Elements of a realistic campaign

[Kraydak]

Or if your lazy, like me, one price for the rich out-of-towner and one for locals.

Beers for adventurer: 1gp; locals: 1cp. When the PCs complain, the barkeep says "he runs a tab," "he's my cousin, you aint," "he trades me chickens, you got any chickens?" The idea of fixed and listed prices is pretty recent one IIRC.

Ahh but they are good ones and well worth the read.

Interesting. Your low level shopkeepers are either:
(1) ripping off high level heroes who have saved someone nearby, quite possibly the shopkeeper, his family, and village too.
OR
(2) ripping off high level non-heroes, extremely dangerous, quite intelligent people who are apt to extreme acts of violence at the roll of a d20.

I'd expect the shopkeepers to bill PCs reasonably, and (especially in case 2) deferentially because, if the PCs decide not to pay, its not like the shopkeepers can *do* anything about it. In case (1), as a player, I'd object to never getting free drinks. Heroism deserves recognition, after all.

 

[Warren Okuma]

Realism? Hmmmm... Outlaw such monsters as Flumphs, Giant Space Hamsters, Owlphants, Stench Kow (unless you like skunky cows), hippomen, bowlers, Biclops, senmurv (unless the PC's are color blind), Flail Snail, wolf in sheep's clothing (although I have a soft spot for anything with bunnies), Vorpal Bunny, half dragon bunnies, half dragon sheep...

You know, I just might run a campaing where there are only silly monsters...



P.S. Flumphs have money to encourage people to kill them.

 

[Slife]

"No one has mass-produced continual light devices because to do so would be sheer lunacy. Where are you going to find more than three or four wizards of high enough level to cast these things? 4th/5th/6th level actually stands out a fair bit, you know! And besides, those wizards probably have better things to do with their time than cast the same spell over and over again...there aren't enough wizards of that level to cast the spells you need. And as for magic shops, it's the same thing. How many wizards make it to 7th level, much less 16th/18th, the level you need to create a permanent item?"

On the one hand, you have the power level of something like Eberron, and on the other you have the power level of a setting like mine, where magic items are an incredible pain in the neck to make, and you should consider yourself blessed by the gods if you have a +1 hand axe.

Again, these can make convienient explanations if your players ask why they can't spend any money on magical items, or why there are people selling continual light devices on street corners.

Or you could just get access to lesser planar binding, grab a lantern archon and explain the benefits of well-lit streets in deterring crime. I'm sure it would be glad to use its unlimited use Continual Flame SLA for such a worthy cause. After all, it doesn't cost it anything to use, and it makes the world a better and more lawful good place.

Or, for a lower level spell, lesser planar ally works just as well.

Or, given the availibility of planar travel to outsiders, why hasn't a lantern archon servant of a light-themed deity set up a church which sells the continual torches and uses the money to help the poor?

 

[Warren Okuma]

Or you could just get access to lesser planar binding, grab a lantern archon and explain the benefits of well-lit streets in deterring crime. I'm sure it would be glad to use its unlimited use Continual Flame SLA for such a worthy cause. After all, it doesn't cost it anything to use, and it makes the world a better and more lawful good place.

Or, for a lower level spell, lesser planar ally works just as well.

Or, given the availibility of planar travel to outsiders, why hasn't a lantern archon servant of a light-themed deity set up a church which sells the continual torches and uses the money to help the poor?

That is just brilliant.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Hey Rothe, thanks for the kind words.

Rabelais: your point about episodic vs. serial is an excellent one. To my mind serial implies more verisimiltude. It's that whole interaction with the world thing that has been brought up several times. ANd it is far and way my preferred way to game.

DOn't get me wrong, there's always a time for a bit of kick in the door, delve the dungeon play.

But I get the most satisfaction when my characters get feed back from the world. It lets me know they matter. And when it comes to interacting with NPCs (especially BBEGs) you want them to sit up and take notice.

 

[Slife]

That is just brilliant.

...

 

[S'mon]

If you want justifications - they took it from the dwarves, or the merchants, etc.

 

[Li Shenron]

The universe does not exist for the sole purpose of the party.

A fundamental point.

 

[Clavis]

For instance, why do monsters in the wilderness have cash? If a tribe of wild gnolls is reviled by the local civilised communities, who are they trading with? And if the GM substitutes trade goods for money, does it spoil the fun to have the PCs haul away a cartload of prime grain instead of 100gp?

Money doesn't just mean buying power in terms of goods and services, it can also symbolize status. So, humanoids might want to collect human money not because they want to trade with humans, but because the amount of human money they collect symbolizes their status and power within their own communities. An Orc that has a lot of human money has obviously killed, beaten, and raped a lot of humans, and will thus be more respected among his own kind than an Orc that can't prove his power in that way. Because humanoids really can't spend their wealth, money would actually tend to accumulate in their communities, staying there for generations. Therefore, humanoids really would have hoards of treasure, by virtue of the fact that they never put their money back into circulation.

 

[Dan Bell]

No kidding! I just went there and downloaded Goffin manorial fief. Talk about a timesaver! And the production values of the downloads I've seen so far are very good. Although not 100% game system neutral or agnostic. Terms like "half-vilein" and Size 6 have no meaning for me.

Glad you liked it GD! Old Grumby Man explained the half-vilein title. Cottars, half-vileins and vileins are all serfs and are bound to the land. Size 6 means that there are 6 people in that family.

Since you liked Goffin, you may also want to see this page: http://www.lythia.com/nelafayn/