OOC: The hunt for the blue palace (Troika!/Yoon-Suin, full for now).

[Ancalagon]

Here is where we can discuss the game out of character, and where I will post the rules and settings information

In character thread: The Hunt for the Blue Palace (Yoon Suin/Troika!)
Rogue Gallery: OSR - RG: The Hunt for the Blue Palace

 

[Ancalagon]

I won't be able to post all the Troika! rules, but here are the basics:

To do a skill check: Roll 2d6, roll equal or under your skill

To do a skill check you have an advanced skill in, add the rank to your skill. For example, if our lawyer (skill 5) is trying to convince someone politely (etiquette 2), he has to roll 7 or under on a 2d6.

To do an opposed skill check (such as an attack): You now want to roll high. Roll skill (+ advanced skill if any) + 2d6, vs the same for your opponent. Nothing happens on a tie, unless the player does a luck test to win the tie. Whoever wins the check hits the other - so it's possible for an attacker to end up being the one injured! This only applies in melee - ranged combat is much safer/smarter/cowardly.

For example, if our temple knight is hitting a gremlin, he would roll 2d6+4+1 (sword) vs the gremlin's 2d6+4.

If you roll a 12, mighty blow! do double damage. If both roll a 12, both weapons shatter!

Casting a spell: It's a skill check. Each spell has a stamina cost, no matter if you pass or fail. If you roll 12, it's an OOPS and something bad/funny happens.

To do a luck test: To avoid an effect like a spell, to break a tie, or to improve your damage roll by 2, roll equal or under your luck on 2d6. Every time you test your luck, it goes down by 1 (you can run out of luck!). However, it "heals" partially during a long rest.

To heal: eating a provision heals 1d6 stamina (max 3/day), resting (8 ish hours sleep) heals 2d6. There are other forms of healing (potions, an afternoon at the bathouse...). The skill healing is used to stabilize dying people, identify and cure illnesses etc. Luck heals 2d6 per long rest (8 hours of sleep or similar rest).

Armor: Skill with your weapon of choice, diplomacy, good running shoes and luck are your best bet. However armor and shield can help. Light, Modest and Heavy armor reduces the damage dice by 1, 2 or 3. A shield reduces it by another 1. The damage dice can't be reduced below 1.

Damage: Roll 1d6 and compare to this handy chart: (you might want to copy the relevant line on your character sheet )

Encumbrance: You can carry up to 12 items (a sword, a shield. Two handed weapons count for 2). Provision are kept in a side bag or something (ie it doesn't count, but don't go nuts folks). Armor takes 2 encumbrance per category (so 6 for heavy armor)... I guess this is why the party needs the porter

Initiative: The Troika! initiative system is super cool buuuut it won't work with play by post. So just post and I'll adjucate who goes first etc.

Dying: If a character has zero Stamina or less, said character collapses. The other players have one round to do something about it, or the character dies. If you die... well a new character shows up shortly thereafter.


That's about it. There are more details, but if you know this, you can play Troika! @winginlbear , did I forget something important?

 

[Ancalagon]

The setting: Yoon Suin.

I'll start with some Slugman information because we have a slugman character, so they can better prepare said character:

• In the Yellow City, Slugmen form the ruling class. They alone can own property (land and building), and it is a crime to kill a slugman - but not a human, dwarf or crabman.
• Slugmen are hermaphrodites, ie genderless. However, some of them do decide to adopt a gender - (ie you can be whatever gender you choose)
• Slugmen are obsessed about 3 things above all else - tea, opium and knowledge.
• There are 57 slugmen noble house. 17 of them are on the ruling Council, and hold key trade monopolies. 9 are involved in criminal activities, and the remainder are lesser houses, more focused on scholarly pursuit. You get to decide what kind of house you are involved in.
• Slugmen often are capable of wielding magic. This is extremely important for them, because only magic users are given the life extending Yellow Tea, increasing their lifespan to 150-250 years. Without it, a slugman lives perhaps 50 years or so. However, they are often lazy - many, once they have gained a spell or 3, stop trying.
• Slugmen's language is partially pheromone based, and can't be understood or spoken by humans. However, they have a hard time with some of the human syllables. As a result, the Trade Tongue of the yellow city is one designed so that everyone can speak to one another.

Typical slugmen names: Po LE, Afagu, Malaba, Kaleva, Wulele, Eki Ulele, Befi, Papali, Hapa U, Polaha Vo

The Yellow City:
The Yellow City is built on a series of islands forming the delta of the Mighty God River. It is ancient, and its building are often built of topaz-flecked stone, hence its name. It is ruled by the Slugmen (about 10 000) but the city itself is much larger with over 300 000 inhabitants. The city is surrounded by the impenetrable Jungle of Lahag. As such, it is the only port providing access to the Yoon Suin region, which has made the Slugmen very wealthy. It is also known as the City of Gods due to its hundreds of cults, the City of Whores, the Great Stink, the First City...

The Yellow City used to be bigger, and areas that have been abandoned have been overgrown. Although not as dangerous as Lahag, decent people do not go there - there are monsters, bandits, criminals, exiled cultists and worse who live among its ruins. Still, from time to time great treasures can be found.

The laws of the Yellow City:
- As noted above, only slugmen have full legal protection. However, you can't have a functioning city and full-on anarchy. Human local merchants are often middlemen and service providers, and foreign merchants are respected. Several power groups provide informal policing in various portions of the city - protection rackets actually do protect a bit, some cults are actively hunting violent criminals (like the cult of Vanuk The Retributer), and even the local warehouse workers will gang up and give a drubbing to troublemakers. The end result is that you can get away with violence in the city, but there will often be lots of witnesses, and if your violence has consequences will depend a lot on the circumstances, and if the victims have friends...

The lands of Yoon Suin: You can see a map here: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TRuVyiVDAxU/hqdefault.jpg

Beyond Yoon-Suin
Yoon-Suin's main trading partner is Xian, 3 months away by ship. Lots of high value goods are exchanged, and there is even a number of Xian inhabitants who have made the Yellow City their home. Lands beyond Xian are strange and mysterious. One island nation in particular is noted for the sharpness of their swords and the martial prowess of their lawyers...
More recently, ships have been coming from the far west - Occidentalia - bringing in new goods, ideas and visitors. They are over 6 months away by ship, and the volume of trade is far smaller.
Lastly, there has been rumors of a special port in the Topaz isles being built, to accept flying golden barges. Where do these golden barges come from is a matter of intense speculation in the Yellow City.

Edit: the local area: The Grain District - a part of the Yellow City

Edit 2: The Lamarakhi: The Lamarkhi inhabit the the many branches of the God River and its surrounding jungle (not Lahag). They are a boat people, rarely settling down, always traveling. They are vital to the economy of Yoon Suin and carry small fortunes in their boats for a modest fee - there is no other realistic way to move goods around. Lamarakhi pride themselves on their honesty and reliability, and will not tolerate being cheated. Sadly a few of them have fallen into piracy, and as a result the Lamarakhi know how to fight. They favor short wavy stabbing swords, javelins, poison darts, and wear dark blue clothing. They are not known to be powerful mages, but are noted for their art of enchanted tattoos and the crafting of Kojo stick, which they burn and inhale the smoke, sometimes to wondrous effect. Their language and customs are strange, even outlandish, but they are a vital part of Yoon Suin.

 

[Fradak]

Just a few questions:

Do the trial by combat law system is in effect in the Yellow City? Or is it something from beyond Xian only?
Are there any special laws we have to comply? Like looking at a noble Slugmen in the eye is punished by death or something.
Is magic a common thing?

 

[Fradak]

I think the handy chart is missing. Found this, is that the one?

Melee	1	2	3	4	5	6	7+
Unarmed	1	1	1	2	2	3	4
Sword	4	6	6	6	6	8	10
Axe	2	2	6	6	8	10	12
Knife	2	2	2	2	4	8	10
Staff*	2	4	4	4	4	6	8
Spear	4	4	6	6	8	8	10
Longsword*	4	6	8	8	10	12	14
Mace#	2	4	4	6	6	8	10
Polearm*#	2	4	4	8	12	14	18
Maul*#	1	2	3	6	12	13	14
Greatsword*	2	4	8	10	12	14	18
Club#	1	1	2	3	6	8	10
Shield	2	2	2	4	4	6	8

Ranged	1	2	3	4	5	6	7+
Fusil*	2	4	4	6	12	18	24
Bow*	2	4	6	8	8	10	12
Crossbow*	4	4	6	8	8	8	10
Pistolet	2	2	4	4	6	12	16

* two handed weapon, # heavy percussive weapon ignores 1 pt of armour

 

[Ancalagon]

Thank you, I had uploaded it but it went missing... how strange!

 

[Ancalagon]

Just a few questions:

Do the trial by combat law system is in effect in the Yellow City? Or is it something from beyond Xian only?
Are there any special laws we have to comply? Like looking at a noble Slugmen in the eye is punished by death or something.
Is magic a common thing?

Hello

Trial by Combat is a Beyond Xian thing only (and ironically, also present in Occidentalia). I'll post a bit more about laws in the setting post above, but briefly no you don't have to avoid looking a slugman in the eye or anything like that, but it it is quite unwise to be too disrespectful - slugmen have a lot of social power.

Magic is a common thing. About 80% of slugmen know magic (although full blown wizards are a minority among them). Among human it's rarer, but not that rare (5%? 10%?). Archmages are usually humans however - slugmen tend to be dablers and lazy, and the powerful/energetic ones are too busy running their mercantile empires to be fully devoted to wizardy.

 

[wingilbear]

Nice, I am from a lesser house of course and can speak the slugman language but no magic

 

[Ancalagon]

Nice, I am from a lesser house of course and can speak the slugman language but no magic

Cool - you are from the House of Leaves, which specializes in Botany - you totally don't fit in. If after this adventure everyone is like "this was so cool let's keep going!" then it might become important (also XP becomes a thing, you might learn magic or become a better swordsman etc), but for now we'll keep it simple.

@JustinCase I'm going to start the ball rolling, I hope you can jump in soon

 

[wingilbear]

Remember there are three little channels for this character storage, in character, out of character