Name Change

When I first named this blog I did a search or two and didn't see any results with Grindstone in them. I liked the alliteration with the G and the insinuation of sharpening. When I did another search recently there were tons of results for Grindstone. At least two of which are actually about games: Grindstone Game and Grindstone Games.  It appears they aren't about Table Top RPG but still the naming is too close,  I don't have any games out, and I'm still virtually unknown, so it seems best that I just change my name.

Changing Grindstone in the URL seems overly complicated. If there is an easy way to do it someone please let me know because it looks like I'd have to create a new one and then add a forward and/or upload the old content to the new blog. I might do that over time, we'll see.

Until then I need to figure out a new name. Since a lot of what I do is cleaning up and combining maps really old Public Domain maps, and pulling apart and rewriting existing games and game elements I was thinking Reskinned Games might be nice. Or retread or recycled. The R's go with Ruprecht after all. So my header may be changing a bit and posting might be light as I figure it out. 

Best of the Web: Caves and Props, and Holmes Basic

 I stumbled across an old post by Skerpsies over at Coins and Scrolls. The post is called OSR: Caves and Props. Basically it is an alternate cave creation system to the one in Veins of the Earth. I loved reading Veins of the Earth but don't think I could ever use it. I should say I don't think I could ever get my players to stay down in that hostile environment for more than a session without collapsing caves behind them and forcing them forward. Caves however, I love the idea of caves.

I also love maps and Veins of the Earth's system is more of a point-crawl. There is an example of a cave map using the system in the Skerpsies post. I like the idea of a point-crawl but damn-it I love maps. So use a real cave map you might say. Well Skerpsies includes a good exa mple of one of those as well and they are so crazy as to make it impossible to describe. That natural result is simplified caves like those in Caves of Chaos that aren't really caves so much as soft-edged dungeons, more like the simple carved caves in this video than caves.

Skerpsies answer is simple and brilliant and three dimensional. I like it but need to do it on the computer. Using Sketchup or something like the old blob-based 3d modeling. Anyway it got my brain racing so I had to post about it so I can find it later.

Pits Perilous has an interesting post called Holmes as a Complete Game, Redux in which he discusses using the old Holmes basic rules to create a game limited to three levels. It was a followup to his post Holmes as a Complete game. I find the idea intriguing. The minimalism is nice, but I'm not sold on just three levels. In the old game you create a character through play, and in this case they are retiring before you know much about them. Still I like the idea and would love it if someone wrote up Endgame rules for those veteran 3rd level adventurers.

The Thrill of Resource Management

I've read a bunch of posts on resource management lately. Most have decided that 5E does a poor job of resource management, and they did it back in the day when the game was played a bit differently, and does it even matter anymore? This got me thinking of the two ways I've handled resource management in the past (well three ways but I've never bothered tracking arrows and just assumed the archer recovered the arrows and that seems to be the default out there so I won't cover that).

1. Have the adventurer party buy their resources in quantities aligned with days. Buy five days of food/water and you don't need to worry about tracking day to day, your mission is up at 5 days. Since 5E has long rests that makes a good marker for a single day even if it doesn't align to 24 hours exactly. Make sure the party eats during a long rest or they don't get the benefits and you have a nice marker for used goods. A smart party will take an extra days worth of resources with them just in case. A sneaky GM might decide to spoil the resources for some reason (torches got wet, food got covered in green slime), when that happens they should assume the same standard. Four days worth of torches were destroyed. 
2. Have the players hire a pack bearer to follow behind them carrying the Resources they need to survive in the dark. Have them pay the pack bearer  the listed rates and otherwise ignore the resources, Patsy has that covered. The pack bearer should be assumed to avoid combat and may actually have to be protected but they can cook during those long rests, hold light during combat, and trudge out the treasure in their pack that is now depleted of resources. This bypasses resource management in a playable way.

I've not only used both ideas with some success I've even blended the two. The fun thing about ignoring Resource Management most of the time is when it suddenly matters and players haven't given it any thought before. Patsy is gone and the torches are gone with him, now what? We've got an hour before the torches we've got burn out and it's going to be really, really, dark down here. Most games have fighting in darkness rules and if you're a player you probably don't want to be using them if you don't have to.

Best of the Web - Tom Bombadil, & Clerics

I've read the Lord of the Rings more than once. I've never been a big fan of Tom Bombadil, in fact on more than one occasion I've just skipped those bits. Recently I ran across an old 2011 post on the blog Loose Connections. The post is about Tom Bombadil called Oldest and Fatherless: The Terrible Secret of Tom Bombadil that postulates that old Tom could actually be evil. He admits Tolkien probably didn't plan Tom to be evil but lays out a lot of very convincing evidence. I won't be skipping those bits the next time I read Lord of the Rings, thats for sure.

Currently I'm listening to the audiobook of Paol Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions on my morning dogwalk. I'm not sure what I think about the book at this point, seems very episodic, but one thing that struck me. During the Werewolf episode they brought up the idea that the Lancanthropy might lessen the further they got from the Fairie world. I don't know if I'd ever come across this sort of idea before but I really like it. I've read about spells becoming stronger on different planes and perhaps on Holy or Unholy ground but never things like Lycanthropy. It seems like it would be easy enough to create mechanics for this sort of thing.

Hack & Slash has a post On the Clerics Devotion. The author is down on Clerics and has a replacement idea. He makes some good points but really what it gets down to is Clerics require work from the GM. Worldbuilding work to help them fit into the setting. I don't think any D&D book has been helpful in this regard. They seem to concentrate on the Gods and not on the religion. This is a shame because the beliefs of the people help define a culture. RuneQuest got this right (at least closer to right) in that they spent time on the Cults. Probably too much time to be honest but the cults, the hierarchy of priests and their relationship to the worshipers, holy days and such is far more interesting and important to a campaign than how many HP the god has. That's the sort of thing I've been trying to write up with my recent Chaos Cults. In time I'll re-write a few other religions this way. A monotheistic one for Clerics at least (a rewrite of my old Lough) and a polytheistic one for Druids (who I call Shaman because Druids is way to specific to the Celts). 

Best of the Web - Interesting Factions, Activity tables, and Generator of Missions

Guyeatsfood at Burn After Running has a post titled Interfering Factions – A Technique to Improve Your One-Shot. The idea is really good for one-shots but I'd like to see something similar for a campaign. I'd like to see Adventures include potential hooks based on class, the assumption being that the local Thieves Guild, Wizard's Chantry, Temple, and whomever hires Fighters provide side missions to our friendly adventurers, many of these side missions might be things they share with the party, or which they try to accomplish on their own for selfish reasons. Not sure if this is a rule-type idea (a few such missions are required prior to leveling-up) or one that would just be ad hoc to make things more interesting.

Long ago I posted some encounters tables from d4 Caltrops. These are amazing, I posted a number of them before but he just kept creating more and more and more and I didn't want my Best of the Web dominated by one guy's work. Well now he has a post bringing together all of his OSE Encounter Activity Tables in one place. 

The always reliable Courtney at Hack & Slash has published a post called On a Generator of Missions which is excellent. He also has an advanced version for Pay What you Want at DrivethruRPG.

 

Hembek - Players Map

One of the difficult parts of running an urban campaign is describing the streets. It's easy to describe wilderness and most dungeon rooms but a decent city or town will have a lot going on. And if you want a sandbox its best to give the players maps so they can make decisions and determine where they want to go. This brings us to handouts. Cities of Harn had handouts of the cities but one thing they left off was any sites of interest so I remember a lot of 'where's a tavern?' ' Where's the blacksmith?' Things the players would learn quick enough poking around for an hour or two in most towns.

The Wards are Alphabetical and I've listed the callouts directly on the map and keep the
same numbering so the Players can always say they go to C4 and things are easy for the GM to match up. Also within each Ward the numbering goes clockwise most of the time to make it easier to find things and starts over with each Ward so there is room for future expansion without screwing with the current numbering. 

At some point I'll probably need to name some roads to further simplify navigation but not now.

Hembek - Jembgate Ward, Kruddlestreet Ward, & Limey Ward

Jembgate Ward

Jembgate Ward was outside the wall (along with Kruddlestreet Ward and Limey Ward) until roughly a century ago when the Republic became an Empire and the Grand Council decided the walls should be extended to protect the buildings outside the wall. 

The Ward is filled with Pallas worshipers that wish to be away from the Old Faith influences and political filth ontop of Gull Rock. 

J1 - Jemb Tower

The tower provides access to docks used by fishermen, to the city wall and a well protected tunnel into the Ducal Palace.

J2 - Parish Church of Pallas (St Opiel, Patron of the Moon)

A Parish church that is ready to expand into something bigger. Most notably this church is connected to limestone catacombs within Gull Rock. The catacombs were once Limestone mines but were turned into catacombs long, long ago. The catacombs act as the burial area for the ashes of Pallas worshipers. A number of Pallas Holy figures are interned within and its become somewhat of a pilgrimage site.

J3 - Broken Glaive Tavern 

The tavern is named after the weapon favored by Pallas Regina. The tavern is filled with Pallas worshipers. The owner Yower de Sewlink brews an inferior ale and a superb beer. Tunnels in the rear of the tavern connect to the Gold Scales tavern & thieves Guild in Wesinna ward.

J4 - Blessed Row

When the cliffs of Gull Rock sheared a few decades ago the rubble came down and took out the houses on both sides of Luck row. These houses survived untouched and now have double or triple what the normal market value because they are considered blessed by Pallas and St Suriel Patroness of Luck.

J5 - Townhouses

Most of these large townhouses are subdivided into rental units.

J6 - Steel Tower

A Tower owned by Haldir DeWessen the mercenary commander of the Steel Solution Mercenary company. Haldir has made a lot of money contracting out his trained soldiers as protection for caravan and ships.

Kruddlestreet Ward

Kruddlestreet Ward was outside the wall (along with Jembgate Ward and Limey Ward) until roughly a century ago when the Republic became an Empire and the Grand Council decided the walls should be extended to protect the buildings outside the wall. 

K1 - Parish Church of Pallas (St Karlel patron of Wealth)

The church makes a lot of money from fishermen wishing to have their boats and nets blessed. The Church also buys unsold fish from the local fishermen (at a discount) and cook the fish to feed the urban poor which ensures the local fishermen are never stuck with excess product.

K2 - Fate's Fortune Inn

A Inn/gambling den run by the thieves guild that caters to the locals and pilgrims to the Old Faith Grove. The Inn specializes in watered down ales and meat pies.

K3 - Green Townhouse

The Green Townhouse is painted green. It is subdivided into multiple units and occupied by Old Faith worshipers and are packed with two or three families each. Sometimes these families are related, sometimes they are not. Plans to build additional buildings in the various burbage plots behind the townhouses are everywhere but so far nobody has the wealth do build.

K4 - Multibusiness Townhouse

• Bakery - The baker takes flour from the mills and bake a few wagon-loads of bread every day for sale to the inns and taverns around the city.
• Scribe - The only scribe in Hembek Eric de Hornt reads and writes letters on behalf of the illiterate. Additionally he acts as a primitive postal service using caravans to route letters to the Scribes Guild in other cities for delivery. 
• Barber - Cristiff de Courflon is a Surgeon first, barber second. He spends most of his time setting broken bones and cauterizing limbs. He even has a store of opiates to help with the pain. He knows what he's doing (as much as anyone in this age of medieval medicine knows) and if you've got pains he's the one to call. 

K5 - Kanaris Arena 

This elevated platform has been used by Kanaris templars to fight duels and judicial combat for centuries. It is also used as a nice viewpoint as it has a wonderful view over the river.

Limey Ward

Limey Ward was an area of Lime groves outside the wall (along with Jembgate Ward and Kruddlestreet Ward) until roughly a century ago when the Republic became an Empire and the Grand Council decided the walls should be extended to protect the buildings outside the wall. It is considered the safest of the Wards (when it is considered at all) primarily because the students make up the bulk of the population and they don't have anything anyone wants.

L1 - Old Faith Grove

The oldest place of worship in the city the Old Faith Grove has been drawing shepards and herders to worship for centuries untold. A number of attempts to burn down the grove have been thwarted over the years by Kanaris Templars that always seem to be about. The attempts stopped entirely when the Grand Council gave the Church of Pallas the right to build a University nearby and even the most fanatical Pallas worshiper would not wish to risk the University burning down.

L2 - University Extension

The Grand Council insisted that non-Pallas worshipers must be able to attend the University. The Church of Pallas response was to build an additional dormitory and classrooms and keep the pagans separated.

L3 - University of Hemek

The pride of Pallas Regina. The University of Pallas Regina provides religious indoctrination as well as study in the sciences. It's considered a top university throughout the world although would be considered lacking by modern standards.

L4 - Big Tower

This wide tower houses a dozen guardsmen. The tower has three siege canon and casks of black powder but the guards living in the tower don't know how to use the stuff and are unaware of the explosive danger of the casks.

L5 - Octagonal Tower

The tower is designed with a pass-through, basically a guard walking on the tower walls can pass right through the tower without disturbing the occupant. Marlor lives here (the University pays his rent). He  is a crazy hermit and a worshiper of Pallas Regina. Marlor spends most nights staring at the stars with his primitive telescope and singing to the moon and stars above in some ancient but beautiful language.

L6 - West Gatehouse

Built in 1286, the gatekeeper opens the gate in the morning, collects the toll (1/2 GP per foot, no wagons), and closes the gates in the evening.