Hey Walter! Awesome to have you back man! You still in SoCal?

We moved to El Paso two years ago, though we do make it back to SoCal a few weeks a year.

The move had a devastating effect on my involvement in gaming -- loss of the existing group, a poor local gaming scene, shit detail at a new job (to be fair, projects I requested) -- which is why I haven't been around. Of course, continued pursuit of that elusive M.P.A. and having two children during that period didn't help.

Now that I'm coming back to gaming, where else would I turn but Clan Crafty?

Walter

This doesn't appreciably impact play but I was curious:

* The TL 18 & 19 columns in the Damage Save subtable in Table 7.11: NPC Statistics have the same values. This is the only place in all the NPC Statistics subtables in which increasing TL does not result in changed values. Was this intentional?

* I was wrong about the uniqueness mentioned above. The Competence subtable does not change between TL 10 & 11. The question remains, though: was this intentional?

* Less seriously, how much of the data in those tables was calculated versus pulled out of a dark place?

Walter

[EDIT: Changed subject.]
[EDIT: Added second bullet.]

Nice to see around here Walter ...

Thanks, it's good to be back. I still work too many hours, and we just had our second child, but I've decided Without Gaming There Is No Life. I've got a small group waiting on Fantasycraft to drop, at which time I'll run them through a Ptolus campaign (700 pages of urban yummy).

We've moved beyond mere threadjacking, and are now visciously knifing it in a darkened alley.

Walter

That's not necessarily a safe assumption. Anyway, the point was to provide an additional element to some future errata document.

I don't think you'll find it. I've played and I believe what we play is a old playtest from someone trying to convert a board game to a RPG like game.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/2988 has the game listed (I'm assuming it's the same game), therefore It Must Be Real. Of course, that's not the same as being able to lay your hands on a copy.

Walter

I'm a particular fan of the news ticker near the bottom of the picture. Headlines such as:
"Shooting at Cleveland School for the Blind Causes $200 in Damage, No Injuries"
and:

(click to show/hide)

"An Insatiable Desire For Cock: Nature or Nurture?"

OotS:Classic Fantasy indicates the "Light Sensitivity" NPC Quality is worth -2XP.
Spellbound:Channeler indicates the "Light-Sensitive" NPC Quality is worth -1XP.

Both qualities appear otherwise identical. Which XP value is correct?

Walter

I can see "requesting" a donation from the wealthy and the wreckless...

Isn't that pretty much the definition of adventurer?

I used to grit my teeth thinking about D&D economics. One of the mental shifts that helped me to get past some of the silliness was to realize that, as an adventurer, my character is not subject to the same treatment as a local might receive. So, in this example, locals get healed for free but I (as a comparatively wealthy stranger) get the "opportunity" to help fund the church.

Walter

It calls to my mind the awakened psionicist Riding Dog with halfling Paladin henchman via the Leadership feat.  It took until about session three of the campaign for us to realize that the character was the dog, and not the halfling. 

 

I'd like to see some notes about economics in a fantasy world: taxes, the effect of discovering an ancient tresaure in the monetary system, loans, effects of seignoraging,...

I'd like to see as well how magic affect the law.

I'm all for products including such rarely discussed issues, but I'm not sure Crafty will have the space to do such a discussion the justice it so richly deserves. I recommend checking out "Magical Medieval Society - Western Europe" for this type of information. The product gives a decent overview and, while written in a rather dry manner, should be accessible to the intelligent crew that tends to haunt these boards.

For some reason I thought I'd read a caveat that characters are always the least human element of their options - though can't find it now - so maybe I mentally added it while reading.

I suspect you're thinking of the following text from page 4:
"When two different species interact outside of humans... the largest penalty from either of the species' natures is applied..."

The Orc Blood feat is easily and obviously house-ruled -- my choice would be that it drives the character's nature one step further from human, but no further than semi-human -- but I was amused by the idea that recessive genes were playing a role.

Walter

Dwarves are semi-human, Orcs are semi-human, and the Orc Blood feat changes nature to near-human. So, a Dwarf with Orc Blood is actually closer to human than either a straight Dwarf or straigth Orc. Recessive genes?

Walter

I have a reasonable level of Excel-fu. I'd appreciate seeing your spreadsheet if you were interested in sending it along.

Walter

Poking at some of the other threads on this board, it looks like part of the Birthright rule set deals with economic holdings. Am I correct in my interpretation?

Walter

I dug through some of my old files. Here's what I have found so far:

* City 2.26 (c1998, Hartley Patterson) - Outputs very basic city information given certain inputs. Not really what I'm looking for, but available here: http://www.daisy.freeserve.co.uk/city.htm.
* D&D Economic System Simulator (c2001, Matt Warren) - This is the spreadsheet I remembered. It takes into account a simplified supply/demand factor for commodities (including certain intangibles), and a difficulty factor in bringing specific goods/services to market, to produce an adjusted price for each item. Even better, because it's in Excel it is fully customizable (e.g. which commodities play into the price of each item; changing what commodities are tracked; adding new items) so can be customized to any cash-and-carry system. It doesn't look like this file is still available (though I do have a copy).
* A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe (c2003?, Expeditious Retreat Press) - Has about 9 pages whose simulation appears to focus on availability. Modifies DC of availability check by base (i.e. book) price of item and on the size of the community in which the purchase is attempted. Modifies die roll based on modification of offered price (e.g. a character who offers more than book has a better chance of finding the item). No discussion is made of using a skill check for this roll, but that is an obvious modification (Streetwise/Haggle, anyone?). This would be an easy mod to the Economic System Simulator, above.

I quite by accident ran across another Expeditious Retreat product "A Magical Society: Silk Road." To quote their sales pitch, this product "details great overland trade routes, how they work, and how to create them in your game." Anyone have this product and want to discuss it a bit?

I'm always interested in more information, so if you've got something new (or at least new to me) let me know.

Walter