It occured to me after reading There is No Honor, which is great by the way, that my players will immediately want to start moving stuff in after they clear the place out.
Just curious if anyone else's PCs tried this and what your thoughts were on it.
We haven't gotten there yet, but I fully expect my players will do the same (and if they don't I'll be disappointed). Same thing with Parrot Island (could make a nice hideaway, and one of my players can breath water...)
James or others, details on attempting to do so and the repurcussions thereof would be nice in future Dungeons...
Creative Director
|
The PCs moving into the tunnels under Parrot Island or into the Lotus Dragon guildhall is fine... if a bit weird. After all, assuming they're buddy-buddy with Lavinia, she'll let them stay at Stately Vanderboren Manor free of charge. And that place is comfortable, well-lit, warm, cozy, and doesn't have a problem being infested with monstrous crabs.
Issue #140 has a fully detailed map of Vanderboren Manor.
And once issue #140 comes along, the PCs say goodbye to Sasserine for the rest of the campaign, so in the end it won't really matter that much.
I find it interesting that in AoW, we're shacked up in some ramshackle, decrepit, abandom mine owners crumbling cottage and in ST they get to camp out in the Vanderboren manor. Granted Sasserine is a huge difference from Diamond Lake.
I'm sure they'll hang out at the manor as well, but I just can't see them resisting having a "secret hideout" to fall back on if needed. Unless Sasserine is detroyed, I'm sure they'll pop in from time to time with teleportation and such...
|
We haven't played through that part of There is No Honor yet, and while I plan to offer the Vanderboren Manor as a base of operations, I would not be surprised if the PCs want to use the Lotus Dragon base. That being said, if what's her name escapes, using the base could not be as secret as they would hope.
|
Creative Director
|
I'm sure they'll hang out at the manor as well, but I just can't see them resisting having a "secret hideout" to fall back on if needed. Unless Sasserine is detroyed, I'm sure they'll pop in from time to time with teleportation and such...
Fair enough... but they'll need to use greater teleport, most likely. Sasserine's out of range from teleportation from the Isle of Dread unless you're epic level...
Fair enough... but they'll need to use greater teleport, most likely. Sasserine's out of range from teleportation from the Isle of Dread unless you're epic level...
Hmmm, something to consider in my Mystara conversion notes--as I've set Sasserine on the northern coast of Davania it lies just under 900 miles away, and thus well within reach of teleport cast by a 9th level caster...
And once issue #140 comes along, the PCs say goodbye to Sasserine for the rest of the campaign, so in the end it won't really matter that much.
I read that in the ST Overview in #138, but the impact only really just hit me. I mean you guys put in a lot of work to make Sasserine a huge and detailed location with all kinds of flavor and history. It's amazing that we ditch it after two (1.5?) adventures. I know that's similar to what happend with Diamond Lake, but DL seemed to me to be much smaller in scale. I'll chalk it up as another gift from Dungeon: another ready made city - just add water!
Do you all at Dungeon ever hope to get more mileage out of these towns (Diamond Lake, Cauldron, Sasserine, etc.)? I.e. use them again in other adventures or campaigns? Or is city creation just part of the process for you and once you make them they've got to fly on their own out there in the worlds of DMs everywhere?
Anyway, thanks for the city. It's a rich one.
|
Creative Director
|
Well... in Sasserine's case, the city also serves as an expansion to Shackled City. It also serves as a pre-made city for any DMs out there who aren't running Savage Tide but need a new city for their campaign. And as I mentioned elsewhere on these boards... I'm certainly open to adventure submissions that take place in Sasserine.
In the end, though... it's mostly an obsession with giving DMs everything they need to run a campaign. If we were in the chocolate milk buisness, we'd probably ship everyone a cocca bean plantation and a dairy farm.
In the end, though... it's mostly an obsession with giving DMs everything they need to run a campaign.
Yet another example that obsessions can be good. I keep telling it to my wife...
If we were in the chocolate milk buisness, we'd probably ship everyone a cocca bean plantation and a dairy farm.
I didn't think that Sasserine was lacking anything, but you've hit the nail on the head. Must have cocoa bean plantations. The evil Lotus Dragons: taking over the harbor and stifling all chocolate milk production! They must be stopped!
Thanks James.
Sasserine's out of range from teleportation from the Isle of Dread unless you're epic level...
On this note, will the Isle have healing services available for parties which don't have a cleric (and thus don't have spells like raise dead)? Maybe a local high-level shaman, or a cleric in the Vanderboren settlement, or ... ?
(I assume there won't be much supply of magic items that should be available in cities like Sasserine, e.g. potions and scrolls.)
On this note, will the Isle have healing services available for parties which don't have a cleric (and thus don't have spells like raise dead)? Maybe a local high-level shaman, or a cleric in the Vanderboren settlement, or ... ?
(I assume there won't be much supply of magic items that should be available in cities like Sasserine, e.g. potions and scrolls.)
There are clerics in the city ranging up to 13th level. Between all the district churches, the Witchwardens, and the magic shops listed in the Merchant District, I'd expect most potions and many scrolls (up to 4th-6th level) would be available. The gp limit in the city is 40,000--that'll cover a lot of magic items...
There are clerics in the city ranging up to 13th level....
Right, but once they've left Sasserine, but before they can cast raise dead etc. on their own, will they have any alternatives?
Oh, the ISLE...sorry about that...don't know for certain there, obviously. I'd imagine the colony thereon will be set up to help with such.
|
Creative Director
|
On this note, will the Isle have healing services available for parties which don't have a cleric (and thus don't have spells like raise dead)? Maybe a local high-level shaman, or a cleric in the Vanderboren settlement, or ... ?
(I assume there won't be much supply of magic items that should be available in cities like Sasserine, e.g. potions and scrolls.)
Yes. The colony on the Isle is in many ways a settlement or town of its own. There will be a place to rest, get healing, relax, and even shop. I expect that the "we can cash in our treasure and buy whatever it is we want" mentality of most 3rd Edition games will take a hit, though. We'll see...
Yes. The colony on the Isle is in many ways a settlement or town of its own. There will be a place to rest, get healing, relax, and even shop. I expect that the "we can cash in our treasure and buy whatever it is we want" mentality of most 3rd Edition games will take a hit, though. We'll see...
That's where the artificer in my group is hoping to shine. I never really let player's buy anything they want anyway, so he already knows the party has a much better shot at the "right gear" if they're making it! I really like the artificer class ability of basically sucking the XP out of an unneeded item to create something more useful.
|
Yes. The colony on the Isle is in many ways a settlement or town of its own. There will be a place to rest, get healing, relax, and even shop. I expect that the "we can cash in our treasure and buy whatever it is we want" mentality of most 3rd Edition games will take a hit, though. We'll see...
Yeah, I 've tried to do away with that mentality as best as possible...its been a running joke with my "longest" players (from 1st ed) that its the "Return to hommlet syndrome", referring to the Original Temple of Elemental Evil, and the frequency by which they had to rest and recover.
As a "quick and Dirty" house rule, I always roll for availabity of magic items. Basically take the Market Price divided by the G.P. Limit of a Community times 100% to get a percentage chance of Non-Availability. I roll "behind-the-screen" because sometimes I simply do not want an item to enter the campaign so "easily".
Then the player(s) need to find the seller. Its a Gather Information check or a Profession (merchant) check to find with a DC = 10 + (Market value/5000). People want to sell, but to advertise too openly is to invite all the thieves in the city to come after you. For items less than 5000, I use (5000/market value) and subtract it from 10. For the most part this covers potions, wands, +1 weapons and armor, and some minor wonderous which seem to be a "staple" of magic shops, temples, etc, and should be easy to find.
You'll note that items over 100,000gp in market value cannot ever be available by this system using the DMG for G.P. Limit. However, if you use cities like Sigil, or The City of Brass, for example, exceeding the 100,000gp limit is appropriate.
You'll also note that items in the 150,000 plus market value have "seller found" DCs over 40. In general, this high a DC is Epic, and effectively, you don't *ever* buy these items because you cannot find a seller until you are Epic.
It works for my campaign and it scales nicely and appropriately with the market value (which is designed to match PC power). You can easily tweak it by imposing a multiplier to the numbers. If you feel the DC is too difficult, change the denominator. If you feel the "availablity" is too harsh or too lenient, add or subtract a set number to the market value to achieve an appropriate result.
Awesome rules for loot.
**Yoink**
::Runs off to implement in his own games.::
|
I use a Gather Information or Knowledge (local) check and require time for the PCs to find loot within the gp limit of the local city ...
Very Common (Swords, cows, bread) - DC 5, no time
Common (One Use Magic items (scrolls of 0-2nd level, potions, etc), alchemical items, masterwork items) - DC 10, 30 min
Uncommon (Magic Items (swords, armor, scrolls of 3-4th level, wands, staves, etc), Exotic Weapons (nunchaku, khopeshes), odd alchemical items (faerunian), foreign currency) - DC 15 or 2gp finder fee for a merchant, 1d4+1 hours
Specialty (pistols, smokepowder, cursed magic items, black market items, scrolls of 5th-6th level spells, enhanced alchemical items) - DC 25 or 3gp/day finder fee for a merchant, 1d3 days
Rare (Zakharan Items, scrolls of 7th level spells, custom one use magic items made to order) - DC 35 or 500+5gp/day finder fee for a merchant, 2d4 days
Exotic (Potions of 4th or 5th level spells, Scrolls of 9th level spells) - DC 45 or 1000+8gp/day finder fee for merchants, 3d6 days
The time constraint made things more interesting than the DC check.
Yes. The colony on the Isle is in many ways a settlement or town of its own. There will be a place to rest, get healing, relax, and even shop. I expect that the "we can cash in our treasure and buy whatever it is we want" mentality of most 3rd Edition games will take a hit, though. We'll see...
Oh yes!
Will be intresting to see if gold has any real value atall, excpt for the curious collector expecting to cash it in for real stuff in civilisation ;)
But primarily this brings me to something called "the purple staff" society in turmish, seeking to improve their land thru magic... continous light, wall of stone roads, buildings, automata for manufacture etc.. :D
There must be progress, and the entire island and seas around will be optimised for wealth production..
Sasserine is such a great setting. It's a damned shame you leave it and never come back so quickly. I might have to hold a campiagn there (if I ever get players) outside of Savage Tide. Because the city is just incredible.