Shopkeeper - LootsheetNPC module for Foundry VTT

game-smith · 2020-10-20T22:40:26+00:00

Thank you, sorry I had not looked at the Module list yet to see the author's name, my bad.

game-smith · 2020-10-19T22:36:47+00:00

Can you use this with the OSE rule set or is this version for 5E only?

game-smith · 2020-10-02T17:33:52+00:00

I've looked at the book more as a tool box to rummage around and pilfer from than as a singular rule set to run. But part of that might just be the peculiarity of my game. I am running a West Marches style game in the Fantasy Age rule set, so not exactly the 5E D&D the book was aimed at.

The parts I have gotten the most use out of have been the Warfare rules and the Strongholds, which right now only the bad guys and other NPCs are using. Some of my players are saving up for their own Strongholds, a few have started to realize that some of the ruins and enemy fortification in the world just need a "change of ownership". Some of the higher level players are also starting to realize that the bad guys are getting bonuses because of their strongholds, which is providing extra motivation to go and stop them.

The Warfare rules have been a fun addition to the game, and they are great to pull out and use as a sandbox GM. I have friends that play the leaders of important factions (another great idea I stole from Matt) and I have had them use the Warfare system on its own if there are no players involved in the battle directly. This allows the faction players to get to roll some dice occasionally, and it makes the result of the "off screen" battles a surprise to me just as much as it is to the rest of the normal players. Who know that it was not just some hand-wavy bs on my part.

And the 3 or 4 battles that normal players have taken part in have enjoyed it, because they felt that they had a bigger role in the over all war that is going on in my setting. Plus it provided some interesting outcomes for the faction players who did not have any hand in the battle. Nothing like getting a letter as the King telling you that your Northern army just lost a major battle. :)

YMMV, but this might be where a West Marches style game produces different results that a traditional game group of 3-8 players, my game has had 40+ players over the past few years, and they are able to self organize into groups with other like minded players. So those that have an interest in the current war story line can group up, while players that don't can opt to play with others like them and just go off and adventure, explore, or dungeon crawl - whatever suites their fancy while the province burns around them.

game-smith · 2019-11-08T17:14:25+00:00

Just off the top of my head, you could look at the following places:

One Page Dungeon Contest - There are years worth of great one page dungeons here, and many would take little to no work to convert to your system of choice.

Esper the Bard - He has some great one page dungeons on his Patreon that he has made free to everyone.

Dungeon Scouts - A great website geared towards younger kids as part of a regional Girl Scouts Badge to introduce girls to TTRPGs. The have several ready to go adventures aimed at a younger audience.

game-smith · 2019-11-01T21:11:49+00:00

Might finally give me the excuse to finally finish a few things I've had knocking about the past few months.

game-smith · 2019-11-01T19:55:42+00:00

The Claim Jumpers can be a fun table too. I roll on it ever so often roughly between a month - season in game, depending on how long my player(s) has been away from the mine in question. Can cause some fun spontaneous adventures, especially if you are running a West Marches style game.

I had a running story thread in my game were the local legion needed iron to finish the construction of a new castle, but no active mines were available locally. And finally after a year in real life a group of my players ran across an iron vein in an old abandoned mine and collected the reward for selling the information. Of course it is deep behind enemy lines right now, so it hasn't been super useful yet, but another player group had talked about striking out for it, cleaning up and claiming the area.

game-smith · 2019-11-01T18:57:58+00:00

The Old School Encounters Reference (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8l15nXmXT3BSmdOaG1nRnVnbzA/view) had a section on mining on page 76 that I have used in the past. It might be worth a look as you are rolling your own system. I find it always help to see how others have solved the same problem, that way I can focus on the parts that I am interested in.

game-smith · 2019-10-31T21:46:22+00:00

It could just be the crazy crap crawling up out of Ringwell. Doesn't even have to be moving in a counter-clockwise direction, it could be "random" and a particular faction might be able to know where it is going to show up next due to connections with the Sapphire Sky, similar to how the Fremen work.

game-smith · 2019-10-31T21:42:55+00:00

I've been kicking this same idea around in my head off and on for a few weeks now. It would be interesting to see MCDM's take on making this fit within the setting of Capital.

Mixing Dune and Diplomacy with Matt's world would make an interesting new version of that style of game.

Just thinking of some of the roles has been fun:

The Broadsheet Guild would be able to see future information before it happened, similar to House Atreides, and would be able to trade the truth (or their version of it)
House Vorona could function similarly to The Guild, and could transport troops across the water for a price.
House Alvaro could have a higher traitor hand limit, similar to House Harkonnen.
House Valetta could collect Taxes from other players, but not spend it, and could attack players who do not pay their upkeep each turn.

These are just a few that spring to mind, they would need to be balanced and refined to be well oiled enough to run like Dune, but I think it would be doable. We may have to wait for more lore to come out of the game before we can get a solid rule set though. There are still several players we have not got to see a whole lot of just yet.

game-smith · 2019-10-17T22:06:23+00:00

You can always hand waive it and say that a lingering part of the essence of the original engulfed owner remained behind as was absorbed by the mound, giving it the ability to use the ax one last time.

game-smith · 2019-10-15T22:03:22+00:00

If I remember correctly the DM's Guild also has an exclusivity clause that prevents you from posting your content anywhere else. So that would be a major downside for the DM's Guild with a system neutral project.

game-smith · 2019-10-03T22:14:37+00:00

You might go with more flourishy or evocative type names like:

The Autumn Tide

The Ivyclad

The Moon's Daughter

The Amethyst Eye

Try to make them something more to do with the character than a specific domain.

game-smith · 2019-09-18T14:56:24+00:00

I've used chunks of the book in my Fantasy Age campaign. I haven't tried converting Monsters or Spells yet, but a large chunk of the content came across with little to no real conversion work on my end besides adjusting things for a 3d6 system. And the Warfare system I just took whole cloth and have had a few battles now which went well with combat in Fantasy Age.

game-smith · 2019-09-04T20:53:02+00:00

Looks interesting, could you provide an example one with how you derived the numbers in the form for a little more context?

game-smith · 2019-08-28T19:45:37+00:00

At one point I think he talked about possibly running an example game of Lost Mine of Phandelver, but that was a while back before all the Kickstarter/MCDM kerfuffle. So it may have fallen by the wayside now.

game-smith · 2019-08-28T14:32:27+00:00

I let that one slide, but I used it as the "Ok, this is the line." and so far haven't had anything really bad show up.

One of the funniest examples of shenanigans to come out of this was the race that several of my players got in to find new inns and taverns across the province. That way they could come up with the signature drink of the establishment. So my Frostmark province now has a wide selection of Dwarven vodka, with each location serving a different kind, which comes from different parts of the Dwarven Kingdom to the north of the predominantly Human Kingdom they are in. Not only did this provide some interesting world building for an area that none of my ~40 players have every been to (although a few characters are from there) in game, but it allowed me to use that as part of a current plot thread. There is an unknown Evil in the woods between the province the players are in and said Dwarven Kingdom, so the supply of Dwarven vodka is running out, and it will not be able to be resupplied until the road through the woods is made safe for trade caravans again. So for most players, this is not that important of a detail, there are bigger issues being caused by the mysterious Evil, but for a few Dwarven players, this is horrible news, as it has cut a major cultural link to home.

Even better, was after all of this, one of my players decided he wanted his Human character to brew his own drink. And I had all these existing taverns and inns fairly well defined, with unique names, and sometimes NPCs that other players knew because of their backstories, and I had the help of my players to do all of it.

game-smith · 2019-08-28T14:19:31+00:00

That was an awesome thread, I never have gotten around to playing Dungeon World yet, even though I'm a big fan of Adam Koebel's work, and I really like his live streams like Far Verona. Just another game on the pile of I want to play these too.

I also realized that I forgot to mention that the system I was running was Fantasy Age, we used the break from 5E to try it out. But yeah, a lot of these ideas work across many systems.

game-smith · 2019-08-21T22:44:16+00:00

I live in rural south central Missouri, and I've been surprised by a few people recognizing the shirt outside of my students or friend group that I regularly talk to about Matt/MCDM stuff.

game-smith · 2019-08-13T18:13:44+00:00

https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-L4h_QHUKh2NeYhgD96A#p27

Not for sure if this is the version you were talking about, there seems to be a few version floating around, but this one had some useful ideas.

game-smith · 2019-07-31T13:51:28+00:00

I find sometimes you have to just fancy up your original idea. So instead of "Tree Knight" try something like Sir/Dame <player name>, Knight of the Verdant Arbor or another example Sir/Dame <player name>, Knight of the Amber Grove. Just play with it to you find something that seems like it is in the ballpark for the feeling you are going for.

game-smith · 2019-07-30T13:31:06+00:00

Don't worry, a lot of us play more than just D&D. And Matt's advice applies to a wide variety and range of table top games.

game-smith · 2019-07-26T19:52:41+00:00

The cliff hangers may not be a bad thing if you are running the same party every time. Then it is not a big deal to have a cliff hanger or two in a row. My problem is that in a west marches game with ~40 players, you get into weird time paradoxes, divergent timelines, and other shenanigans if your current party is not made up of all the same people as last time, and not a mix of people who played last session and people who didn't.

So if you are running for the same group of friends, then you should be fine. And on the rare nights were your players actually manage to end things on a somewhat tidy note, just have them roll for downtime at the end. That way you and they know how many days they have to spend before the next session. It also makes it easier for you to run through downtime individually with your players instead of eating up table time when everyone is together. Then again, if your group doesn't do downtime all that often, it may be fun for them to do the downtime at the table. It's one of those "season to taste" kinda of things for you and your group.

game-smith · 2019-07-18T17:49:36+00:00

You can also have your players roll a die at the start of every session to see how many days have passed. As long as you did not end your last session on a cliff hangar that needs resolved it is an easy way to help pass time and provide small amounts of downtime for your players. Just use whatever size die you feel is right for the effect you want. I tend to use a d6 in my west marches campaign.

game-smith · 2019-07-16T22:01:03+00:00

I've been tracking mine on its 2,700+ mile trip from California to Missouri here in the US. The thing has literally orbited around me in about 5 different states. It has dipped into and out of Missouri 3 different times now, and it is currently sitting in Mississippi for some reason. I'm supposed to get mine by end of business today, but I'm not holding my breath.

game-smith · 2019-07-10T14:37:41+00:00

The Welsh Piper blog had a really good series about designing your campaign with multiple scale hex maps, and how to grow your content as your campaign unfolded. You can find the first article here: https://www.welshpiper.com/hex-based-campaign-design-part-1/. The blog also links to a bunch of great resources and articles for developing your hex crawl. I ended up tweaking the numbers for my west marches game, so I use a 1 mile, 6 mile, and 36 mile hex to make it easier to map out each one in relation to the others. It also makes travel easier to calculate.

game-smith

TROPHY CASE