|
In the background info on Diamond Lake it says that many of the denizens of the town are indentured miners or working off a prison debt.
It also suggests that the PC's should be driven to get out of this shit-hole of a town, and that exploring the Whispering Cairn is their last best chance at doing so.
So my question is how much of a gold piece debt is reasonable to impose on the characters? Has anyone else done somthing similiar or used another form of debt like repaying a favor to someone?
In case it amkes any diffrence, For somthing diffrent I was planning on running the campaign in the Lands of the Diamond Throne, the default setting for Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved PH.
Diamond Lake will be a Giant controlled mining town/operation very much like the background suggests near the capital city of De-Shamod. The Wind Dukes are the same but instead of fighting the forces of Chaos they helped in the defeat of the first war with the Dramojh.
|
I would assume the length of the sentence matches the debt. Assuming a miner makes 1 sp per day (DMG, page 105), it could take years to pay off 200 gp. Take a look at the Criminal Code of Greyhawk, found on page 67 of Greyhawk: The Adventure Begins. For major crimes such as manslaughter and burglary, criminals are sent to the mines when the fine imposed surpasses the individual's worth. Sentences vary from 1 to 20 years, sometimes for life. For minor crimes such as smuggling, criminals can be sentenced with up to 2 years of hard labour.
|
|
Well I'll check out the Adventure Begins, which I hadnt thought of, so thanks, it may help.
My question was more of whats a fair and reasonable amount of money to burden a begining character with that would encourage them that they really need to risk life and limb, providing real incentive to adventure.
At the same time taking into consideration that they need that money to properly advance and equip themselves as per the GP/level ratio as expected by the DMG.
If that makes any sense at all.
|
|
You make a good point.
The way I was thinking about it was characters get x amout of starting gold as per the PH to buy whatever starting equipment they may have scrounged/borrowed/hid over their time in Diamond Lake.Characters can have a few gold pieces saved but otherwise excess gold is lost its a use it or lose it situation.
Then every character has some sort of starting debt imposed on them for some reason. This could be the wizard who has to buy his pawned spellbook back because he needed quick cash to pay a gambling debt, another PC could have a criminal debt to repay either he pays x gp or he works in the mines to repay it. Or somthing to that effect.
Then of course word comes down about the Whispering Cairn and all of a sudden adventuring seems very apealing.
But maybe Im over thinking it.
That is a good idea. I never thought of indenturing some of the PC's
|
|
Thanks.
This is one of the many many campaigns that I would love to do. But alas still has not, nor will it in the near future get off the ground.
My goal for the Whispering Carin would be to have a good incentive to get the players to get together. I would also want to find a way to encourage them to investigate,explore and interact with Diamond Lake a bit more.
Its wierd. The town is a major set piece to the campaign and theres alot going on, but the adventures tend to gloss over this. I chalk this up to lack of space in the magazine, and that the DM is resposible to a degree on how much or little to use Diamond Lake.