Push Die!

Sometimes you want your PC heroes (and knaves) to push on, to try harder. Here's a game mechanic for any system where you roll high. The Push Die.

The Push Die is a die added to your normal resolution check to improve your odds of success. It is voluntary on part of the player if they will or will not add the push die to the roll and must be declared before making the normal roll to resolve a task. The push die should be rolled simultaneously with the resolution die, it's score being added to roll.

If the roll of a push die is a 1 the character suffers a point of fatigue. Tally that up and if fatigue is ever higher than 1/2 of the ability score related to an action the PC is now -2 to attempt that action (or at disadvantage if you use that mechanic in your game).

A HitDie of Fatigue is removed each full turn of rest a character takes. Magical healing will remove 1/2 of fatigue if the character is fully healed by healing magic. A DM may wish to add additional spells, salves, or potions t0 the game that remove (or inflict fatigue). A normal amount of full rest (for the night or a full rest break) this fatigue is fully removed.

If the resolution roll fails the full score of the push die is suffered as fatigue.

If the resolution roll fails with a fumble (a roll of 1 if you are using 1d20) the full score of the push die is suffered as fatigue and the related ability score suffers a point of strain. If the highest number was rolled on a push die than 1/2 that score is suffered as strain. Strain can be added up against each ability score. If strain is greater than 1/2 the ability score the character is now -2 to attempt actions with that ability. if strain exceeds a character's ability score they are overcome and unable to purposefully take actions that would use that ability and are -10 if forced to make a saving throw or reaction using that ability score.  Yeah -10, being virtually helpless should be a big deal.

An hour of rest will remove 1 point of strain in 1 ability score. 

I recommend a 1d4 be the base Push Die for all characters. If the ability score is a Prime Ability shift up a die. If the character has a score of 15 or more in an ability shift up a die.  A player may choose to roll less than their full push die if desired. So a Fighter with a score of 17 in Strength (a prime attribute in many systems) could roll 1d8 when pushing it. (or choose to roll 1d4, or 1d6 instead).

Why I like this mechanic.   There's no direct penalty for trying harder. But there is a consequence for trying harder and failing. The more players push it the more they will win...until they don't. I can also use a fatigue mechanic without having to always apply a fatigue score to a host of actions. Trying harder can cause fatigue but there isn't a constant penalty for action itself. Players that have their characters push on and on without resting will suffer more. those that do not risk will not reap rewards as easily however.

OLD DM TRICK #3

 

Getting The Gang together for a Heist

You know what adventure model works best for virtually any version of Dungeons & Dragons? 

The Heist.

The more old school your rules, the more the game supports heists too. 

If you are playing the original game, Basic/Expert, and AD&D prior to 2nd edition experience points meant getting gold pieces. Fighting monsters is a 2nd rate means to gain EXP (after the original greyhawk supplement) if playing by the rules the game is best played as a heist game. PC's don't have enough HP to really make combat a good option unless the players are darned careful in deciding when, where, and who to fight.

The very idea of character classes supports the heist as ideal play. Watch a heist movie and there's a team of assembled specialists ... those are characters with different classes.  Even with just 3 or 4 classes there's enough differentiation to support a heist setup. Everyone has a role and everyone gets a chance to shine and best of all...you can split the party and focus on briefly on one or two characters working towards advancing the heist for the whole party.

When adventures are heists and not saving thr world from unending evil it actually adds the chance for depth in play. There's less reason for characters to be murder-hobos. They are encouraged to bribe and trick NPCs into helping out on the heist not just killing everything and everyone while the experience points pop out. This allows for a much wider cast of foils and foes which may be against a successful heist but aren't threatening the lives of everyone in the campaign world.

I'm jumping about here but check out the spells from the 2nd Basic set and how they add to heist play.

First Level MU spells
1.  Charm Person- compromise a guard or foil.
2.  Detect Magic- not just for identifying scrolls and magic items, also good for spottign magical traps and alarms (which should be part of some heists).
3. Floating Disc- got to move that loot after all
4. Hold Portal- getting in and getting out are key features of a heist and those pesky doors are certainly an issue.
5. Light- when it's dark you have to see
6. Magic Missile-  this is a lousy heist spell unless there's some key guardian that must be taken out with magic and is easy to beat that the MU knows about.
7. Protection from Evil- not as big a deal in heist play.
8. Read Languages- research montage
9. Read Magic- to use a high level spell slipped to the PCs by a patron or contact at the wizards guild
10. Shield-  not so useful in heist play unless you want to have someone distract guards and draw a few arrows while the loot goes the other direction.
11. Sleep- Defeat a bunch of guards youhave no actual motivation to kill, they aren't likely to be going on a rampage and slaughtering a village after this and they are probably hired men-at-arms or draftees that have no strong need for revenge.
12. Ventriloquism- the opportunities this spell gives for a heist game give it much more utility than it has in default dungeoncrawling or world saving.

SencondLevel MU Spells
1. Continual Light-  a useful tool and a foil the PCs may have to defeat to sneak away with the loot.
2. Detect Evil- not a real biggie in heist play unless it can be used to detect people who are goign to con you.
3. Detect Invisible- pretty darned useful in a competitive heist or the mark uses invisibility.
4. ESP- very useful for planning, scouting, and look outs.
5. Invisibility- Much more useful to grab loot and scoot than it is to enable a sneak attack, also obviously useful for scouting ahead.
6. Knock- get that door open!
7. Levitate- get in that window or over that wall.
8. Locate Object- surely useful if the goal of a heist is a specific McGuffin.
9. Mirror Image- distraction is the a major part of the art of heist.
10. Phantasmal Forces- as above but even more so.
11. Web- another spell for neutralizing a number of foes without killing them.
12. Wizard Lock- a foil and a useful tool for covering up a theft.

Not a perfect summary but in those 24 spells there are 19 with direct and obvious utility in a heist.


The heist is a much more survivable adventure model for low level play than typical smash and grab dungeoncrawling. The game rules have always supported that style of play really. Just look at the reaction table, it's a little wonky in a dungeon bash but of great utility in a heist adventure. Played RAW a heist adventure works great with the reaction table. If the whole world isn't in the balance and not every NPC is an evil monster it makes sense fights will be rare and NPCs may help out the PCs on a whim.

Another cool thing from the DM point of view is the heist doesn't have to be a level-specific to allow PC to survive. You want a dragon in the heist go for it...defeating the dragon is not the goal. A troll guard on the front door..go for it, the party pulling a heist shouldn't be fighting their way through the front door. It's actually possible to have a campaign with a bit more verisimilitude by not having everything level specific.

The adventure can be quicker too. Want a quick adventure for a session or two? Have a heist where the Players have a map of the place, at least of the areas you want to feature. There's less bumbling around and fights with random monsters to deal with, motivations are clear and the whole campaign isn't over of the heist fails. A failed heist sets up a rescue from a dank cell or before execution.

The heist opens up a wider range of opponents and place for Dungeons and Dragons campaigns where the goal is loot and world-building instead of world saving or murder hobo hijinks.

More with Classes

What I want in my next fantasy RPG campaign.  Characters that do more character related stuff or more accurately have a greater focus on a class feature. Fighters that have give the player more decisions than get as much armor as possible and the weapon with the best damage rating. Magic-Users that have to fuss with magical things other folks don't seem to deal with. Clerics that deal with their faith and the supernatural more often then simply turning undead and bashing demons. Thieves that empower players that want to make decisions other than when to roll dice.

I suspect each of these is going to require a campaign specific subset of rules or mini-game.

Fighters can be expanded by the fighter having to learn different fighting stance and the tactics and special moves that go along with each so the subset of rules here is a bit more fiddly creation and advancement choices that on first blush don't seem to0 different from feats and skills. The clever player of a fighter should be able to learn to ask what stance his opponents are using and deploy their skills to counter and take advantage of their foes skills not just roll as high as they can with the dice.

Magic-Users have a number of subsystems that have been present in D&D and related games since it's inception that are seldom explored with any depth.   Magic item creation offers a lot of ground for the player of the Magic-User to discover and employ a body of lure so as to discover the formulas for magical inks and potions along with patterns for glyphs/runes. Magic-Users may also have to track and balance magical energies to empower their spells and provide an edge in magical contests by delving into what energies foes have invested in.

Clerics have a relationship with a faith or deity that could really be expanded on to better refine and define their access to spells and special abilities. This relationship shouldn't just be front loaded it should be active and require maintenance on the part of the cleric to maintain their powers. All but the smallest of mythological pantheons has a host of supernatural entities clerics can learn to interact with to gain favor(s) and lore.

Thieves can be expanded by putting bit more focus into breaking and entering and other tasks of the trade. I've touched on alternate lock-picking resolution in the past and feel expansion in this area will add more to the role of thieves as burglars by expanding the vocabulary and range of tasks that can be involved in cracking those locks. A thieves relationships with contacts and fences can also serve to give the class more depth within a campaign.

Just an overview of areas I've been exploring in my notes that I wish to embody in my campaigns. Some of the ideas I have touched on before on this blog and all of them will be getting more attention here.

Of Elves and Acorns

What do the elves eat? Elves traditionally aren’t shown as great master of large-scale agriculture in most fantasy settings. Elves are often shown as hunters and gatherers and could surely support small mysterious populations in that manner but else’s are also shown   being able to raise the occasionally army and to build great fairy castles, hunter and gatherers don’t tend to do either such thing because they can’t produce enough food to feed enough people to field armies or build castles. “So just what are the elves eating if they aren’t hunter and gatherers”? I asked myself.

Hunting is a lot of work and many forests lack enough game to support size able populations. Gathering is likewise challenging for large groups outside warm climates. Elves mayhaps can eat mushrooms and vegetation we can’t but there is also vegetation we can eat but don’t exploit on a widespread agricultural scale: the Acorn. Elven societies can harvest acorns as the means to have enough food to raise armies and build castles.

As a wild foodstuff acorns from common oaks need to be leached for upwards of 5 or 6 days to remove the natural tannin and the associated bitter flavor (and possible digestive issues and tooth damage). Elves either don’t have to worry about that, don’t mind all the work, or have learned to cultivate acorns that take much less work to process.  Humans haven’t turned much attention toward cultivating oaks and hybridizing them to produce ideal acorn crops as it can take 20-30 years for an oak to start producing acorns. Humans are too short lived to put in the work to optimize food production in domestic oaks. Elves have plenty of time in a single elven life (in most settings) to hybridize and produce oaks that create a decent, fairly regular, and plentiful yields of acorns.

Just an acre of natural oak forest is said to be able to produce 6,000lbs of acorns, some varieties of mature oaks can produce 2,000lbs of acorns alone. These production figures may be high and unusual in the wild but if possible in the real world for wild crops they are surely possible to achieve in reasonable fashion as a plant cultivated by a species that can live many hundreds if not thousands of years (again depending on setting). I'm going with these yields as typical for shelled acons from cultivated Elven Oaks.

Food yield and Calorie talk: 110 calories from a ounce of acorns. 140 calories from an ounce of acorn flour.  That’s real world calorie counts. With a 6000lb yield from an acre of cultivated acorns we are going to be able to feed 14 elves for a year (if adults with 2000 calorie a day diet). Medieval cereal grain yields weren’t as productive. Acorn eating elves are going to able to sustain their “hidden” populations able to field the occasional army and build fairy palaces.

For fantasy campaigns I propose 4 varieties of Elven Oaks. The varieties of elven oaks are used to produce lumber, oil, and foodstuffs.

Ironwood- the most fanciful of all is first worth mentioning, it’s timber produce wood if  carefully fire treated is as hard as hammered iron. This allows the elves to produce amazing craft goods and durable tools without needing to mine. Ironwood oaks are the rarest of all and are grown for hundreds of years until they are ready to be (difficulty) cut.

Butter Nut- this variety of oak produces  good-sized acorns that can be used to make flour but can also be pressed to harvest a plentiful supply of oil.  The acorns of this variety are the mildest tasting. Butter Nuts acorns are mostly used for their oil but are also used to produce flour and paste (similar to peanut butter).

Honey Nut- this variety of oak produces a modest sized acorn that is sweeter than other varieties. The syrup of these oaks is also collected and processed to manufacture a sweet syrup similar to that of maple syrup. As a food stuff the must themselves are popular roasted to crushed up to make a sweet paste.

Meal Nut- this variety of elven oaks produces large acorns. They are the nuttiest tasting acorns of the cultivated oaks and are generally processed flour.

Someday I may decide to breakdown the different yields possible from different eleven oaks in different regions if I get struck with the desire for such madness but as above I'm going to go with 6,000 lbs a year per acre on average.






Products of Cultivated Elven Oaks

Ironwood- wood as hard as metal. Once properly processed a carved implement will be as tough as bronze or soft iron.  Edges weapons can be produced from this material but it works best for thrusting weapons and is typically used for arrow shafts and arrowheads.
the price for ironwood goods will vary wildly depending on contact with elves but is recommend to coast 3-5 times as much if of human manufacture from supplies of the wood to maybe 20 times as much for items of elven manufacture.

Oak Butter- a nutritional paste storred in jars.

Applenut Butter- Oak Butter mixed with apples to produce a very sweet and nutrious form of apple butter.

Oak Honey- processed oak sap that is surgery sweet.

Elven Waybread- these long lasting loaves of elven bread are light and tastie which makes their long keeping nature even more wondrous. Elves keep the recipes of rite highest grades secret. Elven Waybread will last as long as 5 years and this property as well as it’s flavor gives it a high price at 10 to 20 times more than mannish made breads of the same general quality.

Oak Milk- light oil processed from the Butter Nut acorns mixed with water. Used as a beverage. Oak Milk will usually fetch price equivalent to common beer, it’s not alcoholic but it is tasty and keeps well.

Flash Oil- this flammable liquid is used to make incendiary weapons and as an means of lighting. This fetches the same prices other flaming oils will.

Elven NutMead- theirs mead is a hearty cousin to the delicate meads which are actually made from honey. Elven NutMead is made from different pressings of Butter Acorns, Honey Nut Acorns and Oak Honey itself. This mead fetches a price comparable to fine wines.


Elves may or may not keep their Acorn/Oak Cultivation as secret from men but this will much depend on the nature of the campaign and the relationship between men and elves.
In my Riperia campaign there is widespread knowledge among mankind that elves eat acorns but the true nature (and abundance)of their cultivation is unknown south of the Thornwall or much beyond the Isles of Ulthion and Arru.  A few groves of the cultivated oaks can be found here and there throughout the lands and are used by local elves or are sure indications a now extinct elven people once laid claim to the land.

Training, Research, Carousing, Gifting, and Sacrifice. (Part II)

Last post I covered a recommendations on how to convert treasure to experience points as part of training as opposed to a flat exp bonus simply for treasures fetched from an adventure.  This post covers sacrifice.

Trials and Tribulations of Sacrifice

Sacrifice is meant to show devotion and dedication to a god/faith but let’s be honest here it’s also a business arrangement between people and the divine and the agencies that represent the divine.

Some scarifies may be a simple as walking into a temple, or finding a donation altar and plopping down the coin and splitting. but most are sacrifices are likely to be a bit more demanding in requirements and timing. There are only so many occasions one can slay a bull to consecrate the ground for the spring planting for example and a DM should make those occasions clear to players.

At it’s core sacrifice has the same wealth to exp ratio as does training. Training and sacrifice do not typically interfere with each other as only lengthy rituals, purifications, and such would interfere with ability to train and likewise the reverse. Typically a character will still be able to make donations once a week.

How rewarding those donations are and complications that may ensue will have a lot to do with a character’s relation to the faith, the local priesthood, and the god(s) themselves.

results will follow the Experience point Reward table as outlined in the last post.
Experience Point Reward Table

2d6+mods	Result
3 or less	Unsuccessful*
4 to 6	Limited Success
7 to 10	Typical Success
11 to 12	Unexpected Success
13 or more	Amazing  Success**

 * a roll of two “1’s” on the 2d6 roll will always be unsuccessful regardless of modifiers applied.

An unsuccessful sacrifice is just that unsuccessful. There is no gain in exp for the sacrifice offered. Even worse if tow “1’s” are rolled a followup roll on the Faithful Rejection table is required.

Limited Success: the character will gain 50 exp for every 100 coin of goods sacrificed.

Typical Success: the character will gain 100 exp for every 100 coin of goods sacrificed.

Unexpected Success the character will gain 125 exp for every 100 coin of goods sacrificed.

Amazing Success: the character will gain 150 exp for every 100 coin of good sacrificed and is required to roll on the Divine Favor table.


Modifiers to experience rewards for sacrifices.

-2 If of a Lawful faith and trying to sacrifice goods in excess of level x 100 in a single week.

-2 If of an Evil faith and no flesh or blood of a recently living creature is involved in the sacrifice.

-3 if Good and a recent opportunity (The last game month) to grant mercy was forsaken.

-2 if Lawful and violated a contract in the past year.

-2 if violated the buried remains of any of matching alignment in the past year.

-2 if desecrated a holy place of a non-opposed faith in the past year.

-2 if lawful and sacrificing an unwilling victim.

+1 if there is a living sacrifice involved. (take heed of other modifiers here)

+1 if evil or chaotic and sacrificing an intelligent victim at the time of the sacrifice.
+2 if evil or chaotic and sacrificing 2-11  intelligent victims at the time of the sacrifice.
+3 if evil or chaotic and sacrificing 12+ intelligent victims at the time of a sacrifice
+1 additional if evil or chaotic and sacrificing 100+ intelligent victims at the time of a sacrifice.-1 for each week tithe has been lacking. (Tithe does not count towards sacrifice).

1d100 roll	Faithful Rejection
1 or less	Marked by god(s), excommunicated and Cursed. All of the faith will recognized the mark an either be reviled or act aggressively upon meeting.
2-5	Excommunicated and cursed, no repentance identified
6-9	Excommunicated and cursed, repentance identified.
10-16	Excommunicated (barred from faith, no healing spells or magics from clerics of the faith shall benefit character, similar alignment likely to fail 33% of the time)
15-20	Cursed with no repentance granted.
21-30	Cursed with repentance identified.
31-40	Must make similar (or better sacrifice) following pilgrimage to 7 holy sites each 1-12 weeks apart. Until then all clerical spells cast by same faith or alignment have a 50% chance to fail.
41-50	Must make similar (or better sacrifice) following pilgrimage to3 holy sites each 1-6 weeks apart. Until then all clerical spells cast by same faith or alignment have a 33% chance to fail.
51-60	Must make similar (or better sacrifice) following pilgrimage to holy site 1-8 weeks away. Until then all clerical spells cast by same faith or alignment have a 20% chance to fail.
61-70	Sacrifices shall be denied for a year unless repentance is made. Tithe is doubled during this period.
71-80	Sacrifices shall be denied for a month unless repentance is made. Tithe is doubled during this period.
81-90	Sacrifices shall be denied for a year Tithe is doubled during this period.
91-99	Sacrifices shall be denied for a moth. Tithe is doubled during this period.
100 or more	Sacrifice found to be unworthy. -1 to other sacrifices made at the same site. Penalty removed after sacrifice of double value or better is made.

modifier to faithful rejection table:
+level If a cleric of the faith
-5 if character Alignment doesn’t match faith completely.
-5 if character has missed seasonal devotions for past 2 seasons.
-5 if Charisma 6 or less
+5 is Charisma 15 or more.
+1d20 if character built or contributed 20% or more to construction of Shrine or Temple in past.

1d100 roll	Divine Favor
20 or less	Character gains a +1 reaction bonus from  members of the faith and sacrifice bonus for the next month.
21-40	Character gains a +1 reaction bonus from  members of the faith and sacrifice bonus for the next 12 weeks.
41-45	Character gains +1 to saving throws for the next week.
46-50	Character gains +1 to saving throws for the next month.
51-55	Character may cast a single 1st level spell sometime in the next week.
56-60	Character may cast a single 1st level spell sometime in the next month.
61-65	Character may cast a1st level spell once per week for a month.
66-70	Character may cast a1st level spell once day over the next month.
71-80	Character is Blessed for next week
81-90	Character is Blessed for next month.
91-95	Character is Blessed for next month and is accompanied by a holy disciple for that time.
96-99	Character is Blessed for next month and permanently gain a holt disciple as a henchman,
100+	Character is Blessed for next month and during that month is accompanied by a divine servitor. (Saint, Angel, Minion, Demon, depending on faith)

modifiers to Divine Favor table:
+level If a cleric of the faith
-3 per level if not a devoted member of faith.
-5 if character has missed seasonal devotions for past 2 seasons.
-5 if Charisma 6 or less
+5 is Charisma 15 or more.
+1d20 if character built or contributed 20% or more to construction of Shrine or Temple in past.

Blessed characters are treated as if under the influence of a Bless spell of the duration noted above. If there is no bless spell in your game the character is +2 to saves and granted a +1 to hit vs members of opposing alignment and is able to strike opponents of the faith that normally require magic to harm even if lacking an appropriate magical weapon.


Religious requirements are open to interpretation and demands of the faith and aren't going to be identical from faith to faith or campaign to campaign. Just adding the sacrifice roll and the Divine Favor and Faithful Rejection tables to a campaign is going to impact how religion and the PCs in a campaign interact.

Training, Research, Carousing, Gifting, and Sacrifice. (part 1)

Training, Research, Carousing, Gifting, and Sacrifice.

Turning coin looted on adventures into experience points for old-school dungeon fantasy games.

The original dungeon crawling RPG awards 1 experience point per gold piece hauled away on an adventure. This original method works fine for a simple campaign but in a complex and enduring campaign the PCs end up with incredible treasure hoards and little to spend all that treasure on in they aren’t empire builders.  The following outlines more explicit methods for turning treasure into experience points.

What changes and what doesn’t change in awarding experience points should be noted first. Experience points for defeating monsters, overcoming challenges, and specific mission awards are given to PCs as normal under the campaign rules used. No experience points are granted for the specific value of treasures gained during an adventure. For those GMs that wish to award experience points (hereafter  to be noted as exp) for magical items it is recommended to consider only awarding exp for utility as opposed to monetary value (it may be possible for some players to gain multiple awards from discovering magical items). Earned exp should be given as normal for the campaign but converting money to experience points requires specific actions on part of the PC/player.

Keeping track of downtime is essential as this shall be a resource as precious as coins when converting treasures won to exp. It is recommended that the campaign  be structured to allow for 2 to 4 weeks of downtime to occur between adventure sessions. It is during this downtime period players will make decisions on how to spend their treasure and the time required to do so.

Health and preparation are also essential to the entire process and recovery from injuries and other maladies will reduce the time a character has to convert wealth into exp.  Aside from Gifting and Carousing a character must be over 50% of their normal HitPoint total to benefit from the following methods of exp gain.





Throughout these guidelines "coins" will be used to express treasure costs. This is done to fit the coinage used in a campaign and is meant to be the common coin of value used in a campaign, so in a typical "gold standard" campaign all coins are gold pieces and in a "Silver Standard" these would be silver pieces of course. One should feel free to adjust fees as appropriate to the campaign economy of course as the suggested pricing assume lots of coins flowing even if the specific type may vary.

All of the methods of exp advancement require a 2d6 die roll with appropriate modifiers to determine the success and quality of the attempt to gain experience points. This roll may be made per week or at the end of multiple weeks depending on the campaign.

Experience Point Reward Table

2d6+mods	Result
3 or less	Unsuccessful*
4 to 6	Limited Success
7 to 10	Typical Success
11 to 12	Unexpected Success
13 or more	Amazing  Success**

 
 * a roll of two “1’s” on the 2d6 roll will always be unsuccessful regardless of modifiers applied.
 ** a roll of two “6’s” will always be a success  regardless of modifiers to the contrary but will only be an amazing success if the total score indicates it to be such.

Training
Training is study and exercise dedicated to a character’s class and skills. The time span for training is based on the week. The definition of training here is meant to cover potentially tiring and stressful exercises.

A character may spend a maximum of 100 coin per current level each week spent in training. A specific trainer may be employed if a character so wishes but the costs will be greater and may not contribute to exp gained.   

Training prohibits spending time on Research but does not interfere with Carousing, Gifting and Sacrifice in and of itself (those methods may prohibit or reduce time allowed for Training however).

Training Modifiers
-3 for self training.
-1 if character has inferior prime attribute.
+1 for prime attribute of 13-16
+2 for prime attribute of 17 or higher
+1 if Trainer employed is at least 2 levels/ranks above character
+2 if Trainer employed is at least 6 levels/ranks above character
-2 for Training during long term travel.
-1 if training in a space not dedicated to training
+1 if training in superior training space.
-2 to +2 depending on relationship with trainer

Training results:

Unsuccessful Training: No Experience points are gained and there is the possibility of injury or stress being inflicted upon the character, check on training mishaps chart to see what fate befalls character. A character’s relationship with a trainer declines during this training.

Limited Success:  Earn experience points equal to 50% of coin spent on training. Extra fees paid to trainer are excluded from these exp.  (Example: 150 coins are spent on training and 100 coins spent to employ a trainer and the character would gain  75 exp)

Typical Success: Earn experience points equal to coin spent on training. Extra fees paid to the trainer are excluded from these exp. (Example: 150 coins are spent on training and 100 coins spent to employ a trainer and the character would gain  150 exp). The relationship with the Trainer will improve.

Unexpected Success:  Earn experience points equal to coin spent on training. and 50% of fees paid to trainer up to normal weekly limit allowed.(Example: 200 coins are spent on training  by a 2nd level fighter and 300 coins spent to employ a trainer . The character earns 200 exp for initial coins spent and an additional 100 coins (half of the 200 allowed per week)).

Amazing Success: Earn experience points equal to coin spent on training. and 50% of fees paid to trainer. (Example: 200 coins are spent on training  by a 2nd level fighter and 300 coins spent to employ a trainer . The character earns 200 exp for initial coins spent and an additional 100 coins (half of the 200 allowed per week)). The relationship with the trainer will improve. Consult Training Boons chart to see if additional benefits are received.

Relationship with trainer

A character’s relationship with training will impact the benefits of training. A trainers disposition to a character will impact fees, training roll, actual experience points rewarded for training, and
the benefit or severity of boons and mishaps.

Initial Relationship with trainer.
If the relationship with a trainer isn’t defined by social relationships within the campaign roll 2d6  and apply the appropriate modifiers to determine that relationship.

Initial relationship modifiers:
-1 if CHA of student 6 or less
+1if CHA of student 15 or more
-2 if of opposing alignments
+1 if of same alignment
-1 if student prime attribute is inferior
+1 if student prime attribute is 15 or greater


Initial Relationship with Trainer

roll	Initial relationship
3 or less	Dislike
4-5	Unfavorable
6	Mercenary
7-8	Polite
9-10	Favorable
11 or more	Friendly

 
Impact of Relationship with Trainer

relationship	minimum trainer fee	Training Roll	Impact on exp	Mishap or Boon
Hostile	200/level	-2	-10%	-25
Dislike	150/level	-1	-10%	-10
Unfavorable	125/level	-1	-	-
Mercenary	110/level	-	-	-
Polite	100/level	-	-	-
Favorable	75/level	+1	-	-
Friendly	50/level	+1	+10%	+10
Mentor	none required	+2	+10%	+25

Training Mishaps
Only roll on this table when an unsuccessful training session has been completed.
+10 to roll in a superior training space
-10 to roll in a makeshift training space
+1 per point of prime attribute over 14

1d100 roll	Training Mishap
1 or less	Permanent loss of Prime Attribute. Character loses 1 point in prime attribute.
2-10	Grievously Injured during training. Character’s Prime attribute is halved for next 8 weeks. Recovers 1 point per week of complete rest (final points only recovered after all rest). HP reduced to 1.
11-25	Seriously Injured during training. Character’s Prime attribute is reduced by 2-5 points Recovers 1 week owe week of complete rest. HP halved.
26-40	I’ll fated. All saving Throws and Class actions are at -2 for next 7 weeks.
41-50	Strain/Stress reduce Prime attribute by1 point for 2 weeks.
51-60	Forlorn. All saving Throws and Class actions are at -1 for next 2 weeks.
61-70	Down the wrong road. Next three training sessions -1 to roll.
71-75	Took a wrong turn. Next training session is -1 to roll.
76 or more	Mishap avoided

Training Boons
Only roll on this table when an Amazingly Successful training session has been completed.
+10 to roll in a superior training space
-10 to roll in a makeshift training space

1d100 roll	Training Boon
25 or less	No Boon Granted
26-40	Insight gained, +1 to next training  session roll.
41-60	Good Student, +1 to next 3 training session rolls.
61-80	+1 to all die rolls until a failed saving throw, skill check, or hit roll.*
81-90	+1 to all die rolls until a failed saving throw, skill check.*
91-99	+1 to all die rolls until a failed saving throw.*
100 or more	Character Permanently gains 1 point in prime attribute.

 * Temporary bonuses do not stack.

Some campaigns may not handle permanent ability score gains well, treat this a bonus that will last for the next month of game time if a permanent increase fitting.


(more to come in future posts)