Great News Everyone! PvP is Coming...!

In our ongoing OSR D&D Fallen Empire campaign, players are in the level 4-level 5 range. One player has a decrepit motte-and-bailey castle with a few disgruntled peasants. They have notoriety in the city and there are fewer and fewer residents that are of a higher level. In let her words they are moving up in the world.

At this point they have been quite successful in their shenanigans, ventures and adventures.

But they’re starting to discuss their characters turning on each other... Like, one character has designs on that castle.

MUAHAHA everything is going according to plan!

Have you had / do you have players who eventually decide to go to war against each other?

Actual Play Report - Fallen Empire Session III

Saturday September 27, we had our third installment of the Fallen Empire campaign based in the City of Port. And thanks to random tables, we were able to generate a whole fun night of adventure.

I had prepared to go back into the castle, Castle Triskelion. But I did know that soon (2-3 sessions) it would be Summer and new events would be happening in the city.

So for my own benefit, I rolled up what kinds of things would be happening in the summer so I could put some clues or foreshadowing in. I got:

• large war (reasons TBD)
• shortage (food or water)

Then we  all made random die rolls and we generated a rumor - that the Rugg family keeps a monster in the basement and is feeding people to it.

I decided that since one of the players owns a pub that's their base of operations, ale, wine and spirits were in good supply, but the BEER had stopped flowing!

OH NOES!

The players immediately realized that the beer shortage was a cool mystery and possibly an opportunity for windfall profits.

So they went the the biggest brewery in the city and heard that the reason beer has dried up is that their main source of malted barley had stopped. That source is the fields about a day and a half out of town.

The dwarves rode out and found that there was an enemy army out there hanging out and burning the fields. about 500 peasants were displaced and about 100 were dead or dying.

One of the dwarves is friends with the head of the Merchants' Guild. He secured space for the refugees in the old disused custom houses.

The Wizard and her man went to the university to tell them about the army, but the head was somewhat unconcerned, saying that someone else would handle it- but if not they would.

The other dwarf went to the head of the Dockworkers and found that he knew what was going on and was going to send his men in exchange for money. 

Both dwarves were asked by their guild heads to become captains in the new army.

Finally the unguilded mercenary man spent a few days hunting down a merchant ship, some maritime weaponry, and some marines.  They took the ship and went to two towns down the bay and up a river and came back with 10,000 GP of beer which they then sold for 20,000 GP. 

SCORE!!

They also met some Mermen and became real estate brokers on the way.

All in all a very Chris Tamm adventure and one that went better than I could imagine. All from scratch and a couple of random rolls. 

Port: University District

I've got two players (out of 5) who are members of the University. One is Simone's magic-user and the other one is Ethan's fighting-man, both level 3. Since there are two players I sent them off a copy of the map with the neighborhoods numbered. 

I wanted each of them to pick out one of them and tell us about it. As it turns out, Ethan did all the neighborhoods. I cleaned it up very minimally to keep it in line with the campaign world. 

I think a neighborhood can have up to 5,000 people in it, although many neighborhoods are completely devoid of residences. There are some neighborhoods that are not even controlled by people at all. Ethan did a good job of keeping this in mind in his write up.

The University District

26. Drenthe. The main grounds of the University are located here. This is where magic users of all levels come to train, study and practice the art of magic.  Furthermore, Special/unique magic items can be purchased here but they cost a lot of gold or trade. There are excellent libraries but their use is costly to keep commoners out. There are surely some relics stored here. Matron Bat-Sheva, the Headmistress, lives in a country cottage on the southern beach.

27. North Brabant.

28. Gelder.

Areas 27 and 28 are mostly dormitories for students and workers. A good bed can be had for a good price but a single dwelling is expensive. In area 27, known as North Brabant or NB, there is a famous tavern called The Sword of Stars where adventuring wizards and their retinue may be found. Additionally, ferries from Aldgate (32a) debark.

Area 28, Gelder, is where low level magic users live in a residential district with few services. A wildcatter Orcish ferryman named Cassius will take you between Gelder, Gillamore and Montenon (13) but only at night, and even to (Unnamed Neighborhood) (44) for a pretty penny.

29. Gillamore. Gillamore is where most forms of trade occur in the University. It is where ferries from Cobisou (9) and Bouzille (10) arrive. Here you can trade items for gold, buy and sell equipment, weapons, armor, etc. The main bank of the University is also located in Gillamore, where you can store treasure if you wish. Everything an adventurer needs can be found in the shops of Gillamore, but there are few magic items for sale here.  Additional adventurers and henchmen can also be found here. Some are desperate for work and any form of currency while others charge a premium for their services. 

30. Axminster. There are several barracks and housing units here, both attached to the University and independent. A large number of fighting-men and men-at-arms live here. There are guild halls and every alleyway has a pub. There is a large common area here where sheep and cattle graze while men practice and drill with individual weapons and formation fighting. Sometimes fighting-men and magic-user will drill together in wartime tactics.

31. Overjissel. Overjissel is known for its magical resources. There is a chance that if you have the money, you can find even advanced magic items such as staves and wondrous items. If you wish, magical items can also be sold here. It is a well-known neighborhood in the University and it is full of friendly folk, mostly lawful.

However, one of the shops is owned by a mid-level magic user who is currently out of favor with the leadership. He doesn't have anything of much interest in his shop, so it is not frequently visited. He can be hired for adventures and is desperate for money. His name is Renoldus (MU6), and his shop is called North Star. Another shop is Twin Sun Magic, where magical items of all sorts can be bought and sold. The shop is famous for high quality items and everyone in the University has been there at least once and knows the owner, Byrant Geradus (MU5 INT 18 CHA 15), who makes it a point to remember everyone who enters his shop.

A ferry runs to Corbisou (9).

D&D things I like

Things I like on the player side:

Dungeoneering

Following NPCs to see what they do and how they think

Picking my PC’s plans

Puzzles

Genuine open-ended overland exploration

Lack of a story

The results of battles and skirmishes - not so much the playing them out

The results of romance - not playing it out - loves? Loss? Children?

Diseases

Finding and losing henchmen

Weird magic, even silly magic

My own character nearly dying

My own character dying appropriately

Things I like on the DM side:

Players who pick up the ball and run with it re: any of the above

Playing cool monsters

Making up cool magic items to find

Making up open-ended situations and seeing what the players think.

World-building

What do you like?

On Fantasy Languages

We played Session Zero of the Fallen Empire campaign on Saturday. It went very well. I found in some cases I was over-prepped and in a couple cases I was under-prepped. In the last couple of days I've set out to solve some of those under-preps and potentially head off some similar issues. In addition, I've gone from two box of note cards down to one, finding that the monster manual I have in my big binder of stuff is more than sufficient and I don't need my monster manual on note cards. That's actually a huge deal.

One of the picayune issues that came up is, "What's some good languages for my character to know?" Every campaign is different and every ref adjudicates the importance of talking differently. I want my players to take care not to rush into a fight every time, even when confronted with monsters. Therefore languages are very important. Delta's post from just this morning spurred me to talk about this particular aspect of Saturday's table time.

in Mythical Journeys, I do make a point of spending time talking about language and suggesting some that would work well in such a setting. But that's generic and this is specific. I will choose some languages now to suggest to the players. 

Note: these are the suggested languages; the ones you would get the most use out of. There are doubtless thousands of spoken and written languages; some dead and some living in some weird corners of the Realm.

Race Languages: 

1. Dwarven (gnomish is a dialect.)

2. Elven

3. Goblin (goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears)

4. Draconic (dragons and similar creatures with linguistic capacity)

5. Giant (including ogres and trolls)

Alignment Languages:

6. Simite (Lawful)

7. Achromatic (Neutral Alignment)

8. Vitian (Chaotic)

Outsider Languages: 

9. Celestial (Good)

10. Infernal (Lawful)

11. Abyssal (Chaotic)

Infernal is very, very, very specific. It is the language chiefly of Devils. It is rarely if ever spoken by Men of the Realm but important contracts are written in Infernal as well as Common and/or Dwarven.

Celestial and Abyssal are superglottal languages. Men have not the ability to speak it, though they may learn to understand their aural form. Audible Celestial forces evil creatures to check morale or cower in awe. Audible Abyssal does the same for Lawful creatures. (Note: A creature may be both Lawful and evil.)

Pidgins:

12. Common (men and hobbits)

13. Sylvan (forest creatures)

14. Undercommon (kobolds and subterranean beings)

Secret Languages: 

15. Thieves' Cant

16. Druidic

Secret Languages are not available to most characters at creation except for those characters who are part of the organizations which use them.

Port, the City of the Fallen Empire

This is a map of the city. This map is not to scale. It's more like a subway map. But it's here for you to see and I'm very pleased with it.

Areas under control: 

Brown: House Aearchus

Green: Dockworkers Guild

Yellow: Merchants' Guild

Blue: House Iulus

Pink: The University

Orange: House Tibulus

Purple: Weights and Measures Guild

Beige: Not controlled or uninhabited.

Center: House Triskelion (extinct).

How to Die in Port. Or Not

In my opinion, Port is pretty lethal. You can die almost immediately if you go into the negative Hits. This is how it goes:

Negative Hit Points is negative hit points. It is unnecessary to track how far into the negatives you are.

When reaching negatives, you are dying. If not in Rounds, go to Rounds.

Upon the start of the next Round, roll a Save or Die. If you miss it, you're dead. If you make it, you're still alive (but dying). When you miss a roll, you die.

• After you succeed in your Save, if you have a healing device, you can make a CON check to use it on yourself. If you make the CON check you can heal and make it up to 1 Hit Point. You get back up and you're okay to adventure some more.
• After you succeed in your Save, another character may heal you with a healing device. You do not need to make a CON check for this to happen.

The healing devices that are in common use are:

• Potions of the several Cure Wounds spells of course.
• Bandages. Bandages is a healing kit. It takes one Round to apply bandages to yourself or someone else. Bandages can heal one Hit Point after a sequence when your figure takes Hit Point damage.

After you have used Bandages, roll 1d6. On a roll of 1, that Bandages is exhausted. It cannot be used any longer. This is like your healing kit running empty of key supplies.