Tuesday, September 22, 2015

More DF Lost City chargen questions answered

DF Lost City of D'Abo will kick off on Sunday.

Here are a few more questions I answered, repeated and re-edited for those following along at home. I may have answered some of these before - it's okay, I don't expect my players to memorize my blog or my emails.

Can I buy stuff from Dungeon Fantasy 8: Treasure Tables? - No. That's a treasure suggestion pile for the GM, not a shopping list for the players. Assume the answer is no for anything and be pleasantly surprised if I suggest something is available.

Can I start with magic items? - Not asked so much as assumed and bought and paid for. Yes, it's fine. You need at least Ornate (the cheapest non-size prefix) for magic armor, but if you buy that, sure, you can have enchanted armor. Or magic weapons. Or magical shields. Or a Cornucopia quiver (a great idea, given the cost.)

What's the weapon list? - Almost anything from Basic Set, Low-Tech, or Martial Arts, from TL 0-4. If you haven't seen it in play before, ask. It's probably okay, and most of the stat changes in Low-Tech are ones we played with as house rules anyway, so enjoy getting +1 with that shortsword and the better great axe damage (also in Barbarians!)

When it comes to weapons, Low-Tech trumps Martial Arts which trumps Basic Set. DF volumes trump everything.

How about armor? Use Basic Set. Spend some money on better quality gear if the weights upset you. YOU only have to do armor once in a while, I have to do it over and over again for every NPC with armor on, so Basic Set wins. Yay, simplicity!

Can I merged Quirk points into (whatever)? Sure. You can blow an extra 5 points on advantages, skills, stats, whatever. Have a pool of 20 to spend and want a 15 and a 10 point advantage? Use your 5 quirk points. It's fine. They're extras to put anywhere, not after-the-fact add-ons.

Can I buy up (whatever) in play? Yes. Absolutely yes. It's on your racial template or professional template? Yes, you may buy it up to the max allowed, no matter how much or little sense that makes. Maybe Galen got special eye drops, that's what the $200 he spend on Night Vision 5 paid for. Maybe Borriz got a special blessing of the patron saint of ditch-diggers and upped Pickaxe Penchant to the max. We're still not sure what Vryce did to get two do-overs per hour from the universe (Extraordinary Luck), but he did it. It's all good. It's DF. Just take it, pay the training costs we use, and it's yours. There is no distinction between "at startup" or "in play" for anything.

Weirdness Magnet? I decided to ditch it. It was too much work for me and no roleplaying required for the player. I'll leave it on existing PCs, but I asked our new wizard PC not to take it. It was offloading roleplaying tasks onto me coming up with a weird bad thing every session. I wasn't keeping up, so it was often free points.

My character background? By all means, have one. Keeping it to a punchy paragraph is good. Just enough so we have some idea why all the crazy stuff you selected fits together and why you'll risk eventual death in a dungeon in return for money you may or may not find. Or don't have one. It's fine.

And of course, like I said before, you can't modify the template but you can sub in a worse disad for one on the template. Rest assured, I will make them count.


Editing later: Can I have Crude gear? (Barbarians, p. 28)? Yep. The rules about reaction penalties apply, though, and remember the "no enchantments" downside. Not a good choice for your Signature Gear Weapon Bonded weapon, for example.

11 comments:

  1. Awesome! I have more follow-ups, so I'll hit them here for everyone else's benefit too. Or potentially offload the answering responsibilities since I know the least about GURPS, I think.

    - Do you specify the type of arrow cornucopia quivers or could you pull either regular OR bodkin out, as appropriate?
    - The limitation on cornucopia quivers of "one at a time" is meant to restrict selling arrows, not firing 2+ in one round / at one time, right?
    - Ornate requirement only applies to armor, or also weapons?
    - Just to be explicit, "Magic Items" includes potions and spellstones?

    Sorry about the DF 8 bit ;)

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    Replies
    1. 1) You must specify the type, and it's permanent.

      2) It applies to both - if you want to double-shoot arrows, you need two.

      3) Ornate is for armor and weapons.

      4) You can buy potions. Spellstones? You mean the crush-and-cast kind? Yes.

      Keep in mind the ideal bow for a Scout starts at $900, the okay choice is $200, and you start with $1000. You either need to go "maxed bow" or "junk bow with good gear" and hope to find a good one in the ruins.

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    2. It looked like the compound bow only added +1 dmg and some range for that extra $700. I was thinking to get just the longbow because I want to get two ranks of Strongbow (which I can't get at start) and an Elven compound bow after some loot acquisition.

      Was considering trading my last point in for money as an option, too.

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    3. It's "only" +1 damage until every turn when you shoot something. You'll end up with one as soon as you can afford it.

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    4. Definitely! Was just hoping to only pay that big expense once instead of twice and get the right bow to match up with Strongbow. Might even save money to get one after the first trip, or pre-buy one to keep in the camp if it's small enough that they wouldn't have a composite bow. Hm, that might be the way to go.

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    5. You can do that. Get a cheap starter bow, hope you survive session 1, and have the better one waiting for you. It's expensive, though.

      Delete
  2. Does Dwarven or Fine count for enchanting armor? Or does it have to be Ornate of some sort? I seem to recall you just wanted it to be exceptional, and Ornate 1 was the cheapest option, but not the only one.

    For the bow, you could try and soak the -2 skill and take +1 FP after the fight for using a bow you lack the +2 ST to deal with yet... no idea how suicidal that might be though.

    Peter, would you allow the Dwarf and Elf racial classes? Not on your list, but they dont look too abusive (unlike, say, Mystic Knight or Demolisher) to your setting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't realize the higher ST bow was an option but with the rules for hot jungle and FP loss that Peter sent out to us I think it would be pretty squarely suicidal. Not sure if he plans to post them up but they are going to be ROUGH.

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    2. Yeah, you can try to shoot overstrength bows, but the skill penalty and FP will add up.

      I'm not using the Dwarf and Elf profession templates. Not for any reason except not to muddy the waters.

      And yes, Dwarven and Ornate will do for magic armor.

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    3. I think a post of the jungle wilderness rules would be cool for others to read.

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    4. I can't! What I've shown you guys is largely word for word rules from DF16, put together into a player/GM cheat sheet for the table. So it's not my stuff to post up, it's SJGs.

      I should make a list of where I pulled stuff from, and explain if I've simplified it or not. I'll do that when I get some time.

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