More DFRPG questions: Bonus damage, omens, scrap, and flex armor

[Harald387]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

As I mentioned, in DF it's as many as three rolls (Scavenge to find something, Current Affair to know of a buyer (no haggling), and Propaganda the next week to drum up a buyer if you failed to find one the previous week).

I suspect it was slimmed down to one roll for DFRPG for simplicity sake.

All three rolls are still in DFRPG: see Exploits, p.16-17, under 'Scrap'. I'm pretty sure the text is basically unchanged from DF2.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Well, they have to haul the junk back. That's rather required.

It's easier (for metagaming reasons) to roll in town for "was what you found worth anything", but the actual scrounging work is being done in the dungeon.

[tbone]

Not meaning to make a scrap pile out of a molehill, but in the interest of using this little subsystem in the game without having to stop play to ponder its workings:


If the Scrounging roll happens at the dungeon, the whole procedure works like this:

1. You survey the wreck of the dungeon and roll Scrounging. Success: "You find a half ton of salable junk!" Load the wagon. Failure: "There's not enough good stuff worth bringing back." Go home with junk-free wagon. (Hey, it's still useful as a ride, and for hauling the treasure chest and monster heads.)

2. If you came home with junk, roll Current Affairs. Success: "You found a junk buyer!" Roll the price ($1dx100). Failure: "No buyer, not this week. Try again later."

3. If no buyer, roll Propaganda every week, until you reel in a buyer with your sweet siren call of "This cheap trash could be yours!" (Or dump the stuff behind the inn and move on.)


If the Scrounging roll happens in town, things work like this:

1. You load your wagon with a half ton of questionable junk – and with starry-eyed dreams of The Big Score ($600!!). Back in town, roll Scrounging. Success: "The junk is worth something. Time to sell it!" Failure: "Sorry, the junk is worthless. Dump it behind the inn."

2. If the junk is worth something, roll Current Affairs to find a buyer, as above.

3. If no buyer, roll Propaganda as above.


Both look playable enough. But the first method has the disadvantage (as noted by ArchonShiva) that you avoid the fun disappointment of hauling junk home only to find that it's worthless. (I'd say that's not entirely the case, though. Succeeding at Scrounging at the dungeon, only to roll $100 back in town, is sort of the same thing: "Sorry, it's pretty much just firewood." Bard does sad trombone.) Another potential issue: When you say "Sorry, your Scrounging failed, there's not much worth taking", you're bound to find some players who'll argue (and not without merit), "Come on, what about that broken portcullis? The pews in the old chapel? The barrels of junk in the basement? We take all that."

The second method, meanwhile, leaves me wondering what that Scrounging roll is all about. You haven't found a buyer yet, so is it an initial assessment by someone who's not a buyer? (If so, can't the PCs do that themselves at the dungeon (first method), to avoid hauling back worthless junk?) Or is it an assessment made by the first buyer, in which case it should take place after you make rolls to find a buyer?


Perfect solution: Pick a method, roll the dice as indicated, and don't worry about the picky stuff. : )

That works fine. I was just (moderately) curious about the original intent.

[martinl]

Originally Posted by tbone

That works fine. I was just (moderately) curious about the original intent.

I'm moderately sure the original intent was to have a dubiously profitable system in place for the kind of players who insist on stripping everything valuable, along with a kind of meta nostalgia joke about such players.

Has anyone here seen players USE this subsystem?

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Harald387

All three rolls are still in DFRPG: see Exploits, p.16-17, under 'Scrap'. I'm pretty sure the text is basically unchanged from DF2.

That's what I get for not reading the next page.

Originally Posted by martinl

Has anyone here seen players USE this subsystem?

I'm in an adventure (PbP) right now that we're likely to end up with a half-empty cart and an abandoned monastery full of junk to loot... I fully expect the Dwarven Holy Warrior to be striping the candelabras and door fixtures.

[martinl]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

I'm in an adventure (PbP) right now that we're likely to end up with a half-empty cart and an abandoned monastery full of junk to loot... I fully expect the Dwarven Holy Warrior to be striping the candelabras and door fixtures.

Was the cart purchased by the PCs, or was it a windfall/loot?

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by martinl

Was the cart purchased by the PCs, or was it a windfall/loot?

Yes... and yes...

A previous party was funded and dispatched to the Abandoned Abbey... but after a week they hadn't returned so a new team was dispatched (the Archbishop is keen to reclaim the abbey and increase his personal prestige). Because the previous team had used up all the funds to supply the mission, the second was granted license to "keep all equipment found" (as though we'd have done anything else) as part of our charter (but given no up front funding).

We encountered the last two surviving members of the previous team (a run in with bandits on the road left them wiped out), promptly laid claim to the wagon (and all supplies those two did not personally own - which includes the loot taken from the bandits), and invited them to join us. Given the choice of "walk back to the city for three days with minimal supplies and no loot" or "join the new party" the two survivors signed on happily.

So... technically it's both loot and owned by the party.

The donkey that was hauling it was killed in the bandit attack... but luckily the new team included my Ogre Barbarian so a 'one tonne capacity' donkey cart is no trouble for her to haul. Heck, I figured it out and even completely loaded up Jednessa is still able to outpace most of the party while hauling the wagon (I've joked that she's a 'two-horse' power Barbarian).

[ArchonShiva]

Originally Posted by tbone

The second method, meanwhile, leaves me wondering what that Scrounging roll is all about. You haven't found a buyer yet, so is it an initial assessment by someone who's not a buyer?

The scrounging roll is covers whether you managed to pick all the good bits and whether you ripped them apart and packaged them in a manner that preserves their value. I’d think of it as coming off the dungeon hangover and looking at what you actually brought back.

Maybe termites went to work on the wood, maybe rain ruined the metal, STFU, it’s DFRPG town-meta, there are *much worse* things going on in those pages.

The rules are saying it might some times be worth going through the trouble, but the way to make money in dungeon junk is to sell carts and draft horses.

Also, what party is going to do this without a decent Scrounging skill anyway?

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

Also, what party is going to do this without a decent Scrounging skill anyway?

Any party that has a Dwarf. Or just one or more Greedy characters that didn't bother taking Scavenging...

Even at a default your average Wizard or Cleric has a 50/50 shot of finding the 'good' stuff.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by tbone

The second method, meanwhile, leaves me wondering what that Scrounging roll is all about.

The scrounging roll is to find the good stuff in the dungeon. You roll in town so people don't act on meta-game knowledge and leave the cart behind if they failed the roll.