Map costs for a low tech world, and other assorted Qs.

[Dinosaur Alexander]

Hi again guys,

just like the topic says, how would I go about pricing a map of about 100^2 miles, given that exploration is fairly limited in my world. The PCs are like rolling in gold right now, and I'd like to give them a legitimate reason to spend some of it.

Next, one of my players is a prof (bowyer) and he keeps asking me about how he can craft some good bows, to which I say, I'll look it up. The rules on crafting are crazy dense, and I was wondering if one of the vets might be able to simplify them a tad for me?

second to last, I plan on giving the PCs a kind of wargame simulation for the next session, they'll have a small village/outpost to defend, with 19 militiamen and around 30 adult villagers to withstand a force of 117 elder god cultists. Should I consult the Kingmaker books for mass combat, or is there a better, homebrewed way to do this?

Last question, what do you guys use for terrain? I would like to start adding some in, but I don't really want to spend money on expensive pre painted terrian. Also, I don't have access to legos.

thanks everywho

[Ascalaphus]

The crafting rules aren't very difficult actually, but they do have a big problem. It basically goes like this:

1) take the item's GP price and multiply by 10. This is your Target.
2) every week of crafting makes [your check] X [DC] points of Progress
3) when Progress >= Target, the item is done.

The problem with this system is that items with really easy DCs actually take more time to make than items with a high DC (that you can actually succeed on), and that expensive items, no matter how trivial, can take FOREVER to make.

There's a good 3rd-party pamphlet that fixes this though, written by Spes Magna games: Making Crafts Work. It costs about $1. I highly recommend it; their solution is simple and effective.

[Pizza Lord]

As Ascalaphus says, but with the addition that items with low DCs can benefit from Accelerated Crafting rules by merely adding 10 to the DC, which will immensely increase the progress factor.

A standard land map is probably about 5 gold depending on the detail and probably only shows towns, roads, mountains, forest, and a big lake. It may include a well-known and used landmark, like a ruin or wizard's tower or old battlefield.

That's also the price for a local area/territory. Maps of places further away from the current location probably increase by twice as much per kingdom or territory, more if it's a hostile territory to the current location.

A really good map, that shows locations off main roads and paths and includes local landmarks, points of interest, and relatively accurate distances and sizes (of lakes, forests, hills, etc.) could be from 5 to 50 gold depending on the location, such as dangerous terrain with lost ruins and treasure, or a territory known for gold or valuable mineral deposits.

A city or town map is probably 5 gold, but remember that most cities may not allow actual map sales (to prevent enemies from using them for tactical strikes and planning). They will have city or guild guides to take visitors where they wish to go.

That's just a suggestion though.