In which we begin designing NTME '22

 NTME is working just fine.  Providing some interesting story hook type material.  Getting the requisite player buy-in.  But it's time for the next steps.

We've HAD the "outer trade areas" simplified to one source.  No more.  All 190 burgs are getting their appropriate trade distances.  So there goes January.  Will make scarcity more accurate (see below.)  Will keep the "wilderness" burgs out of the world network ... until they're brought on-line by the party or by world events.  When that happens they'll be connected for one year, after which they'll disconnect from burgs still in the wilderness.  This will also allow other world events to disrupt the supply chain (!?)  Already have a few things planned.  Increased pirate activity will be my test run case.  Remote avalanche cuts off a trade route?  Earthquake causes bridge collapse?  "Hey, why can't I buy that neat thing I bought here last month?"  Because an earthquake in Colquinal destroyed the bridge over the Chishore river and the major supplier can't ship it out!  Hopefully somebody's trying to get a boat there.  They might make a fortune!

Started differentiating resources in '20 with cereals.  And now I'm going nuts with it.  Have used the climate and biome to set up crop production for every burg.  Differentiated nuts, fruits, veggies and a handful of other things.  Alexis differentiates building stone.  Not ready to take THAT jump (yet.)  But what about wood? I'm thinking pine, spruce, fir, oak, chestnut, maple and walnut.  Might throw in one or two more.  

Next step will be to set up the production of all of those 190 burgs.  I have "rules" for who'll get what and roughly how much but I need to tweak, fine tune, and actually allocate.  So there goes February.  And probably March.

And THEN I'll start playing with the production tables.  The tables from '20 are good and workable and all, but they're a muddled mess, need organizing, cleaning up and rejiggering to reflect the aforementioned differentiation. 

Once that's workable I have a couple pet projects that I think spreadsheets will facilitate.  Using lookup, MAX, and conditional formatting.  Hopefully I'll be able to design my storefronts to reflect the scarcity inherent in the system.  Providers will base offerings on scarcity and provide local flavor.  Meat/spice/veg offerings will vary with local.  So will the beverage selection.  Even the breakfast gruel, porridge, mush or oatmeal will be localized.  And candy.  

I'm looking fwd to ALL of this!

In which we try to figure out (the easy way) what grows where.

What crops grow where? What wildlife is prevalent where? And to a lesser degree, what gemstones are found where? In MOST games the answer to these questions doesn't matter. Hell, the questions are never asked. All taverns have the same ale. Everyone eats the same Soylent. And gems magically appear in treasure troves. Swords are forged from air and imagination. Salt isn't a consideration. Neither is clay. But that's not how I'm trying to roll, as you know if you've ever read any of the worldbuilding or NTME posts on this blog. Resources exist. They COME from someplace. And their value varies from place to place depending on availability and the presence of craftsmen.

Minerals were pretty “easy” to allocate. So was livestock. But then came more specific variations. “Game” was easy. But there's a difference between muskrats and snow leopards. “Fowl” was easy but ducks and turkeys vary. “Cereals,” “Fruits,” and “textiles” were easy but corn, rye, cotton, apples and oranges each have specific requirements. And then there's gemstones, as mentioned in an earlier post.

So I started with the Koppen-Geiger classification. Can also use the USDA “hardiness scale” but no overarching info exists on this either. Already have the temperature profile, rainfall data and elevation information for every city on the planet. The current location of the party is ALL Cfb or Dfb. But what crops grow in which climate. And what wildlife thrives where? For H in Hexes uses the K-G system overlayed with global production data to determine what crops grow best where. They've provided the data for six crops, but replicating their data is well beyond my ability. I've written to request data use. We'll see. I've done hours of online research and this is the closest thing I've found to compare crops to Koppen.

Next up? Wildlife. So beaver and otter need sufficient water. Wolves need sufficient prey. Snow leopards need … snow. But I want some kind of crunchy system to determine what's hunted where, based on climate and maybe dominant flora. And perhaps altitude. ALL of these searches have been overly cluttered with climate change data. Nice that it's out there but not what I'm looking for <G>. And I'm not finding what I'm looking for. I'd love find a chart wherein I can look up an animal (wolf, ermine, deer) and it'll tell me in what habitat it thrives. But no love.

All the above applies to gems as well, but I'm not NEARLY as worried about it. I've plopped the gems into the dwarven areas, the precious stones (and all black stones!) in the Orc homeland. The Celtic area gets all the green stones. Norse culture gets Scandinavian stones. Halflings get ornamental stones. Pearls found in harbor cities with rivers. Coral found in harbor cities without a river. Rare. Distributed.

How much more time to I spend looking for a panacea before I do it one item at a time.

In which the party does some research

 A few months back, quite early in this campaign, the party found themselves in a large village with a small "library."  They were seeking info on a specific type of demon and on silver smelting practices.  I was completely unprepared.  I set a CR in my head, let them roll.  They failed and it was unsatisfying for all.   

Did a little research of my own and stumbled across the Pathfinder rules.  Modified them a bit as follows and we'll see how they work in practice.

All libraries (personal and public) will have a stat block which includes the following: a CR, a Complexity rating, which reflects the intricacy or confusing nature of the library’s contents, a “language,” a research check based on the knowledge contained therein (based on relevant skills with insight or investigation for general knowledge.) Some libraries grant a bonus on Research checks based on the nature of that library’s collections. A library’s Complexity rating serves as the DC for Research checks that attempt to unravel that library’s clues.

Library research is done in an 8 hour block. An assistant can reduce that block to 5 hours and a second assistant can reduce it to 3 hours. After the time is spent the researcher makes a Research check. A successful Research check reduces the library knowledge points (think hit points) by 1, plus one for each 5 over the required roll. Reducing kp to 0 concludes research in that facility and grants XP to those doing the research.

Example: Morigan the fighter and Kona the ranger go to the small library in Crysrift (population 2655) to research the “demon” they are to confront in the wilderness. This small “collection” has a CR of 2, a complexity of 10 and a mere 3 kp, mostly in the area of local knowledge, animal handling, nature, medicine and survival. Kona brings a +3 insight bonus. After 5 hours the RC is rolled. Anything over a 7 would reveal knowledge but as the area of research isn't really covered no information might be found. A roll of 17 or greater would reduce the kp to 0 and disclose that everything that CAN be learned here has been learned. 

 Edit to add:  Building a library!

 1.  Nature of the collection.  Most libraries will have at LEAST local info.  Roll a d10 for every 10k people and add an area of knowledge.  If you roll a six PICK area, AND roll again.  Any time a subjecy is RE-rolled, add an "area of concentration.

1. Arcana (ancient mysteries, magic traditions, arcane symbols, constructs, dragons, magical beasts)
2. Dungeoneering (aberrations, caverns, oozes, spelunking)
3. Engineering (buildings, aqueducts, bridges, fortifications)
4. Geography (lands, terrain, climate, people)
5. History (wars, colonies, migrations, founding of cities)
6. Local (legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, humanoids)
7. Nature (animals, fey, monstrous humanoids, plants, seasons and cycles, weather, vermin)
8. Nobility (lineages, heraldry, personalities, royalty)
9. Planes (the Inner Planes, the Outer Planes, the Astral Plane, the Ethereal Plane, outsiders, planar magic)
10. Religion (gods and goddesses, mythic history, ecclesiastic tradition, holy symbols, undead.

2.  Establish CR. It's the level of the highest member of the party

3.  Determine complexity.  Base CR + 10 + 10%  rounded up .

4.  Calculate Knowledge points.  Complexity * 3

5.  Make sure there's time pressure

6.  Establish research thresholds.  If kp < 25 there's info every 5.  If kp>30 there's info every 10.

Example.  Current party goes to Capitol City.  Library collection includes all ten areas.  CR is 7.  Complexity is 20.  KP is 60.  We'll need 5 steps of information.

 

In which we find gemstones

 

Having a BALL tinkering with the trade system. Got the first draft implemented and working smoothly so it was time to branch out.

First giant step: Gems. Followed up on The Tao's handling of gems and jewelry and LOVE the result. We'll see how it stands up to practice.

Second step: Textiles. Everything was woolen until I added cotton, hemp, flax and silk. Cotton's lengthy growing season makes it very limited in my world. Would love to construct denim but it just doesn't make sense. GREAT opportunity for an enterprising party that catches on to this. But now when there's cloth to be purchased there are options and the players have choices to make. Oh – I threw two bolts of silk into a treasure chest a few weeks back. They still haven't figured out what it is or how much it's worth.

Third step: game/wildlife. Haven't done NEARLY as much as as I need to here but have made a start (with winter approaching) so I wanted to have SOMERTHING in place. Much work remains to be done here re: value, volume and locations. See also fish: fresh/salt water.

Fourth step: Horse differentiation. Draft, war and riding. There's also a horse breeding culture which produces the top quality of each but they're rare. Should provided some “amusement” down the road.

Fifth step: Cereals. Barley, wheat, oats, corn, rye, rice and hops. Am now working my way through the various craftsmen to produce specialized products. Different breads, brews and distilled beverages. A variety of livestock feeds. And different other food products – can't have oatmeal without oats!

The rest of my prep for the coming session will involve tweaking inn and tavern offerings, designing some specifically requested leather goods, and an attempt to tweak my availability and buy-back numbers, based as usual on the groundwork (both productive and “this way lies madness”) from Alexis.

My other “vanity project” is including some “cultural specialties.” Example: Dwarven ale requires dwarven hops which only grows in dwarven territory. The aforementioned horses. There's a Celtic based music culture that produces the best musical instruments. You can find instruments in many places but those with their “touch” (ingredient) are more expensive and far superior. A misuse of the trade system? Also need to differentiate fruits, vegetables and fowl. Considered beef and dairy cattle but doesn't seem worth it right now. Also tinkering with a “page” mentioned by Alexis which will automate providing a crude shopping list to players based on resource availability. I am LOVING this lonely fun.

In which we breeze right up to third level where all the good stuff.

 First session. First level PCs awaken in a casket confronted by a skeleton (each carrying a small non-magical tchotchke that may or may not be relevant) outfitted like themselves. They have to kill it to exit the sepulcher. So we begin with a nice light combat to get everyone used to the initiative rules. To say nothing of the existential questions which may reappear throughout the campaign. The party comes together in the “common room” and are unable to piece together anything resembling a story … yet. They rest and have a “random encounter.” More role-playing. A final encounter blocks “the door out” and guards the loot. It was overcome successfully and the session ended. Everybody gets bumped to second level by virtue of surviving the first adventure. We use email to update character sheets and divide the loot.

Second session. Party exits the tomb and finds itself in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by forest and gently rolling hills, but with open grassland to the south. The hint of mountains to the west. I had assumed the open fields would be the most likely direction of travel since the could make good speed. Instead they opted to chose a random number and head off into the woods. No worries. This decision took about half an hour. We then discussed procedure for wilderness travel, exploration and foraging. Ranger managed to find food for the day right off the bat. Bard (!) managed to keep them on course. DM managed to throw a set piece short adventure at them cleverly disguised as a random discovery. The hook played into one character's back story and at least two other player's general tendencies. In last campaign's questionnaire they said they wanted some “stranger” monsters. So I gave them a quickling. More of a nuisance than anything else. One of them got shrunk, but the spider minions were defeated. And we ended the scene with the quandary of how to deal with the now-tiny fighter. The plan was to bump them all another level upon completion of this (or whatever encounters they had) heading into Session three but that didn't happen. Had one player absent session one and another (the now short guy!) session two. So after the NEXT session I'll move all but one to level three … and he'll go to level two. They'll have earned xp's to get them about 25% of the way to 4^th (I'm using UA Three Pillar advancement.) By the end of the next session they will have had several combats, several skill checks, wilderness travel, magic use and hopefully at least one social interaction. Pretty much covers it.

Third session. No idea. But I have a week. I do a “three horizons” kinda thing. I know what 2, 6 and 20 mile hex they're in. I'll prep the surrounding hexes for each level. Already have KIND of an idea of what's there. I'll live and die by my random encounters. I'll have a few placed encounters. Nothing major. They MIGHT finally get out of the woods. And when they come to “civilization” and realize they're living in a post-apocalyptic limited technology (even for a mideavil fantasy world) fantasy world the REAL fun begins.

Gotta get my campaign arch written. It's STARTED but little more than a germ. Gotta start thinking about fronts. Wanna try to design an adventure using a couple of the templates pushed by luminaries like Sly Flourish and Guy Scandlers. And the trade / econ system. But this graph is all long term stuff so no worries.

In which I muddle a bunch of stuff together.

 Haven't posted for a while so here goes.

1.  Wilderness travel.  Party was gonna go from Point A to Point B.  Four options.  The main road, south along the lake, north along the lake or by boat across the lake and up river.  All KINDS of things lay along the main road.  A couple interesting possibilities lie along the southern route.  Across the lake and up the river lies a small village with several other opportunities.  About the only route that DIDN'T hold much in the way of interest was the route going north around the lake.  Guess which route the party took?

2.  NTME.  Have found a few errors and fixed a few things.  Have almost all the artisans roughed out to the point of usefulness.  So what happens next?  More resource detail.  Cows (beef & dairy?)  Fowl.  Game.  Fish.  Then cereals.  Oats, corn, rice, barley, wheat, hops.  Fish.  Fresh and salt.  Fruits, not, veggies and tubers?  

3.  "We're out."  Wanna fiddle with a mildly crunchy method for determining when a shop doesn't have something.  This one's minor but might add a nice touch.  ALSO wanna tinker with a system for who buys back what and for how much.  I misplayed a recent opportunity.  Two silver statuettes the published adventure said were worth 20gp.  I back engineered enough silver for them and gave them a weight.  Realized workmanship needed to figure in.  Duh.  So I back-engineered the math and got a significantly SMALLER statuette.    But who would buy?  A silver smith?  Probably.  An art collector?  Few and far between.  A blacksmith?  Why?  Need to get this codified and into the spreadsheet.

4.  Spell components and poisons and one-offs, oh my.  I COULD wait until I need them but I'm thinking it'll be sooner rather than later so I'd best get started.

5.  And finally a little geographical differentiation.  Alexis does some nice groupings with his cities and regions.  Might try pulling that together in my "spare time," especially if I find a reason t make it work in some kind of system.

In other news ... party is starting to hit 4th level ..... has a follower ... finding some small magic items ... and still hasn't touched on anything even vaguely resembling a story arc.  And that's just fine.

In which we implement the new NTME stuff

 

Peargulf is a hamlet of <250 souls. Logging with a little grain and livestock. Edge of civilization stuff. They were eventually tasked with getting rid of a giant boar in the wilderness which they did so. Residents repayed them in the only way they could (according to the economy.) Fresh baked bread and a pound cake (which one of the players had suggested a MONTH ago!) upon their successful return. As they were leaving the village the next day there were further gifts: enough salt pork and biscuits for a week, fresh whole milk, butter, a plug of tobacco, a torch, a pair of woolen socks, a bag of flour, a bag of potatoes and a bag of dried fruit. Based on local prices that's about 50 gp in value for each of them. Those using bows were given two fresh bow-strings and a dozen arrows. The Baron gifted the Ranger with his old suit of leather armor. It's early fall and with winter coming they all realized how dear these foodstuffs were to the locals. No buckets of gp. No precious gems. No jewelry. No magic weapons. They LOVED it. Because they'd earned it. AND because they realized, if not the exact value, then the TRUE value of the bounty.

On a side note …. the Great Road runs through Peargulf. North it runs into “The Great Grass Sea” - unexplored & unsettled wilderness for DAYS. South it runs to Crysrift and eventually the City-State of Hourglass. Want to kill savage beasts (but buy no “stuff”?) Go north. Want to resupply and have those “urban adventures? Head south. The PLAYERS are quite happy with game flow so far but have wanted to dip their toe into a traditional “tavern/inn/blacksmith” village. That's what Crysrift is. But it makes SENSE where it is. Fishing village on a large lake with a river, and a crossroads of a trade route. More stuff and more variety. Plenty to do but none of it advancing any of the three current “story arcs.” And that's just FINE!

In NTME news …. just “finished” the price sheet for the furrier. Happy with the results but they could be better. First, the provide the players with an idea of what a pelt will be worth if they trap something or bring one in. My Ranger might bite on this. Second, the prices aren't TOO out of whack at this point but I need to introduce specific animal types to introduce scarcity/plenty along the price scale. Bring that snow leopard pelt up and drop the muskrat price.