Thieving Skills and who get's them?

In no particular order I offer a variety of thieving skills and the classes that get them I'm considering for my next campaign.

Fakery- Feigning of diseases, disorders, injuries, fits and madness so as to gain pity to profit begging, serve as disguise, serve to distract and to gain limited access to places and ways fit people may not be able to gain access to.

Crowd Dodging- ability to move quickly though a crowd and to lose those in pursuit.

Angling- the ability to steal items through windows and other openings through the use of hooked sticks and lines.

Prigging- ability to filch poultry and carry it off without being noticed or rousing the bird to make noise. (subtract -5% to 20% for multiple birds or exceptionally large ones).

Sleight of Hand- ability to filch small items out in the open, in an open pocket or even simple jewelry on ones person (-5% picking pockets, -20% stealing jewelry)

Shadowing- ability to follow one through occupied streets and neither lose them or alert them to ones presence.

Move silently- ability to move silently...

Hiding- ability to hide in shadows, secret oneself in little spaces, hide in a crowd or conceal oneself when casing an establishment.

Lock picking- ability to open or disable locks. Disabling a lock is easier but noisier.

Cutpurse- ability to remove an entire purse or open a slit to remove a few coins without the mark noticing.

Backstab- bonus to hit and damage when striking from behind.

Kosh- ability to render one unconscious through use of a kosh, sap, blackjack or other bludgeon.

Garrote- ability to render one unconscious through choking with an arm, cloak, belt, cane or garrote line.

Signaling- ability to pass a single to compatriots without alerting others

Disarm Traps- ability to remove, jam or disable mechanical traps.

Note Wards- ability to identify functional magical wards.

Bypass Wards- ability to pass areas protected by magical wards, runes and glyphs without being victim to their activation.

Hear noise- ability to note noises beyond doors and sounds the unwary may miss.

read scrolls- ability to read magic-user scrolls. 1st roll identifies the scroll. 2nd roll allows scroll to be used.

Withdraw from combat- ability to get out of melee contact without exposing oneself to a counter attack.

Dose- the ability to apply poison to a weapon, to mix it into food so it is unnoticeable or to covertly slip something into someone's drink.

Banter- the ability to distract or sway others opinions with a quick and able tongue.
This can allow a re-roll of an reaction check if successful. It can be used to distract a victim of an accomplice trying to waylay or steal from a victim.

Taunt- the ability to gain the attention of others to the detriment of other actions they may wish to be taking. This can be dangerous as it can be prone to invoke pursuit and violence.

Cheating- ability to improves ones odds in a game of chance by various cheating techniques.

Set Traps- ability to set traps to harm, capture and kill.

Forgery- ability to duplicate writings.

Coining- ability to make fake coins (at 1/5th normal price).

Clipping- ability to shave some metal from a coin without overtly marring the coin. A failed roll debases the value of the coin. 50 coins must be clipped to gain 1 coins worth of metal.

Keen Awareness- chance to avoid surprise.

Escape artist- ability to wiggle out of chains, ropes and bonds.

Avoid traps- ability to avoid a springing trap at the last moment. This roll acts as a saving throw that may be made before attack rolls or other saves are made.


Classes and their skills:
Burglar Skills
Angling
Move silently
Hiding
Lock picking
Signaling
Find Traps
Disarm Traps
Hear noise
Keen Awareness
Escape artist
Climb Walls

TombRobber skills
Lock picking
Find Traps
Disarm Traps
Note Wards
Bypass Wards
Read scrolls
Keen Awareness
Avoid traps
Climb Walls

Rake Skills
Shadowing
move silently
Backstab
Climb Walls
Withdraw from combat
Banter
Taunt
Cheating
Keen Awareness
Escape artist
Avoid traps

Footpad Skills
Crowd Dodging
Shadowing
move silently
Hiding
Cutpurse
Garrote
Signaling
Withdraw from combat

Scoundrel Skills
Fakery
Sleight of Hand
Shadowing
Kosh
Hear noise
Dose
Banter
Cheating
Forgery
Clipping
read scrolls

Urchin Skills
Fakery
Crowd Dodging
Angling
Prygging
Sleight of Hand
Hiding
Taunt
Escape artist
Withdraw from combat

Thug Skills
Shadowing
Backstab
Kosh
Garrote
Withdraw from combat
Taunt
Climb Walls
Keen Awareness
Avoid traps
Hear Noise
Move Silently
Hiding

Charltan
Fakery
Crowd Dodging
Sleight of Hand
Hiding
Signaling
Read scrolls
Banter
Taunt
Cheating
Forgery
Coining
Clipping

Building Encounter Tables for Riperia

I'm in the process of campaign development and one area I feel is important is encounter tables. The more encounter tabels are focused to the specific campaign the more they define the campaign and free up more time for the DM developing a campaign. It's certainly important to have set enocunters in certain spots but the development work is wasted if the DM doesn't or can't maneuver the players to the location of the set encounters. Working out what is to go on the encounter tables is important as it is indeed campaign defining.

Where are these encounter occurring. Defining the range of areas that will be covered by encounter tables will help establish expectations in players. Players will eventually be able to figure out likely encounters in different area/terrains (which is a good thing) and will notice if the range of encounters is the same in every terrain type or similar terrain types. So defining and narrowing down the encounter areas has becoem important to me for my Riperia campaign.

Encounter Areas I'm considering for the central campaign within Riperia:
Castle- the people and troubles of castle life.
Cultivated- the people and beasts in the fields and ways of manors
Village- the simple life of villages and their unique residents and offerings
Pastoral
Urban-Small Town
Urban-Market District
Urban-Dockside
Urban-Foreign Quarter
Urban-High Town
Urban-Low Town
Urban-College District
Urban-Thieves Quarter
Busy Riverside
Busy River-borne
Rural Riverside
Rural River-borne
Remote Riverside
Remote River-borne
Lakes, Ponds and pools
Maintained Forest
Wild Forest
Dark Forest
Sylvan Forest
Rugged Hills
Moors
Lonely Moors
Marsh
Trackless Marsh
Well Traveled Roads
Remote Routes
Coastal
Populated Mountains
Wild Mountains

Who or What is encountered. The people, creatures and events that populate these tables are of course very important and will be hugely important to a campaign. Her's how I'm defining that element for now:

Knights- patrolling knight, traveling knight, challenging knight, Legendary knights, Knights of renown, minor knights, Foreign knights, Knights on a personal mission, Questing Knights
Wizards- lords wizard, noted wizard, minor wizard, dastardly wizard, alien wizard
Holy Men- high clergy, local clergy, prophet/preacher, Witch hunter, pilgrims, strange cultists
Nobles- bachelor rand, dandies, lord, lady, foreign mission, local lord incognito, foreign nobles incognito
Burghers- town men, fops, craftsmen, academic
Peasants- lowly men, labourers, washwomen, children, wood cutters, herdsmen, farmers, serfs, milkmaids
Pariah class- lowest of the low and outlaws, charcoal burners, fortune teller, charmsman, banished, marked, beggar
Patrols- authorized militants, mounted patrol, foot patrol, combined patrol, peasant militia
Raiders- freebooters, brigands, foreign military
Domestic Beasts- in check or running amok
Wild Beasts- predators and prey
Merchants- caravans and peddlers
Visions/Sendings- omens, imps and cherubs
Supernatural- undead, demons and angels
Fey- elves, faeries and related
Horrors- terrible monsters, Dragons
Terrain- hazards and rewards of the specific terrain
Curiosity- something a little odd and out of place
Events- faires, tournaments and those getting ready for them.
Places- unmapped dwellings, camp,hogan, hut, cottage, great-house, tower, castle, farm, thorp, hamlet, ancient site, shrine, temple, graveyard, barrow, plinth, ruin, stall, door, shop
Horses and Hounds- events and annoyances with animals in PC party
Minions- events and annoyances with henchmen, hirelings and companions in PC party
Crime- witness or embroiled with Burglar, TombRobbers,Rakes, Footpads, scoundrels, urchins, thugs, bandits or Charlatans

What is the campaign/adventure reason for these encounters can be set in the tables and really aids me in play. Encounters can be:

Challenges- Decided risk and notable reward
Flavor- limited risk and no reward beyond information and establishing setting, possibly warning of future possible encounters.
Foils- limited risk and even more limited reward. a problem to be overcome that
usually results in it's own reward.
Boons- limited or no risk with some decided reward.

What's Campaign Scale ?

In developing my next serious campaign I've stumbled across something that matters to me and really impacts a lot of the game: Campaign Scale. By Campaign Scale I mean what the play sessions and in-between time are focusing on and what importance those events have on the overall picture. This is often expressed to GMs as time management for a campaign and a lot of it does indeed involve time but it goes beyond measuring time on a real-world or campaign calendar. It's about giving players and GMs a way to balance adventure and non-adventure in a campaign meaningful fashion.

Players will sometimes lament all the difficulties and troubles their characters are exposed to in a session of play and may ask; "how can we ever get anything done"? My usual reply is we don't often watch movies about those times Indiana Jones spends weeks teaching and researching or the times when everything is boring and modestly profitable for the crew of the Firefly. But if play sessions seem to only focus on a constant stream of detailed and frenetic activity one really must wonder...when the heck do PCs get anything done?

I suppose it's a matter of focus and time management which I've chosen to express as campaign scale. Sure when we game at the table top adventures flow by quickly in ten minute segments, sometimes days pass in moments and the resolution of actions resolved in minutes can actually take an hour to play out now and again. But the time experienced by the PCs is jam-packed offers little opportunity for anything other then conflict and unlikely survival. When and how do we resolve affairs of state and economics that could and should flow along with the heroic action in a campaign where adventurers can become lords and ladies?

The answer to the last question is to provide a lot more time between sessions. Does one day pass between game sessions? Is the passage of time between sessions flexible or fixed? Do we focus strongly on every moment of the PC's lives?

Notice I keep raising questions in this discussion? It's because the goals of the GM, players and their PCs have to be considered along with what will be supported by the rules and campaign.

We all want to have fun, that's why we're playing a game. The players and GM have to agree or be ready to play in a campaign where the PCs are more or less involved with events that happen outside immediate heroic action. Players have to know what resources they are going to have on hand to be involved in campaign relevant but not immediately adventure producing options. If character have jobs or demands that don't involve regularly kicking in doors and killing orcs they need some time to get those things done even if in the background. If in possession of holdings one must wait for development of estates, the construction of buildings and fortifications. The depth of involvement and desire to be involved with such things requires a campaign scale that supports these actions.

Outside of non-adventuring demands there are more adventure situations such as training time, research time, recovery from disease, healing of wounds, time to scribe scrolls and brew potions. Players need a chance to get some of this done and it's often more fun if it doesn't eat into or severely limit table time fun.
It's dependent on campaign scale.

A GM has to decide if the campaign scale is flexible or rigid and if it follows the real world at all. The dynamics of this can impact the campaign greatly.
one must also consider how play time eats into this time frame.

Campaign scale can have a time scale fixed between sessions regardless of the amount of action that occurs in a session. By example if a group meets once a week or 4 times a year they will know in the campaign 3 weeks will pass between sessions regardless of how much time a play session involved. This gives a consistent and regular amount of time for players to plan for.

The time scale of a campaign can be structured to flow at a regular rate and player actions will offset the players position in time. By example each real world day can be 3 campaign days and adventuring activities will eat up some of the days that will pass relative to the real world. Actions of players will separate PCs by time in such a campaign.

A campaign scale can be established where time relative to the real world is fixed and players aren't displaced in time by their actions but time itself is consumed. By example a campaign can be set where each session and the time that follow is one month and play at the table rats into that amount of time leaving the remainder to resolve non-adventuring options. Adventures that require multiple sessions to resolve will free up a lot of non-adventuring time if the session resolve a lot of furious action in just a short amount of time per session. So if a campaign scale is established to mean 4 weeks per session but an adventure requires 3 sessions to play out no more then a week worth of game time the players will find themselves with 9 weeks of non-adventuring action to deal with afterward.

With a campaign scale the GM gets to also pace how things develop outside the immediate interest of the PCs (but not so much it's wasted work). The time frame of campaign scale can greatly impact what happens in the rest of the campaign world.
Armies can march across borders and besiege towns and be worn out if weeks pass between play sessions or wars become an almost constant background for a campaign where only a few days pass between each pay session.

Resource management is impacted by the campaign scale. Pennies in ones pocket aren't so important the broader the campaign scale. One needn't fiddle with the costs of mead vs beer in tavern A or tavern B if weeks pass between sessions.
Players or GMs can establish a standard of living or a readiness cost that will consume wealth but provide a baseline of supplies to always be ready during those adventuring sessions. Resources rise or decrease in importance depending on campaign scale.

This certainly expanded to a much longer piece they I intended and I only touched on a few elements above. I'm certainly going to have to focus on more specific elements of campaign scale in future postings. Any input or questions would be immensely appreciated.

Last Night on Tekumel

...from the tunnel the party sprang up through the trap door. The MU tried to distract the Hlutrgu with an illusionary beast and while this didn't work the warriors still somehow got the upper hand and melee was joined. The five swamp-frogs were slain in a desperate fight and one warrior was incapacitated by wounds so the party quickly searched the chamber and fled the underworld (missing treasures beyond that chamber I must add).

The party sought out a physician for their badly wounded ally but could find none that would provide a price they could tolerate so they spent their precious coin resting in the foreign quarter.

During their rest he players met a new dashingly handsome priest of Avanthe. They agreed to escort him to a nearby temple and were accosted by a party of foreigners wearing redbasket hats trying to purchase the priest. The party fled through a door opened by a slave girl charmed by the priests looks and escaped a battle that would surely mean their doom. Fearing the priest would be kidnapped by the redbasket hatted foreigners the priest stayed low with the rest of the PCs and they traveled into the underworld to seek fortune there as danger enough with no reward could be found on the streets of the city.

In but 10 minutes into the underworld the party was embroiled with a small number of emboldened Kurgha (nasty 6 legged scavengers) and dispatched the disgusting creatures before travelling on (luckily not going back to the chamber with the dead Hlutrgu where they would find far more of the beasts).

Thw corridors proved to be empty for a good span with many chambers others had looted in the past and then a horrible stench assailed the party as they encountered a pair of Shunned Ones. The party held firm if a bit sickened and resisted a spell one of the Shunned Ones cast (or so they think) and the Shunned Ones simply walked off as if the PCs were of no concern to them. The party waited for the stench to past and then followed the route they though the shunned ones followed and they quickly discovered a way down to the second level of the underworld.

Upon the second level of the underworld they disovered longer runs of corridors then on they had found on the first level. The party was alerted by lights in the distance and investigated with stealth discovering a small party of men searching a large chanber. Deciding a turned back was too tempting a target the party struck their unwary foes. A desperate fight followed the MU was incapacitated and a warrior in the party was slain before the other party was overcome. With the modest coin found on the other adventurers the party set off for the surface carrying their wounded party member after stripping a few choice items from their foes and dead ally. The return to the surface was successful and had little to note.

Notes:
I'm using a HP variant inspired by some conventions notes of Mr. Gygax wherein PCs are incapacitated when brought to 0 or less hp but are not lain until negative hp exceed their level.

While the players are away on Tekumel

Been a busy DM of late getting a campaign ready that I plan to use for a few years.
I've gone a different route with campaign maps then is usual for me, I'm focusing on political features over terrain. Sure the rivers have a big impact on the political lay of the land so I'm not ignoring geography but I'm not making it the picky element of campaign development just yet.
I want the players to be aware of "the end game" early on and jump into it as much as they wish (with a little prodding from me) so politics are important.

I'm going for a fairly classical Fantasy RPG setting. I'm dumping the kitchen sink approach however and moving things that don't fit the main campaign to elsewhere. (That's why I did all those lunar encounter tables).

Here is my political map for Riperia as it exists to date:


Somewhere on this map I'll be placing Fomorgard and using that as the campaign's central dungeon focus. There will still be a number of smaller "dungeons" but the mega-dungeon will be Fomorgard (which is taking longer to develop then I planned).

What's on the boil for development-

Nailing down the house rules.
- Formalizing the combat variant
- Finishing up the Wizardly magic rules, along with spell lists.
-Finishing up the Clerical magic rules, along with spell lists and a host of divine entities to bargain with to gain spells.
- Getting the classes tweaked and created for the house rules to fit the campaign

Campaign Development
- Lot's of encounter tables. I'm a big fan of these I can't help myself. Planning on a host of encounter charts to cover a wide range of areas within the campaign. Batting about a lot of ideas currently. I'll bring this up on a future post.
- More detailed map(s), lot's of maps make for a detailed settign in my book.
- Describe what's on the maps. Simple detail that gives room to build as needed. Pages and pages on cities and baronies my PCs will never visit would be totally pointless.
- Fomorgard, needs more and more work.
- and much much more

All while the players in my group are wandering about a section of the dungeons under Jakalla.

Notes on the posted map:
Everything done in photohop so far. The posted image is an indexed gif but I have a working layered photo shop copy for editing and updating. I'll eventually get around to a more detailed map using illustrator but this will do for some time.

Taykoomel What's that?

Not getting my more traditional campaign into shape to my satisfaction just yet I decided to start an underworld crawling Empire of The Petal Throne mini-campaign to get some dungeon crawling action in but have it be a little different.

I whipped up maps for a 3 level section of the underworld beneath Jakalla using dungeon geomorphs from A Character For Every Game and a little bit of photoshop work.

I managed to place some temples and shrines to various gods on each of the levels of the underworld and get skeletal listings for all of level one and part of level two done before we started play.

I gave the players a quickie setup of Tekumel and the EPT to get the players focused, it seemed to work.

It took a surprisingly long time to roll up characters. A lot of time was spent selecting the small number of background and professional skills for the characters and buying initial equipment took a while. We ended up with one magic-user and three warriors in the party. One warrior is hideously ugly but no one ended up with an unplayable character.

It was getting late but we started the exploration of the underworld directly after character generation. The players managed to stumble about into the first few empty rooms and were starting to get bored when they discovered a secret trap door in a floor and the three warriors ventured on to discovered it led to a tight and low tunnel that lead into another room via trapdoor in a chamber occupied by a 5 Hlutrgú that slammed the trapdoor down on the PCs who retreated a short way back the tight tunnel and they hesitated unsure what to do while the magic-user moved up to ready one of his meager spells to aid the party in a possible assault...

and we stopped there for the night.

Scheduling,planning and the stressed DM

My group has had to cancel three of the last gaming session due to massive inability to arrive and minor (but game ruining) illness. It's a pain and as the groups GM you'd think I'd take advantage of the time offered right? Of course not, I was ill or the parent of the ill child so that means lots of "wasted" time.
I've been working on a campaign which I wanted to have ready to launch by June (it isn't). We've been nailing down and playtesting some house rules, I don't' think we're there yet with the rules tweaks either. Missing 3 sessions hasn't helped of course.
So i'm in a quandary, scale back my campaign intro plans? Stick with the rules where we were in the last play test ? Drop the rules back to a printed rule set and have fun from there as the campaign develops?
Of course these are mostly DM/GM problems the players in the main have no clue how much time goes into some of this stuff so I'm worried about letting them down. I don't want to let myself down either, in my experience the first few sessions in a campaign really set the tone for how it develops and I've got a group of players that really enjoy multi-year campaigns and I want to deliver.
How do you tell players "I'm not ready yet" let's o something else for fun? Do I want to hear the moans and groans, do I want to start of a game doomed to fail or sticking myself with the wrong tone becasue of underplanning? my Mutant Future Mutantbox suffered because I failed to get the right tone accross and nail-down just who the heck the PCs were supposed to be. My last mix and match D&Desque campaign was ended because I got tired of the power-curve and the pointless nature of the campaign (too much loot and scoot and yet I still like a sandbox).

So Why is it DM's/GM's put themselves through this sort of self inflicted stress in the name of fun?