House Rule Input Consultation.
House Rule Input Consultation.
So recent Hydra talk of putting out a Hill Cantons game (LL/BX rules chassis with all the weird classes, variant subsystems etc) had me dusting off a scad of old unfinished subsystems many of which deal with the social fabric of Zem. Tthere's a long point of origin chart that I am finishing, a revision of the alternate character generation system to be more contemporary with campaign growth, an expansion of religious/magical college/chivalric/criminal institutions etc). Standing is a “social level” concept I will start using that is a combination of your level plus your social class of origin (or adoption).
Immediately implementable punchline:
At fifth level a PC becomes eligible for buying into local office (broadly speaking): an entry-level position within the Canton government/legal system, a contrada society junior officer, guild journeyman (and this extends to a business such as owning an inn), magical college good standing member, mercenary officer, criminal society officer, etc.
Each position has the following benefits and not-so benefits:
1. A small amount of bribe or other income on a weekly session-based basis (rolls at the beginning of a session).
2. job/class-based advantages such as training for fighter types (burn suns for x2 exp), heist tips for thieves/mountebanks, research for spell-casters etc.
3. Access to free hirelings/henchmen (though there death has some consequences).
4. Chance for a promotion on obtaining a new level or social class rank.
5. Weekly small chance of an Obligation which is either an
a: adventurable quest-like task or
b. a rote duty that forces the PC to be tied to “work” at home for the session (henchmen or alternate characters being ok to play)
All Obligations can have a random amount of money thrown at them to duck (represents delegating, bribes, hiring outside help etc). Failure to meet two Obligations will mean a loss of position or drop of rank.
Input:
How interested are you in this direction? How far should it go? Not go? Like I thought about at first doing it something more like Krul's job downtime stuff.
So recent Hydra talk of putting out a Hill Cantons game (LL/BX rules chassis with all the weird classes, variant subsystems etc) had me dusting off a scad of old unfinished subsystems many of which deal with the social fabric of Zem. Tthere's a long point of origin chart that I am finishing, a revision of the alternate character generation system to be more contemporary with campaign growth, an expansion of religious/magical college/chivalric/criminal institutions etc). Standing is a “social level” concept I will start using that is a combination of your level plus your social class of origin (or adoption).
Immediately implementable punchline:
At fifth level a PC becomes eligible for buying into local office (broadly speaking): an entry-level position within the Canton government/legal system, a contrada society junior officer, guild journeyman (and this extends to a business such as owning an inn), magical college good standing member, mercenary officer, criminal society officer, etc.
Each position has the following benefits and not-so benefits:
1. A small amount of bribe or other income on a weekly session-based basis (rolls at the beginning of a session).
2. job/class-based advantages such as training for fighter types (burn suns for x2 exp), heist tips for thieves/mountebanks, research for spell-casters etc.
3. Access to free hirelings/henchmen (though there death has some consequences).
4. Chance for a promotion on obtaining a new level or social class rank.
5. Weekly small chance of an Obligation which is either an
a: adventurable quest-like task or
b. a rote duty that forces the PC to be tied to “work” at home for the session (henchmen or alternate characters being ok to play)
All Obligations can have a random amount of money thrown at them to duck (represents delegating, bribes, hiring outside help etc). Failure to meet two Obligations will mean a loss of position or drop of rank.
Input:
How interested are you in this direction? How far should it go? Not go? Like I thought about at first doing it something more like Krul's job downtime stuff.
I really like this concept.
ReplyDeleteI like this a lot; that said I do not remember Krul's downtime offhand so I'm not able to compare the two directly.
ReplyDeleteThis is excellent. Will this product be out by Any of the Pahr holidays
ReplyDeleteAnd can it be in a box with Revoka as a starting city
ReplyDeleteGo for it.
ReplyDeleteThe being busy result could be fun (if it didn't happen too often) since you would force higher level characters to have back up lower level types that they would play from time to time. That could be refreshing and amusing.
ReplyDeleteBen L. yeah my thinking was to have a system that has choice and trade-off for characters. I was thinking that the higher one rises in social ranks the more likely one is to have the chance of an obligation and the more costly it becomes. So a player can opt to say fuck it, remain at a certain low level, bounce around or rise and increasingly start playing more like a retinue with the high level PC making rare debuts.
ReplyDeleteChris Kutalik I like that.
ReplyDeleteBecause I'm a picky asshole (and your editor), I've commented on each point.
ReplyDeletehttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1-Mmlca8Q2OJqcgU3Sv0VLMnF9RbdOZu6ocnT5Qp1r3k/edit?usp=sharing
I think it's a good concept, and would love to see a more streamlined/gameified between session activity system in Cantons. The 'missing the action' aspect an especially good idea because it:
ReplyDeleteA) encourages henchmen at mid levels - even necessitates them.
B) ties in well with what I've seen of your serious injury model. (which could use clarity and rewritten tables that are more gruesomely cantonal)
Now you could also make it an optional thing rather then forcing random miss session or pay do something like - an opportunity presents itself! Give the player the option of getting a juicy benefit every 8 sessions or so (moving up in power, learning a game secret/rumor/adventure opportunity gaining a magic item, a powerful henchman, spells or something) for having the PC sit out and send a henchman in their place.
My own tendencies in the between session area are designed to allow fluctuating treasure amounts that don't create absurd economic realities at high level but still allow advancement:
i) Set up cost and benefits for spending varying levels of money in downtime that encourage money use (I.e. living well for a week costs 50GPxlevel and gives a reroll on a single save or some other small bonus).
ii) XP increase from carousing at on GP spent = XP gained with a maximum of something like 100GP x Level. A save v. carousing (poison?) to actually gain the XP and then a roll on one or more carousing tables that provides a complication, minor penalty, minor bonus, funny event.
iii) Make faction power/office mean something - at first perhaps this is the only way (besides in game stuff like a rescue) to hire henchmen that can advance in level in exchange for PC XP. All lower level henchmen are 0 levels who flee and avoid combat, acting only as packmules and replacements.
iv) Create a list of other downtime activities and simple rules around them giving a menu of stuff characters can do between sessions like research an item/research spells/look for rumors/recover from wounds and make each of these a drain on PC wealth so it doesn't just pile up, but so that downtime activity has to be picked from a few different activities between each session. The basic stress being carouse for more XP or do something practical.