If you need any help re the caravan can we keep it out off the IC thread thanks.
I was thinking we might hammer it out here in the OOC and then "montage" the action IC...don't get me wrong, I love me some roleplaying but I'm not sure I need to know exactly what Zaladrel says when picking out the wagon and all that, heh.
HAs everyone looked over the caravan rules? Its a bit to digest IMHO. What are you folks thinking we should do?
I've looked over them in a cursory way, but I haven't read them in any meaningful way as of yet. I'll be doing that this afternoon when I get home from work and will offer my input as soon as I'm finished.
In the meantime, what are your thoughts on it, Zal? Is there anything in particular that jumps out as something that we should be purchasing?
Probably another wagon or two...a cook? maybe a guard? PRovisions and repair material..
It occurs to me that we should look at everyone's kno/pro skills to see who could fill what roles....I guess that includes the NPCs too.
DM Wellard, would you be ok with us knowing NPC stats so we could see what role they would best fill in the caravan? Or would you rather just tell us what role each is going to be filling within the caravan? I've a feeling it's the latter, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Assuming you'll be deciding which NPC fills which role, would you mind telling us which they'll be assuming so we'll be able to compensate for that in our planning?
Disclaimer: This is my own personal opinion. I will go along with whatever the group decides.
I am all in favor of the Hand Waving option. Here is my reasoning:
1) One of the things I always disliked about just about every fantasy rpg I've been involved with is random encounters on the way to the adventure. Time spent waiting for the GM to roll for, research, and prepare (not to mention characters recovering from) the random encounter is time not spent role playing my character. The caravan rules seem to add a level of complexity to an aspect of the game I already dislike.
2) This game is moving along slowly enough as it is. Adding the caravan rules could slow it down even more.
Again, this us just my 2cp. I'm not dead set against it, I just think we don't need it.
I have no problem with hand waving the caravan encounters if the majority wants to go that way..
*bounces head back and forth*
Kingmaker the "in between" stuff had a pretty large bearing (IMHO) on the group dynamic and the tone of the game. Not having read Jade Regent I'm not sure if that is the same here.
I'm actually fine with hand waving but I want to make sure that we do account, in some manner, for the time. What I mean by that is outfitting and maneuvering the caravan plays a role in establishing the relationships of the PCs and the NPCs and the tribulations met are sort of designed to make the group bond and relationships flourish. As long as we can still account for that, or keep it in mind as we maneuver from locale to locale then I will be good.
I'm with Nirthuus on this one. There're are a lot of rules and systems that look good on paper but don't play as well. I think this is one that would be much better suited to a home game. Imho, the point of the caravan rules was to give more of the sense of a journey than several interconnected points, i.e. 'It's not the destination (or destinations in this case), but the journey'. However, I think this group can have some good rp in between locations to spice it up, and Wellard is always free to throw in an encounter or two in between locations if he feels so inclined. I think it'll slow this game down even more, and it'll add in more bookkeeping than is strictly necessary.
I'm of the same mind as Devon in this instance. As long as it doesn't detract from the story and the interrelating between the characters and NPCs, I'm ok with hand waving the caravan rules as a sub-system for the AP.
Daniel/Nirthuus I cannot remember if you said yay or nay to joining us for Skull and Shackles. Others are preliminary posting concepts and questions here and you are welcome to do the same if you like. If you think you might want to join up then let me know otherwise I might farm for a couple of folks ahead of time rather than open recruit.
Sorry Zaladrel....thanks for the offer. I have not had too much time lately, but I will DL the player info and take a look...what do you have so far, and what are you looking for?? Oh..and where is the thread...lol
The link to the discussion thread is here.
Thanks for the offer, Devon, but I think I'll pass. I just can't seem to muster enough enthusiasm for a sea-going game to come up with a character concept I like. I wouldn't want to waste everyone's time with a half-hearted effort.
Well that seems to place the Majority in favour of hand waving the journey..I'd still like to get the caravan building stuff done though as (like Devon suggested) it's a bonding to the NPCs..
And I certainly won't be skimming over the time you will still have encounters on the road only ones that more intimately involve the characters..
In many ways you know designing a random encounter is easier in a PbP as I can work on it in the background while you move towards it.
we'll skip the day to day paperwork of the caravan..and instead of the special caravan encpounters..which garner you a fair amount of Xp..we'll run some normal ones.. which allows for a little more player involvement..
Sounds good to me!
I agree, that sounds like a good compromise.
That sounds perfect.
Sounds good to me. Thanks for the extra time and effort.
So where do you want us to go in the gameplay thread now, Wellard? Play through getting the supplies? Or skip forward to the point where the caravan is ready to go?
Tell me what you want to buy and I'll skip ahead to the leaving of Sandpoint.
I think we need at least one more covered wagon and another supply wagon. If the PCs pool their own resources, we can upgrade the undercarriages of all the wagons and get enough drivers and supplies. If we're stopping at any of those places Sandru mentioned, we should get some trade goods as well to make it worth his time and effort.
I think Omara basically covered it. The one other NPC we might bring is a cook because I get the impression they make the supplies last way better.
If we aren't worrying about the caravan rules part I'm not sure how mindful we need to be about the "roles".
We grab a cook and a driver and the aforementioned wagon/supplies then I think between the 5 of us, 4 NPC caravan types (our 2 and the brothers that Sandru brings) Koya, Sandru, Ameiko and Shalelu we can probably get most things done or close enough that we can fake it until we get closer to civilization?
Are we saying that Tavlor is along and hangs out with the caravan or will he just "catch up" if he comes back?
I agree here. Omara seems to have handled everything regarding supplies necessary. I'm afraid Úlf will be unable to provide any resources to upgrade the undercarriages, though, since he has already spent all his gold. Do we have enough for that? We were only provided 2,000 gold by Sandru. The caravan starts with three wagons. If we buy another supply wagon and another covered wagon, plus drivers and a cook and assume they'll need to be paid for six weeks of work, that'll bring our provided coin to approximately 1,150. If we even it out with 15 cargo units of trade goods, that drops us to 1,000 gold. It would take 2,500 to upgrade the undercarriage of all of the wagons. Do the remaining members of the group have enough gold to provide 1,500 coin? I'll be glad to have Úlf chip in his fair share of the extra when he earns it, of course, but for right now he's pretty much tapped out.
The undercarriage idea is something we can come back to. We can save the gold we don't spend and use it in the future when the PCs have more to spend on upgrades.
We might consider some riding horses, too, unless everyone wants to ride in the wagons.
We may also want to hire a wainwright in case a wagon gets damaged.
I'm wondering if the brothers or Sandru has expertise/skill as wainwright? Otherwise that might be prudent.
I don't need a horse, my land speed is 40 when I'm not encumbered (thank you Travel Domain) so between that and an occasional cart ride for rest its probably more prudent to not worry about a horse for me. Might make sense or have a couple though for rapid response or what not.
Probably for now can skip the undercarriage. If we head out from Brinewall to lands unknown we might consider it then.
Why not take what Phil noted, add a wainwright, 4 horses (everyone but me and Tavlor (?) basically) and add supplies? Here is the kicker:
With horses and a wainwright and drivers plus the 6 folks in the NPC group plus the 6 of us (if Tavlor is coming) our consumption is nuts with a capital N. Between me, Koya, Shalelu and the cook we blunt that consumption via the casting of an occasional spell, scouting, and what not.
Anyone with a rank in survival can essentially scout and not count against consumption as well as add to the stores by foraging while scouting. Obviously we won't keep super close track of this as we are not gonna use the rules per se but it basically breaks down that if we add horses and the wainwright we would need to fill one cargo wagon with nothing but food and we would need to replenish that food once a week. Without the horses and wainwright we can go about ten days on a wagon load.
All told the horses/wainwright @ 6 weeks/1 week of stores (I full wagon load) runs us ---> 440 gp BUT we could only fit 10 units of trade goods in the other cargo wagon which means we get 50 gp back from Phil's initial estimate means it would cost 390 for these additional resources putting us at a remaining value of 610 GP.
It will cost us 50 gp a week to maintain our food stores at this rate.
How does that sound?
I love this plan! I'm excited to be a part of it! LET'S DO IT!
Tavlor will come along I think..catching up might be a problem over nearly 5000 Miles.
A word on NPC advancement..For now the NPC's will advance one level for every three you advance.
Sounds good.
Onward and upward?
Sounds like a plan to me. Let's roll with it.
I was thinking, after we make a little money and expand our caravan, perhaps having a wagon where Runa can create potions would be useful. We can either sell them as we go along, or use them ourselves....just a thought.
Exploit Runa's skills to make us rich and powerful...well...I guess... :-)
lol....I dont know if I would call it exploiting....she is willing to help....
That's fair. Hopefully she will still feel that way in 10 levels when she has to spend a week at a time for our out of control potion habit :p
1st level potions are easy..2 hours down time and the cauldron hex and hey presto.
hey now...maybe by that time I am crafting magic items...you never know...lol
We'll hang a Potions-R-Us sign on the side of her wagon. It'll be great!
I'm going to assume that we're ready to go and will post in the gameplay thread to get us rolling. Hope that's ok with everyone!
Ok I put the caravan details into the Campaign info page just to keep track of how big it is..
Just for you guys' information, I'm back on rotation. This time it's just for a week. I should be able to keep my posting up, but if I get behind, it's just due to sleep winning the battle against the game temporarily.
No problem LH..I'll DMPC her as needed.
Can everyone check their characters private messages please.
FYI for all you 40k fans here, my wife is recruiting for a game of Black Crusade if any of you would like to play.
DM Wellard, just letting you know that on Monday I'm flying from Georgia to California for an educator's conference on Naval Base San Diego and will be there until Friday. I'll hopefully not be terribly restricted in my posting ability, but if I waiting for me is holding you up, please bot Úlf; I trust that you'd play him as I would.
Black Crusade is the one 40k RPG I have not got round to aqquiring..thanks anyway.