Sunday, December 31, 2017

Krondor Wiki

Dave and I would like to invite everyone to contribute on the new Krondor wiki at:

http://krondor.lordsofhack.com

I'll send you all emails with instructions on how to log in and make changes. Please take some time and update your characters' sections and add any details you think are interesting that you would like to share.

Saturday, December 30, 2017

True Wisdom

From my daughter's Yu-Gi-Oh manga,  the message we all need to hear:


Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Campaign Ideas - More Paths to Adventure

I've been considering alternate ways for our PCs to get involved in adventures in Krondor. Dave and I have populated the Job Board with public-ish missions for our characters, but it occurs to me that perhaps we might offer alternate paths to adventure that are secret or character-driven. With that in mind, I will endeavor to also include a Current Events card draw for each session to spur the adventurers to action as well as a deck of Rumors appropriate to be heard in Newport and its nearby settlements.

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Now Available in Newport!


THE BRODE SODE

Martial Melee Weapon

15gp       

2d4 slashing, Versatile (1d10)

4 pounds


 

Monday, December 18, 2017

Awesome

Just found out that the Identify spell, while it has a material component of a 100gp pearl, that pearl is NOT consumed by the casting of the spell, but can be used over and over again.  


Most material components aren't consumed by the casting now, unless it clearly says so in the component section of the spell description.

Action Shot

Wun Hung Lo takes the fight to the kobolds right at the entrance to their mine!

Now on sale at All Things Dwarven


MIGHTY DWARF HAGGIS

5gp

2 pounds

Acts as 1 day’s ration

For Dwarves: cures 1d8+1 damage

For Gnomes, Halflings, Humans: cures 1d6 damage

For other characters: heals no damage

For Elves, Half-Elves and Half-orcs: inflicts 1 point of disease damage


 

Gods of Krondor: The Stranger

THE STRANGER


a.k.a.:  Lord Strange,   The Ravager, The Revenger


Alignment:  Chaotic Neutral


Domain:  War


Lore:  The Stranger is worshipped both by humans and by orcs as the embodiment of revenge.  His(?) face is always shrouded by a hood and he (?) has no known companions or associates.   In the Stranger's ethos, each person is required to avenge any insult or injury done to him, proportionally, or else the worshipper is seen as less than a full person.


Sayings:
  • An eye for an eye, a tusk for a tusk
  • Cruelty and Helpfulness are equally wasteful
  • Renewal through Destruction

First Draft: Game Day Sequence


Game Day Sequence:

 

1—Choose Characters for Session: characters chosen will be the active characters for entire session unless killed or otherwise taken out of action, in which case another character can be activated.


1a--If new month has started, pay maintenance now

 

2—Pick Job from Job Board or Independent Expedition

 

3—Shopping:   Timed: every 15 minutes of real time spent shopping causes one random encounter card draw

 

4—Begin Adventure

 

5—Dinner Time (maybe do downtime for non-active characters during dinner—unless time estimate too hard)

 

6—Continue Adventure

 

7—Wear and Tear

 

8— Cash-out



9-- (Downtime for non-active characters if not done at dinner time: if so, call game at 8:37 pm to allow time for wrap up)

Thursday, December 14, 2017

The Smirkenburg Mines

The Smirkenburg mines are a complex of natural and man-made caves abandoned over a century ago. It was started by colony of early settlers from a northern city-state named “Smirkenburg” who had settled areas throughout Krondor only to abandon them unexpectedly. There are rumors of other ruins from antiquity that might be found across the island. The mines are tucked in the rough cliffs and highlands above the rocky western shores of Newport Bay. Each of the The twenty-six mine entrances are identified simply by a letter. They are spread across a two-mile square area just above the cliffs overlooking the bay.

I expect we'll have the "Smirkenburg Temples" or "Smirkenburg Caverns" as well. Basically anytime we want some sort of randomly generated content we can all play. For Sunday, I've got an assortment of 26 random caverns for us to explore.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Grand Unified Random Encounter System




GRAND UNIFIED RANDOM ENCOUNTER SYSTEM


When to draw:

  • Each outdoor square the party passes through
  • Each day a group spends scouting an outdoor square
  • Each night spent encamped outdoors
  • Each 4 hours spent roaming around in a town or village during the day
  • Each turn spent up to no good in a settlement at night


Card Result:


Joker:  DM’s Choice/Special:  if PC spends inspiration, then PC’s choice


Spades: no encounter

Ace/Face Card: A hostile creature is perceived, but not encountered. Perhaps the PCs see spoor or the remains of a victim or hear a noise in the distance.

Number Card: A weather change event


Hearts:  potential helpful encounter

            Ace:  helpful healing hermit, cleric, druid

            King:  spirit or fey creature with helpful advice

            Queen:  convenient shelter or unknown dungeon

            Jack: helpful peddler with things to sell

            Number Card:  deer or wild boar to hunt, if desired, good pick pocketing target


Diamonds: encounter with humans or demi-human locals

            Ace:  Noble, Knights or Leaders with soldiers

            Face Card:   Patrol (Knights, Archers and/or Guards or the like as appropriate)

            Odd numbered Card:   thieves, bandits, cultists, perhaps disguised as commoners

            Even numbered card:   commoners doing their business


Clubs:   potentially hostile encounter

            Wilderness:

            Ace/Face Card:  serious monster (probably owlbears), coming right for you

            Odd Number Card: Orc or goblinoid raiders

            Even Number Card:  other wilderness monster (use Xanathar’s Guide)

            Urban:

            Ace/Face Card:  Potentially hostile NPC with entourage

            Odd Number Card:  The Town Watch

            Even Number Card:  roll city encounter from Xanathar’s Guide

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Multi-classing

While I find 3rd and 5th edition Multi-classing to be kind of cheesy.  I reckon I really don't have a strong enough reason to demand that we not use it.   I would suggest that if you take a level in a new class, you have to spend one session inactive first.

Saturday, December 9, 2017

Next Game

If it interests all of you, I would like to volunteer to start play "in medias res" with this job offered by the Harbormaster.

"About an hour's boat ride out is a beacon built by the Royal Krondor Trading Company just in the past decade to keep ships from joining the graveyard of trading vessels who have run aground navigating in rocks just below the surface in the dark. It has been manned by a keeper and his servant, and would receive supplies weekly to keep the beacon burning each night during sailing season. This season alone, the beacon has already been attacked twice. Each time the keeper was found murdered and the beacon sacked of all obvious valuables. I think it's an inside job since the past two servants were halflings - probably associated with the pirates who regularly sail these waters! Also, some really valuable stuff was left up on the high shelves. Those punters are short!"

"I can't station a whole garrison of troops there. They would be too obvious, and the pirates wouldn't make their move. Instead, I want a group of rat-catchers like yourselves to hide in the beacon and counterattack once something smells fishy. Take the fight back to these pirates! If you can keep the beacon lit throughout fifth-month, you can keep anything you take from the pirates and I'll see that those of you who last are paid 150 gold each."

If we have time after this adventure, we will do a "lightning round" discussing what we all want to do with our downtime characters, and perhaps mount an expedition to the abandoned Smirkenburg Mine directly to the West across Newport Harbor (SQUARE V29).

Game Schedule

Our next game is Sunday, December 17, which is just fine, will go as planned.

The next game would be December 31, which is New Years Eve, and obviously doesn't work.

I'm inclined to have the game on Monday January 1, at 4 pm.   I know not everyone could make it, but I have to take Annie back to school the following Sunday.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Game Notes

Maintenance for first few games:   I think it would be best to not worry about maintenance for the next game, maybe two.    Let's say that we all cashed in some money from the ship wreckage and spent it on living expenses.    We all will have maximum hit points for the rest of "Fifth-month" (May) and we will have the in-game calendar move at a slow pace for a game or two.   When "Fifth-Month" is over, then we will start paying monthly expenses and rolling hit points.


Mandatory Rest:   I do want to institute the mandatory rest rule.   If your character is brought to 0 hit points during a game session, he must rest the next session (unless we stop in mid-quest out in wilderness or dungeon) and you must play one of your other characters.    We will ignore this rule for events that happened last session, but starting next game the rule becomes effective.

Monday, December 4, 2017

Establishing the In-Game Calendar

The in-game calendar goes as follows.


Year:
The beginning year is 1173 of the 12th Age of the World (a new age begins when all the long-lived Grey Elves who are alive at the end of the last age have died, this typically lasts somewhere from 2000 to 3000 years).  Each year is 336 days long.


Months:
Each year has 12 months, each month is 28 days long.  The months are named by their numerical order:
First-Month, Second-Month, Third-Month, Four-Month, Fifth-Month, Sixth-month, Seventh-Month, Eight-Month, Ninth-Month, Tenth-Month, Eleventh-Month, Twelfth-Month


These, weather and season-wise, correspond to our 12 months  (i.e., First-Month = January,  Eight-month equals August).


Days of the Week
The days of the week are the same as ours, but since there are exactly 4 weeks in each month, the days of the week always fall on the same dates, every month:
Monday:  day 1, 8,  15,  22
Tuesday:  day 2, 9, 16, 23
Wednesday: day 3, 10, 17, 24
Thursday:  day 4, 11, 18, 25
Friday:  day 5. 12. 19.26
Saturday:  day 6. 13. 20, 27
Sunday:  day 7, 14, 21, 28

Monster Saves

It occurred to me in our game last night that we might consider asking PC players to roll to see if a monster fails its saving throw. It would really help the GM, and make some "save or suck" cantrips feel more like an attack.

When a character forces an opponent to make a saving throw, that player instead makes a saving throw check. The bonus to the d20 roll for a saving throw check equals the effect’s save DC − 8.

The DC for this check equals 11 + the target’s saving throw modifier. On a successful check, the character overcomes the target’s resistance and treats the target as if it failed its saving throw. On a failed check, the target is treated as if it succeeded on its save.

As with attacks, the saving throw check has advantage if the target would have disadvantage on its saving throw, and vice versa.

Xenon Points (XP) discussion: Proposal #2

Here's a sketch of a second version of the XP rules, based on our discussions last night.


  • When a player shows up for a game, all 3 of his characters get 1 XP
  • The character who takes part in the night's adventure gets an additional XP
  • If the players achieve the adventure goal (or achieve 500gp each in treasure taken if they are strictly treasure hunting), the participating character gets a third XP.
  • To advance to each level from 2-6 requires 6 XP
  • To advance to each level from 7-12 requires 9XP
  • To advance beyond requires 12XP per level
  • Whoever DM's the session gets the same XP as the average player for the session and an amount of gold equal to the average treasure take of the party (but no items).




Sunday, December 3, 2017

Preview: Escape from Goblin Island

A convoy of ships on the way to the island of Krondor has wrecked on a savage island.   Now, while a half dozen sailors work frantically to repair and launch a single ship,  a band of strangers, adventurers all, must protect the workers while a band of cannibal goblins and hobgoblins swarm toward the beach,  Sir Roderick of Heston, Bocephus the Gnome, and Walter, the Destroyer of Evil, have already assembled on the sands.  Who will join them?


Monday, November 27, 2017

Hoo--Grrrrrrrr


My new owlbears have arrived, be ready.

The resin buildings I got at the Convention are painted, and on display over at Dr. Skull's Workshop

Thursday, November 16, 2017

The Dungeon-O-Matic

When we desire to have an "everybody plays" session, where no one is DMing a planned adventure, we can use the "Dungeon-O-Matic" using the Brown Cardboard Tiles, or any other dungeon tiles for that matter and the following procedure:




The Dungeon-O-Matic


 


BASIC PROCEDURE


 


1—Place a Dungeon Tile on the table


 


2—Place door markers at all open exits from the tile.


 


3—Have party enter the tile.


 


4—Roll each hallway or room entered (1d10), after door is opened


 


                        1-3   Empty


                        4      Treasure


                        5-6   Monster, No Treasure


                        7-9   Monster and Treasure


                        10—Trap


 


5—Repeat until dead or leave



THE SPECIFICS:


TREASURE:  whenever there is a treasure result, pick one player to be “on guard”—watching the hallways while the rest deal with the treasure, that player cannot be involved in the opening of the container.    The “on-guard” player rolls once on the container table (see the Dungeon Stocking Assortment booklet) and DM’s the players’ attempts to open the container.   Each time the players attempt a noisy means to open the container, roll 1d6, with a “6” indicating that a wandering monster (with no treasure) appears.


When the container has been successfully opened, and any traps have been triggered or disarmed, then roll 1d6 with the result as follows:


            1-2    1 treasure card from the deck


            3-4     2 treasure cards from the deck


            5        3 treasure cards from the deck


            6        2+1d4 treasure cards from the deck


Pocket Change and Looted Equipment:  if the enemy were humanoids of some sort (orcs, human, dwarves, ogres etc.) who might use money, even if they otherwise have no treasure indicated, consider them to have 2d6 silver pieces each.    If they are wearing armor and carrying weapons, consider that one half the equipment has survived the battle and can be taken as loot (if you can carry it), although generally, body armor worn by orcs and goblin types has no loot value.


MONSTERS:  use the Dungeon Stocking Assortment (or some other random level-themed monster encounter table).    When a monster is indicated, roll 1d6 as follows:


                        1:   1 roll of monster 1 level lower than dungeon level


                        2:   2 rolls of monster 1 level lower, but reroll if incompatible monsters


                        3-5   1 roll of monster of dungeon’s level


                        6:     1 roll of monster of 1 level higher than dungeon’s level


In all cases, re-roll if monster won’t fit in room or is inappropriate to context


TRAPS: roll 1d10 on the following table:
            1-6:  Roll random trap from Dungeon Stocking Assortment and have it effect the person who opens the door, and those nearby as appropriate
            7-8:  Heavy Portcullis falls down splitting the party in half  DC 20 Strength to open, one attempt per person
            9:  last person in marching order is affected by random trap
            10:  all doors behind the party are sealed shut.   Party can’t exit the dungeon until finds another exit.   Either wait for new tile with stairs marked on it to be drawn randomly, or have the next encounter with a trap be the exit.




Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Appraising Loot

Dave had mentioned a method of keeping track of secret loot values in a three-ring binder so that loot cards shuffled into the deck could be cross-referenced with a sales value. However, since there isn't any *appraise* skill of its own I'm not quite sure how to have PCs know the true cost of stuff. Since loot is the basis for XP, I thought this could be a very important bit of rules we want to agree on beforehand.

I've come across this post which has a few ideas that we might perhaps use. I specifically like this section:

As far as what skill can be used on this check, or whether a skill can be used at all, I leave it up to my players to suggest a skill that might apply and justify it. This puts the onus on them to decide what they want to use, and it has the additional benefit of sometimes letting them use something that wouldn't have occurred to me.

I like it because it occurs to me that PCs may have creative ways to appraise things that aren't clear. For example, one might use the Persuasion skill to just "make stuff up" about a particular item, essentially doing the exact same thing as a basic appraise roll.

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Weak Magic Items

As we decide how to create our magic item deck, take a look at this page dedicated to helping to create weak magic items. Do you guys suppose we might be able to incorporate more of these types of magical weapons and armor rather than just the traditional +1 sword?

Square Crawl



SQUARE CRAWL PROCEDURE:
Any DM can claim a square on the board, once done, he marks up the details of the square as he desires and runs the broad outline of any encounters in that square.
Cross Country Movement:  use standard rules for movement, difficult terrain and forced marches from SRD pages 84-85
Terrain Types:
Plains: not difficult terrain for any mode
Forest:  not difficult for foot, but difficult for horses or wagons
Hills:  not difficult for foot or horse, but difficult for wagons
Mountain:  always difficult
Swamp:  always difficult
Desert:  difficult for wagons, or if you don’t have adequate water
Tundra:  difficult from October to April
--we need a way to mark map—colors or symbol—for terrain once discovered
Passing through:  when players enter a square for the first time, they should roll on the region terrain chart and determine what terrain type the square is.    If they are just passing through, they draw a single encounter card for the time they spend traveling.
 
Exploring a Square:  in order to get a general sense of the layout of the square, the players must spend some time scouting around the square to get the lay of the land.   If they are on foot, they spend 6+1d6 days scouting around the square.   If they are on horseback, they spend 3+1d4 days scouting around the square.   Any pack beasts or wagons must be set up in a fixed camp.  If the party possess a spy glass, reduce time of scouting by 1 day.  They can cut the time into fractions by splitting the party (so if you make 4 groups, you divide total time by 4) there is a minimum of 1 day of scouting in any event.  Each group draws one encounter card per day spent scouting.
Scouting the square reveals the location of all obvious (not hidden somehow) settlements, ruins, and major lairs in the square.
What’s in a Square:
As a baseline:  
1d4+2 settlements
1d4  ruins
1d4 lairs
Perhaps allow each to “Ace” once.
These are “obvious” locations, ones that locals will all know, and which will be easily located by scouting and inspection.

Overland Encounters




Encounter Cards:

Each square the party passes through, or each day a group spends scouting a square, or each night spent encamped outdoors, requires the DM to secretly draw one encounter card from a standard playing card deck, with the results as below.

 

Card Result:

Joker:  DM’s Choice/Special:  if PC spends inspiration, then PC’s choice

Spades: no encounter

Hearts:  potential helpful encounter

            Ace:  helpful healing hermit

            King:  spirit or fey creature with helpful advice

            Queen:  convenient shelter or unknown dungeon

            Jack: helpful peddler with things to sell

            Number Card:  deer or wild boar to hunt, if desired

Diamonds: encounter with humans or demi-human locals

            Ace:  Noble, Knights or Leaders with soldiers

            Face Card:   Patrol (Knights, Archers and/or Guards or the like as appropriate)

            Odd numbered Card:   thieves, bandits, cultists, perhaps disguised as commoners

            Even numbered card:   commoners doing their business

Clubs:    encounter with hostile monsters

            Ace/Face Card:  serious monster (probably owlbears), coming right for you

            Odd Number Card: Orc or goblinoid raiders

            Even Number Card:  other wilderness monster

Monday, November 13, 2017

Down Time Idea

Solo Adventure or Heist:


A PC who does not participate in a session may take part in a Solo Adventure or Heist.   The player must describe what the character is attempting to do (it should not involve permanent consequences to world, those are for actually on scree adventures).   Then roll on following Table


3d6 Roll                Result
3-5                        0xp, lose carried possessions, imprisoned by enemies
6-8                        0xp, lose 100gp
9-11                      1xp, gain 200gp
12-15                    2xp, 500gp
16-18                    2xp, 1000gp  minor magic item




  • If we used this, then we shouldn't do XP transfer from character to character
  • This is just first draft, if you have adjustments please chime in
  • I do think it should be impossible to get more than 2 xp this way
  • there should definitely be serious risk in this option

Friday, November 10, 2017

Monster Stat Block

I'm looking up ways to shrink the 5e monster stat block and I came across this gem. What do you guys think?

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Clean Up Time

I'm fixing to clean up the game room from last week's episode.  I guess there's no reason that I can't just throw away most of the To A Bloody Pulp accessories, i.e., the cards and other paper goods.  I'll keep the notebook and buildings and stuff, but the equipment, stat cards etc can all go. Right?

Update 1. Moving along, throwing things away mercilessly

Update 2:  bad news for Andrew, your houses and bridge are packed and ready to take home.  I can't seem to find the lid to your small tub of chips

Friday, November 3, 2017

Thursday, November 2, 2017

Mapping Krondor

Let's sketch the outline of Krondor next Sunday as well, pointing out the location of Newport, the volcano, and the mouths of a few rivers. If we use a 1 square = 10 mile scale we could easily fit a PA/Iceland sized island on a piece of 1" graph paper.

Once we've got a rough sketch, I'll be able to create a digital version appropriate for displaying in our logs. With any luck, I'll have the Lords of Hack website back up and running by then and we can start to wiki about things we find on the island and the world of the Great Ocean.

Stupid Flanders


Climate of Krondor

The climate of Krondor is temperate, not unlike that of Pennsylvania. Prevailing winds come from the East, and there is heavy precipitation in the South of the island in the Spring and Fall. Snow accumulates fast on the island in colder months, but ocean borne currents melt large deposits within a week. Winters are often bitterly cold and dry, with biting winds - particularly in the highlands to the North where there is less precipitation.

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Basic Geography Ideas





KRONDOR

Krondor is an island in the Great Ocean, about the same size as Pennsylvania or Iceland.   There is one major human settlement on the island, the trade town of Newport, on the southern coast of the island.   The southern region is sprinkled with independent human and demi-human settlements and petty fiefs founded by exiles, outlaws and colonists over the last century, but the northern 2/3 of the island are controlled by bands of humanoids and monsters.  There is a mighty volcano located near the center of the island.


 


NEWPORT


 The principal town in the southern region of the island of Krondor is called Newport.   It was founded about a hundred years ago by the explorer Sir Edward of Gath.  It serves principally as the center of the Ginster trade and as a landing point for prospective inland settlers.   It’s ruled by the Nedwyn, Viscount of Newport, a descendant of Sir Edward, who also holds the largely empty title of Lord Lieutenant of Krondor.  However, it is arguable as to whether the Viscount or the Factor of the Royal Krondor Company has more real power.  While all the inhabitants of the town claim that it was built within the last century, about one in four buildings is smaller in size that the rest, is inhabited by gnomes, and appears to be quite a bit older than 100 years.


 


THE GINSTER TRADE


The reason that settlers keep attempting to establish holdings on Krondor, despite the ferocity of the monsters present on the island, is the existence of the Ginster Berry.   A gallon of Ginster berries can be ground down to a pound of Ginster Powder which can be sold on the mainland for 15gp.  Ginster powder is a delightful spice for meat and vegetables and has amazing anti-parasitical properties, which makes it a high demand product.  The Royal Krondor Company has a monopoly on the export of Ginster products of all sort.   They will buy a gallon (about 10 lbs.) of berries for 5gp at Newport, and will also react with extreme violence to any attempt to circumvent their monopoly.