Servants/Apprentices to the Same Master)
Babbles: Is to Angela: (Former Allies)
For some reason it didn't save my edit to my post:
livelihood: He's a smith so naturally he'll be working the forge to make end's meat.
I'll put a vote in for 'The loose wolf'
Tavern: The White Lion
I have the most interesting relationships!
@Esmee: Considering Eliam follows no god and your faith is a rarer one, it's unlikely we'd have such a straightforward relationship. The closest thing I can think of is Eliam learning of your belief in Daikitsu and then badgering you about information about the Goddess because he didn't know anything about her. Which would annoy him.
@Angela: Gaming/Gambling associates? I can see it in that Eliam would naturally gravitate to people with high intelligence in search of the occasional conversation (or, rather to be able to boast or talk about his achievements and what he's currently doing to people who would actually understand the significance of his work). This makes the 'former captor' relationship have sense, since you're a perfect captive audience with the fact that you don't speak much. And I guess he could have made a game out of trying to get a rise out of you for entertainment. Either that or you have some fondness for games and know that Eliam hates losing and cheats shamelessly.
@Babbles: A master? An employer more like. We could have met each other before, perhaps in a caravan group that Eliam was tagging along with.
Stealing Eliam's idea, because it's very neat!
Babbles: Why are we former allies? Did she hear you say something mean about Elves, or do we just not drawn together particularly often? I can't imagine Angela would need a smith too much, but maybe we were allies when those goblins attacked town and we worked the triage line together?
Eliam: I like the idea of a meek captive audience a great deal, though I suspect that Angela isn't game enough to gamble. She probably enjoys complex card/tile games, but doesn't understand why you keep beating her. She probably respects you as one of the smartest people she knows, and tries to ignore the rest.
Esmee: Best friends? Probably even only friend. It's up to us to make this bar work properly, and why do the men all go for Angela and not Esmee is it the bear I think it might be Samson... Our familiars are probably very good friends too!
@eliam. As a gnome who tried the atheist route for a couple of years(it got boring), until she met a person that could turn into a fox, she understands your plight and will probably try and get you to follow some god, even if it is just for fun. Or maybe we both follow the need to discover?
@babbles we must have fought off those huge mugs of foaming ale together that one time, cementing our ally hood. Though you seem to have a lot of former allies...
@angela apparently you are the only person who can put up with me for any length of time and you of course empathize with me over needing to keep my animal friend close.
Well we have an ursine and canine companion. So it would be best to name the bar after a feline. White Lion, with loose wolf as a close second.
@eliam: I'm cool with us having met on a caravan at one point.
@Angela: Maybe I treated a wound you recieved during an attack?
@esmee: Maybe we have regular drinking contests and bonded through that as friends?
@eliam: I'm cool with us having met on a caravan at one point.
@Angela: Maybe I treated a wound you recieved during an attack?
@esmee: Maybe we have regular drinking contests and bonded through that as friends?
@Babbles - It was team drinking contest, and we were paired together since the contest holders thought it would be unfair to let a dwarf compete. (However I drank you under the table?)
@esmee Not likely, babbles got his high con from drinking too much :P
@Babbles Which explains the "former" part. You can't admit that a gnome helped you win a drinking competition.
Let's say Esmee thinks she drank him under the table, and it bothers him to no end. Anyway - next on the docket is houses: You each get one, or something equivalent. You may stock/design it as you wish, with an allotment of building points that...unfortunately, I don't have my books with me just now, so I'll have to give you those numbers later. Know that it isn't much - you're just starting out, after all.
Once I have the numbers - If you're unable/unwilling to figure out the rules for this nonsense, no worries - just let me know the general things you'd like to have in your home, and I can come up with an assortment of bits that seem appropriate.
Unless it's really inconvenient, Angela probably still lives with her parents. But she has her own bedroom, and can use the family lab to brew potions! It's probably got the village icehouse too, which Angela hides in when she's crying.
Ooh, our own houses! Eliam will probably get something that provides enough comfort for him and then everything else is just meticulously organized books and research.
I'll make do with what's given though.
Let's say Esmee thinks she drank him under the table, and it bothers him to no end.
This works for me, could be some good RP fuel.
Cool houses!
Let's say Esmee thinks she drank him under the table, and it bothers him to no end.
And the Babbles mini conflict works. Most likely because her understanding of the phrase is not what normal people think it is...
Bleh. It's been a ridiculous week, folks, sorry I haven't been as active as I'd like. Anyway, I promise I'll have you the numbers/layouts on your houses tomorrow, but for the moment, let's get another detail or two out of the way.
What kind of scale are you guys looking for in this thing? This is totally up for flexibility/change later on, but just so I can start thinking about what's going to happen, are you more interested in business/town building, or would you rather turn this in a more kingdom-expansion direction?
Not to worry, that's understandable.
I'm more interested in business/town building at the moment! If we go into making a kingdom, I'm sure we'll pick up some of that from building a town first.
Eliam doesn't really have any reason to make a kingdom when he only needs enough income for his research. If we happen on a reason along the way, well, kingdoms it is!
(Now I'm imagining some hilarity when Eliam discovers an ancient spell that makes someone immortal. The catch is that the someone has to be royalty. The obvious solution is to start a kingdom and become royalty.)
(Now I'm imagining some hilarity when Eliam discovers an ancient spell that makes someone immortal. The catch is that the someone has to be royalty. The obvious solution is to start a kingdom and become royalty.)
Heh. Noted. Speaking of which, folks, the Story Feats are totally on the table if you want them. I'll do my best to make sure you have chances to make their goals come true if you go that way. This is true for any other obscure powers you pick up - I hate it when neat abilities never see the light of day. Don't expect such things to get constant limelight, but I'll make sure they get a chance to shine.
I agree with keeping it town building for now, with possible kingdom expansion in the future.
What are the requirements for housing btw?
Okay, folks, here we go with the houses. To start with, here are the rules for creating buildings. You'll all start with a dinky little cottage, which comes with the following rooms:
1 Bedroom, 1 Kitchen, 1 Lavatory, and 1 Sewer Access, for a total value of 690 gp if bought straight out. If you weren't from town originally, then assume that you had some extra cash sitting around that you burned on buying said place.
Those should all be fairly self-explanatory, I think. Now, for additional building purposes, you'll get an allotment of a further 700 gold worth. Anything that's left over, we'll later convert it into building materials (Goods, Labor, Influence, or Magic). Again, if you'd rather not deal with it yourself, just let me know, and I can devise some appropriate junk for you.
Speaking of which, things off the top of my head you folks might want:
Angela: Alchemy Lab, 390 gp
Babbles: Brewery, 380 gp.
Eliam: Book Repository, 460 gp
Esmee: Workstation, 300 gp.
I also might suggest Storage for any of you, which runs 120 gp.
Once we're through with that, let's move on to the tavern - which I do believe the vote has brought in as The White Lion. For reference, the Lion is going to have a good bit more to work with than your houses; but almost all of it is going to start out broken down.
Book Repository for Knowledge (arcana) it is! Also a Sauna. And Storage.
Breakdown:
Book Repository for Knowledge (arcana) - 460 gp
Sauna - 120 gp
Storage - 120 gp
Total: 700 gp
I'd get a bath, but that brings me 10 gp above my allotment. :P
Nicely math'ed there.
Alchemy lab: 390
Garden: 180
Bath: 130
Total: 700
The garden is for maintaining those rare herbs and spices needed for delicious meals! Oh, and for witch's brews.
For our tavern I'd suggest two bars together (For a larger sized one), a common room, some lavatories, and maybe bunks? Plus a brewery out back. Plus one storage.
Forge: 370g
Storage: 120g
Sanctum: 190g
Total: 680g
build around the core of 1 Bedroom, 1 Kitchen, 1 Lavatory, and 1 Sewer Access, with a total value of 690g
The Forge is for working, the Sanctum his place to pray and prepare spells, and the storage is to store materials and completed works.
Workstation: 300
Bath: 130
Garden: 180
Statue: 060
Total: 670
So the workstation is for tinkering. Garden for growing berry bushes to make the experimental good berries. The statue I'd like as a fountain in the the garden. The description says that the 60gp doesn't include the actual fountain, how much would a small 2x2 square fountain of a very cheap quality and no decoration run me?
Esmee: Hm. Not an awful lot, I'd imagine, if it's really no frills at all, and that price you quoted includes the installation, which I assume include the plumbing...let's say another 30 gold, just to make it easy. It really is crappy, though, and may be prone to breaking down.
And that seems like it's done it for your houses, guys. Moving on to the White Lion.
A long time ago, the Lion was a pretty posh place. It's fallen into pretty serious disrepair, though. The only rooms still usable (with a bit of a spitshine), are the Bar and Common Room.
In disrepair (you'll need to spend 1/2 of the usual resources to restore them), we have the Kitchen, Lodging, Stall (for mounts), and Storage, as well as another 500 gold worth of rooms to be determined communally by you guys.
Additionally, although they are beyond salvaging, there is another 1250 gold of more lavish decorations and extravagant rooms. These are to be determined by you folks - you can scrap them/restore them for 3/4 the usual price, once you've got the basic stuff ready for use.
Finally, if you come up with something spectacularly original, I could see some investors kicking in a little extra money for such a project (Translation: I'll throw you some cash if you impress me).
We definitely should fix the buildings in disrepair. Definitely need the lodgings.
More important things:
Bath/Sauna - communal place to wash up.
Bedrooms - more comfortable but expensive places for people to stay
Lavatory + Sewer Access - while the lodgings may have chamberpots, these are more comfortable and the patrons of the inn need somewhere to, ah, go
Statue - A mascot? Eliam has calligraphy if we need to make a design,
Storage - Another storage room aside for the one from the kitchen for anything else, maybe if we're selling anything.
Storefront - somewhere business can be conducted (i.e. book a room but in the future sell things too?)
Other things:
Brewery - for drinks, might double as a wine cellar if the storage rooms aren't enough
Furnishing (Common Room/Bar) - more attractive!
Garden/Greenhouse - for food, might help for fresh ingredients
Laundry - another service for guests (can imagine them needing a wash), but we also need to wash the bed linens and such
Eliam would suggest a mascot if the White Lion doesn't have one already. Something memorable and having to do with the inn's name.
We can definitely make use of some of our party's merchant skills to sell things to patrons. While we may not be able to sell things like more rare things, we can do maps and other basic and traveling necessities.
Though, darn, Eliam hasn't invested anything in Knowledge (geography) yet to make maps. Babbles has Craft (weapon) and Craft (armor) though so that might be something to sideline with, along with Esmee's Craft (blacksmith). Angela's Craft (Alchemy) can take care of making potions and such while Eliam can provide scrolls for those inclined.
If the other inhabitants of the town want to sell things, we can function as some sort of in-between for most (selling homemade goods and such).
Oh, and can Eliam just spend 10 gp from my personal money to upgrade the Sauna in his house to a Bath?
About the only thing I can think of to add to Eliam's list at the moment is a games room.
So for our 500 gold disrepair I'd recommend games room, lavatory, and sewer access (For 530 gold total. So sue me.)
For the rest, the furnishings, bedrooms, statues, gardens and all our playsets and toys.
Ooh, and later on we can put a small sideroom for an altar in. For adventurers, and all. We can put a giant lever operated pillar on the altar, with every god's iconography on it. That way praying to your god is as easy as revolving the pillar to your relevant symbolism! (Heresy? Probably. And why does it keep getting stuck on Rovagug? Why does it even have Rovagug?)
As for Eliam's want of a bath, he could just use Angela's! Wacky hijinks! Think about it.
I like the rotating altar.
(I'll be responsible for resetting it to Rovagug all the time.)
I agree we need rooms, lavatory, and sewer access. But I must concur with the Tavern needing a brewery. For one it'll mean we'll have our own distinct brew, but it will also help feed the local economy as we'll need to buy the supplies for the actual brewing process.
Eliam: Sure, go ahead and upgrade.
Everybody - okay, so if I parsed all that correctly, sounds like the list of ideas for the rooms currently in disrepair is something like:
Game Room (300)
Lavatory (120)
Sewer Access (110)
Altar (210)
Bath (120)/ Sauna(130)
Bedrooms (300 apiece)
Storefront (190)
Brewery (380)
Those are all the ones I saw with at least two recommendations behind them. And since that's waaay more than 500 gold, let's pick from these. The further broken stuff you can decide a bit later in game.
My suggested arrangement would include a Lavatory, Sewer Access, and the Brewery. It's a bit over what I said originally, but that's what being flexible's for.
That being said, take your pick, folks. Lay out your plan from the above rooms, and I'll moderate. If you go over a little, don't worry about it too much.
The suggestion seems like the most sensible thing for a tavern to have, so I'll +1 that. Lavatory/sewer/brewery
Esmee however doesn't want to have to run all the way home to use the privy, so lets make that nice.
Tavern's will fail unless they have customers without some other way of making money. Having our own brew, will make a difference and possibly draw people in from across the world.
I agree with the above!
Right. With three people officially on board, let's go ahead and make that the official layout. For future reference, I'll go ahead and put what we have so far in the Campaign Info tab, and update it as the place grows and improves.
Now's the time for any pending questions or revisions, folks, 'cause unless I'm missing something, we're just about ready to start this thing off for realsies.
Hurrays!
And should we keep track of our own houses and/or provide a description for them? And do we get to pick exactly where in Speck our houses are located? Not that I'm asking for a definite layout or description of the town, mind you, just that Eliam will probably want to live somewhere far away from most people so he doesn't get disturbed mid-research.
Hm. Eliam was unable to find a home as remote as he would like that wasn't full of farmers already. There was an empty place towards the outskirts of town, but there are still a few neighbors within shouting distance; notably, Drimpelgatto's Better Than New, Totally Shiny and Fantastically Fascinating Repair and Tinkering Services. The noise annoyed Eliam to no end, but he discovered that Miss Drimplegatto's shop happened to lie on a natural leyline, and the only locale close enough for him to make use of it in his research was his current domicile.
Yah?