I'm considering making a carousing deck for lightning rounds. It is no fun for characters who aren't spell casters just to sit around doing nothing, and they have a whole lot of cash they might want to burn. Here's way for them to do it:
The way it works is that the character decides how much they want to "stake" carousing, and then draws from the deck. The base result is that the character gains 50% of the gold "staked" in XP for that week's round, but something interesting also happens that could become an adventure hook or another jumping off point. Or something embarrassing. Or something dangerous, or awesome. All the way up to gaining 100% of the gold "staked" in XP, or LOSING something materially valuable like a magic item or cash.
Here are some of my examples:
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You are involved in random brawl. Roll Strength check or start adventure d3 hit points short. There 50% chance that the authorities were involved, and now Stu the Town Guard "has his eyes on you". Lose your staked gold to convince Stu and the guard to look the other way. Gain 50% of your gold staked in XP for the round.
Romantic entanglement. You lavish your crush with gifts, losing all the gold staked. Roll Wisdom check to avoid nuptials. Otherwise 1-3 scorned lover, 4-6 angered parents. If the character is already married, they have created enemies within their spouse's family. Gain 50% of your gold staked in XP for the round.
Gambling losses. Carouser loses his stake as well as an additional amount of gold equal to 50% of gold originally staked. However, they gain 50% of the gold staked as well as lost in XP for the round.
You didn't see the rash until the following morning. Roll Constitution check to avoid venereal disease, which will inflict a -2 penalty to armor class. You keep your stake, but only gain 10% of your gold staked in XP for the round.
You lose your staked gold gambling, and decide to continue to gamble using your magic items. Roll Wisdom check for each magic item in your possession. Failure indicates it is gone in the night's haze. You learn a valuable lesson, and gain 100% of the gold staked in XP for the round.
One of us! One of us! You’re not sure how it happened, but you have been initiated into some sort of secret society or weird cult. Your staked gold is gone to pay for "club dues" or "victory points" or whatever. It is hard to remember. Did that guy just give you the secret signal? Roll Int check to vaguely remember the signs and passes. Gain 50% of your gold staked in XP for the round.
After drinking through all your staked gold, you get the hangover from hell. You are -2 on all attacks and saves, and you may not do another "lightning round" for a week. Some people just never learn. Gain only 25% of your gold staked in XP for the round.
Sound like a good idea? What do you think about making a "hijinks" deck and "treasure hunting deck" to go with this one.
EDIT: Sometimes you don't lose your staked gold, but that will generally confer a lower XP benefit.
i could do the treasure hunting deck i got a few good ideas for that
ReplyDelete- another group is hunting for the same treasure you are
- magical trap on the treasure can invoke a few different possibilities,
- the treasure was a lie and it was just an ambush
I like it! Write your ideas on 1/4 sheets of paper. We'll use that format for the treasure hunting deck since they will be unique and not reusable.
DeleteLet's say that the treasure-hunting works on a "stake" as well, with the treasure able to be up to 10 times the stake. However, just as a rule of thumb, let's say that only one in five cards have a payoff, and most of the payoffs are in the 3-5 times the "stake" range.
Maybe another one or two in five allows the treasure hunter to break even, or gain XP. Another two in five should be failure, with a one in five epic failure where the treasure hunter loses even more than they "staked".
what im writing up at the moment is for the adventurers to go panning for gold
ReplyDeletethey pay 2,000 gold pieces which they will receive 1,000 experience points per week, spent panning for gold
this 2,000 is for tip on where to go panning from the venture capitalist Mort goldsmith and he turns the raw gold ore into gold coin for free
you may find no gold at all but you will still receive the experience points
and it ranges up to as much as 6,000 gold, but the gold that is found through panning yields no extra experience points, only the time spent has the experience value
i will be adding a few magic items in here and there, and chances of encounters
Deletewith this idea im still not sure if i should do 1,000 experience points per week spent panning for gold
Deleteor 2d6 x 100 experience points per week spent panning for gold
it would definitely randomise the numbers up a little bit
I like the idea of "linking" the reward to a staked amount of gold that is consumed. Not only does that give the player the opportunity to spend the gold for something meaningful, but it provides a sliding scale. A first level character shouldn't be able to spend a week or two panning for gold and pick up 1000 XP. Otherwise, we would have a whole lot of high-level prospectors.
Deletehowever it would mean that all these level 0 or level 1 recruits could be level 2 or 3 by the time we go on the campaign
ReplyDeleteactually stratch that idea it's done at the end of the night
i had a few cards written up about the latest town guards you had hired for yoesville
you pay them some money for a tip on families moving out of orchester, laden caravan with personal belongings
the card names are taken from AFI's top movie quotes, and the characters find themselves in situations where they might hear these words spoken
ReplyDelete