Town and Settlement Rules

 

Krzysztof Maziarz

When you are inside a town, things take either wilderness/hex turns (three in a day), town turns (take the whole day), or downtime turns (take a week). Each town has 2 stats: Earthly and Otherworldly. Earthly represents the population, resources, and temporal influence. Otherworldly represents the prevalence and power of the mystical. Each ranges from 1 to 5. A 1 in Earthly indicates a hamlet, 2-3 a town, 4 a city, and 5 a metropolis. Similarly, a 1 in Otherworldly indicates minimal magical presence, 2-3 would be average, 4 probably contains some notable society of magicians or priests, and 5 would be something like Endon in Magical Industrial Revolution. 

Hex Turn Actions

Find Shop

To find a shop, first determine what category of item or service you are looking for. Then, roll under the relevant town stat on a d6. If it succeeds, you find the item or service. If you fail, you don't. Repeat this. If you succeed, it is a specialist shop. If you fail, it is a shelf or hidden inventory in a more general shop, containing perhaps 3 items. If the category is simple necessities (typically food or farming equipment), you find one, but can still roll to see if it is high quality fancy stuff.

If the settlement is of considerable size, one can take a second hex turn to try again. If it is small, the DM may say that there is no more stores in town to check. If it has a Bazaar or Market, roll twice and take the better.

Find Quest

To find a quest, roll both stats. If one or both is over, there is a problem in the associated aspect which could do with solving. When it is solved, somebody of that aspect owes you a favor.

Religious Attendance

By spending a tenth of your recent earnings, you buy some sacrifices/donate to the church/purify yourself with incense. You become Ritually Pure, and gain the favor of local religious-types. As well, roll under Otherworldly and you get a minor blessing (post forthcoming).

Have a Good Meal

By spending twice the cost of a ration, gain 1d6 HP (or temporary HP) and have a nice meal. You only benefit from this once per downtime period, but if there is a different pleasant, restful thing in town, like a hot-springs, patisserie, or lodge, you can gain an identical benefit from that.

Local delicacies:

Town Turn Actions

Get an object repaired

Choose an object you want repaired, re-enchanted, or elsewise fixed. Roll under the corresponding town stat, and you find tools, materials, and possibly expertise to do so. Otherwise, it is only half repaired, and may break again or not work perfectly.

Do Chores

You do enough odd jobs and errands to afford 3 rations, or else obtain three rations worth of favors.

Relax

You decompress after some traumatic adventuring, and clean all the blood and muck off yourself. The combination of your civil attitude and appearance gives you a +2 to reaction rolls with people.

A Night on the Town

You go out drinking responsibly, having a good time at some pub or nightclub. Spend at least 3 rations, but no more than 10 rations. This counts for 1.5 times the XP.

Rumor Gathering

The Old Ladies, Bartenders, and Midwives share you the gossip. Roll under Earthly and you get some blackmail material, roll under Otherworldly and you hear some true sounding spooky happenings. In addition, roll on whatever rumor table you have at this time.

Downtime Actions 

Train

Working by yourself or with a teacher, you learn part of one skill. By spending three (possibly non-consecutive) downtime actions training that skill, you can become proficient. You gain a small benefit or feature, as well. For instance, the ability to make a second unarmed attack, the ability to pick a specific kind of lock, or the ability to try an impress someone with snippets of a language.

If one of your stats is below average, you could raise that stat by 1, up to slightly above average.

Research

You put out feelers and gather information, whether ancient lore or castle blueprints. If you roll under the relevant town stat, you find at least one piece of information regarding your subject of study. For instance, you might find a stanza of a poem, a useful diagram, or a map with a few rooms filled in. It is definitely true. Otherwise, treat this as several rolls on the rumor table.

Magical Experiments

Select one spell of yours, or one rune or scroll you've found. Describe as well the way you will be experimenting. Depending on the way you experiment, an intelligence (or other mental stat) check, a roll under the town stat, or a sacrifice of materials or coin may be required. You learn a version of that spell which is appropriate to your caster level and is changed slightly to reflect your conclusions. If you fail, save vs. magic or take (caster level)d10 damage.

Set up a Base

You use favors, money, and elbow grease to set up a little place where the party can meet, sleep, and do a bit of preparation. Roll over Earthly and its free, because it was abandoned or you made it yourself. Roll twice more: if the first is under Earthly, it has the amenities you are used to (such that you no longer need to roll for tools for Repairing Objects); if the second is under Otherworldly, it has magical resources enough to do Magical Experiments.

朱玮玮/Zhu Weiwei

[These are abstractions for when you don't want to play out the whole thing, or for when you are unsure of something. If you can run everything by yourself with full detail, and you want to, then you should!]

5 metagods for my settings

 

Most of my settings that receive actual play are very polytheistic. Nobody would conceive of following only one or two gods in them, and even things so earthly as distinctive landmarks possess a spirit or god. But that does not lend well to generalization. So here are some metagods. Perhaps they have a cult, but more likely they are regarded as backstory for any given cult. They're things you invoke to make a god, not necessarily gods themselves.

From Blindsprings

Father of the Winds and Rains

A being of air and light, youthful despite everything. A trickster, whose beneficence may be just as bad as his vengeance. However, he is much less powerful than his offspring, who are the many kindreds of weather, meteors, and will-o-wisps, and whose grandchildren are rivers and springs. Venerated, but not called upon. Appearing sometimes with a weapon of lightning to give to some unlikely person, or to have a dalliance with some man or woman (whose child may be anything from a sylph to a lightning bolt!).

Chalchiuhtlicue

Mother of Idols

Invoked but little worshiped is the mother of idols. Like the Father of Winds and Rains, her children are greater than she. It is she who gives to statues their Numen. It is she who gives birth to hearth spirits and tutelars. Her kindly children are to thank for the lives of all humanity, but she has also given birth to gods of calamity and misfortune.

From Astral Aves

Lord of Veils and Darkness

The opener of ways, the king of chaos and dreams and omens, Whose subjects are stars and moons, bogeys and shadows. Emperor of the unknown, the beast ineffable. The infinity of darkness, sleep, and death are him and his. He is the one for whom light is darkness and darkness is light. Appears when one is alone, granting madness and power, emanating mystery.

From Goth Western

Sovereign of Mercy and Mania

A creature of emotion and intellect. Existed long before human hearts, but was created by and created them. Theirs are not petty emotions. They grow great passions, which destroy the hearts that foster them. The fire of symbolism, the sweetness of poetry, bitter wailing songs, fights to the death. The numen of that which utterly refuses to be quenched. Appears invisibly to bestow their blessings, which are guardian angels, leannán sídhe, and genii. 

Dark Souls

Grandfather August

The king of kings, the lord of lords. His children are wars and kingdoms, the spirits which make one an emperor, dragons and great leaping flames, lineages, priesthoods. That which rules, which is illuminated, which is exalted. He respects age, and he respects power, and for these things he will reward glory and remembrances. He is slow as the passing of ages, but he is deliberate and unstoppable as time.

Perhaps two or three of these five exist in any one setting. They are determinants of the entire tone of religion. As well, innumerable gods exist outside of their children and subjects, and other meta-gods exist. And, of course, I made most of these gender specific, but there's no reason for them to be!