Saturday, February 21, 2009

Cleaning Up Details

Well, that’s four characters. I’ve got just a few general notes.

Delfig, you’ve got the Bard character posted. For both Delfig and Anshelm, the thief is pretty much the way it is in the Player’s Handbook. Work out your thieving abilities if you will.

Josef, I think I might have forgotten to mention that you have three first level spells to start, on account of your wisdom adding two to the one you always get.

As regards proficiencies: Delfig has 2, Anshelm 2, Josef 2, and Tiberius 4.

Delfig’s Bard/Thief can take a club, dagger, dart, sling, sword, crossbow, javelin, sling, scimitar, spear, staff or sword.

Anshelm is limited to club, dagger, dart, sling, sword or crossbow.

Josef is limited to the usual non-stabbing or cutting weapons.

Tiberius can take any weapon.

Tiberius and Josef are allowed a shield if they wish, and any kind of armor or helmet. The thieves are both restricted to leather armor at best.

The benefit of a helmet is as follows. On a natural 20, damage is doubled. If on the second dice, a 19 or 20 is rolled, the damage is triple. After, every 19 or 20 increases the damage to quadruple, quintuple and so on. A worn helmet means the damage is trebled or more only on a roll of 20.

Weapons are dropped on a 1. A roll is made to see if they break. An ordinary weapon will break 1 in 6. A hard forged weapon (triple the price of an ordinary weapon) will break on a 1 in 8. A welded weapon (9 times the price) will break on a 1 in 10. A blessed weapon (27 times the price) will break on a 1 in 12. And a master crafted weapon (432 times the price) will break on a 1 in 20.

This is a big equipment list, and isn’t arranged alphabetically. A town wouldn’t be. So you’re going to have fun trying to find what you want. The prices are set for Dachau, so if things seem very expensive, it is because they are made a long way away, and not in Bavaria and sometimes not even in Europe.

Take your time buying. Keep in mind that a belt will hold 15 lbs., and that you are limited to 3 belts. You’re limited to two 50+ lb. weapons per belt. A back pack will carry 40 lbs. Coins must be in some kind of container. Equipment stuffed into a backpack can take up to five combat rounds to five. A pound is 16 ounces for calculation.

Anshelm is limited to 170 lbs., Delfig to 150, Tiberius and Josef to 185.

That should be the complete list.










34 comments:

  1. A bard has spell availability at first level as well. I didn't see you mention that, so I thought I would bring it up.

    I'll update my CRS as well, but for my proficiencies, I'll take crossbow and sword.

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  2. All of the Bard character is on this blog on another post, including the number of spells you're entitled to. Your wisdom also gives you a bonus of two spells to start.

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  3. Ah, I did mention is several posts back.

    12 copper pieces = 1 silver piece
    16 silver pieces = 1 gold piece
    192 copper pieces = 1 gold piece

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  4. Let me know if there's anything that can't be read.

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  5. It has been a while for me & AD&D. Proficiencies. These apply only to weapons, yes? Do they provide bonuses? Are penalties applied when using other weapons? I forget how these work...

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  6. Proficiences are the weapons you do not receive penalties when using. The cleric is -3 to hit when using a weapon in which he or she is not proficient.

    And while I'm on it, a few definitions.

    healing salve. heals 1-4 hit points of damage when applied to the skin.

    grip paste. A sticky paste which must be applied to a weapon handle before combat. Allows a save against petrification when a weapon is dropped; if save is made, the weapon sticks in the hand. The effective duration is about 40 rounds.

    nature's draught. Confuses the scent of creatures so that tracking by animals is foiled.

    quicksilver essence. For three rounds, creates the effect that a creature's weapon is made of silver.

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  7. i've found items with a price of 0. Does this mean they are not available?

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  8. not to be pesky...but...

    1. there may be a problem with the cobbler! He seems to be selling some identical horsehide boots at radically different prices

    2. there are also 2 identical entries for citrus fruit that have different prices

    3. the 20 lb sack of charcoal weighs 1 lb

    4. what are the dimensions of the lead sling bullets - or more to my interest, how many can I carry in a5' deep belt pouch?

    5. how does one "sheathe" a footman's mace (a pretty big weapon I think)? With a thong?

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  9. So you're OK with me picking out the spells that I have available? Or do I just assume that I have all 1st level in my "notes".

    Hm. It would appear that given my lack of funds, I'm not buying a viol anytime soon. *chuckle* May I include knowledge with another instrument that I can afford?

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  10. Addendum, any chance ye old scribner would barter for some ink?

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  11. Josef,

    There are always programming problems with the damn thing. Thank you for some trouble shooting. Anything with a price of 0 is 1 c.p. If there are duplicates, use the lower price. Consider a lead sling bullet to be 1 oz. The 20 lb. sack of coal is 20 lb. You sheathe a footman’s mace with a thong, hanging from your belt.

    Delfig,

    You can't switch and match around spells from day to day. You take three spells and those are always your three spells, every day. This goes for every spellcaster.

    What do you want to barter?

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  12. Cool, thanks for the info. I've updated my CRS for equipment. In lieu of a viol, I've purchased a lyre.

    I'll pay coin for a small vial of ink, or if he needs a lovely poem or something musical written for someone, I'll sketch one up from a song or two I've heard in Munich.

    Spells: Command, Friends, Perception

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  13. Delfig,

    You may presume ability with every musical instrument. My first wife was a music theory graduate. She could play everything.

    I may have misunderstood. Only mages are limited in what spells from the list can be chosen.

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  14. I may have misunderstood. Only mages are limited in what spells from the list can be chosen.

    So I have access to all spells and can choose a new set of 3 on a daily basis?

    I'm good either way, as the magic I'm seeing as almost an innate thing for Delfig to use, although he knows how to expand it.

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  15. Two quick questions:

    1. Price of tobacco? Anshelm would probably be stocked up.

    2. Is a thief allowed a skullcap, and is that sufficient to protect from triple damage as described?

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  16. One more question: rope is not available?

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  17. Equipment is posted to my blog. I think I got everything....

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  18. Delfig,

    You do have access to all spells. No, you can’t rechoose daily. You choose once only.

    Anshelm,

    Tobacco = snuff.

    The thief is not allowed a skullcap.

    There’s rope. You’re not looking in the right place.

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  19. Then my spell choices stand as is for first level. Gaining second and up is dependent on... finding spells? Getting tutors? Stealing someone else's books?

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  20. d'oh...didn't see the Weaver table.

    Not doing well on my promise to be less of an idjit... :)

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  21. Delfig,

    Gaining second is dependent on getting enough experience. I don't worry about tutors. You're a bard so you have no "books." Perceive it like practicing an instrument. You try and you try to play freebird. And then one day, you DO.

    Anshelm,

    Grin. Seriously, no worries. If I seem crisp and short, its only that I'm saving time. This is going fine.

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  22. Nah, I don't think you're being too short. Just poking fun at myself. :)

    I'll fix up my character record tonight.

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  23. Okay, think it's finally done properly.

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  24. Non player, GM-type question.

    I'm loving the various lists for the various types of merchants. Did you crank this out yourself or crib it from an existing list? Would you be willing to share the source spreadsheet or list? This is the kind of stuff that I love to have available when I want to make things more interesting. I really have wanted to ditch the whole "Ye Olde Walmartte" concept, but sometimes the most obvious things need to hit me with a baseball bat (or pica 4 print on some of those jpgs...)

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  25. This has been entirely built by me, using the internet to occasionally research medieval objects and their weights. It can be very hard to find an accurate weight for items, and I am constantly frustrated by the discontinuities.

    All the allocation of the items was by me.

    The spreadsheet includes a complicated system by which I can create additional items at will. All I need is the raw material from which the object is made, its style of craftmanship (artwork as opposed to handicraft), its approximate difficulty to create (which I estimate) and its weight. These are usually things I can make an ad hoc judgment on.

    So, since the spreadsheet is a mass of excel programming, this makes it difficult to give out. As well, I am somewhat loathe of publishing the format...since it is one thing which someone might actually pay me money for having created. The tables shown represent the final data.

    Final point. If you were to walk 40 miles down the road to Munich, the costs for all the items would be marginally different.

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  26. Wow, that's really hellaciously cool and the programming geek in me appreciates the work as well as the obsessive geek in me appreciates the detailed work.

    Excel is a royal pain in the ass to work with when you have business users and enterprise data and an unmanaged installation process. Anyway...

    You've definitely inspired me to go back to my lists of equipment in my two campaigns and divide them up by "merchant" although I'm not going to be nearly as sophisticated. It definitely makes for an interesting experience to present users with something other than Ye Olde Walmartte.

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  27. I'm almost done with my character. I just need to buy a few more things and check over it a few times. I'll definitely be done by tonight.

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  28. This has been entirely built by me, using the internet to occasionally research medieval objects and their weights. It can be very hard to find an accurate weight for items, and I am constantly frustrated by the discontinuities.

    With regard to weapon weights, have you reviewed the essays here and here? They suggest that swords at least may have been significantly lighter than on your list.

    Or is weight on your list intended to convey wieldiness as well?

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  29. Max,

    That’s an old bugbear. Many of the weapon weights listed above are from museum sites. Not that I want to spend fifty hours digging up those websites again, I didn’t bother to keep notes, since creating the table and not writing my master’s thesis was my agenda.

    I will admit that a number of the weapons were found on sites that sold weapons to collectors. But I would tend to think that those weapons were certainly “lighter” than their medieval equivalents, primarily because of our steel is lighter and stronger than that used in the Middle Ages.

    In 1650, when my world is supposed to occur, heavy weapons like those on the list were already gone, replaced by pikes and sabres used in conjunction with flintlock rifles. I still use the old weapons because I did not wish to have pistols and rifles in my world. You might have an argument that 17th weapons could be lighter. But most fighting men in earlier centuries were not educated (as 20th century enthusiasts are), had a far less comprehensive understanding of biology and where to hit with a sword, and by all accounts used heavy, heavy swords as clubs, not as weapons of finesse.

    I know you clearly like your source. But I think you might try poking around inside a university library.

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  30. Last night, I was using the Domesday Book Town Generator. The output of the generator gives me, among a lot of things, the number and type of merchants in this locale. It hit me that the whole concept of multiple merchants is overlooked, in most games that I play as well as my own. I use a mash of the 1E equipment list, the microlite20 equipment list and a mishmash of things that I've plugged into a spreadsheet for awhile now, but I've always had mainly the Ye Olde Walmartte. I want to change that.

    I wanted to put something like the OGL available equipment lists up on the web, divided by merchant, because I haven't seen anything like that. I also want to give credit where it's due because I never made the connection until I saw your lists. Would an attribution be good enough or a direct link, if I put my lists up on my blog or in a PDF?

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  31. The Medieval Demographics site is great; I use it all the time to get an idea of what's in a new town my players stumble into.

    I have a feeling Alexis has his own methods, however. :)

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  32. @Ken - Yea, so do I. If I'm reading behind the lines correctly, he's tied in population, availability of raw materials, cost of raw materials, what composes each item, likelihood/rarity of item, probably transportation costs and creation/artisan costs. That's just freaking insane/awesome beyond words.

    All I did was go to here:
    http://www.svincent.com/MagicJar/Economics/MedievalOccupations.html

    ... and the Medieval Demographics Made Easy site and start slicing/dicing the OGL available equipment lists into who would sell/make it. It's taken me most the morning, I can't imagine how many manhours went into his system.

    If I sound awestruck, I am.

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  33. Me, too! The whole of what Alexis is shared from his campaign blows me away, from mapping, to economics, to game mechanics, etc.

    And that's not me trying to score brownie points with our DM. :)

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