Markdoc

Re: Adjusting Costs When STR is 2 points On the topic of costs, my 2% of a dollar: HA - 5 points, obviously. TK and EB stay the same, as indicated above. Growth/Density increase stay the same - there's no figured and the END costs on the power, plus the END cost on the STR, plus the limitation on being really big or really heavy, keep it from being abusive. Which is one point not mentioned above - the END cost on STR becomes the same as every other Hero power - 1 point of END per 10 points of STR or 1 per d6. Martial arts: A DC is merely limited STR, like an HA. It's less limited than a HA in that it can add to a range of attacks, but it's less useful than STR, no figured CHA, which also adds to most attacks, so I'd call that a -3/4 and round it off to 6 points per DC. Martial attacks that give extra damage should probably start with an extra +1 on the cost: attacks that give more d6 to some extent are already compensated for in the building maneuvers rules, so adding a higher cost for more d6 of damage seems unbalanced. Those that give extra STR (for escapes, binds, etc) already have the "only for attack" limitation like HA, so I'd leave their cost alone. I'd leave NCM alone: it's already an optional rule and my experience in heroic games where it is enforced, is that it doesn't stop people buying STR over 20. In my current FH game we already have one character with a STR 23 and we started players on 100 points! In fact, I don't think I've ever run a FH game where we didn't get at least one character over 20 STR with both NCM and STR at 2 points per. Last of all, I've refigured STR mins on weapons for my game (see http://www.rpglibrary.org/settings/gothick_empires/ under "equipment"), but in general I don't have a big problem with them. Being under the STR min does not mean you can't use a weapon: it merely means you can't use it - to start with - as efficiently as a big muscular guy. A little training (ie: either limited STR or CSLs) can redress the OCV and damage penalties, just like in real life. Hint: look at armour or clothes from medieval warriors - their upper body proportions are big for a reason! cheers, Mark

Re: Adjusting Costs When STR is 2 points

Re: PS: Farmer in a Fantasy Campaign Other things to take into account is that different crops give different yields - Northern Europe supported greater population expansion through the medieval period than Southern Europe in part because of fertile lands with plenty of water - but also because of extensive use of water meant that they could sometimes squeeze two crops - grain and a frost tolerant vegetable out of the land (that's why beets and cabbage feature prominently as you go north ). Potatoes (not medieval, but hey, neither is a fireball) give you between 8-16 times the food from the same land as most grains. Fruit gives you about a quarter. Play with those numbers and you can shape your population density to fit. So you can make a rough gauge of the years activity (note, based on your question I'm focussing on what you'd expect from a relatively prosperous late medieval region): Spring - dying time. Late winter/early spring is the worst time of year, when the stored food starts to run short and sickly old people shuffle off the mortal coil. People start spreading manure onto the fields. Hard work and nasty, but usually only about 4-6 hours a day. The rest of the time is spent checking your seed stocks to select out any that have gone bad (those you eat) and repairing tools and stuff for working in the fields. The kids are sent out to find green stuff that you can eat. Nettle soup with ragwort anyone? Summer. You start digging up and planting in spring and early summer. planting is hard work and everyone is involved - the adults dig, the kids stick the seeds in and cover them up. Summer work is weeding, killing bugs and watering. All in all 6-10 hours a day, depending on fertility and availability of water (and number of people). Animals are sent away from the houses to graze, and encouraged to breed, watched over by the kids and that's usually the full day. Collect the animal dung and pile it up for later use. Autumn. This is actually party time. Harvest is hard work but usually a short period (you're talking 10-16 hours a day, though). If you have a winter crop, you plant those straight after, so that's another few weeks of hard work. If you have grain crops, you clean up the grains and get them packed (carefully so they don't spoil) and save all the stalks (pluck the leaves off) - that was used for roofs, for shoes, for clothes to make floor covering and (in Japan) damn near anything. That's evening work, as is boiling or pickling fruit and vegetables to preserve it, or fermenting it to make alcohol. Last of all, the animals are gathered, you select the ones you will keep and slaughter the rest, or drive them to a nearby town and slaughter them there. Party! Eat yourself stupid, test the results of the first fermentation and then preserve the rest of the meat (butchering salting, pickling, etc). Winter. Early winter, harvest the second crop if you have one. Otherwise scour the woods for mushrooms and nuts. Outdoor activity winds down and if you want to travel, late autumn or early winter was the time, while the weather was still OK. There's still lots of work, though. Most small farmers made all their own stuff or traded it with neighbours - tools, preserving jars, plates, etc and often painted or carved the hell out of anything they made - that could be sold or swapped (mostly men's work). There's wool or fur to card and spin to yarn and clothes to make (Women's work). If there are animals, they need to be fed, which often means hauling feed by hand. Last of all repair your tools and make new ones ready to start spreading much on the fields again. Start taking bets if Granma will make it through to St Bede's day again With all of that, evening times or non-farming time were used for: Lessons. By late medival times, total illiteracy was not the general rule. A farmer needed to be able to read and calculate a little to keep track of his debts. Kids (and some adults) went to church schools for a few hours a day in winter and early spring Making cheese - most farmers kept a few animals, even if they weren't herders and you can get milk out of most of them Making stuff (as mentioned above - pipes, shoes, tools, lanterns, clothes, kitchen implements, floorboards, furniture, you name it) Cutting firewood and carrying water. One thing that strikes me reading accounts of the time is that farmers were almost always doing *something*. The modern idea of leisure didn't really exist. Mealtime was a big deal and took up a chunk of time - families might pray or read together afterwards - but when dad was reading, mum is going to be spinning thread with the daughters, while the sons polish a hoe handle or carve an eaveboard for the house. Or something. Most people were pretty busy 12-14 hours a day. cheers, Mark

Re: Sectional Defences

Re: House of the Flying Daggers As for the daggers themselves, for me that's clearly a "damn near magical dagger" multipower, built around RKA/HKA. The fact that a perfectly normal dagger in the hands of a perfectly normal person does 1/2d6 in no way means a butt-kickin' dagger expert can't do 2d6 (with the real weapon limitation on it, so he can't carve his way through a castle wall) with a dagger. I have no problem with "I can cast mystical bolts that do 2d6 fire damage", so why should I have a problem with "I can cast mystical daggers that do 2d6 sharp, pointy damage"? Assuming they pay for them with points, of course. If you allow that, then all the problem with levels, armour, etc disappear. It also explains why high level martial artists don't wear "real" armour: it doesn't stack with their combat luck, and offers damn-all protection against a 2d6 RKA to the head anyway, so it's not worth taking a hit on DCV. cheers, Mark

Re: House of the Flying Daggers Yeah, but when the whole audience snickers and people can be heard whispering to each other "I'm not dead yet! Actually, I'm starting to feel better already" then that's a hint that you might have overplayed it. cheers, Mark

Re: Someone's gotta know the answer to this: You can cover your "two hours" *** by pointing out that the river is full of snags and mudbanks, that the bottom is soft and hard poling and so on. I've travelled on a home-made raft (plastic drums rather than logs, but I imagine that logs would be even heavier and less wieldy).* 1-2 miles an hour is fine going on a raft, if you are poling and I could easily imagine that going cross-current, dealing with contrary back currents and getting off the inevitable snags, a missisippi-size river could easily take more than an hour to cross. Hell, in real life, it took us 10 minutes of frantic activity to to cross limeburner's creek - a slow river in a mangrove swamp - all of about 80-100 feet across. Poling across anything with a muddy bottom is hell. cheers, Mark *the home-made raft, though slow and unwieldy was an improvement on the corrugated roofing-iron home-made canoe, however, which although it worked, really needed a crew of three - two to paddle and one to bail. We had to abandon the raft however, because we discovered there was no way in hell we could pole it upstream in even a slow river and we were, anyway, too lazy to try and carry it home.

Re: Sectional Defences Oh, he's used to it by now cheers, Mark

Re: What kind of aliens? Chimps and gorillas are predators? The commonest species of chimps might be, if you pushed the definition I suppose, bonabos don't seem to be and gorillas aren't. Of the three smartest species on the planet, only one has marked predatory habits and it's an omnivore. A vegetarian, non-predatory sentience seems quite possible to me. Africa has plenty of big predators, but elephants don't get eaten until they're about ready to keel over of old age (if then) - and absolutely dominate their landscape. The "top of the food chain" guys get out of their way when they see them coming. I think this whole "predator" thing has evolved because *we* can pretty safely be described that way, so we assume that since it's us, that's the default. cheers, Mark

Re: Sectional Defences Yep, just to follow up on the other comments, I know of no evidence of wood being used for armor in Japan. The display suit Fitz meant doesn't count - lacquered wood was used as armour in medieval France for exactly the reason Fitz mentioned: it was light and you could make it look like metal. But it wasn't meant for defence and it's existence doesn't mean that medieval knights used wooden armour. Japanese armour has been made of iron since long before katana were invented. The only reference I can find to wooden armour in asia is in Serindia, by Aurel Stein, where he describes small wooden scales found at a site called called Lou-Lan. He thought they might be armour, but most modern historians think they were decoration. Makes sense really - leather armour requires no more tech than wood and is stronger, more flexible and more durable. Wooden armour would break on the first decent impact. I guess you could include the various rattan/fibre type armours from the pacific and parts of africa if you really wanted to stretch the definition of wood, but otherwise I know of no wooden armour from any culture. Cheers, Mark

Re: The Five Chinese Brothers (seeking info about) To EDM to another thread... I'm Batman. And I can breathe in space http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20050131.html

Re: What kind of aliens? So I assume you attempt to kill every person you meet? After all the chance that any person you meet is a homicidal maniac bent on your destruction is greater than zero. Therefore your "logic" must presumably lead to the same conclusion. Of course it doesn't - it's simply a series of fallacies strung together - not logic. cheers, Mark

Re: What kind of aliens? The probablity assessment goes like this. "No data. No conclusion is possible." As for "what probability of the extinction of the entire human race are you prepared to accept" The answer is "Some". After all, we already acccept the risk that environmental degradation may irreversibly alter our climate. We know the race could be trashed by a really big meteor but stubbornly refuse to build anti-meteor defences and so on and so forth. Humans deal with risks and high stakes all the time - in fact, we *don't* attempt to insulate ourselves from all risks - hence my scepticism. cheers, Mark

Re: What kind of aliens?

Re: What kind of aliens? Why not? OUR ecosystem is dominated by organisms living in symbiosis or commensalism. Predators are the exception, not the rule, and simple biological energy analysis suggests that patern is likely to be ominant. cheers, Mark

Re: Superheroes in real life The problem with that article is this quote:

Re: And off we go! OK, next update - I'm starting to run overlapping sessions together here to try and get up to date.... The next morning Gen (the Qurrock-breeder's son) got up early and went for a ride around the city walls with Castor - he had thought that perhaps there had been more murders than suspected (in earlier adventures they had been trying to dig up dirt on Sorghall and had heard vague rumours from some sailors that there had been a rash of murders on the island of Sillith before they left to come here. The details are vague, but Gen is convinced that someone or something evil has come over on Sorghall's ship). He was right about the murders anyway, as they found a body in the stream weighted down with a couple of rocks - they only found it because one arm had washed free and was flopping about in the current. This time, before the called the watch, they carefully checked the area and were able to establish that the young woman had walked the stream with another person, then they flattened some grass and bled all over the place, before one person walked tothe stream and away back to the town - they lost his tracks on the road, but the soft earth by the stream showed them he was big, and wore boots with a strap around the instep: typical sailor's footwear. When the guard was called, they pointed this out and then went with them to the Temple, where the body was identified as a girl who worked at a tavern. A few queries later showed that she supplemented her income by going out with men and got the names and descriptions of the men who had been seen with her. The authorities called out the militia, and basically rounded up all the men who weren't members of the nobility or their retinue and brought them to the market square. The priestesses cast a divination and got nothing, so everyone was let go again. However, Castor the priest used his "mind-reading spell on Jaarst Daro who was under suspcion because he was big, and wore boots with a strap around the instep - and also because he had been at the tavern where the grl worked the night before. He also got nothing - not even surface thoughts - which was pretty strange. So he went to the temple, discussed the issue with the priests and they decided to call him in for a talk. And then they folded. Jaarst Daro is a smart guy and a cool cookie - they asked him questions, and he answered them, with a plausible excuse for every accusation. Despite the fact that he has some sort of cult medallion around his neck, they accepted his explanation that his immunity to detection type spells was due to a magical charm cast by his granny (I kid you not!) and despite Castor's increasingly hysterical demands that he be arrested, they had to let him go, since the only reason to arrest him was that "We can't tell if he's lying!" Since Castor has let slip he's a member of the Church militant and they have a reputation as fanatics and paranoiacs, they weren't going to arrest someone for multiple murders just on his suspicions - especially not a contestant in the sacred ritual when it is known that Castor is spending his spare time hanging out with three other contestants. Meanwhile, however, the rest of the group was being interrogated about the murders and what they had been doing at the time by a savage-looking woman who was armed to the teeth. Turns out she's an adventurer who has been put on the job by the temple and after the session with Castor, the temple decides she will be assigned full time to tracking Jaarst Daro and seeing what he's doing. Aquila meanwhile has been out snooping around town. He finds brown robes again, and this time watches him for a while. It seems he is not spying on Lord Sorghall but lord Sorghall's servants - when he attempts to confront brown robes, the man takes off and somehow loses Aquila again on the wharves. What with that and some other running about buying gear, the time for the Pain Contest approaches. In this one, the contestants have to show their toughness by holding an iron pot filled with boiling water, and red-hot stones from a big fire are added to the pot, increasing the weight and keeping it hot. Basically, the players make a roll against the average of CON+STR, plus ED, which goes down by one for each rock added. As the contest wears on, one by one the contestants groan, scream and drop their pots. Lamoniak drops out fairly soon, but makes an EGO roll to at least put his pot down rather than dropping it. Myrryhn Calmstorm gets help as usual - Agrestis, hidden in the crowd in the market square where the event is held takes advantage of a fake fight started by some Samadrian soldiers on the opposite side of the square and uses his sleight of hand spell to replace the hot water carried to Myrryhn's pot with cold water from a bucket. It doesn't help him - he fumbles his pot and drops it after a while as the water heats up with fresh, red-hot stones. Vathmar has a CON of 30 for endurance-type things due to his magical gift, and loses his pot simply due to bad rolls. In the end, it's Carylyon, who has a bonus due to his "true grit" ability, Khelsen due to his huge STR and that annoying Khastz, who despite the lack of any obvious advantages, rolled hot dice all the way through, who are left holding their pots. Vathmar, enraged and disbelieving that anyone could beat him (this was supposed to be "his" event and he bet everything he had on it!) calls cheat and the three winners have to be tested with a truth spell. Once it is shown that they did not cheat, Khelsen turns around and punches Vathmar in the face. The guards swarm in to prevent a fight and Vathmar storms off (he's got a giant-sized grudge against Khelsen, though). Finally the priestesses offer healing and soothing salves for the contestant's burns. While that's going on the nobles andtheir retinues arestanding around on the temple steps chatting about the contest and Sir Baharach comes up to Lamoniak and says he thinks he's a fine guy and gives him a valuable necklace, saying it was an heirloom and he doesn't want it to be broken. he then heads for the temple steps and Lamoniak notices 1) Sir Baharach has a shortsword hidden under his cloak and 2) he's heading straight for Sorghall, whose guards are temporarily distracted by a raging argument with the watch and several local armigers over the earlier fight. With only seconds to act, he scoots round in front of Sir Baharach and partly by distracting him, partly by getting in the way and partly by drawing attention to the two of them by loud buffoonery stops Sir Baharach from reaching Sorghall before his guards notice and get close to him. At that point Sir Baharach storms off (note: the players don't know it but Sir Baharach also hate heretic sorcerors and there have been plenty of rumours floating about - mostly started by the players - that Sorghall-associated dark sorcery is behind the murders. That convinced Sir Baharach that killing him would redeem his tarnished honour and even though he'd certainly be killed, that's preferrable to endless exile). The players then spend some time spying on Jaarst Daro, get bored when he does nothing unusual, and by visiting the spots where he has been seen, confirm that Brown robe (or Obi-wan, as they are calling him) seems more interested in Samadrians outside Sorghall's immediate circle. They spend the rest of the time getting ready for the big climax (no pun intended) of the festival when the harvest maiden chooses her groom, the following day. cheers, Mark

Re: And off we go! Actually, I have one power-gamer - the one who plays the two-sword fighting armiger. She's a hard-core d20 player, part of our d20 group and the one who comes up with stuff like "Can I use the "kill anything" feat from Dragon 1233? I have a copy here, etc, etc" OTOH, she learns the rules, buys the books, etc, and anyway, I'm not averse to having one combat monster in the party. As for the rest, it's been surprisingly easy as most of them are fantasy/scifi geeks, but not prior gamers. So it's easy to sell them ideas like "It's like you're in ...insert situation from fantasy book/film here..." they tend to think in fantasy tropes rather than the powergaming tropes. cheers, Mark

Re: Ships of the Dark Ages and Medieval Period What you have there is a Trireme, a 10th century ship (nobody seems to agree what these are called, being a transition between a knorr and a cog) and a galleas, if you're interested. Here's a picture of a cog: cheers, Mark

Re: Disad help This actually gives plenty of plothooks. The smuggler is going to try to call in favours. He can "sell" part pf the dbet to someone else for them to try and collect on it. People who know the character as a debtor are going to want their cash up front, while others might be a bit leery of entrusting their daughter's ransom to such a person even ifthey promise to get the daughter back, and so on. The smuggler can try pressuring the noble's daddy for the debt, and he (or the rest of the family, if he's dead/undead) in turn might pressure the character "Think of the family name!" When the character does get loot, word will eventually get around, and the creditor (or his agents) will turn up, demanding a cut. If he's smart he'll never take enough to pay it off and with medieval interest rates (sometimes over 200% p.a.!) the characters will soon owe him even more. It's like reputation, social limitation:poor and hunted rolled into one, so it shouldn't be as extreme as any one of those - but it's broader than any of them, so play it as a mild version of all three. cheers, Mark

Re: Sectional Defences A hooded byrnie, or a hauberk and helmet, like the ones that were so popular in real life ? Now we know why - they got a -1 Lim! cheers, Mark

Re: Player Characters who might need Automoton Powers

Re: And off we go! Ok, next post. To keep this a bit shorter, I'll try to skip some of the subplot details.. The night of the Wall of Death, Lamoniak had hooked up with Sir Baraharch, who it turns out is also an exile from his land and they got drunk together and took turn singing sad songs. That night, Aquila found the man in the brown robe again, chased him and inexplicably lost him in a dead-end street. He also noticed a woman apparently spying on some of the other players but decided to leave her to chase Brown-robe. By the time he got back she was gone. Also that night, Castor and the other priests at the temple tried to cast divination spells to work out what was going on with the murders and came up blank. However, Castor found out that there is a secure cupboard in one room of the temple which hold books - he thinks he has found the forbidden library - it's actually where the cult's documents are stored but he is right about one thing - it's also where their magic books are. In the end the priests decided to send a message to the capital to ask for help from an inquisitor. The next day dawned bright and sunny. The players decided to rest a bit and eventually turned up for the intelligence contest. This is a traditional drinking game that Shiplords play - they take turns at asking riddles or composing poems, which the others then have to complete. All those apart from the one who answers correctly first drink a mug of ale. Once they have drunk their Con/2 in ales they have to start making Con rolls to keep the ale down. Every pint of ale reduces the CON roll by one. Last man standing is the winner and the prize is ... a giant barrel of ale (which is traditionally shared with the audience). There's not much to say here - I had prepared a list of medieval riddles, most of which sounded slightly obscene. Khastz did surprisingly well, guessing quite a lot of riddles - but also got drunk pretty fast, since he also guessed many wrong. After a while (several hours actually) we ran out of riddles and had lost the urge to make up new ones and the characters who were still sitting upright just settled down to drink each other unconscious. Khastz had puked all over himself and collapsed, Lamoniak was snoring on the table and Khelsen was snoring under it. So it came to a contest between Vathmar, sir Barharach and Corylyon. No-one could match sir Barharach though (he has life support: immunity to alcohol, 14-, meaning on a 14- I simply ignored the effect of that drink) and he celebrated his victory by broaching the giant cask of ale and having a drink before handing it over to the crowd. The others were carried to the temple portico and left to sleep in the sun While he was there an armiger came up to Lamoniak and threw a purse down at him saying that if he was smart, he'd take the purse and leave town. Lamoniak opened it and it was full of silver coins and his ripped-up letter. That made him so angry that he threw it away. Several of the non-drunk characters met with Agrestis (Lord Sorghall's Jester) and offered him some bribes if he would help them or stop helping Mhyrryn. He pretended to be sympathetic, mocked them slightly, promised extravagant help and left intending to do nothing he had promised By sundown, the party was already getting pretty wild, since it had started with strong ale in mid-afternoon. Some of the players went drinking with the indefatigable but by now thoroughly inebriated sir Barharach, some went home to recover. Those who were out and about, got involved in another brawl (a small one this time) between exiles from Sillith, some of whom hate Lord Sorghall (the new lord) and some of whom are sucking up to him in the hopes of getting their old lands back (Fat chance!). Lord Raus turned up to restore order and the characters noticed he had a dishy-looking blonde with him - who was the woman Aquila had spotted on the rooftops some evenings previously, who seems to be some sort of adventurer. Eventually they stumbled back to bed, on the way, encountering Jaarst Daro with a young woman. They tried to follow him but he noticed and parted ways with the woman, going into a nearby tavern. Next day: the Pain Contest!

Re: And off we go! Feel free - I've written the whole thing up in detail, complete with NPCs, subplots and GM's hints - I'll post it when I have finished this part of the story arc. I still have the rest of the contests to post and the beginning of the post-contest adventures ... cheers, Mark

Re: Player Characters who might need Automoton Powers