City State of the Invincible Overlord, what even is it?

[Mannahnin]

It seems like it'd be a lot more fun to have carousing rules. Paying fantasy rent feels like it'd only be fun for a certain segment of the player base.

In my last extended campaign I did both OD&D maintenance (GP per month equal to 1% of total xp) and Jeff Rients-style carousing.

I linked how big a die you could roll for carousing to character level rather than the size of the settlement, though, because the campaign wasn't traveling around that much. So I abstracted getting more social options and expensive stuff offered as they climbed in level/gained in fame. Since it was 5 Torches Deep I also made it player's choice of a Con or Cha check (hold your liquor or have your drinking buddies look out for you) rather than save vs poison. Also used an expanded d100 chart from Reddit.

 

[Gus L]

The way I've considered managing it is that paying money for fancy city clothes and upkeep allows safe access to various neighborhoods in the city and various services. Like the nobility won't talk to you if you're wearing stained travel leathers, or if they do they won't give you a good deal on hiring you for things. Likewise if you walk around a decent part of town (or even a bad part) dressed like a hick you're likely to get jumped: by thugs, by the local militia, by guards, by rakes etc. So yes it's attached to carousing and such as well - you can't get into the best places without looking like the best people ... but also it's about paying to get hooks, rumors, fine equipment and simply stay safe in town.

When I do upkeep costs I tend to make the costs high ... but connect them to benefits - like if you spend 50GP of a nice inn you get +1 HP next session (I reroll HP each session). If you spend 1,000 GP on high living and such maybe you get a reroll.

 

[Mannahnin]

When I do upkeep costs I tend to make the costs high ... but connect them to benefits - like if you spend 50GP of a nice inn you get +1 HP next session (I reroll HP each session). If you spend 1,000 GP on high living and such maybe you get a reroll.

The Nightmares Underneath 1E:

Living in Style

If you have enough money to afford room and board, you are able to spend your days resting, recovering, and training. Or you can go sight-seeing, make contacts, and do research. You must pay for one week minimum between adventures unless you spend a single night at an inn.

There are three levels of quality when you are paying for room and board between adventures: you can live poorly, you can live well, or you can live like the rich.

Living poorly means staying at a run-down inn or renting a hovel in the slums, and eating street food every day. This costs at least 10 cyphers per week (or 40c per month). When you return to adventuring after living poorly, roll 2d6 and add your Intelligence modifier, applying an additional -1 penalty if you’ve been down and out for more than a season, -2 if it’s been more than a year, and -3 if it’s been several years.

Roll Result
0-6 Life has not been kind to you. You have lost all your money, and made no useful contacts, although you may know several people who took advantage of you.
7-9 You may choose a contact to have made between adventures, as long as they are not a well-off person.
10+ You may choose two contacts to have made between adventures. At least one of them must be appropriate to your lifestyle.

Living well means comfortable clothes, comfortable furniture, tasty food, one or more servants, and a relatively safe neighbourhood. Lots of people live well, but not the majority. It costs at least 25 cyphers per week (or 100c per month).

Living like the rich is a very nice way to live, but it costs at least 100 cyphers per week (400c per month) if you already have a home, or 250 cyphers per week (1,000c per month) if you are renting one. The up-side is that when you return to adventuring, you have 1d4 servants that might accompany you, if you can talk them into it.

Staying in a hospital or a sanatorium means living well if it’s a common institution, and living like the rich if you want first-class care. You may need to stay at either a hospital or sanatorium in order to recover points lost from certain attributes, depending on the wounds that caused them. If you stay in a first-class sanatorium, you may ignore the effects of one nightmare curse for the duration of the next adventure, after you are released.

If you decide to take a job as a servant, you get the benefi ts of living well at no cost to yourself, but you may not leave your master’s service without permission. If you do so, you cannot go back to being a servant in the future, and may be wanted by the authorities.

When you return to adventuring after living well or like the rich, roll 2d6 and add your Charisma modifier (or your Social Status modifier, if you wish).
Roll Result
0-6 You have run into a spot of trouble. Choose one:
• An ally, contact, or friend of yours (GM chooses who) is in danger
and you have become involved, to one degree or another.
• You have offended the community (+1 Resentment).
• You have gained an enemy.
• You have lost all your money.
• You have lost an important possession or two (GM chooses what).
7-9 You may choose one contact to have made between adventures.
10+ You may choose two contacts to have made between adventures.

If you spend a season or more living well or like the rich, you may choose an additional contact to have made between adventures.

I really like this game, although this particular subsystem is definitely big on generating new NPCs (contacts), which is not always the kind of game I'm trying to run.

 

[Gus L]

The Nightmares Underneath 1E:

I really like this game, although this particular subsystem is definitely big on generating new NPCs (contacts), which is not always the kind of game I'm trying to run.

I've heard great things about it as well.

This was my early version of the rules with rewards more adaptable to standard dungeon crawls:

HMS APPOLYON - Living Costs and Basic Equipment

Rustgate Living As Part of my new campaign of HMS Apollyon exploration I've decided to modify my price lists and downtime ...

dungeonofsigns.blogspot.com

 

[haakon1]

I have the d20 version. I like it and have used it (as Rel Astra in Greyhawk). A city that’s also sort of a dungeon is an accurate description.

 

[Cadence]

In the very early 80s the DM (owner of the local comic/record/book shop) used it as our base city - with the change that Conan was king. I've been tempted to find a copy for myself over the years. It is the one old thing like that that I haven't gotten a copy or new version of yet.

 

[Moving Pictures]

I know Barbarians of Lemuria has a rule that you have to spend all the loot you got on the last job before the GM is allowed to award you XP. (Plus the book encourages you to use said spending to set up a later adventure hook, like blowing your money on a treasure map or a mansion with a mysterious past.)

That might be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of. Very illogical.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

That might be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of. Very illogical.

Which is the point: you need some way to encourage the PCs to get flat broke again in time for the next stupid search for loot.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Which is the point: you need some way to encourage the PCs to get flat broke again in time for the next stupid search for loot.

It's a too heavy-handed for me, but the "buy a map or a mystery mansion" bit's quite clever. I could see a softer version where deliberately spending your hard-earned loot on some ludicrous pie-in-the-sky thing like that directly awarded XP or some other perk or metacurrency. Very much fits the "wandering louts" end of the sword & sorcery genre where the heroes are broke half the time an dit's usually their own fault.

"Wanna buy a plot hook?"
"Heck yeah, I wanna buy a plot hook!"

That sort of thinking deserves a reward just for being a good sport about things.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

The way I've considered managing it is that paying money for fancy city clothes and upkeep allows safe access to various neighborhoods in the city and various services. Like the nobility won't talk to you if you're wearing stained travel leathers, or if they do they won't give you a good deal on hiring you for things. Likewise if you walk around a decent part of town (or even a bad part) dressed like a hick you're likely to get jumped: by thugs, by the local militia, by guards, by rakes etc. So yes it's attached to carousing and such as well - you can't get into the best places without looking like the best people ... but also it's about paying to get hooks, rumors, fine equipment and simply stay safe in town.

That's pretty reasonable. Also like the way it tacitly encourages experienced adventurers who've managed to establish themselves as VIPs in a society to live kind of a double life. Have to kind of sneak into town when returning from your adventures so people don't see you looking like a bunch of battered hobos (murderous or otherwise) until you've had a chance to change into your respectable clothes.