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[Let's Read] The Nightmares Underneath: 2nd Edition
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8072173" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/YvV775j.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>Chapter 4: Carousing in the Kingdom of Dreams</strong></p><p></p><p>Dungeon-delving is but the midway point of the adventure, for its beginning and end often take place in a community or other place of normalcy. To better give the PCs something to fight for beyond a settlement to sell their incursion-gotten gain, The Nightmares Underneath has a detailed set of various rules in providing benefits and hindrances for interacting with and investing in communities.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Between Adventures & Buying and Selling</strong></p><p></p><p>Downtime between dungeon delves mandates the spending of cyphers for living expenses. If the PCs are planning on going right back into an incursion or ruin this is unneeded, but applies when one or more weeks of time pass between expeditions. Generally speaking it’s good to be at a higher standard of living: being homeless or on the streets prevents recovery of Wounds, lost attribute points, and start with less Disposition, and living poorly has results likely to cause you to lose all of your money. Living well is the “middle road” which can grant you a bonus contact on a Charisma save, and living like the rich can also give you contacts more easily as well as potentially running into some kind of trouble (scandal increases Resentment, gain an enemy, etc). There’s also rules for living as a servant for a wealthy client, which has the advantage of living well for free but you have to balance your work/adventuring life. Staying or being committed to an asylum has varying standards of living, but first-class institutions let you ignore the negative effects of a nightmare curse* for the next adventure.</p><p></p><p>*a corruptive mental influence gained from misfortune in a nightmare incursion.</p><p></p><p>One thing I forgot to mention is that the character generation rules explain that PCs are by nature some variety of social outsider even if high-class. The war against the nightmare incursions dominates their life, and there must be one in-built reason why they cannot work a normal job and one reason why they continue the fight. As such, there’s not really rules for plying a trade between adventures beyond GM discretion such as offering to use magic for a nobleman to fund an expedition.</p><p></p><p>When it comes to buying and selling goods, it really depends upon community size. Villages and towns have less wares and there’s a “purchasing limit” in comparison to cities. Additionally, an influx of wealth into a community can risk inflation, and some truly excessive sums will be outright refused as the local economy is incapable of handling such wealth. There’s a list for when inflation occurs and for how long it lasts until market forces return things to normal. And even that duration can be longer due to social instability, such as becoming an “adventurer’s hub,” a local war brewing, known nightmare incursions not being dealt with, etc. Generally speaking it’s very easy to cause inflation in rural villages with dozens or hundreds of cyphers, but when it comes to cities PCs won’t make a dent unless they start throwing around thousands or tens of thousands of cyphers. There’s also price lists for PCs who seek to outright purchase (not rent) buildings and lots: they’re close to OSR standards in that you usually need at least a few thousand cyphers for a respectable building, while grand palaces and temples easily reach six-figure sums.</p><p></p><p>In the Kingdom of Dreams, some goods are generally not available for sale on the open market due to laws and/or an extremely low supply. In regards to magical items, most of them are typically found in ruins of forgotten ages or custom-made by mages. The magic item economy is done on an individual level and by sellers seeking out wealthy buyers who have a need for said item. Transaction of items with an obvious pagan origin or that can be identified as being from the Vale of Serpents is illegal, their use can increase Resentment when used in public, and bring the law down on the PCs unless they can convince the community that they can be trusted with its use. The book advises that when creating or importing magic items from other rulesets that they should lean towards the “obviously magical” and to not have simple effects.</p><p></p><p>I do like how these rules encourage the PCs to be smart with their money rather than throwing it around willy-nilly. The inflation of prices is definitely a penalty as it applies to <em>all goods and services</em> which can really hurt when buying more expensive things. I know that most D&D editions and OSR rulesets don’t have “magic item shops,” although given the setting’s high magic nature it does seem a bit odd that we don’t have things like merchants selling clockwork pets to wealthy families or vendors hawking lockets inscribed with treatises of the Law to ward off evil. I can understand concerns about devaluing the wondrous awe from putting a price point on a Holy Avenger or the casting of a Raise Dead spell, but more utility and/or “household magic” wouldn’t be out of place in the Kingdoms of Dreams’ “Fantasy Golden Age of Islam” aesthetic.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Creating Institutions</strong></p><p></p><p>Institutions are businesses and organizations that provide gear, assistants, and services to PCs that create and/or support them. Generally speaking institutions have three tiers of power, each requiring a minimum amount of invested cyphers before they can upgrade to said tier: Notable for 100, Significant for 1,000, and Exceptional for 10,000 cyphers. Higher tiers can provide more services, and Exceptional ones become immune to destruction unless the entire community in which they’re based is destroyed or they’re attacked by another Exceptional institution. Institutions also have dominant alignments depending upon the donors; in the case of multiple PCs of differing alignments supporting the same one, the institution is Neutral.</p><p></p><p>There’s a few sample institutions covering broad types, but also general guidelines for PCs and GMs making their own: such features include the buying/selling of rare goods, access to special types of NPC retainers, protecting the reputation of its members and promoting their causes, and/or providing information that isn’t readily available elsewhere. A few are rather generic types: Hotels grant an easier chance of gaining contacts and faster recovery against maladies during rest, Tea Houses put you in contact with those of a certain occupation or social class depending on its alignment, and Universities grant you ‘vantage on research material, a one-time opportunity to increase Intelligence or Charisma, and is treated as its own settlement for Resentment scores.</p><p></p><p>The more notable institutions I caught wind of are a Communist Party (provide international contacts, chance for +1 Charisma/Willpower, and revolutionary retainers willing to undertake violent action against the government), a Necromancer’s Guild (can autopsy corpses via mundane and magical means, ID undead types, and sell healing spells to you), and Thieves’ Guild (add public speaking to your Skills, can hide out in a safehouse between adventures, counts as its own settlement for Resentment, don’t care about chaos/pagan magic, and can sell you stolen items at 50% market value).</p><p></p><p><strong>Edition Changes:</strong> 1st Edition had a Druggist, who could provide drugs and poisons which could heal and/or deal damage to various types of attribute scores along with more unique conditions, provide ‘vantages on certain tasks, and so on. Geographical Societies could provide maps, guides, and wilderness expeditions. 2nd Edition removed those options, and replaced them with Communist Party, Thieves’ Guild, and Vice Den as options.</p><p></p><p>I like the rules for institutions. It reminds me of some “domain management” sourcebooks in various D&D products but with the advantage that it allows for small-scale organizing rather than the head of state affairs that such rulebooks usually expect. The Communist Party stands out the most, if only because the book doesn’t detail whether or not a capitalist economic system has arisen in the world of TNU. Most of society seems medieval/early Renaissance at best, and the mention that the teachings of the Law are compatible with a communist society implies that the Divine is not really a god or religion in the traditional sense given said ideology’s anti-religious underpinnings.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/B2070xa.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>Dealing With People</strong></p><p></p><p>Contacts, retainers, persuasion, and keeping up a positive image are the order of the day in this section. In classic OSR fashion we have a 2d6 + Charisma modifier for determining a person’s initial first impression of you, and a 2d6 + Ferocity modifier for determining how people react to you if you use threats and intimidation to get your way with them. Trying the ‘soft approach’ via Persuasion is a bit more complicated: the GM chooses one or more conditions the PC must meet in order to change someone’s way of thinking. Once said condition(s) is met, the PC saves vs Charisma (or half if the request is major) or the GM can use the 2d6 + Charisma modifier alternative table for the final result. The latter choice has a gradual gradation of success/failure as opposed to the saving throw’s binary result.</p><p></p><p>There are also rules for smear campaigns and character assassinations, either done by or to the PCs. Generally speaking, being the target of such an attack has a chance of causing Resentment increase and Charisma damage for more extreme results. Bards are good at this and add +1 to relevant rolls, but conducting such campaigns requires the expenditure of cyphers for distribution of leaflets, spreading rumors, paying off the right people, donating to charitable causes, etc. Charisma lost in this fashion can be recovered as normal, but also requires paying money to the community or a successful Willpower save to truly and fully recover.</p><p></p><p>Contacts and retainers are the rules for when the PCs need to get the aid of specific individuals rather than social institutions. Contacts are broad in focus and rules, and there’s a list of various occupations and what information and services they can provide. When a PC makes use of their contact they roll 2d6 and add appropriate modifiers based on circumstance (same social class, part of an influential organization, being hunted, etc). Low results mean the contact is unable to provide aid or ends up in danger themselves, while middle and higher results can provide aid but at a price or favor of varying expense. A roll may not be needed at the GM’s discretion if the service is easily attainable within the contact’s scope of expertise.</p><p></p><p>Retainers are NPCs hired to accompany the PCs on their adventures, or manage day-to-day affairs like accounting and looking after mounts outside the dungeon. They are not a diverse assortment from all walks of life, but are varying degrees of the socially misfortunate due to the risks involved in braving nightmare incursions or associating with ones that do so. Marginalized and oppressed groups, refugees and the homeless, junkies and the heavily indebted desperate for fast money, and the suicidal are but a few potential backgrounds to be rolled for in determining the story of one’s hired help. When you factor in the case that retainers by default are not immune to the maddening taint of the nightmare incursions like the PCs are, this makes a morbid amount of sense.</p><p></p><p>Retainers are found after a day or so of searching, and a Settlement Die is rolled to determine the likelihood of finding prospective employees along with modifiers based upon the PC’s reputation: the larger the settlement, the higher the die and thus the easier it is to find people. Retainers tend to be generic low Hit Die humans, although high rolls on the Settlement Die may net you one or two NPCs with class features (Assassin, Bard, etc). 2d6 + Charisma modifier rolls are made when determining the terms of employment and also for determining loyalty and morale when being ordered to do something dangerous beyond what is regarded as reasonable for their occupation. A PC’s Charisma also determines the maximum number of retainers they can employ at once, and already-hired retainers will stay on for 1-2 weeks or until the party’s next expedition in the event of Charisma damage. Full-time employment wages for NPCs are more or less uniform and determined primarily by their social class: 40 to 90 cyphers a month are ‘commoner’ wages, while 100 cyphers or more represent those who are ‘living well and in comfort.’</p><p></p><p>I like these rules, particularly the tables and entries that allow for fleshing out retainers. The system has a clear bias for recruitment in larger urban centers and among the poor, but that makes sense in the context of the setting and really drives home the fact that being an explorer of otherworldly nightmares is something nobody really does unless they have to</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Dealing With Settlements</strong></p><p></p><p>This section covers social affairs, but at a macro-level. We have rules for conducting research, whether via libraries or “word on the street” contacts. It’s a 2d6 + Intelligence modifier role with varying degrees of success and failure (falsified info as worst result and 1-3 pieces of info at higher results), and some results may grant Opportunities which are basically adventure hooks and leads to places or NPCs relevant to the researcher’s quarry.</p><p></p><p>Resentment you may recognize as that thing I was talking about in prior chapters. Each PC (and in some cases NPCs) has a Resentment score that begins at 0 but increases due to bad behavior, having their name smeared, and other forms of running one’s reputation. The GM rolls a Settlement Die every time a PC’s score increases to see if they wore out their welcome (and also whenever they throw a public event or make another major appearance). Rolling equal to or lower the Resentment score causes the character to become hated; inhabitants refuse to help or associate with them, and prices of goods and services double or even triple. The next time their Resentment score increases, the community uses force to drive out the character. But even if a PC manages to avoid this fate, individual circumstances may cause hindrances, such as harassment from law enforcement, local organizations shunning the PC, or earning the enmity of an individual who sets out to make the PC’s life hell. As larger settlements have larger dice, one cannot as easily get away with pissing people off in smaller towns and villages.</p><p></p><p>There’s a short but broad list of crimes and actions which can cause Resentment, but there are some cases which bear special mention: going around using magical items from the Age of Chaos in an obvious manner prevents a character from reducing their Resentment score unless they convince the courts and/or public it can be used responsibly. Resentment increases due to crime happen only when the PC’s guilt becomes widely known, and proving one’s innocence from this and character assassination can reverse the Resentment increase. Additionally, crimes committed against marginalized and oppressed groups do not increase Resentment provided it does not affect the larger community as a whole or their employers/owners are inconvenienced by their abuse. If someone under the PCs’ protection dies or goes insane in a nightmare incursion and are a valued member of society, this also increases Resentment.</p><p></p><p>Resentment can be reduced by donating to charitable causes via cyphers and/or significant action on the PC’s part. They can also assume a new identity, and if they’re able to pull off such a disguise the Resentment goes down to 0 (or gain the Resentment score if impersonating a known individual).</p><p></p><p><strong>Edition Changes:</strong> The Resentment rules are more specific in the anti-Chaotic bias of communities in 2nd Edition, and explicit rules and examples are given in this regard.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/CjA9czj.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>Justifying the Spoils</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>Edition Changes:</strong> This entire section has been added for 2nd Edition.</p><p></p><p>So you got this fancy new magic rod that can exorcise demons, brain-parasites, and other bodyjackers guaranteed! But unfortunately it blasphemes the names of the five prophets with every activation, or maybe it has runic symbols carved into it associated with a genocidal sorcerer-king. Even if people know that it works, there’s always going to be the question of whether or not the cost of spiritual damnation is worth it.</p><p></p><p>The final section of Chapter 4 has got you covered! It’s an entire mini-game for PCs making their case in court, whether it be an official courthouse of the Law or a legal team representing the interests of the state visiting the party’s rinky-dink town. In short, a wannabe Chaos-wielder needs to first gather a group of citizens, a law firm, or a person in a position of authority to lobby on their behalf. They must then state their case for why they should be allowed to make use of said blasphemous item, usually some degree of “we can use it against the nightmares or a greater evil.” An opposition lawyer then presents a series of inquiries asking the defendant magic-wielder how they plan on countering any potential side-effects :unexpected conversion to paganism, a foreign ruler invading to seize it, the item being a ‘weirdness magnet’ for monsters and evildoers, and so on and so forth. Various saving throws are done by both sides during the course of the legal drama; there’s a range of final results, from having your case thrown out to being able to use said item with varying levels of restriction. If the magic-wielder succeeded in presenting a legitimate use of the item, they no longer raise Resentment for using it in public.</p><p></p><p>I like this mini-game, although I can imagine it getting a bit tiresome if performed for every such magical item. Then again, it’s only for a certain variety of artifacts, and then only if the PCs wish to use it in public. It’s a good means of allowing a party the ability to make use of their treasure without making the setting’s authorities hidebound and obstinate against its use, as is in the case of a lot of ‘low magic’ settings.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> I surmised much of my thoughts in the relevant entries, but overall I like the settlement-based rules provided in the Nightmares Underneath. The work is good enough to be used in other settings and OSR-adjacent systems, and the only real setting-specific material is the ban on “blasphemous items.” But even that can be reconfigured in covering a more generic ‘black magic” style of spellcasting.</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we open up a spellbook and learn how to Cast Spells and Other Enchantments in Chapter 5!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 8072173, member: 6750502"] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/YvV775j.png[/img] [b]Chapter 4: Carousing in the Kingdom of Dreams[/b][/center] Dungeon-delving is but the midway point of the adventure, for its beginning and end often take place in a community or other place of normalcy. To better give the PCs something to fight for beyond a settlement to sell their incursion-gotten gain, The Nightmares Underneath has a detailed set of various rules in providing benefits and hindrances for interacting with and investing in communities. [center][b]Between Adventures & Buying and Selling[/b][/center] Downtime between dungeon delves mandates the spending of cyphers for living expenses. If the PCs are planning on going right back into an incursion or ruin this is unneeded, but applies when one or more weeks of time pass between expeditions. Generally speaking it’s good to be at a higher standard of living: being homeless or on the streets prevents recovery of Wounds, lost attribute points, and start with less Disposition, and living poorly has results likely to cause you to lose all of your money. Living well is the “middle road” which can grant you a bonus contact on a Charisma save, and living like the rich can also give you contacts more easily as well as potentially running into some kind of trouble (scandal increases Resentment, gain an enemy, etc). There’s also rules for living as a servant for a wealthy client, which has the advantage of living well for free but you have to balance your work/adventuring life. Staying or being committed to an asylum has varying standards of living, but first-class institutions let you ignore the negative effects of a nightmare curse* for the next adventure. *a corruptive mental influence gained from misfortune in a nightmare incursion. One thing I forgot to mention is that the character generation rules explain that PCs are by nature some variety of social outsider even if high-class. The war against the nightmare incursions dominates their life, and there must be one in-built reason why they cannot work a normal job and one reason why they continue the fight. As such, there’s not really rules for plying a trade between adventures beyond GM discretion such as offering to use magic for a nobleman to fund an expedition. When it comes to buying and selling goods, it really depends upon community size. Villages and towns have less wares and there’s a “purchasing limit” in comparison to cities. Additionally, an influx of wealth into a community can risk inflation, and some truly excessive sums will be outright refused as the local economy is incapable of handling such wealth. There’s a list for when inflation occurs and for how long it lasts until market forces return things to normal. And even that duration can be longer due to social instability, such as becoming an “adventurer’s hub,” a local war brewing, known nightmare incursions not being dealt with, etc. Generally speaking it’s very easy to cause inflation in rural villages with dozens or hundreds of cyphers, but when it comes to cities PCs won’t make a dent unless they start throwing around thousands or tens of thousands of cyphers. There’s also price lists for PCs who seek to outright purchase (not rent) buildings and lots: they’re close to OSR standards in that you usually need at least a few thousand cyphers for a respectable building, while grand palaces and temples easily reach six-figure sums. In the Kingdom of Dreams, some goods are generally not available for sale on the open market due to laws and/or an extremely low supply. In regards to magical items, most of them are typically found in ruins of forgotten ages or custom-made by mages. The magic item economy is done on an individual level and by sellers seeking out wealthy buyers who have a need for said item. Transaction of items with an obvious pagan origin or that can be identified as being from the Vale of Serpents is illegal, their use can increase Resentment when used in public, and bring the law down on the PCs unless they can convince the community that they can be trusted with its use. The book advises that when creating or importing magic items from other rulesets that they should lean towards the “obviously magical” and to not have simple effects. I do like how these rules encourage the PCs to be smart with their money rather than throwing it around willy-nilly. The inflation of prices is definitely a penalty as it applies to [i]all goods and services[/i] which can really hurt when buying more expensive things. I know that most D&D editions and OSR rulesets don’t have “magic item shops,” although given the setting’s high magic nature it does seem a bit odd that we don’t have things like merchants selling clockwork pets to wealthy families or vendors hawking lockets inscribed with treatises of the Law to ward off evil. I can understand concerns about devaluing the wondrous awe from putting a price point on a Holy Avenger or the casting of a Raise Dead spell, but more utility and/or “household magic” wouldn’t be out of place in the Kingdoms of Dreams’ “Fantasy Golden Age of Islam” aesthetic. [center][b]Creating Institutions[/b][/center] Institutions are businesses and organizations that provide gear, assistants, and services to PCs that create and/or support them. Generally speaking institutions have three tiers of power, each requiring a minimum amount of invested cyphers before they can upgrade to said tier: Notable for 100, Significant for 1,000, and Exceptional for 10,000 cyphers. Higher tiers can provide more services, and Exceptional ones become immune to destruction unless the entire community in which they’re based is destroyed or they’re attacked by another Exceptional institution. Institutions also have dominant alignments depending upon the donors; in the case of multiple PCs of differing alignments supporting the same one, the institution is Neutral. There’s a few sample institutions covering broad types, but also general guidelines for PCs and GMs making their own: such features include the buying/selling of rare goods, access to special types of NPC retainers, protecting the reputation of its members and promoting their causes, and/or providing information that isn’t readily available elsewhere. A few are rather generic types: Hotels grant an easier chance of gaining contacts and faster recovery against maladies during rest, Tea Houses put you in contact with those of a certain occupation or social class depending on its alignment, and Universities grant you ‘vantage on research material, a one-time opportunity to increase Intelligence or Charisma, and is treated as its own settlement for Resentment scores. The more notable institutions I caught wind of are a Communist Party (provide international contacts, chance for +1 Charisma/Willpower, and revolutionary retainers willing to undertake violent action against the government), a Necromancer’s Guild (can autopsy corpses via mundane and magical means, ID undead types, and sell healing spells to you), and Thieves’ Guild (add public speaking to your Skills, can hide out in a safehouse between adventures, counts as its own settlement for Resentment, don’t care about chaos/pagan magic, and can sell you stolen items at 50% market value). [b]Edition Changes:[/b] 1st Edition had a Druggist, who could provide drugs and poisons which could heal and/or deal damage to various types of attribute scores along with more unique conditions, provide ‘vantages on certain tasks, and so on. Geographical Societies could provide maps, guides, and wilderness expeditions. 2nd Edition removed those options, and replaced them with Communist Party, Thieves’ Guild, and Vice Den as options. I like the rules for institutions. It reminds me of some “domain management” sourcebooks in various D&D products but with the advantage that it allows for small-scale organizing rather than the head of state affairs that such rulebooks usually expect. The Communist Party stands out the most, if only because the book doesn’t detail whether or not a capitalist economic system has arisen in the world of TNU. Most of society seems medieval/early Renaissance at best, and the mention that the teachings of the Law are compatible with a communist society implies that the Divine is not really a god or religion in the traditional sense given said ideology’s anti-religious underpinnings. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/B2070xa.png[/img] [b]Dealing With People[/b][/center] Contacts, retainers, persuasion, and keeping up a positive image are the order of the day in this section. In classic OSR fashion we have a 2d6 + Charisma modifier for determining a person’s initial first impression of you, and a 2d6 + Ferocity modifier for determining how people react to you if you use threats and intimidation to get your way with them. Trying the ‘soft approach’ via Persuasion is a bit more complicated: the GM chooses one or more conditions the PC must meet in order to change someone’s way of thinking. Once said condition(s) is met, the PC saves vs Charisma (or half if the request is major) or the GM can use the 2d6 + Charisma modifier alternative table for the final result. The latter choice has a gradual gradation of success/failure as opposed to the saving throw’s binary result. There are also rules for smear campaigns and character assassinations, either done by or to the PCs. Generally speaking, being the target of such an attack has a chance of causing Resentment increase and Charisma damage for more extreme results. Bards are good at this and add +1 to relevant rolls, but conducting such campaigns requires the expenditure of cyphers for distribution of leaflets, spreading rumors, paying off the right people, donating to charitable causes, etc. Charisma lost in this fashion can be recovered as normal, but also requires paying money to the community or a successful Willpower save to truly and fully recover. Contacts and retainers are the rules for when the PCs need to get the aid of specific individuals rather than social institutions. Contacts are broad in focus and rules, and there’s a list of various occupations and what information and services they can provide. When a PC makes use of their contact they roll 2d6 and add appropriate modifiers based on circumstance (same social class, part of an influential organization, being hunted, etc). Low results mean the contact is unable to provide aid or ends up in danger themselves, while middle and higher results can provide aid but at a price or favor of varying expense. A roll may not be needed at the GM’s discretion if the service is easily attainable within the contact’s scope of expertise. Retainers are NPCs hired to accompany the PCs on their adventures, or manage day-to-day affairs like accounting and looking after mounts outside the dungeon. They are not a diverse assortment from all walks of life, but are varying degrees of the socially misfortunate due to the risks involved in braving nightmare incursions or associating with ones that do so. Marginalized and oppressed groups, refugees and the homeless, junkies and the heavily indebted desperate for fast money, and the suicidal are but a few potential backgrounds to be rolled for in determining the story of one’s hired help. When you factor in the case that retainers by default are not immune to the maddening taint of the nightmare incursions like the PCs are, this makes a morbid amount of sense. Retainers are found after a day or so of searching, and a Settlement Die is rolled to determine the likelihood of finding prospective employees along with modifiers based upon the PC’s reputation: the larger the settlement, the higher the die and thus the easier it is to find people. Retainers tend to be generic low Hit Die humans, although high rolls on the Settlement Die may net you one or two NPCs with class features (Assassin, Bard, etc). 2d6 + Charisma modifier rolls are made when determining the terms of employment and also for determining loyalty and morale when being ordered to do something dangerous beyond what is regarded as reasonable for their occupation. A PC’s Charisma also determines the maximum number of retainers they can employ at once, and already-hired retainers will stay on for 1-2 weeks or until the party’s next expedition in the event of Charisma damage. Full-time employment wages for NPCs are more or less uniform and determined primarily by their social class: 40 to 90 cyphers a month are ‘commoner’ wages, while 100 cyphers or more represent those who are ‘living well and in comfort.’ I like these rules, particularly the tables and entries that allow for fleshing out retainers. The system has a clear bias for recruitment in larger urban centers and among the poor, but that makes sense in the context of the setting and really drives home the fact that being an explorer of otherworldly nightmares is something nobody really does unless they have to [center][b]Dealing With Settlements[/b][/center] This section covers social affairs, but at a macro-level. We have rules for conducting research, whether via libraries or “word on the street” contacts. It’s a 2d6 + Intelligence modifier role with varying degrees of success and failure (falsified info as worst result and 1-3 pieces of info at higher results), and some results may grant Opportunities which are basically adventure hooks and leads to places or NPCs relevant to the researcher’s quarry. Resentment you may recognize as that thing I was talking about in prior chapters. Each PC (and in some cases NPCs) has a Resentment score that begins at 0 but increases due to bad behavior, having their name smeared, and other forms of running one’s reputation. The GM rolls a Settlement Die every time a PC’s score increases to see if they wore out their welcome (and also whenever they throw a public event or make another major appearance). Rolling equal to or lower the Resentment score causes the character to become hated; inhabitants refuse to help or associate with them, and prices of goods and services double or even triple. The next time their Resentment score increases, the community uses force to drive out the character. But even if a PC manages to avoid this fate, individual circumstances may cause hindrances, such as harassment from law enforcement, local organizations shunning the PC, or earning the enmity of an individual who sets out to make the PC’s life hell. As larger settlements have larger dice, one cannot as easily get away with pissing people off in smaller towns and villages. There’s a short but broad list of crimes and actions which can cause Resentment, but there are some cases which bear special mention: going around using magical items from the Age of Chaos in an obvious manner prevents a character from reducing their Resentment score unless they convince the courts and/or public it can be used responsibly. Resentment increases due to crime happen only when the PC’s guilt becomes widely known, and proving one’s innocence from this and character assassination can reverse the Resentment increase. Additionally, crimes committed against marginalized and oppressed groups do not increase Resentment provided it does not affect the larger community as a whole or their employers/owners are inconvenienced by their abuse. If someone under the PCs’ protection dies or goes insane in a nightmare incursion and are a valued member of society, this also increases Resentment. Resentment can be reduced by donating to charitable causes via cyphers and/or significant action on the PC’s part. They can also assume a new identity, and if they’re able to pull off such a disguise the Resentment goes down to 0 (or gain the Resentment score if impersonating a known individual). [b]Edition Changes:[/b] The Resentment rules are more specific in the anti-Chaotic bias of communities in 2nd Edition, and explicit rules and examples are given in this regard. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/CjA9czj.png[/img] [b]Justifying the Spoils[/b][/center] [b]Edition Changes:[/b] This entire section has been added for 2nd Edition. So you got this fancy new magic rod that can exorcise demons, brain-parasites, and other bodyjackers guaranteed! But unfortunately it blasphemes the names of the five prophets with every activation, or maybe it has runic symbols carved into it associated with a genocidal sorcerer-king. Even if people know that it works, there’s always going to be the question of whether or not the cost of spiritual damnation is worth it. The final section of Chapter 4 has got you covered! It’s an entire mini-game for PCs making their case in court, whether it be an official courthouse of the Law or a legal team representing the interests of the state visiting the party’s rinky-dink town. In short, a wannabe Chaos-wielder needs to first gather a group of citizens, a law firm, or a person in a position of authority to lobby on their behalf. They must then state their case for why they should be allowed to make use of said blasphemous item, usually some degree of “we can use it against the nightmares or a greater evil.” An opposition lawyer then presents a series of inquiries asking the defendant magic-wielder how they plan on countering any potential side-effects :unexpected conversion to paganism, a foreign ruler invading to seize it, the item being a ‘weirdness magnet’ for monsters and evildoers, and so on and so forth. Various saving throws are done by both sides during the course of the legal drama; there’s a range of final results, from having your case thrown out to being able to use said item with varying levels of restriction. If the magic-wielder succeeded in presenting a legitimate use of the item, they no longer raise Resentment for using it in public. I like this mini-game, although I can imagine it getting a bit tiresome if performed for every such magical item. Then again, it’s only for a certain variety of artifacts, and then only if the PCs wish to use it in public. It’s a good means of allowing a party the ability to make use of their treasure without making the setting’s authorities hidebound and obstinate against its use, as is in the case of a lot of ‘low magic’ settings. [b]Thoughts So Far:[/b] I surmised much of my thoughts in the relevant entries, but overall I like the settlement-based rules provided in the Nightmares Underneath. The work is good enough to be used in other settings and OSR-adjacent systems, and the only real setting-specific material is the ban on “blasphemous items.” But even that can be reconfigured in covering a more generic ‘black magic” style of spellcasting. [b]Join us next time as we open up a spellbook and learn how to Cast Spells and Other Enchantments in Chapter 5![/b] [/QUOTE]
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