so one or three nights in the bunks before we go to the castle to see how things are? I would say one, then head to the castle if we need to lay up there a couple we can. we should go to the robbers hideout and stash some food so we can carry stuff.
Kaztor, can elathras have you old scale mail since his must be pretty chewed up by now?
brvheart, My posting will be thin tonight and tomorrow day, I have to finish a project, so depending on how it is going I may be his and miss, should be back to normal sat. night.
updated map as of 8/2/15
Awesome job!
List of items for RA:
shiney necklace from ghoul in sarcophagus
Bandit treasure:
3 falchions claimed by virgil and Elathras, virgil gave club and axe to orcs
studded leather,
buckler,
composite longbow [+1 Str], (elathras)
20 arrows, (elathras)
short sword (elathras)
leather armor,
rapier,
dagger,
shortbow,
40 arrows,
chainmail worn by Tall Jack ,(was this claimed by Kaztor?)
the bandits have a total of 175 gold pieces stashed
Stirge treasure:
these are a necklace of small jade beads (100 gp), a shiny silver piece, a shiny silver mirror (200 gp), and a glittering little diamond (350 gp)
boots and a metal gauntlet
500 gp and 1 silver piece
Inside the cube are: a suit of chainmail, a spearhead, five arrows, 40 gp, and a gem worth 250 gp.
Was the iron cobra’s carcass worth anything?
three gems worth 100 gp each
one of them is a silk gown (30 gp), and one of them is a crimson wizard’s robe embroidered with stars and astrological symbols (20 gp). There is also a backpack beside each of the two bedrolls; these contain a large ball of twine, a bottle of holy water,30 sp, and sketched map from Zelkor’s Ferry to the Mouth of Doom’s entrance.
the snake skin is worth 1000GP
The skeleton of a dead adventurer lies in the chamber underneath the statue. It wears chainmail and has a longsword and a short bow, in addition to a belt pouch containing 30 gp and a gem worth 50 gp.
The composite longbow +1 str was claimed by mitleid.
and weren´t at least some items magic?
hey Mitleid, the only magical item we found, that I know of, was the towershield back in the castle. Also the +1 str. bow you were using was the one the gnoll captain had at the castle, I think it was broken and was repaired. The one we found in the bandits hideout was the second one, that's why Elathras claimed it. (he had actually been using your original bow up till that point in time) Oh, so we should add that bow to the list or keep it as a back up!
Kaz bought chain mail when we shopped last. Keep the chain you listed in the sale pile.
I have picked up the mantle of treasurer! The party mule has been updated. If you take something, please update it and make a post.
Also, I accounted for the chainmail in the post above.
Magical stuff:
Necklace of nat armor: Dolgrin
Tower shield +1: sold
Fire arrow?: I think we found one. Wasn't sure, so didn't list it.
yes, the one in the gelatinous cube, I thought we bought a scale armor for Kaztor? Either way I'm good with it.
yes, the one in the gelatinous cube, I thought we bought a scale armor for Kaztor? Either way I'm good with it.
Ela is correct. I was just waking up from a nap when I made my last post, lol. It was scale, not chain.
I say we sell everything that no one claims, so we can start stocking our fort.
No prob, I was confused, because your said RA and not this trip. My fault!
I'm okay with selling the loot.
Ka-ching, ka-ching!
It's cool gentleman, I'm just glad Virgil is doing the treasure now, I'm more than happy doing the map!
Mitleid would like to withdraw 300gp from the lootreservoir, putting his old C.Longbow+1 back into the lootpile. To enhance it with MW... that is for another day, can be done via a spell, when we have more cash.
Copy that, I will update it to reflect your withdrawal. Are you buying a composite (Str+2) bow?
Kaztor, did you take a suit of chainmail then? Can I add the scale to the sellable pot?
In fact, can everyone check through their items (Dolgrin Mk. I)? Make sure to mention anything you traded up for, then we can sell all that starting stuff.
Virgil will need someone's help to sell all this stuff. He might be a decent book-keeper, but he's no haggler (Cha 7!).
I'd like to be able to upgrade/exchange my falchion for a masterwork falchion.
And buy a long-spear to use as a pole-arm of sorts, since I'm not proficient with the really good ones. Masterwork long-spear, if possible. If not, a regular one is fine.
I'm not really sure that would be a great use of our resources: we're about to hit level 3, and Kaztor can start MWing our current weapons via magic. That way we're not selling and rebuying the same thing at a loss.
We should definitely get you a long-spear.
I suppose Bjorn might be able/willing to do that, but think about how often Grúk has entered melee.
If we MW Dolgrin, Virgil, and Elathras's weapons, we're already down 900GP.
I suppose I'm just wondering if it's worth MWing a 1/2 BAB character's Falchion.
Guys, you can't MW an item that didn't start out that way. You will need to sell the old item at half and buy a new one at book.
Ah. Is this spell out then: Masterwork Transformation?
That's all fine. I'll just make do with a long-spear and skip the MW stuff. That can wait until we've got more cash to splash.
Ok, Masterwork Transformation is out. So is buying Masterwork weapons here. So is any armor better than Chainmail (We'll have to find it down in RA).
In order to sell any of the big stuff (i.e. that diamond, that snakeskin, that necklace) we'll have to ship it out to a bigger city. Virgil can probably do this through Kirbeye, but I suspect he'll take a fee for that.
With all this in mind, I think it might be best for Mitleid to hang on to his Comp (+1 Str) bow. We're not getting much better than that for a while. I also think we should consider spending more of our money on our keep. We'll have to send off for everything else.
Ouch. Well I think then I can´t afford a new bow. I doubt my share so far is 400gp
I'll take a suit of chain, Virgil, and we can put the scale mail in to pile to be sold.
Sounds good Kaz.
Mit, I'll deposit that money back in for the moment then (I think a MW (+2 Str) Longbow comes to 600gp!).
If/when we send back to the mainland for sales/upgrades, I think we should do it all at once. We'll probably get a bulk deal or something.
What about relatively cheap alchemical weapons? I don't suppose there's any of those about in this town, are there?
Oh. Is someone tracking individual shares (in cash) and group funds?
elathras has kept: A short sword, a falchion, an axe, a shield (back on the floor by the sticky door) and a (+1 str) bow and 20 arrows, if you want him to put any of it back let me know.
do we want to wait on fixing the gate at the castle and purchase a few specific items? After we fix the gate, lets make the castle 1/8 of our expenditure so we each start getting a share, or something like that.
I'd guess it might be a plan to focus a bit more on fixing up the castle. The extra masterwork gear I don't think we really, really, really need just yet.
In purely practical terms, the sooner we can get that castle up to scratch, we might be able to have our own hired weapon-smiths and bowyers there to supply us with all our adventuring fashion accessories.
I think the keep having an eighth share is a good call.
I think we might want a character wealth spreadsheet to have an idea of total value of people so we can try to keep it close, but actually splitting up shares is sillier than just buying useful stuff. It's more useful to buy a CLW wand or one person a +1 xxxx item than to have a couple hundred gold on several different people. Similarly repairing the gate is more useful than having a few hundred gold on several people.
Having an entry on the sheet for 'keep' and 'party' so we can track things like 'we bought a gate' or 'we bought a CLW wand'.
Most of the immediately valuable stuff for us right now is either consumables (CLW and Lesser Restoration Wands being the big 2) or utility (Keep Upgrades, Bags of Holding, Horses or w/e). Adding +1 to attack via MW is nice but not really as good as just waiting for +1 to attack/damage with a magic item.
my 2c
Depends. Most people are quite flexible in choosing their weapons.
The most restricted is the zen archer monk. Longbow or Comp longbow!
And you want one keyed to your strength. No matter what you find it is either unuseable or not keyeds to your strength.
I was looking through a copy of the Articles of Piracy from the crew of captain Bartholomew Roberts (Black Bart). I think it's an interesting model for splitting loot in RPG parties, since they were surprisingly egalitarian amongst themselves. They even called themselves "Gentlemen of Adventure".
Anyway, here's the relevant bit - Article X:
"The captain and the quartermaster shall each receive two shares of a prize, the master gunner and boatswain, one and a half shares and all other officers one and one quarter and private gentlemen of fortune one share each."
Based on that, I thought that it might be an idea to split the cash nine ways (party members plus two) and the double share goes to the party's common loot for things like the fortress. It seems reasonable to me, anyway.
I also gussied up a loot-sharing spreadsheet here. It's based on one made from scratch by a player in another PbP I'm in. Mine includes a sheet to calculate the 9 way split, above.
Just thought I'd mention all that as a model for dividing loot.
I like the idea of the common loot for purchases, my only question is 'who are we purchasing things from?' the town may b able to supply mw arms and armor, but I don't think any magic items like wands or potions or handy haversacks will be available, I could be wrong, brvheart, any information of purchasable magic items?
I'd hazard a guess that there won't be too much in the way of magic "toys" to buy in a small town like Zelkor's Ferry.
I thought sinking loot into the castle and all would help build it up nicely for us as a base. Invest in the future and all that.
I think we might want a character wealth spreadsheet to have an idea of total value of people so we can try to keep it close, but actually splitting up shares is sillier than just buying useful stuff. It's more useful to buy a CLW wand or one person a +1 xxxx item than to have a couple hundred gold on several different people. Similarly repairing the gate is more useful than having a few hundred gold on several people.
Having an entry on the sheet for 'keep' and 'party' so we can track things like 'we bought a gate' or 'we bought a CLW wand'.
Most of the immediately valuable stuff for us right now is either consumables (CLW and Lesser Restoration Wands being the big 2) or utility (Keep Upgrades, Bags of Holding, Horses or w/e). Adding +1 to attack via MW is nice but not really as good as just waiting for +1 to attack/damage with a magic item.
my 2c
I started a character wealth spreadsheet for this game already. Here is the link for you guys:
@ brvheart
Thanks. I've saved that link.
What are the numbers in column A in the first sheet for? Can't make sense of them. Were they for the GM only sort of thing?
@Gruk post number I believe.
@ brvheart: that makes sense. The numbers kept getting higher.
Thanks.
Lost Lands Tech
Submitted by Greg A Vaughan on Sun, 07/12/2015 - 15:01
The Lost Lands relative tech levels are divided among the following:
Stone Age
Bronze Age
Iron Age
Dark Ages
High Middle Ages
Medieval
Renaissance
Age of Sail
Industrial Revolution
Starting with Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms (currently at the printer), each book that reveals gazetteer-type information about the Lost Lands will include at the beginning a list of the tech levels and a description of what each one means to the game world. Plus each region listing throughout the book will include a line that gives the tech levels.
In general the Lost Lands runs around a High Middle Ages - Medieval tech level, trending more towards Medieval in the cities and HMA in the countryside. The greatest cities are sometimes Renaissance. Some specific areas (Razor Coast, Oceanus, and Southvale to name a few) are Age of Sail. The Blight (the City-State of Castorhage) is more or less the only major area of Industrial Revolution tech, but as you'll see, it's a tech more driven on magic than anything else. Sort of a steampunk without the steam and with necromancy instead.
The relative tech levels are maintained primarily by the level of isolation of an area and general need.
Only the most isolated and backward areas would have a Stone Age or Bronze Age tech level. Exceptions would be:
Large parts of Libynos, where the vast quantities of cheap slave labor, extremely strong dynastic rule, and a desire of the powers that be to prevent equipping the peasantry with the means to effectively revolt keeps things at a Bronze Age level (think Khemit). That is not to say that no tech above BA exists in Khemit, just that the rulers keep a lid on trade in that stuff to the degree that unless someone has a great deal of money, they're not going to be able to easily acquire stuff of a higher level. The powerful elite would have access to a higher tech level, and adventurers conceivably could with their usual abundance of loot, but the average Joe on the street is basically stuck with BA tech.
And a few anachronistic specific areas that keep it at that level for their own idiosyncratic reasons, like the city of Freegate. Freegate is one of the major ports controlled by Bard's Gate but is so strongly steeped in its ancient Hyperborean roots basically maintains a BA tech level in their day-to-day existence. They've got all kinds of higher tech coming through to and from Bard's Gate (which is Medieval, borderline Renaissance), but they have simply chosen to not embrace it--something they have the luxury to do as a protectorate of Bard's Gate. Since Bard's Gate will handle any major military or trade-related problems they might face, the aristocracy of Freegate just kicks back in their togas and debates philosophy at the Forums while the coin rolls in. Visitors to Freegate are almost always of a higher tech level, but (as with the Libynos example above) the tech level indicates the most prevalent tech level, not the tech level available for those with coin enough to buy it or who may be traveling through.
Dark Ages is most frequently seen in not necessarily isolated areas, but areas that are on the fringe of known civilization. Higher tech levels are available but are generally expensive and the folk get along just fine without them for the most part. There is some tech-level creep, but when magic is readily available to take care of a lot of the problems tech was designed for then it reduces a lot of the drive to develop/adopt it. If necessity is the mother of invention, then cheap and plentiful magic is frequently guilty of matricide. Examples of typical Dark Ages tech would be the Northlands, the Heldring Peninsula, the island of Ynys Cymragh.
High Middle Ages tech is pretty much the default for most of the known civilized lands. The typical country village or small city is likely to be HMA/
Medieval is the highest "normal" tech levels. Most of the more powerful and/or affluent cities are going to be here, with the tech level descending more towards HMA in the hinterlands as you get farther away from the population centers.
Renaissance are the truly outstanding cities of the world. No nation is entirely renaissance. This represents the pinnacle for most technological achievement in the Lost Lands. Bard's Gate probably bounces right at the cusp between this and Medieval, but could probably properly be called Renaissance (I'll make a final decision when the new Bard's Gate manuscript arrives from Casey Cristofferson and I can see what he added on top of the old stuff). Other than Bard's Gate, the most likely places to find Ren tech is in Courghais, the imperial capital of the Kingdoms of Foere (though Medi and HMA throughout the kingdoms themselves), a few of its more affluent sister cities, Reme, some of the colony/conquered cities Oceanus like Oestre on the Matagost Peninsula), and maybe Alcaldar (still deciding on that one).
Age of Sail is really only found in nations that principally rely on their naval capabilities to project their power. The Empire of Oceanus is the greatest example of this and it and its colonies explain the perfusion of its tech in remote areas such as the waters and shores around the Razor Sea. There the availability of spellcasters is probably a bit more limited, plus Oceanus's tech is fairly common, plus Oceanus stands to gain a lot of trade by pushing their tech on these outlying areas that have no real hope of ever contesting with Oceanus but will gladly pay hard coin for the tech that they offer, which as a result is probably a lot cheaper than it might be found in other places. The Kingdoms of Foere (easily Oceanus's biggest political rival) would likely be at this level except it's largely become a land-locked empire in the last few centuries since its major naval defeat by Oceanus at Kapichi Point and has, therefore, not had the need to develop this tech. The Foerdewaith remain the major dominant power on the Akados mainland (and to a certain extent in Libynos as well, as seen in the Great Crusades of previous years) and with its tenuous peace with Oceanus chooses not to engage in a maritime arms race. Oceanus knows it can't beat Foere on the mainland, and Foere knows better than to invest in defeating Oceanus at sea. So a status quo exists that does a lot to prevent the proliferation of Age of Sail tech throughout the mainland. Plus Foere has the largest population in Akados and like a gazillion spellcasters, so the need doesn't seem pressing.
Industrial Revolution tech basically wouldn't exist without the City-State of Castorhage (The Blight) and essentially doesn't exist outside its local and colonial bounds. The only nation that could truly contest with Oceanus at sea (though no doubt at great cost), the two maritime powers basically steer clear of each other's assets to avoid any costly entanglements. And, as mentioned, Castorhage is Industrial Revolution in effect only, in that its tech emulates Industrial Revolution norms but relies more on necromancy and other magic to make that happen. The Blight is kind of a weird place. To get a feel for its tech (and weirdness), read Richard Pett's masterful novel: Crooked available here. It is not a Frog God Games product, but our agreement with Richard to make sure he never gets "Styed" again (if you're familiar with those events of the late days of Dungeon Magazine) lets him keep using his Blight IP while FGG creates Lost Lands game products out of it. Rich's novel takes place in the city of "Brine", but you'll easily see that it is basically The Blight in novel form.
We've essentially designed the Lost Lands to be able to seamlessly incorporate all of the old Necromancer Games adventures (Crystal Skull, updated in Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms included firearms) as well as new Frog God Games classics like Nick Logue's Razor Coast here and allow those kinds of play but not force GMs and players who want to play in a different kind of game that doesn't involve firearms and other higher levels of tech. It'll even allow low tech play in Khemit, etc. for those who want it, all without forcing components on them that they don't want to use. A GM can include or ignore Razor Coast in his campaign, include or ignore the fact that the Imperial Guard of Oceanus includes a battalion musketeers, include or ignore the fact that there may be gunslingers wandering around the countryside. Other than those places where they have been specifically called out, firearms and tech will not play an important role in FGG books and adventures and left up to individual GMs to insert if they wish. And if you think the temptation of a firing line of muskets would be too much for any government to resist fielding, then you haven't seen what a few well-placed fireballs can do to a line of stationary guys carrying horns full or blackpowder or what a wildfyre cannon can do against a wooden ship with a magazine full of powder and shot. ;-)
In other words, if you want the good stuff plate armor, etc. you need to send off to Bard's Gate.
nice article, it will give me something to read tonight, thanks brv!
we need to decide how were are going to do the cut. three ways have been proposed that I remember
#1 seven way split
#2 eight way split, the eighth being for the castle
#3 ten way split, Eighth being for the castle, ninth and tenth being for 'group items'
any other ideas put them up, and we can select.
also we will eventually be able to craft and also send off to Bards gate for items we don't find/make,
I don't really care what we do, Elathras is planning on scavenging weapons and armor, I like the idea of some of the money going to the fort and some going to group items so the casters don't have to foot the bill for stuff tha is created or the parties good, ie. wands, potions and scrolls.
#3 is fine with me. We do need items, and that does cost money.
# 3 does sound like a good option.
It should cover ourselves and our group holdings and expenses.
THe question is do we get an ROI?
I mean what do we get if we pay loads of cash for a castle?
ROI? You get a base of operations. A place to call your own.
Ok, I added up all of the treasure this morning that Elathras found. Presuming you sell everything that is not currently claimed that is 324 GP, 50 SP each and twice that for the party fund. I presume you kept the arrows and bedrolls. Ok, someone pick this up from here please?
I'll try to tidy that all up on my spreadsheet with the information from yours. I'll PM everyone else a shareable link to my Google spreadsheet for all that sometime later today so everyone can look at it and let me know what they think of it.
I'll be out and about for one thing or another most of the day, but hopefully I can have that all done by this evening.
Then everyone can call me Wdrozgrúk the Pay Master!
Well, not exactly. I'm just doing this to save brvheart and Elathras the burden of that paperwork.
During the meanwhilst, a link to a PDF copy of my embellished copy of Black Bart's articles of piracy is here. I didn't make it shareable because it is a PDF file. Anyway, if anyone wants a bit of a giggle, and decent ideas on sharing loot in PF, let me know what you think of that one.
I think article XI is interesting. A provision for "Gentlemen of Adventure" who are incapacitated getting a lump sum out of the common funds as a bit of a compensation package. Just thought it was worth looking at with the chance of characters getting crippled up in RA.
Actually make that 8 SP. Messed that up somehow. I was just trying to do a quick and dirty as a lot were wanting to spend their gold. Remember you will all need at least 4GP for the two day stay depending on how much ale you drink! There is part of your ROI for ya. Every night in the castle is money not spent at an inn. I know it is peanuts for one night, but when you start crafting items you could be there for over a month! It also gives you a place where you can build a lab, a forge or whatever you need. You could build a small stronghold in the area eventually.
thanks brvheart, didn't mean for you to do the dirty work.
Ok, a mug of ale is 4 coppers, at 25 mugs for a gp. lets assume Elathras bought a few rounds. and spend 1 gp. on ale. another 4 gp for the room and board so now he has 319 gp. 8 sp.
having torn up his scale mail he will sell it (for 25 gp) and purchase a breastplate for 200 gp this he will have 144 gp 8 sp.
Wdrozgruk, the bow he is carrying would have sold for 100 gp. so Elathras will donate 100 gp to the party fund this will leave him with 44 gp. 8 sp.
Virgil, Elathras 5% is 16 gp. 5 sp. that will leave him with 28 gp. 4 sp.
brvheart is it ok if we hand wave the purchases or do we want to rp it out in the game thread. Gruk and Virgil I will post giving you the money when I have more time tonight!