This is the post-session/carousing page for G65: No Manticores, Plenty of Scrubs
Martín Le Black
A merry din rumbles in the halls of the Company Lodge in Malinbois. In a roughly finished meeting hall, a sordid and terrible assembly is gathered. The Crossed Swords Mercenary Company is joined for a rare meeting of their full membership.
A vast map is rolled out on a table, two markers indicate Glantri City and the Isle of Pearl. A compelling case is made for the wealth, glory, and knowledge sure to be gained from a journey to the Isles of Pearl.
Martín Le Black and his confederates are planning an excursion to the Isles under night blackened sail in the coming week. Hanna, Robert, Richard and several other brave souls, chart their course, and consider a variety of ingenious plots to profit from their covert tranversal of Darokinese waters. All members and henchmen are encouraged to join. Shiver me timbers.
Martín will carouse a meeting with the Agreus and the contacts he has suggested. Le Black will will look to negotiate passage to and from the Isle of Pearl for all participating members and henchmen. Successes could include:
* A captain and ship willing to brave the contested waters, and take the company to the Isles of Pearl.
* The ship is well provisioned and staffed with hearty sailors and marines
* The captain is trustworthy.
* The captain will offer to accept some service from the company to lessen or eliminate the cost of the voyage.
Hop-Frog Berbatov
The pudgy dwarf is happy to serve as majordomo to the unfinished Malinbois lodge while the main party is away. This never changes. Yet he frets anxiously as preparations are made. He has spent some time in Glantri City, though not enough to develop deep contacts. Still, he would like to see what he can find out about the political and military situation along the Darokin border, above it, and beyond. He has spent time as field nurse, and also worked inside a smaller house of nobility, and so is familiar with mess halls and the petty squabbles and jealousies of minor houses. He will carefully omit that it was on the Darokin side that he served for some months, nor explicitly that it was the venal, mostly-disappateded House of Cannaloj where he served as bodyguard and nanny.
Hop-Frog has an Intelligence bonus of +1 but a Charisma penalty of -1. Ideal picks are:
* He learns where troops have been lately on both sides, and perhaps names of leaders.
* He intuits a key behavior or route to getting through unmolested.
* He raises no suspicions about his former associations.
* He learns the identity of a neutral or friendly figure in the region who can help.
Note: he has 650gp and so may go into debt.
Hanna Darowkin, 1st Carouse
Hanna has one carouse left from last week (post-Storm Tower) and one this week (post-De Sang's Delve).
With arm strapped to her side to isolate her broken shoulder and limping around for the painful broken ribs, at first Hanna enjoys the attention from the hausfraus and shopkeepers she has befriended near the Malinbois lodge, but soon grows bored with her restrictions of movement.
She takes copies of whatever extra notes she can grab about the fashioning of flesh golems, along with the two massive hands she cut from the fallen golem corpse, and find out who of our contacts in Glantri City might be able to use these magics to knit her bones faster. This includes Alzenia Hazart, Walid Ophuls, Tresimon, Peugeot, and possibly Josephine.
Hanna has a high Charisma, average Intelligence, and, demonstrably, low Wisdom. Successes might include:
* The contact succeeds in using the magics to blend and tie and heal the bones faster.
* The magic does not carry any weird side effects.
* The magic has lasting benefits.
* Shadowy figures do not catch wind of the business and flesh golemly powers afoot.
Hanna Darowkin, 2nd Carouse
Taking for granted that the last carouse hasn't killed her, Hanna will then carouse (for the second week) looking for more information on Ululaya, the Scarlet Moon, and the temple they are seeking. Is the 'scarlet' moon related to a regionally visible heavenly aspect? Are there other names of Ululaya to look for? Are there races of beings associated with her? Are there gifts considered proper to her bring priest(ess)es of the sect? Is there an area in specific that we are looking for, related to the Isle of Pearls?
Options for success include:
* Hanna learns more specifics about the scarlet moon itself, races and clerics, and other aspects of Ululaya.
* Hanna learns more geographic specifics about the temple and what to look for.
* Hanna learns what kinds of gifts to bring and/or preparations to make, best to approach the cult, both for Martin and herself.
* This information is straightforward and unmistakeable.
Ja'
His mind at ease now that his studies have been resumed, Ja' turns his attention to the practical and decides it's high time to investigate the local clergy and learn a bit about local religion/introduce himself on friendly terms. The very first step of this is, of course, to seek out the local government and make sure he is fully welcome here. Ja' will seek out the local governmental body and attempt to fill out any requisite paperwork needed to act as a fully legal religious figure, including any licenses needed to practice clerical magic. After that he will visit all the major local temples he can find and formally introduce himself.
Ja' has a +1 Cha modifier, but only has 500 gold. He may go into debt if a 6 is rolled. Also, I was completely wrong before when I thought he hit level 2 the other night, since for some reason I can not explain I decided that clerics hit level 2 at 1250xp and not 1500.
Options for success include:
* Ja' becomes fully licensed to practice clerical magic in the surrounding area.
* Ja' will not be forced to carry out any additional tasks/pay any additional prices for the local government to approve his magic license.
* Ja' does not in any way offend the local government or many any political enemies.
* Ja' makes a friendly local religious contact.
* Ja' does not make any local religious enemies.
Rusty Buckles (II)
The li'l cleric of chaos will caper to the nearest provincial burg (maybe Malinbois?) and blow whatever gold he can on whatever debauchery is available, gamboling about singing ditties about how his petty defenses of the new Goblin Boss's position brought about his overlord's doom.
Rusty rolled a 2, earning 200xp and spending 200gp. His save was a 20 (radical success!)- one of his doggerel songs has caught on as an anthem of bar-room patriotism, wending its way all the way back to Glantri. People may not know who (or what) Rusty Buckles is, but his name is invoked like Yankee Doodle Dandy in the ale-halls of the great City.
The old rule for reducing the XP modifier in order to get a better result no longer applies, as it doesn't make sense with the new rules. (What, you thought you could reduce it six times to get a +6 on a 2d6 roll?)
If you're interested in keeping a version of this rule under the new system, please start a discussion either here or at the table. I'm open to debate!
The current system allows for a +1/+2/+ 3 based on high stats (seems like this is almost always int/cha, based on the way we are using the system).
It would seem reasonably that one could add another +1/+2 based on reducing benefit:
I'm less vested in this system, so I don't have a strong opinion as to how it works. Unless I'm mistaken, some form of this still exists in the whitebox carousing system - no?
I think the moves we've documented so far should all be Charisma or Wisdom, with Int coming to bear on spell research.
Regarding the stat modifiers: I just reproduced the standard table on the mechanics page, but one of the earlier posts in Quen and Tavis's conversation suggested that the modifier should never be negative. When I find that post, I'll cite it and correct the mechanics page.
Edit: I think that
suggests too low a bonus, especially for a 100% reduction. Reducing the xp by 100% means that, basically, you're not carousing, and just using the layout of carousing to frame an activity. It should be extremely unlikely that you fail in your activity if there's no xp in play.
In the White Sandbox (and Apocalypse World), the possible modifiers from stats are +1 or +2, although in the latter you can get an additional +1 if someone helps you.
Re: reducing multipliers, this was a hangover from the previous system; I agree that in many cases if you're looking to do something that isn't earning XP, then carousing isn't the way to handle it.
Well, keep in mind that you still spend the equivalent gold, you just don't get the xp benefit. I kind of like the extremity of a 50%/100% system, as it's a dramatic push, and implies a big sacrifice for a measly +1. The remove 50/100/150 system is slightly more graded.
I agree that the scenarios posited are extreme - but I was hoping a sensible minded fellow such as yourself would point that out. That said, a +1/+2 is a pretty significant swing when you're talking about 2d12. Indeed a +2 gives you a 80% chance for at least partial success (see the nifty Universal Probability Table for proof/fact checking!). When you start stacking with other bonuses- the impact can be great.
In truth, the numbers somewhat arbitrary. A more generous offer might be…
A % system implies that effectiveness is relative to the market it's happening in. (also, the math is more annoying)
A hard cost system implies that bribery is more effective in more civilized areas - if you can get more coin, you can have a better effect
(While I know it's not always traditional ribery", this seems like an appropriate terminology, even when dealing with spell research, etc.)
Carousing was originally intended as a tool to convert gold into experience while maintaining sword-and-sorcery verisimilitude, spending the money on sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. It has slowly drifted into a mechanism to accomplish other in-game tasks. Part of my problem with the old system was that it was being used to guarantee success at these in-game tasks. I'm not going to all the effort of switching to the new system in order to facilitate the same effect.
Any set of modifiers which allows a character with a high stat to effectively guarantee their success at any in-game task they choose is a non-starter. Please take this into account when making suggestions.
I'm thinking it might be best to rule that one doesn't automatically gain experience in this system; rather, "gain experience" is one of the picks you can opt for on a success. Only pure carousing with no other in-game benefits will allow you to take all picks on a complete success. For carousing aimed to achieve a goal, there will be more picks available than you can take with a complete success, so either you get everything you want except the XP, or you get the XP but have to give up one of your other picks.
Agreed; I increasingly use these kinds of carousing moves to adjucate stuff in play. I think it might be best to try to keep the XP-for-GP aspect separate from the "how well does your effort succeed". When the move is involving bribery, it could be like:
When you try to buy your way into the imperial harem, purchase 1,000 gp worth of gifts and roll 2d6+Cha. Possible results are:
- you only wind up giving away 500 gp worth of gifts
- you receive a gift in return with a value of 250 gp
- you feel that you got full value for the gifts you gave
where on a full success you effectively only spend 250 gp if you re-sell your gift, and on a partial success you can decide how much you spend vs. how much effect you have (kind of like if you had decided to buy down a modifier beforehand."
A good thing to do when writing moves is to include this "When you…" preface; it helps you clarify what the move does and when it's used.
I think the suggestion that "gain XP" is part of moves that fit the purely-carousing, no-other-benefit original template has merit.
I often say that for things like building a castle, you can either just spend the money and get it done - earning no XP for the expenditure - or you can do it as carousing, in which case there's an element of risk to the outcome. Do y'all think it's worth preserving this duality, or should everything be grist for carousing-style complications?
The current system does allow players to get pretty close to guaranteed (a +2 from stats gives an 80% chance at partial success). Part of my goal was to allow chars with lower int/cha to stay in the running.
Perhaps a better solution is to limit the maximum potential bonus to +1 or +2 , this could be acheived a few ways:
If the goal is to fully eliminate any opportunities for players to increase their chances of success - then I will end this tack, as that is exactly what I'm seeking to do here. I didn't realize that you were specifically looking to eliminate this practice!
EDIT: Ninja DM'd. I'm going to leave this post here anyway as a warning to future generations.