AncientSpirits
First Post
I just looked over the TOWNIES section a bit and I have to say coming from a 3.5/Pathfinder background it's hard to accept that the NPCs don't play by the same rules as the PCs. It seems very odd to have TOWNIES with abilties that PCs can't get till late in their careers.
I understand the idea behind it but it still seems odd.
It's definitely a change. Radiance RPG assumes a prospering industrializing society, where specialization is common and critically important, especially with large populations and hundreds of diverse consumer needs. Radiance is also built with flatter level progression, functioning more like 4E than 3.x/Pathfinder. In 4E, for example, PCs may easily meet a local healer who can do basic healing and also raise dead and is pretty weak otherwise with no other abilities, as that's his or her specialty.
To use a metaphor, it's like PCs go to university and these NPCs go to trade and technical schools to learn a very narrow but effective set of practical skills. Consider, after 2 years of training, likely less, an electrician can confidently do many things that a university graduate from engineering school can't do. However, in the long run, that electrician isn't going to be doing the wide array of things the engineer *may* end up doing.
Of course there are NPCs in the population that are built like PCs, but that's the purview of a whole supplemental book of NPCs, as in 3.5/Pathfinder.
So yes, most adult people are townies, they have meaningful abilities in terms of game mechanics, and a group of townies can be quite helpful or harmful. Gone are the days of 10th level PCs casually wading through a hundred 1st-level commoners with little to no interest in or fear of them.
That said, the break points seem a bit odd. Townies are 2 (but can be levelled to 4) and Alders are 6 (can be levelled to 8) but Patrons start at 13? And Royal patron is 20?
Does this mean all kings/rulers are high level? If so this is definitely different from 3,5/Pathfinder. I'm totally picturing Lord British from Ultima.
You can easily have a ruler who is an aristocrat townie (level 2) or just an alder. That said, the ruler may not last very long. In a multiverse where the personal power of magic matters a lot, it's inevitable that rulers who survive will be people who have developed skills and abilities related to leading effectively in a dangerous and magical world.
Beyond the level 2 townie, all the ideas --people with two professions, alders and patrons, etc--are just that, ideas. You can think of townie as +2 levels to whatever a person already is. Similarly, the alder package of abilities provides +4 levels to whatever a person already has, keeping in mind that the sample alder has 2 levels of townie already, which is why he's level 6. Same for patrons, as the patron package of abilities is worth +7 levels, and the sample patron is 13th level because he has 2 levels of townie + 4 levels of alder along with 7 levels of patron abilities.
And yes, Lord British is a great example of a typical royal patron!

Different Townies have different numbers of abilities, do all Townies add up to 10 points worth of abilities since they're 2nd level?
Yes, all 100 townies have 10 design points worth of abilities (or rather 9 points with a +2 bonus to one attribute).
There's a little question about advancement too. If a Townie takes a 2nd profession and then becomes an Alder does he lose his 2nd profession? Or does he simply advance to a Level 8 Alder with 2 professions.
He keeps his second profession and is level 8. Note that unlike PCs, these NPCs must do apprenticeships etc for several *years* and then jump upward to the new status. Supposedly they are only practicing their new abilities in the background in their spare time as they slowly learn.
I understand that Townies don't have to follow the same 1-20 level progression as PCs but is it assumed that they went up through the Townie stages? IE were all Alders, Patrons, and Royal Patrons once Townies?
Yes, all alders, patrons, and royal patrons were once townies, even if for a short time.
BTW, in pre-modern times, people were seen as wielding power by virtue of their office, rather than as *just* something within themselves. A king has the power of a king due to both his talents and his officially recognized role as king. To strip the king of his role is to reduce him in power, not just figuratively but literally. The source of the role's power--ancestors, God's grace, etc--varies by culture. So Radiance takes this idea and uses it to explain the power of great rulers. These special folks take time and effort to advance, like everyone, and due their destiny and the power of their office, they enjoy a greater set of powers, and more vitality, than the average person.
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