ZEITGEIST Q's About Running the Zeitgeist AP [my players keep out!]

[Tormyr]

Thanks for the helpful replies. I have another question.

This one's about how the PCs requisition equipment. I was confused by the "stipend" and "requisitioning" rules in the 5e Player's Guide, but comparing to the Pathfinder version it looks like the stipend is supposed to be a fund for the PC to buy all the equipment they need, except in 5e you can't really buy magic items so they're dispensed separately. Is that right?

Given that, I'd like to keep things simple and do it the Pathfinder way - PCs pay for magic items out of their stipend. I haven't GM'd 5e before but I don't see a problem with purchasing magic items given that I control the PCs' budget and also the supply of magic items. I can set prices based on the broad guidelines in the DMG.

Is that reasonable?

This is how I ran it, and it worked really well.

Stipend: Use as is. This is the money the PCs receive instead of rolling every NPC for their pocket change.

Requisition: This is how the PCs receive items. I had the PCs requisition items by paying the quartermaster from their stipend. If they return an item, they get the value back. I used the following values for items:
Common 50 gp
Uncommon 500 gp
Rare 5,000 gp
Very Rare 50,000 gp
Legendary 500,000 gp
Artifact - Uncommon to Very Rare depending on how good it is. There are a few artifacts that are very low level.

If an item was a magic version of a mundane item, you add the magic cost to the mundane cost (like a +1 plate would be 6,500 for the plate plus the rare). Items requisitioned from the quartermaster can be sold back to the quartermaster at full price. Consumed consumable items can't be sold back. Nowadays, I would use the rarity prices in the 2024 DMG.

Prestige: The 5e version introduced limits to what the PCs could requisition by how much the RHC trusts them with their toys. Since 5e had so few Common magic items, I moved the Common items to Uncommon.

Party Risur Prestige 0. No magic items granted.
Party Risur Prestige 1. One Uncommon item per constable.
Party Risur Prestige 2. Two Uncommon items per constable. Two Uncommon items for the unit.
Party Risur Prestige 3. Four Uncommon per constable. Two Rare items for the unit.
Party Risur Prestige 4. Five Uncommon items, and one Rare item per constable. One Very Rare item for the unit.
Party Risur Prestige 5. Six Uncommon, one Rare, and one Very Rare item per constable.
Party Risur Prestige 6. Eight Uncommon items, one Rare, and one Very Rare item per constable. One Legendary item for the unit.

If you use the gp values above, you can skip this, or better yet, use the prices from the 2024 DMG.

 

[Tormyr]

I have a firearms document for 5e that I think provides a good bridge from Pathfinder guns (which the AP expects) and something which I feel better fits the 5e way of doing things.

I also rearranged the prestige classes as feats, which I think fits better into how 5e handles classes. Prestige classes interfere too much with 5e class progression.

DM me if you are interested in either.

 

[Len]

D&D is mainly paperwork, so one of my players and I have been making fillable versions of some of the forms that the Royal Homeland Constabulary would use.

• RHC-728 Equipment Requisition
• RHC-499 Expenses
• RHC-63 Confiscated Goods
• RHC-247 Leave Request

This is supposed to be a questions thread, so: What other RHC forms would be"useful"?

 

[Andrew Moreton]

Yes, the pathfinder approach works fine. I have no idea how you would do it in 5th ed as the magic item system is probably worse than 2nd edition D+D. The only thing to consider is that in some adventures the pc's won't easily be able to equip themselves when they level up, I issued more gear than matched their level at the start of a scenario and then letting them equip again at the next opportunity.
I had no problem with the pc's being RHC agents until the end of episode 9 , they just moved from low level street agents to senior investigative agents assigned to the Ob case and reporting directly to Harkover Lee and the king

 

[Len]

This is supposed to be a questions thread, so: What other RHC forms would be"useful"?

One of my players just asked for a my-kid-is-making-me-late-for-tonight's-game form.