tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6446461178381374626.post7167580967397997434..comments2024-03-27T23:28:19.341-07:00Comments on Telecanter's Receding Rules: First Steps in the SandboxTelecanterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07238356788092725244noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6446461178381374626.post-41085662175402867382013-07-05T10:11:42.550-07:002013-07-05T10:11:42.550-07:00Sorry for the delay in response.
@Confanity: I th...Sorry for the delay in response.<br /><br />@Confanity: I think subtle evidence of magic could be a great blogpost /chart. I told my players magic items would feel warm in moonlight, but you could have other clues too. Detect magic as a spell just seems kind of boring to me. Maybe I haven't experienced enough high-level play, but utility spells that let you do things like shrink yourself or water-walk are much more interesting to me as a player and DM.<br /><br />@1d30: I think that's a pretty good and simple mechanic. The complicating circumstance is that these players have all spent a lot of time in my city Nidus, where you have to roll to even find a shop. They were really happy to finally be able to just look at a list of stuff. But maybe I could combine the two: a certain list of items but only x number available per session. (I like sessions as a unit because I have no intention to track actual days and months in game, I'm not that organized. The season in-game is the season in the real world.)<br /><br />Thanks for your great comments.Telecanterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07238356788092725244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6446461178381374626.post-39254010179483321682013-07-03T15:00:46.866-07:002013-07-03T15:00:46.866-07:00On stocking:
How about leaving the stock unknown...On stocking: <br /><br />How about leaving the stock unknown until someone asks for something? The shop can have up to X items in stock, if a player wants to buy wineskins, there is a 4 in 6 chance there's a wineskin. <br /><br />Example: <br /><br />Shop has 10 stock. Players tumble in and start shopping. Player A asks for a wineskin, rolls 3 on d6, gets one. Shop has 9 stock. Player B asks for a rope, rolls 5 on d6, there is no rope. Shop still has 9 stock. Player C wants a wineskin too, and there can be one because nobody rolled a failure. Player C rolls 1 on d6 so there's a wineskin for him to buy. Shop has 8 stock. <br /><br />You can deny availability or reduce the chance for items that probably wouldn't be there. Maybe chainmail has only 2 in 6, plate 1 in 6, and there's no chance for a grandfather clock or greek fire oil. <br /><br />A bigger town might have a higher chance, or just multiple shops, or you could at some point just say the player found it somewhere and tick off a stock on an appropriate shop. So maybe this system is best for frontier villages and trading posts, or for rare items where the town only has one shop. <br /><br />Stock rejuvenates whenever you feel appropriate - I'd say monthly. <br /><br />Downsides: sometimes a player wants to browse and asks you what's in stock - such as your dog trainer or an alchemist. Or maybe he doesn't know what to ask for, such as an M-U trainer offering a new spell upon levelup. 1d30http://1d30.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6446461178381374626.post-90615691499310212042013-07-03T08:23:57.904-07:002013-07-03T08:23:57.904-07:00About #1 - There are two approaches you can take h...About #1 - There are two approaches you can take here, I think. The first is to just tell your players that if they want to find and use magic items, they have to use or arrange for Detect Magic or something similar. The other is to give clues, as you said. Instead of something so gauche as a glow (for most things, that is), perhaps have more subtle clues -- warm even in cool weather; made of odd or fancy materials; marked with runes or sigils or ideographs; etc.Confanityhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10361443460498670841noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6446461178381374626.post-86073453137768234572013-06-28T16:43:12.018-07:002013-06-28T16:43:12.018-07:00I'm an idiot, of course multiples for a silver...I'm an idiot, of course multiples for a silver. I guess I just need to sit down and make a newer equipment list but i don't find it interesting. Thanks for your patient comment.Telecanterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07238356788092725244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6446461178381374626.post-80924665222986953062013-06-28T13:42:29.576-07:002013-06-28T13:42:29.576-07:00Re: CP costs: yeah, free within reason. As a playe...Re: CP costs: yeah, free within reason. As a player, I can't be bothered with doing that math anyways and just round up to whatever the main coinage is (there's enough money floating around in most D&D games that it's just a rounding error in any case). In <i>Men & Magic</i>, there are no prices below one GP, actually, though some cheaper items come in multiples (6 torches is 1 GP, for example).<br /><br />When I referee, the constraint on these items is more about encumbrance than price, and I think our encumbrance systems are similar (both list based), so I suspect the same is true for you.Necropraxishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12716340801054739658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6446461178381374626.post-983491463182243282013-06-28T13:27:11.827-07:002013-06-28T13:27:11.827-07:00Thanks for the comments, everybody.
@Hedgehobbit:...Thanks for the comments, everybody.<br /><br />@Hedgehobbit: I tend to be a little unorganized and the opposite of meticulous. I do have an equipment list I made years back, but I don't even remember if I translated it to silver or not, I'll have to compare it to other lists. I'm just not sure the benefit for the silver standard is worth all the extra work. <br /><br />@Peter: Are you kidding me, I'm happy to hear your comment for the same reason! I tend to procrastinate when I fear something, but I've been making some stuff today that could be really cool as tools down the road. Hopefully make this easier for you and me both.<br /><br />@Rorschachhamster: That's pretty cool. It would be neat if there was a simple program that you could enter your own items/prices/availability into and then randomly generate. I guess that's what a web page fronting a Mysql database does, but it's odd that there isn't an app for that.<br /><br />@Brendan: I love old runes and writing and if I had a better handle on the fundamentals here I might do some actual inscription handouts. How about as a compromise between ease and mystery, magic items feel warm to the touch under moonlight?<br /><br />As for SP, yeah, what about the items that cost cp, are they free now? Just too much math for me to do on the fly. If I'm going to stick with it I need to get prepared better.<br /><br />@Pearce: Ooh, those rules look very promising, I love variable charts that differ with the die you use. I'll copy those and look at them closely. Thanks.<br /><br />Telecanterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07238356788092725244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6446461178381374626.post-29779541806578242412013-06-28T03:28:27.999-07:002013-06-28T03:28:27.999-07:00Magic Items: Magic-Users (by default) and everyone...Magic Items: Magic-Users (by default) and everyone else (with training) can spend am hour with an alchemy kit, burn about 30 gold/item in alchemical reactions and test if an item is magic.<br /><br />Shopping: The below link has what I do for merchants and other stuff. It's likely more nuanced than what you need or want but ought to be easy to revise.<br /><br />http://gameswithothers.blogspot.com/2013/05/scarcity-population-maps-shopping-trips.html<br /><br />I have hand-written encounter tables for what happens on roads the further you get from civilization. Maybe I'll put them up somewhere if I have the time to clean them up and re-write them.Cryptidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14959954411668606476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6446461178381374626.post-80957696531787378292013-06-27T15:27:03.475-07:002013-06-27T15:27:03.475-07:00I don't understand the silver standard issue. ...I don't understand the silver standard issue. Why not just find/replace GP with SP? So a sword that used to cost 15 GP in standard D&D would just be 15 SP.<br /><br />Alternatively, LotFP has already done the hard work of making more sophisticated changes to the equipment lists, is based on silver pieces, has both rural and urban prices, and is available for free:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/115059/LotFP-Rules-%26-Magic-Free-Version" rel="nofollow">http://www.rpgnow.com/product/115059/LotFP-Rules-%26-Magic-Free-Version</a><br /><br />Probably an easy drop-in.Necropraxishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12716340801054739658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6446461178381374626.post-42280453634438085032013-06-27T15:20:36.250-07:002013-06-27T15:20:36.250-07:00My favorite method for magic items is to include r...My favorite method for magic items is to include runes on them that have the magic item's name, purpose, method of use, creator, and so forth. They require read magic to interpret, meaning that players probably won't be able to identify them until the following session (though my players have learned that having a read magic or two prepared can be quite useful in my games).<br /><br />The runes make them obviously magical in a diegetic way that adds to the atmosphere.Necropraxishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12716340801054739658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6446461178381374626.post-49027885732811027432013-06-27T14:12:07.551-07:002013-06-27T14:12:07.551-07:00For random merchants:
http://www.rpginspiration.co...For random merchants:<br />http://www.rpginspiration.com/tables/srd35bazaargenerator1.ipt<br />Uses Gold standard, but then you could just pretend it was silver. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6446461178381374626.post-51863988820157180682013-06-27T13:30:41.812-07:002013-06-27T13:30:41.812-07:00Don't take this the wrong way, but it's go...Don't take this the wrong way, but it's good to see you struggle with this. I've been spending way too many cycles on how I should run my sandbox and I came up against similar problems. Just helps to know that I am not alone! :-)<br /><br />As far the "players are going somewhere I don't want them to go" my plan is to simply *require* that they give me a plan for where to go ahead of time and then stick to it. Yes, that may be meta-gaming, but my time has to be spent on things they are actually going to experience. Good luck, and I hope you'll post more updates!Peter Fröhlichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03688076015831464616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6446461178381374626.post-62767787106755312502013-06-27T12:26:57.031-07:002013-06-27T12:26:57.031-07:00I'm curious of your problem with #2, the silve...I'm curious of your problem with #2, the silver standard. Are you using normal D&D equipment lists or did you create one yourself? Since I make my own equipment lists anyway, I also add a %chance to them to reflect availability. I also have separate equipment lists for villages, town and cities. Pendragon has multiple equipment lists and Bushido classifies goods and has variable prices/availability based on where you try and find them. Hedgehobbithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17606283586332210195noreply@blogger.com