DragonQuest Campaign Newsletter issue 4.0
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Where We Left Off..
Game date: March 7th.
As of the last adventure, the party was preparing to leave Arrabar to journey back to see the Shaper, Wesson.
The bard Ceolwulfe tracked down the group and asked them to carry a letter to Wesson for him.
The party is also tracked down by Captain Amalric who again thanks them for their help. He pays each character an additional 2 Cr - "One of the Magistrates was most thankful for your timely aid in cracking this case."
The journey back to the Shaper’s will take approximately 7 days by river, and another 3 days marching.
Rumors & News of Current Events (top)
Adventurers’ Guild Postings (top)
Tidbits (top)
The Code of Magic
Last time, I provided a list of typical penalties for normal sorts of crimes. Well, I forgot a few. In particular, some of the penalties for spell-casting. There are three primary penalties levied against Adepts. Magical Endangerment is the casting of dangerous spells within the city. Duel Arcane is the practice of Mages for settling matters of honor through a magical duel - which tend to be quite hazardous for onlookers and nearby buildings. Finally, the stiffest penalty is passed for the practice of "Black Arts". Necromancy has always been shunned by the normal populace, and discovering a Necromancer typically leads to a witch hunt. This primarily applies to the raising and controlling of the dead. Most other spells in the College of Necromancy could be cast in front of the general populace and they would not be able to tell what college the Adept belongs to.
Magical Endangerment (casting dangerous spells within the city) 3 Cr + damages
Duel Arcane 50 Cr + damages
Practice of "Black Arts" (i.e. Necromancy, dealing with demons) Death
Banking, Money Lenders, Storage, and the Adventurers’ Guild
So, you don’t want to be carrying around 10 pounds of coins. That’s understandable. These are dangerous times. Brigands and thugs around every corner, and pickpockets in every crowd. So what’s an honest adventurer to do?
In the middle ages, there was not much in the way of banking. Kings, The Church, lords, and a holy order of knights (the Templars) controlled much of the money. Merchantilism had not quite caught on yet. Fortunately, that is not the world in which our characters live.
That world is a veritable hodge podge of ideas, concepts, events, and such from our world, all jumbled together. So yes, there are moneylenders who will actually pay you for the privilege of holding onto your money. Granted, it’s not going to be a whole lot. And it certainly won’t compare to the interest you’d be charged for holding onto their money! Unfortunately, the one thing you won’t find in that world is the concept of insurance agencies! So if your moneylender is robbed... Oh, well! (They’ll take precautions against that, of course.) There is another option, however. The Adventurers’ Guild. And a more secure bank you will not find. The AG is the international guild for mercenaries, and they don’t take kindly to people running off with their money. Their rates aren’t quite as good as that offered by your typical moneylender when you take into consideration the membership dues, but they do give you two options. The first is your standard financial banking, and the second is storage of personal goods, no questions asked. They do charge storage fees, but it’s only 2 Pennies per 25 pounds per month. Not too bad for a very secure lock box.
The AG also provides several other services for members. First of all, there is no charge for moneychanging. Second, it operates as a "temp agency," putting up job postings and arranging job contracts for members. There are fees for both arranging and for drawing up the contract. Both of these are all worked out at the start of the contract, with the employer typically paying the fees to the AG. (While the AG does not prevent adventurers from arranging their own contracts, it does deal rather harshly with those who go behind its back to arrange better terms with the employer). Third, the AG can act as a broker for adventurers who find themselves in possession of some goods and are lacking the means to turn them into liquid assets. And finally, the AG will act as arbitrator or litigator for its members if so needed. It will often go so far as to put up bail for its members in good standing. But all this is not without its cost. The AG does charge an annual membership due of 5 Crowns (plus all the miscellaneous hidden fees).
Oh, and if you happen to be leaving town, it is often a good idea to get a Sealed AG Letter of Credit to take with you. The letter, if delivered sealed to another Adventurer’s Guild house, will permit members to draw on their banked funds even though their actual money was left in a different city. Without the sealed Letter of Credit, the AG will have to wait for verification from the home city before disbursement of any funds, however. This can be done at no charge through the normal channels (send a messenger and wait for his return) or, for a modest fee, through the more timely method of telecommunication (the AG is one of the few organizations which has in its possession rare artifacts known as Palantir which permit users to communicate over long distances with other users of Palantir).
Here is a list of typical monthly rates:
Moneylender banking interest: 1F per Cr (0.25%)
Moneylender loan interest: 2 to 8F per Cr (0.50 to 1.5%)
Moneylender moneychanging 1F per Cr (0.25%)
AG banking interest: 2F per Cr (0.50%)
AG moneychanging Free for members
AG loan interest: 2P per Cr (2.0%)
AG storage fees 2P per 25lbs.
AG contract arrangement 1 full share or 5%, whichever is greater.
AG contract draft 5 to 100P (often covered by the employer)
AG brokering 10% of take
AG blacklist bounty 20 Cr
AG annual dues 5 Cr/year
The Adventurer’s Catalogue
As you may have noticed, the items listing is pretty extensive. There are a lot of things there that no character will probably ever be looking to buy (needles, thread, and fabric??). Others may only be of interest to a Mage needing some peculiar items for a ritual. But you should be aware that some of these things were quite valuable in the Middle Ages. Europe did not know of silks and spices until caravans began returning from the East with them. And they were expensive. Treasure is not always in the form of coins.
Magical Technology (aka Swords, Clubs, Telephones, and You - What Every Adventurer Should Know)
In a world where Magic not only exists, but also plays a direct role in day-to-day living, it is bound to greatly affect the path of technological advancements made by the societies of that world. In such a world, it is easy to imagine matches, flashlights, water pumps and filters (plumbing?), hand grenades, and even telecommunications coming into existence. And how about magical Band-Aids which speed healing, space heaters, or refrigerators. How about security? Instead of having voice printing, finger printing, or retinal matching, you could use devices which do Aura printing. In the area of entertainment, I always get this image of a Wookie and a droid sitting at a table with little holographic (illusionary!) figures battling away. The figures are easily enough accomplish with a simple Minor Magic Glamour. Figuring out the control is a bit more difficult, but I would imagine such devices (Holographic Battle Chess!) would be quite popular amongst those who could afford them.
Rule Clarifications and Notes. (top)
Walking Unseen
The way the Walking Unseen spell works is by making the target go unnoticed. This is not invisibility; it just means that other entities may see the character, but they will not actually perceive that they are there. How I usually handle this is that anyone looking at someone with Walking Unseen over them must roll straight Perception to notice them. That chance will be modified under certain circumstances, such as if the Walking Unseen person is exceptionally out of place (i.e., they would normally stand out like a sore thumb) or if they do anything to draw attention to themselves. The modifiers will depend on the degree to which they draw attention to themselves. (I have this image in my head of someone trying to get another character’s attention while Unseen - jumping up and down, screaming, shouting, and the other character keeps blowing his Perception roll!). As for contact cancelling the spell - any contact which draws the attention of the contactee will certainly do so, such as an attack.
Vision
There are a lot of mentions in the rules about various types of vision, but nothing that really lays out any details.
Normal vision: Normal human vision is something we are familiar with. The modifiers listed below are applied. The PC column shows the effective value of Perception which can be used in tasks which rely significantly on sight.
Night Vision: Night vision allows a character to see in the dark. The character’s eyes adjust better to the lower lighting conditions. Night Vision works in two ways. First, for each 5 (or fraction thereof) ranks, the character can treat the surrounding light levels as 1 level higher in brightness. Thus, up to rank 5, a character can see at dusk as well as they can in the day. They can see on a starry night as well as a normal person can see at dusk. At ranks 6 through 10, the character would be able to see on a starry night as if it were daylight. The second way in which Night Vision aids a character is for Perception rolls which rely at least partly on sight. The percentage given in the PC column is increased by 1% per rank for characters with Night Vision (except in Bright Sunlight).
Dwarves are considered to have rank 0 Night Vision normally, but rank 10 if they are within caves.
Elves are normally considered to have Night Vision at rank 10, but this is reduced to rank 0 if they are not under the open sky.
Infravision: Infravision is the ability to see heat. Warm objects will show up as faint red shapes. The intensity will depend on the heat given off by the object - the hotter the brighter. While this will allow a character to see most living creatures in the dark, it will not detect undead or cold-blooded creatures. Relying on infravision for fighting in the dark with a warm-blooded opponent is similar to fighting with Normal vision at Dusk.
Witchsight: Witchsight does not help to see in the dark, but it does give the user a chance to see invisible or magically hidden items. The chance of this is (PC + 4xRk)%. It also adds to the chance of noticing someone under the influence of the Walking Unseen spell by the same amount (making the base chance [2xPC + 4xRk]).
Lighting Conditions Melee Mod Defense Mod Ranged Mod Max Range PC
Facing bright light source (sun) -10 -10 -3/4 hexes miles 90%
Normal daylight or cloudy day 0 0 -3/5 hexes miles 100%
Dusk -10 -10 -3/4 hexes 200’ 90%
Starry night or shadowy interior -20 -15 -3/3 hexes 75’ 75%
Cloudy night -30 -20 -3/2 hexes 20’ 66%
cave or unlit interior -40 -25 -3/hex 10’ 50%
pitch blackness -60 -40 -25/hex 0’ 25%
Talents
Don’t forget that Talents, even racial ones, can be taken up in rank! Such talents as Witch Sight, Night Vision, and Resist Pain really need to be increased to obtain full benefit. The vision talents add to you success chance for Perception rolls. Resist Pain gives you the initial stun resistance roll, but increased rank will improve your chances of avoiding stun and getting out of it.
Parrying
To determine the result of a parry, roll (D10 + (Evader’s weapon rank + Weapon Master) - (Attacker’s weapon rank + Weapon Master)) and consult this table:
£ 3 = Parry: The attack was successfully parried.
4-6 = Parry + Disarm: The Attacker drops his weapon.
7-8 = Parry + Riposte: Defender gets a free melee attack on the attacker.
³ 9 = Parry + Disarm + Riposte
Mana Levels
So far, I have been primarily concerned with getting things smoothed out with the combat. There have been a lot of changes, and we’ve all needed to come up to speed on them. Because of this, I’ve just been glossing over other changes - such as the effects of Mana levels and proximity to cold iron, etc. Starting now, I would like to put this into effect. Most cities are low Mana areas.
Magical Items
When a spell is invested or enchanted into an item, the pattern of the spell is woven into the Mana inherent in the item. This means that the limits of the spell must be clearly defined - it is not the user casting the spell, tailoring it for the circumstances, but the spell stored in the item is being triggered. This means the target of the spell must be specified, such as "The Enchant Weapon spell put into this weapon will only affect the weapon itself", "The target of the Ball of Fire spell is the closest person at which the wand is pointing", "This ring with Enchant Weapon will cast the spell on whatever weapon it is in contact with", "The wearer of the cloak is the target of the Spell of Invisibility".
When Enchanting magic into an item, a Shaper does have the choice of enchanting the knowledge of the spell or ritual instead of enchanting a spell or talent. This means the user of the item can cast the spell or enact the ritual as if they had it at the rank stored in the item. And in such a case, nothing more needs to be defined at the time of the enchantment.
Experience, Adventurers & Heroes
What skills count towards reaching Adventurer and Hero level? For purposes of reaching the higher experience levels, Speaking or Reading/Writing a language counts as one-half an ability (except for Speaking Common, which does not count at all toward this). Familiarities only count as one-quarter of an ability. All other Skills, Magic, or Weapons each count as one ability towards reaching these experience levels.
Mercenary: characters receive the normal adventure bonus, as well as 15 EP per day of training.
Adventurer: they receive double the adventure bonus, and double the experience from training (30 EP/day).
Hero: the characters receive 2.5 times the adventure bonus, and 50 EP per day of training.
Normal adventure bonuses will range from 500 EP through 1200 EP. Bonuses may be awarded to players who do an exceptional job of role-playing (coming up with good ideas, following through with good ideas, making bad ideas work, giving the GM a really good laugh, etc.). These bonuses will usually be on the order of 50-100 EP. Bonuses will not be given for good rolls, unless it is in conjunction with a role-playing bonus (exceptionally good or bad rolls may increase the bonus). Normally, the effects of a good roll should be reward enough, and characters should not be given extra experience based solely on the roll of the dice (we all know what Murphy’s Law has to say about that!). Unless experience is taken away for exceptionally bad rolls....
Knockouts
Instead of inflicting knockouts by requiring an exceptional success (Endurance damage), use the following method.
Any knockout attack is going to be a called shot on the head. So use a -40% penalty to the Strike Chance (assuming human sized heads), and if the inflicted damage is greater than 1/3 the target’s Endurance there will be a possible knockout in addition to a possible stun. The target must make a resistance roll of (WP + remaining EN + remaining FT - Damage)% to avoid being knocked out. It they succeed, then it is handled as a normal stunning blow. If the character fails the roll and is knocked out, then they will remain unconscious for a number of minutes equal to the amount of damage done. If the attack is with a C class weapon, then double the Damage value in the resistance roll.
Assassins with Saps automatically succeed in knock-out attacks, provided they hit and the target is not wearing significant armor on their head.
The danger of attempting a knockout is that if a Grievous Injury is rolled, it must be applied if it makes sense (i.e. a head injury - oops, hit them a little too hard!).
Helmets
DragonQuest deals with armor in a rather idealized fashion by not worrying about hit locations. Instead, the die roll is relied upon to determine if an attack bypasses armor or not (and therefore does direct injury as opposed to merely wearing down the opponent). This way you don’t have to keep track of armor on each arm and leg, torso, abdomen, neck and head. Maybe a strike hits an unarmored spot (Endurance damage), maybe it doesn’t (Fatigue damage).
This works well for the most part, but there needs to be something done to address protection of the head. The rules only deal with this by stating that the Sap can only be used to knockout victims wearing Leather or lighter armor. But there are other situations where the quality of head-gear is important. (Such as when the chimpanzees start dropping coconuts on the party from the trees).
Different types of helmets are rated for protection similarly to armor. The two primary uses for helmets will be protecting against certain Grievous Injuries (already detailed in the Grievous Injury Table), and protecting against knockout attacks (see above). Detailing the sort of helmet a character has will be important in other ways, as well. For instance, a Fire mage can’t heat up a leather helmet! Also, visored helms are of benefit because they reduce the risk of Grievous Injuries to the face (50% of avoiding the Grievous Injury) or throat.
Helmet’s are the only instance a distinction needs to be made for armor types on different locations of the body.
Helmet Wt Prot Cost (Cr)
Quilted hood 1 1 0.80
Leather hood 1 2 1.40
Chainmail coif 3 3 3.60 inc. padding
Cuirbolli helm 2 3 3.00
Iron Helm 5 5 6.00 inc. padding
Visored Helm 6 5 16.00 inc. padding, reduce PC by 2
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