DragonQuest Campaign Newsletter issue 3.0
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Rumors & News of Current Events (top)
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Tidbits (top)
Arrabar - part 1.
One of the most striking features of Arrabar is its maze of river canals. Much of the society has stratified onto particular islands. To the East are the upper class residences and businesses. The northern most islands on that side belong to the wealthy and powerful noble families. Centrally located on the northern (seaward) edge are the Fortress Isle, Palace Isle, and Prison Isle. Just south of these are the two Trade Isles - Free Market and Merchant’s Isle. Merchant’s Isle contains many of the middle class merchant and craftsman shops. It also is the home of the Arena, where many sporting events are held. Free Market Isle contains many smaller merchant shops, plus the bazaar - a collection of temporary huts and booths of poor or transient merchants and craftsmen. These two isles also contain the Street of Gods - along which most of the temples (those in good standing with the general populace, at least) are located. Just south of Merchant’s Isle are the two islands which house the Mages and Adepts. The eastward isle has the homes of the powerful and wealthy Mages, as well as a large apartment complex for the not-quite-as-powerful and not-quite-as-wealthy Mages. The westward isle houses the Magical Colleges, each of which is fairly self-contained with training areas and housing for the students. West of these two isles, and south of Free Market Isle lies the University Isle, upon which resides the center of non-magical study and higher learning.
On the western-most edge of the city is the slum area. This area consists of a maze of small isles and canals. The canals are much more slow-moving and fail to carry away all the refuse and stench that builds up in that area. This is also the heart of the area popular amongst the "less favored" and not-quite-law-abiding citizenry.
Fines & Penalties
As typical mercenaries and adventurers, you will often find yourself in situations where your responses may be frowned upon by the local authorities. And you may find yourself asking, "Now, why shouldn’t I respond in such a manner?" While the penalties for some actions will vary depending on the people involved - it may fall under religious jurisdiction or street justice, here is a list of typical ranges of penalties for some common crimes frowned upon:
| Brawling | 2 Cr | night in jail |
| Instigating Brawl | 3-5 Cr | week in jail |
| Use of Weapons in Brawl | 10-35 Cr | |
| Murder | 100 Cr | 2+ years Prison, execution |
| Disrupting the Peace | 1-2 Cr | |
| Destruction of Property | 5-10 Cr + Damages | 2+ weeks Prison |
| Dueling | 3-5 Cr | |
| Pickpocket | 5 Cr - loss of hand | 4-6 weeks in prison |
| Breaking & Entering | 5-10 Cr | |
| Theft | 50+ Cr - loss of limb | 1+ years in prison |
| Resisting Arrest | 5 Cr | |
| Assaulting City Guard | 10 Cr | 4 weeks Prison |
Tanelorn
The legendary lost city of Tanelorn shows up in most of the mythologies of the world. Tanelorn is believed to have been built during the Golden Age of Knowledge, and has somehow survived - though no one knows where. Some say Tanelorn changes locations, others that it is in some far-off, unexplored region. Tanelorn is (of course) the place to go if you need some miracle, or to find everlasting peace or everlasting life, or even if you are looking for some mythical object.
Rule Clarifications and Notes. (top)
Aimed Shots
Occasionally characters may take the time to aim at a particular target, or may be covering a target (covering a particular person with a bow, holding a knife to someone’s throat). In such situations, the character will get a bonus to hit and a bonus to chance of Grievous Injury
NPC Action Results.
Just to give you an idea of how I try (hey, I’m still working on this!) to handle NPCs, here’s a quick little run-down:
NPC actions are important in the game, but it shouldn’t become the focus. Therefore the results need to be determined fairly quickly and it shouldn’t detract from the player’s activity. However, much of the time I don’t want to just decide what happens - as the GM, I enjoy it more when the dice throw some unexpected twists at me, and a lot of the time I tend to have just a vague idea of the story line and wing the rest. So usually with NPC combat, I don’t really have any plan for who will win and who won’t (If I do, I can always rig it… but you didn’t hear that from me!).
For most actions, I roll D% against a roughly estimated success chance (eg. NPC Bob has.. oh… let’s say about a 50% to hit NPC Joe). If the result is below 10, it’s an Outstanding Success (a Grievous Injury if attacking another NPC). If it’s in the teens, it’s a Really-Good-But-Not-Quite-Outstanding Success (Endurance damage in combat), and if it’s clearly above the estimated success chance, then it’s a miss. If it happens to be 90% or above, it’s a Really-Bad Result, with 99 & 100 reserved for the Really-Really-Bad Results. If it happens to be in the grey area, instead of calculating things out, I prefer to just make a second roll with a 50/50 split of going hit/miss.
When you’re dealing with NPC attacks on Player Characters, however, you have to figure out fairly accurate strike chances (+/- a few).
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