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12-14-2018, 08:29 AM
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#1 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pacheco, California
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Civilized Places
Under the reasonable assumption that the PCs are the worst monsters of all, aren't most of their adventures going to be these merry band of misfits against the structures of society?
Therefore I'm more interested in filling in what these more or less civilized places look like, given the laws of their reality. I've started with the Gate Station and the Goblin's Fortress of Sorcery, so what are you working on? * What are the layouts for various sizes of Wizard's Guild? * How do you protect a bank against bandits who can turn stone into air? * Page 60: "In large cities, the Guildhall will be like a small village unto itself; the convalescents, cripples, and retired fighters learn and practice other trades. The Guildhall is usually fortified, just on general principles" Map? * What's a Centaur village look like? One big barn or a bunch of little mangers?
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-HJC |
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12-14-2018, 01:21 PM
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#2 |
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Join Date: May 2015
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Re: Civilized Places
Your posts seem to emphasize a view that there would be one result, but I tend to think there can be many results, depending greatly on what the demographics are like of how many people have what sets of attribute values and spells and talents, and what the situation is like that governs who does what and in what way, and who chooses to do what.
Where I think there is more of a cause & effect concern is where there are specific things that can be done with reasonably limited groups of people that make something else very vulnerable, e.g.: * No secure buildings protected by only a one-hex wall, because one Open Tunnel will get through it. So people who want to be proof against moderate-power rogue wizards need more than a wall, such as some guards, multiple doors, etc. * No casual renting out of very expensive magic items to people without security/contingency/deposit or some counter to the likelihood of theft. And, considering who else with more wealth/power would get such items before they were commonly available. * If there are large-scale gate networks, consider what all the powers that be will do about them. I can think of many different answers that seem far more likely than it just being a low-cost resource for everyone to go anywhere at will. * Some spells do seem very problematic to me in terms of potential for espionage, assassination, and other mischief. As written, I think they suggest a very nasty situation, which tends to make me want to alter the spells, e.g.: Astral Projection, Summon (Lesser/Greater) Demon (even just for attack purposes), some uses of Gate, some uses of Word of Command, some uses of Lesser Wish, industrial Wish generation. Wizards' Guild chapter houses I have laid out vary quite a bit by size and the nation/culture they are in. Typical ones in a large city tend to be a large building in the middle of large town with a strong connections to the local government and guard. They tend to have a perimeter in grounds and/or outer sections which at least prevent observation and may have various defenses and/or alarms, and public reception areas and other barriers to the more secure sections. Usually there are various offices, one or more libraries, stores, vaults, labs, often a gate room or two with 0 or a few gates with fairly high fees and limited access, and some meeting and administative rooms, a few guard rooms, etc. When there isn't enough wealth/wizards/etc for such an elaborate hall, often the hall is not so much a secure headquarters as a token office, and the wizards have their own offices/residences which rely more on secrecy, vigilance and contingencies for defenses. In places with less organized guilds, it's more just wizards making their own arrangements. Some places have entirely different arrangements, particularly countries with more dominant aristocratic/military elements. There the guild may be subordinate to the ruling class or military, and their locations and defenses combined in one way or another. When I've had centaurs, they've tended to not build much. But the more I think about centaurs, the less I tend to have them exist anywhere in my campaigns. |
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12-14-2018, 02:37 PM
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#3 | |
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pacheco, California
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Re: Civilized Places
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If you don't want to get stranded without warning then you need hubs that are constantly monitored by persons skilled enough to fix things up. These people need the incentive of getting paid to study up that much and show up for work everyday. This requires an income stream to pay them and constant use to hone their skills. Fare prices need to be low enough so that the traffic can afford to pay these fares. For example Amtrak is $12 to get to the nearest station in a population whose median income is $83 a day. (Two trips a day is 29% of income.) My gate network is two silvers per one-way trip in a population whose median income is ten silvers a day. (Two trips a day is 40% of income.)
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-HJC Last edited by hcobb; 12-14-2018 at 03:03 PM. |
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12-14-2018, 05:52 PM
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#4 | ||||||
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Join Date: May 2015
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Re: Civilized Places
I'm interested in economic observations, but I don't get why you keep stating economic ideas as absolute forcing functions.
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For gates that someone really needs to continue to be available and are unwilling to risk having go down, then they can take a few approaches, such as: * Don't let anyone else use the gate till they get back. * Have a way to re-establish a new gate if/when needed. * Have maintenance staff ready to stabilize during times when the gates are in use. Only gates that both must never go down and must constantly be used need constant maintenance crews on standby. And, there are many other mindsets besides needing to be dependent on gates. I tend to think gates being available, especially for constant public use, would tend to rather be the exception than the rule. And I tend to prefer it that way unless I want that as a conspicuous feature of the world, as easy available gates tend to be one type of "convenience magic" that removes a major interesting element from the game situation - namely, the terrain and the situations it creates. Quote:
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The model we used worked well enough to pay people. I.e. You charge enough that it's worth a wizard's effort to occasionally make gates as he travels around from place to place, and the fee pays him, occasional repair staff when available, and makes a bit of profit, and maybe you don't really mind all that much if occasionally a gate breaks down. The more you charge, the more you make per gate, unless you charge so much that no one bothers, but the value of a gate passage can be huge, since it allows someone to safely and instantly travel to a distant place with no need for food, guards, risks, etc. Many people will pay $100 to avoid several days of travel. That's an average of $21,600 per gate! Or charge $46 and average $10,000 per gate - not bad at all. The creator's cut should be plenty of incentive for travelling wizards to bother to set up gate ends as they go about. And you only get the better class of people who can afford that, and fewer of them (which is good for guild hall security and manageability, and less concern for local authorities wondering who is blinking in and out of their towns from where). Quote:
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