OOC

I'm thinking of doing a CUSTOM character.
But, he's going to be a rather non-standard, not really a dungeon delver.
How far can I drift from the classing dungeon delver/dungeon crawl archtypes?

Hi! I was thinking of making a nomad ranger with a ferret friend.

I'm interested in whatever you throw together, as long as you have a compelling reason for them to be part of the group delving into the tower.
Sounds good. What's their hard luck that brings them to this desperate moment?

I'm thinking this character has purchased rights to the tower.
Or, rather, he or she's gone heavy into debt to buy the rights to the tower. So now they are super motivated to get in there, clean it out, and get it back on the market. Likely the character's skills will be Leadership and Commerce-- and their main way of doing things would be to get henchmen.

What are the political/financial factions in play in Belthaar? How does land ownership work, in the city?

I'm open to the idea of two characters. I'd have the main character, likely they'd rarely go into the tower, and then I'd run the henchmen they hire.

So it seems your character already flubbed a Commerce roll - thus the debt ...

What is their name?

Key factions in Belthaar include:
- the petty king Simashattar III, whose army of 2,000 pike- men and 500 charioteers is involved in a three-way war with Belthaar's bigger neighbours, Zhaol and Ghezath.
- the priesthood of Yadar, who dispose of the dead and dying in the labyrinthine catacombs under Belthaar - it is in their temples, deep in the catacombs, that the candles of life flicker. Some men say that priests of Yadar do not breathe or bleed.
- the priesthood of Belet-Lil, who roam the streets and alleys enticing celebrants.
- spies from Ghezath.
- spies from Zhaol.
- the Teamsters and Porters, who make stuff move. Many of them have been pressed to serve as pikers or charioteers.
- the Caravaneers, who employ the Teamsters and Porters and want the war to end.
- the Earthturners, who venture out from the city each day to tend the fields of kale and wheat and turnips and onions. It's autumn and it's muddy so they're trying to salvage the harvest, till, and plant before the freeze. The wheat already is in.

It most likely would be a Caravaneer who lent your character the money for the tower.

About the dice

Rabbits' character, Zama Mu-Ram, is an urbanite who "knows" commerce and leadership. She also has "upgraded" commerce and leadership. This means that when she takes a risk related to one of those things, she rolls 1d6 and 1d6 and takes the higher result. For anything else, she rolls 1d4 and 1d4 and takes the higher result.

Zama Mu-Ram still needs to claim an Ability - or Rabbits should propose a custom Ability. Having henchman is not special; any of your characters can do that.

micromacro's proposed nomad ranger will "know" athletics and beast-taming, so will roll 1d6 and 1d4 for each of those, and has an upgrade for Survival, so will roll 1d4 and 1d6 for that. Still one more skill to upgrade. I assume the abilities are Pet and Wild.

What kind of bonus ability could there be for henchmen? Any ideas?

Hi! Thanks for the unexpected invitation! I’m drawn to the Thief role (or wizard… I do love wizards). Maybe a thief who stole a cursed treasure by mistake and is hoping to find the secret to breaking their curse in the tower?

ooh, I like that for a variety of reasons.
Well, since I just watched Conan recently ... what about "Zealots"? Unlike a regular leader, whose henchmen have a strong sense of self-preservation, Zama inspires blind fierce loyalty (like Valeria felt for Conan) ... you can "break" them to avoid personal disaster.

Orloth is the nomads name.

Orloth's group has been forced out of their ancestral lands because of a great drought and he needs to raise enough money to help get his people the things they need to survive their new situation while they search for new lands.

The Abilities I'd like are Pet and Scout. I did think about going full Beastmaster, but then decided on Scout:)

Also, it says to upgrade one skill before we pick Culture and role, so I added Melee and used my 2 credits for armor and a war axe. Let me know if I understood that correctly. If not, I'll remove those from the sheet.

That's correct - that's how Rabbits got two skills upgraded.

Also, Rabbits still needs to choose another ability! (or, optionally, upgrade another (or a same) skill ...)

OK, sounds good. I submitted my sheet!

Thanks.

About the Dice ...

I screwed around a bit with default 24XX rules. You always roll 2 dice for a risk and use the higher die. If you know nothing about anything related to the risk, it's 2d4 take higher. If you "know" something from your culture, but haven't upgraded a relevant skill, it's d6+d4 take higher. If you don't know anything, but have upgraded a skill, it's d4+d6(or better), take higher. If you know something, and have upgraded a skill, it's d6+d6(or better), take higher.

If an ally helps you, and their skill is better than yours, roll their skill die instead of your own.

Does that help?

I upgraded leadership and commerce, and now she has loyal henchmen.

How does everyone feel about being an employee (contract worker) of Zama?
She is mostly interested in re-vitalizing the tower, and is willing split the treasures within with the party-- as long as the Tower has been rendered fit for use. I think it would be cool if the PC's also had alternative motives for joining the cleaning crew.

In addition to the party, I'm thinking 2-3 additional henchmen-- that act more as tools, than NPC's? What do you think? I can detail them if you'd like?

Does Simashattar III rule with an iron fist, all land belongs to him-- and only through tribute and taxes can one own property?
Or are there intermediate merchant guilds and landowning factions within the city that Zama made the purchase from? Perhaps minor lords, dukes and sycophants of Simashatar's court?

I've submitted a very basic character sheet! At the moment its just the mechanical stuff but I'll add more detail later today. I'm still trying to think of a good curse that is sufficiently dire...
Totally fine with me!

Your curse is, lately, you've been feeling a terribly strong impulse to enter the tower. Really like a gut level urge, like intense hunger.

Not sure when it started.

Recently you picked up a really cool dagger at the thieves market. It has an oddly shiny blade and an ivory handle with neat runes on it.

That works for me!

Sure! I can work with that. Added the following summary to my character sheet:

Hello all. I was thinking culture enlightened, role cultist with the sign of blessing.
His name is Azif of Mazad and he his a acolyte of Ahyada, the high god of Taraam

My skills are going to be 2 Heal 2 Lore 1 decipher

Gear- Spear and a bag with healing components

The main reason he (Azif) wants to explore the tower and joins the group is to find lost/forbidden knowledge

It must be mentioned that the bearer of a Sign has done some horrific and secret act, which must remain a secret for Reasons Too Terrible. But everyone who knows of your sign knows that you got it by evil ways.

Gear is good. He knows healing and lore, d6+something for each ot those, and then he has upgraded decipher and healing and lore so you would roll

healing or lore d6+d6 take higher
the other healing or lore d6+d6 take higher
decipher d4+d6 take higher
anything else d4+d4 take higher

I should also mention that "knowledge" checks are not a thing in these rules, if your upgraded skills would mean you noticed or knew something, I will just tell you

AND you can ask questions about things that you think you should know that I haven't mentioned

Was it presumptuous to say Zama knows what sort of acolyte he is? I can edit.

Character submitted, tell me if something is missing

Ok, I have approved all of the characters.

Please converse anxiously before you get the guts to enter the red tower.

Oh, I'll make a quick post In the Plaza.

Ah, this gave me a good laugh. Wonderful stuff.

This is not a game where we will quibble over torches. Someone has one.

Oh this is just creepy and wonderful at the same time. So cool.

I agree. Imagine how terrible that smells.

Hi @tibbius, is there any interest in continuing with this game? There has been a very long time between the posts and it feels like the game has lost steam. If there is no interest in continuing, no worries. I just thought I would check in before leaving the game.

Hi, @microtheMacroBear I think that this game has gasped away its last breath some time past. I will retire it.

Ok sounds good, thanks for the response @tibbius