I was hoping to get some advice on a campaign I'm planning. Basically I want to make it less combat focused and more focused on PC-NPC interaction. Trading, negotiating and investigating will be major activities. In fact, I plan to limit the first few levels (say, 1-3) to NPC classes. Profession is going to be more important than class, and skills are going to be as important, or more important, than feats. I'm hoping to use a sort of staggered progression system, where NPC classes develop using the normal progression but PC classes develop using the slow progression, to represent that these are regular people trying to learn talents and abilities that are beyond what the average Joe can do.
This is the first time I've ever run a campaign like this so I'm not sure where to begin. How do I plan out "encounters" when the encounter doesn't have anything to do with CR? Or give experience and gold rewards with no guideline as to how much of a challenge a given encounter is? Do I just play by ear and estimate based on how hard of a time the players have negotiating a given transaction or doing a job given by their employer? Any help or advice would be appreciated.
I more or less ad hoc it. Also read up on things like Venice, Genoa and the Hanseatic league or Athens from classical Greece for ideas.
Award xp for "defeats" if the PCs beat an NPC in an opposed skill rolls. If they are smuggling that harbor master with a good perception check could be a CR challenge equal to the parties level.
You will probably also want to ditch WBL rules and not allow PCs to buy magic items. This is because a PC dropping 2 million gold on a castle is not a big deal. A PC wanting to spend 2 million gold on combat equipment is a problem. That way they do not have to make the choice between buying a trading ship for 50k or a +5 weapon.
Also remember taxes. I generally use about 20-33%. Let the PCs buy good in bulk for around half rice (40-60% retail) and take it somewhere else for sale and once you add in taxes they may make 10-40% profit on the original purchase price. If they want to avoid taxes its another plot hook for smuggling. Skills like stealth, diplomacy, deception/bluff, profession sailor etc start becoming very important.
I recommend a more complex skill system, such as skill encounters as ripped from 4th ed for static stuff. (2 successes before 2 failures for easy, 4 before 2 for normal, 6 before 2 for hard, 8 before 2 for absurdly difficult). This stuff is good for like cracking a bank vault, infiltrating a palace quick-play, climbing a mountain, sailing a treacherous pass, etc. Anything static in DC or not opposed by meaningful NPCs or monsters.
Also, for their profession checks, you can pick a designated level where their result becomes gold, and platinum, rather than silver, respectively. I do this:
1-5: silver pieces
6-10: gold pieces
11-15:platinum pieces
16+: Build points(with a 1/8th conversion for personal wealth(500gp/build point, for super rapid liquidation).
For build points and kingmaker, you can allocate a bonus of +1 per build point invested/level to their profession checks to represent wielding a mercantile empire behind them rather than just working with their own hands and tools.
For more involved stuff, I have my own system that I developed with DragonbringerX. I have used it for computer hacking in sci fi, chariot races, chase scenes, torture/interrogation and resistance until rescued,war crime trial, etc. It's very versatile and it's meaty enough to feel like a full encounter. Generally you allow whoever in the party that is applicable to make a skill check, and everyone pitches in with the higher total and aid anothers to get the best result against opposition. For static challenge DCs, the above method is better. I'll post that next.
Additionally, enforce the gp limit for magic item availability here, so that excess wealth tapers off to be of limited use for personal power enhancement.
So that skill system:
Palatium Complex Skill System
Pick a couple skills that are relevant to the challenge ahead.
Pick a target number, higher equals more complex, lengthier, etc.
A good baseline is using the DC as a target number to represent multiple challenges of the same difficulty.
A low target number but a high DC is a quick but very tough challenge.
A high target number but a low DC is a mundane, time-consuming task.
A high target number is a longer challenge for opposed persons or groups.
If opposing a difficulty of a static challenge, assign a difficulty class. Success adds the surplus number towards the target number total. Failure adds that number on the other side. When the number of success or failure excess reaches the target number, it is over.
If opposed actively by another, opposed rolls. Whoever's excess reaches the target number first wins.
Cycle through the skills with an in character justification to prevent repetition round by round. Add bonuses or penalties due to circumstance to each skill.
Spells that can do similar things, such as tongues for linguistics, alter self for disguise, charm person for diplomacy, will add +10 circumstance bonus for 1 check
Mercantile System
By regularly engaging in adventures to expand a business into an empire, or by running a successful enterprise on the side with minimal maintenance, using hirelings for the day to day operation, here is a more expansive system for a scaled wealth-gathering system that keeps up with run of the mill dungeon crawls.
For balance sake, time the character spends doing adventures not related to the business is time not making profession checks.
I allow any skill or bonus relevant to running the enterprise that fits. For something like a mercenary guild, i'd even allow base attack bonus+highest mental stat modifier+insight bonuses to attack in place of a skill check. (Because I have done away with profession skill in my campaigns).
For build points and kingmaker, you can allocate a bonus of +1 per build point invested/level to their profession checks to represent wielding a mercantile empire behind them rather than just working with their own hands and tools.
In the case of build points being added into the bonus, a minimal number of investment is expected to run a skeletal enterprise once you reach 6th level, a point where your base payout increases to gold pieces. That means that as an absolute minimum, a character who wants to perform their profession on an even keel should have 1 build point per level placed into the effort.
In the event of 0 build points invested, you revert to rolling a normal profession related check for silver pieces.
Let's say you have less than your character level invested, it would be divided by the difference. A level 1o investing only 5 build points would have half his result earned.
Whereas this is easy to set up, it creates the opportunity for corporate warfare whereby you try and protect your own assets while destroying your enemy's.
1-5: silver pieces
6-10: gold pieces
11-15:platinum pieces
16+: Build points(with a 1/8th conversion for personal wealth(500gp/build point, for super rapid liquidation).
|
Just regulate their cash via PC charts. Put their funds in as family or organization funds of which they get stipends each level. I ran an eleven campaign much like this, where only family made items were acceptable and use of "looted item from barbarian races" was socially or professionally unacceptable.