For some reason, villagers tend to be stupid or greedy or both. In the game we played last night, some charlatan had come through town with a "treasure map" that he would part with for 50 gp. The townspeople scraped and borrowed, and bought it, and then were surprised that it turned out to be a fake. They got angry when my character pointed out that the guy didn't force them to buy it. He said he would sell them a map for 50 gps. That transaction was fair enough, they got exactly what they paid for, a 50-gp piece of parchment. But they were out for blood, so we eventually decided they were deranged and skipped town. They'll probably blame us for their stupidity.
Okay, that's it, I've had enough. Adventurers, STAND UP FOR YOURSELVES!!
- Thread starter Lela
- Start date
Kahuna Burger
First Post
DanMcS said:
uh, no, they payed for a treasure map. That is, an acurate map to an actual treasure. There's no doubt about the precense of fraud. If that's ok with you, thats one thing, but that just shows what kind of party your character adventures with.
And villagers are greedy? we aren't talking about professional tomb looters and thieves here... thats what adventurers are for.
Kahuna Burger
Rel
Liquid Awesome
I've seen both sides of this sort of thing.
A few campaigns ago, our party were all "circus performers" (a trick rider/swordsman, acrobat and trick shot bowman respectively) who were asked to come to the "circus olympics" by our patron. When we got there, we were "allowed" to stay in his manor house in the city for a cut rate. He proceeded to have us perform various non-circus-related duties for him that were increasingly putting us at cross-purposes with a cult of demon summoners. At no point were we paid anything. About half way through the campaign, he asked us to do yet another incredibly dangerous job and I inquired about some compensation. He balked on the basis that he was our "patron" and should be able to ask such things from us.
I proceeded to (in character) give him the tongue lashing of a lifetime and told him that if his idea of patronage was that we come to a far away city at his behest whereupon he charges us rent to stay at his house while we risk our lives and immortal souls by battling a cult of demon summoners free of charge, that I'd like to consider another line of less dangerous work for better pay. Say being a busboy or somesuch.
He parted with some coin soon thereafter.
On the other hand, in the last campaign I ran, the party helped to liberate a nearby town from the hands of some Gnolls and in the process recovered some lost treasure that had been stowed away when the town was sacked by barbarians some 20 years earlier. When some of the townsfolk who had survived that raid wanted a portion of the treasure back, some members of the party got a bit touchy about it.
It was true that the party was generally regarded as heroes and people respected their deeds. But at the same time, not one character in the group had a non-negative charisma modifier (note: these weren't munchkin power gamers who all used Cha as a dump stat. It was valid with all the character concepts. They just hadn't noticed that they lacked a "front man".). When I pointed this out, they conceeded that there might be a reason that they were less well liked than they might otherwise be considered. They donated a portion of the treasure to the town but still got to keep a decent share.
A few campaigns ago, our party were all "circus performers" (a trick rider/swordsman, acrobat and trick shot bowman respectively) who were asked to come to the "circus olympics" by our patron. When we got there, we were "allowed" to stay in his manor house in the city for a cut rate. He proceeded to have us perform various non-circus-related duties for him that were increasingly putting us at cross-purposes with a cult of demon summoners. At no point were we paid anything. About half way through the campaign, he asked us to do yet another incredibly dangerous job and I inquired about some compensation. He balked on the basis that he was our "patron" and should be able to ask such things from us.
I proceeded to (in character) give him the tongue lashing of a lifetime and told him that if his idea of patronage was that we come to a far away city at his behest whereupon he charges us rent to stay at his house while we risk our lives and immortal souls by battling a cult of demon summoners free of charge, that I'd like to consider another line of less dangerous work for better pay. Say being a busboy or somesuch.
He parted with some coin soon thereafter.
On the other hand, in the last campaign I ran, the party helped to liberate a nearby town from the hands of some Gnolls and in the process recovered some lost treasure that had been stowed away when the town was sacked by barbarians some 20 years earlier. When some of the townsfolk who had survived that raid wanted a portion of the treasure back, some members of the party got a bit touchy about it.
It was true that the party was generally regarded as heroes and people respected their deeds. But at the same time, not one character in the group had a non-negative charisma modifier (note: these weren't munchkin power gamers who all used Cha as a dump stat. It was valid with all the character concepts. They just hadn't noticed that they lacked a "front man".). When I pointed this out, they conceeded that there might be a reason that they were less well liked than they might otherwise be considered. They donated a portion of the treasure to the town but still got to keep a decent share.
Last edited:
arwink
Clockwork Golem
Steverooo said:
Actually, yes. The PC I had in the game had made a living as part of a patrol ship that hunted pirates, and was laden with skills such as sailing and cooking that fit into the role, and building towards skills that would enable him to captain a ship
Personally, it wasn't paying them a portion of the salvage to the ship that bothered me - it was a session or two later when they started to charge us for the opportunity to save their town. Things probably weren't helped by having a primarily chaotic group lead by a LN hextorite cleric...
schporto
First Post
Man. I have an original Sinister secret of Saltmarsh. Did they reprint that? You are draggin up some old memories. Then again there's some not so old ones. We ran through it a few months ago. We ended up not wanting to pay the taxes. Left town with the ship. Hired a few crew (it is a poor town). Sailed down the coast till we found a cheaper tax place. Kinda fun.
-cpd
-cpd
The Blue Elf
First Post
schporto said:
Well it has to do with leadership if you can't handle the leader I think you should kill the leader and make sure its a sneak attack.
(contact)
Explorer
"You were put here to protect us / But who protects us from you"
--KRS One
D&D kind of assumes 2 distinct economies-- the adventurer's economy, and the common economy. You're making an appeal to the latter to justify the former. Sorry, but it doesn't fly.
A skilled craftsman (not a farmer, mind, but a glassblower or master smith) earns half his check in gold pieces per week of dedicated work (PHB, pg. 72)-- the town's master craftsman with a +12 check (assuming 10 ranks and a +2 mod), could expect to earn about 10 gp. per week on average (assuming he takes no holidays, that winds up at 520 gp per year.
So, we can surmise that your average adventurer makes more on his 1st level adventures than a very well-to-do commoner (meaning, non-nobility) does in a year.
Untrained laborers (like well-diggers) earn about 1 sp per day (PHB, pg. 72), and as they almost certainly take no holidays, that pans out to almost four gold pieces per year.
Four. Almost.
So in order for the PCs to adventure "without having to worry about digging wells ," we see that the town would owe them approximately 2 gold and 4 silver per adventurer as a six-month retainer.
If the town wishes to pay out their adventurers with a higher level of status, they would need to fork out about 260 gp per adventurer for the same six-month period. Most likely, they'd pay out monthly (since adventurers often don't make it).
-----
That said, if I were the townfolk, I would shoot myself in the face with a heavy crossbow before I'd ask a priest of Hextor for help with *anything*. Nothing against the Story Hour or the character, he's great, but Hextor is not nice, and neither are his priests.
Now if you're the king, you're awful glad the Hextorians are the ones forcing your peasent levees to hold their spear-hedge against a calvary charge, but other than that? Fuhgeddaboutit. Lawful. Evil.
In fact, I'd send a message post haste to the nearest temple of Heironious mentioning his presence, and seeing if I couldn't get some kind of "race to save the town" brotherly competition going.
--KRS One
Lela said:
D&D kind of assumes 2 distinct economies-- the adventurer's economy, and the common economy. You're making an appeal to the latter to justify the former. Sorry, but it doesn't fly.
A skilled craftsman (not a farmer, mind, but a glassblower or master smith) earns half his check in gold pieces per week of dedicated work (PHB, pg. 72)-- the town's master craftsman with a +12 check (assuming 10 ranks and a +2 mod), could expect to earn about 10 gp. per week on average (assuming he takes no holidays, that winds up at 520 gp per year.
So, we can surmise that your average adventurer makes more on his 1st level adventures than a very well-to-do commoner (meaning, non-nobility) does in a year.
Untrained laborers (like well-diggers) earn about 1 sp per day (PHB, pg. 72), and as they almost certainly take no holidays, that pans out to almost four gold pieces per year.
Four. Almost.
So in order for the PCs to adventure "without having to worry about digging wells ," we see that the town would owe them approximately 2 gold and 4 silver per adventurer as a six-month retainer.
If the town wishes to pay out their adventurers with a higher level of status, they would need to fork out about 260 gp per adventurer for the same six-month period. Most likely, they'd pay out monthly (since adventurers often don't make it).
-----
That said, if I were the townfolk, I would shoot myself in the face with a heavy crossbow before I'd ask a priest of Hextor for help with *anything*. Nothing against the Story Hour or the character, he's great, but Hextor is not nice, and neither are his priests.
Now if you're the king, you're awful glad the Hextorians are the ones forcing your peasent levees to hold their spear-hedge against a calvary charge, but other than that? Fuhgeddaboutit. Lawful. Evil.
In fact, I'd send a message post haste to the nearest temple of Heironious mentioning his presence, and seeing if I couldn't get some kind of "race to save the town" brotherly competition going.
