Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Ace_of_time 03-22-08, 10:25 AM	I'm starting this thread to help those who play commoner games and the creater of a play and post game staring "Joe Wood", Heros Backpack. Here is the link to the thread if you haven't read it and would like to help or just want to read.http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=763260 If HB needs something or anyone that runs a commoner Game can post there needs on here and others that run those type or experenced DMs will help when they can. This will be a big help to those of us that don't have time to take 4+ hours for rules and other issues that come up. So here is what I ask for your help in doing. I'm puting it into list form but you don't have to post on all just pick which one you like and do that one. *Please note in your post which one you are posting for.* 1. Per built cities. Here is an example of the type we are looking for. It doesn't have to be this detailed but would atleast need the guards and Militia. You can add anything you want story wise. If you are looking for a city to use in your commoner world you can add NPC or story plots or the poster can feel free to add it for them selves. If you want to borrow any of my ideas, go ahead. I meant this thread to be a resource as much as anything else. :D The next episode should (cross fingers) be up tomorrow. In the mean time, have a look at Freetown itself. FREETOWN Freetown (small town): Conventional (paired councils, high council of nobles & low council of burgesses); AL LG; 800 gp limit; Assets 40,000 gp; Population 1000; Mixed (human 79%, elf 9%, halfling 5%, half-elf 3%, gnome 2%, 1% dwarf, 1% other). Authority Figures: The High Council: Lord William Sharpsen, LN male human aristocrat 1 (Chief High Councillor and current mayor); Lady Erithae Hallasei, LG female elf aristocrat 1 (high councillor); Sir Thomas Sharpsen (Lord William’s son), LG male human aristocrat 1 (high councillor); Sir Ferith Sweetwater, NG male half-elf aristocrat 1 (high councillor); Lady Giselle Demarka, LE human aristocrat 1 (high councillor). (The high council rotates the mayorship among its members) The Low Council: Chief Guildsman Harold Clay, TN male half-elf expert 11 (Chief Low Councillor); Chief Husbandman Matthew Piers, NG male human commoner 10 (low councillor); Chief Artisan Renee Dallan, CG female human bard 3 (low councillor); High Priest Dassi Burrowcliff, LG male halfling adept 4 (low councillor); Captain George Frent, LN male human fighter 5 (low councillor and captain of the town guard). Notes: Freetown is a trade town, specialising in producing good quality food, clothes, tools and other general purpose items. Because so many of these goods are high bulk, low cost types, Freetown accepts both hacksilver (metal handed over in the lump rather than as minted coinage) and farthings (worth 1/4 of a (copper/ silver/ gold) piece, made by cutting coins into quarters) as payment. Small purchases in farthings (3p or less) go for face value; larger farthing purchases and all hacksilver purchases are valued by weight and all shops have a set of scales for precisely this purpose. Weapons and armour are not forbidden in Freetown, but they are in short supply. Buyers can expect to pay top price and suffer long delays on delivery. Anyone carrying a lot of weapons or wearing expensive armor can expect to be speculatively eyed by guards wondering if they will sell anything and to be charged double or triple for standard goods in the belief that anyone that rich can afford it. Freetown maintains 10 full time guards and a further 50 militia members. Guards, led by Captain George Frent, LN male human fighter 5: 1x warrior 6; 2x warrior 3; 2x fighter 3; 4x fighter 1; 1x ranger 1. Militia: 1x barbarian 2; 2x barbarian 1; 47x warrior 1. 2. Tips for running a commoner world. Some rules to follow. I'll try to post some of the good ones on another post for just that reason. 1. use 4d6 drop lowest if you roll. Or no more then 25 points buy. 2. Limited to NPC classes at least at the start. You can open reg if you want later but for most that goes against the point of the game. I'll added more if they come up. 3. Per built commoner dungeons. Best to use maps from the Wotc web but not required. 4. Sample commoner encounter list for the different levels. You can add that to the cty build if you did one. In this case you might want to add what terrain type the city is found in. If anybody can think of something that I didn't think of please feel free to post it and I will add it. Thanks ahead of time. 5. You can post you players or your own commoner PCs' if you like. Build help most likely will not be needed but stuff happens.
Half_Dragon_Infernal 03-22-08, 10:31 AM	Here's one: 6. DO NOT ALLOW CHICKEN-INFESTED FLAW 7. add in the occasional encounter with lower-level adventurers. It should be funny. 8. If you allow all NPC classes, give commoners something for being weaker than the warrior, adept, and expert.
M-bark 03-22-08, 12:39 PM	Tip 9: Do not have the commoners run into large encounters, keep the number of enemies small. Commoners typically have less resources than adventurers. In fact, you could better have the "encounters" rather be non-monster-related. Instead, have the commoners perform tasks for rewards. Or have them face other commoners or lower-level adventurers, as suggested above. Tip 10: Make it more roleplay intensive than rollplay intensive.
GoriceXII 03-22-08, 04:09 PM	I'd also suggest checking out lythia.com for commoner friendly adventures--it is for Harnmaster rather than D&D but it is fairly straightforward and the adventures/settings are mostly medieval and rarely have powerful magic or awe inspiring monsters.
Ace_of_time 03-22-08, 11:57 PM	Tips for DMs' Always look at the mobster not the CR of the monsters. You should never just put them up against a monster just because the CR fit the level. Always look at the monster before using it to make sure it will not overpower your group. example: Orcs are 1/2CR but it verses a group of commoers is not going to end well because of the damage they can do and +4 attack. I would also suggest using only 1 combat encounter until you get used to the commoners in battle. And don't always have to end the encounter with combat. This is a more roleplaying type game. That means sometimes more thought. I have more but have to go for now. Nicely done so far keep it up.
Ace_of_time 03-26-08, 10:59 PM	Tips for DMs Skills One way to deal with the skills type of encounter is like this. Says your player/s want to be trapper/s and sell furs off. You could come up with your own way to do this. I just use the PROFESSION skill. This would work with the craft skill to. But for the example that use this one. To do this they would choose tanner or hunter. Then I just make a daily check for how much they made on that days trip. I require atleast 8 hours. You can give a bonus if they stay out longer if you like, most just go 8. Now I normally would roll an encounter roll every hours they where out there. Making them roll the profession check after the day's done. But you could with commoner game just have one encounter a day out side of town. This would be good if you are using a random city encounter table for inside of town. See page 101-102 DMG.
Ace_of_time 03-26-08, 11:07 PM	Tips for DM's Businesses DMG2 has a part in it about how to run a business. I can't remember which page but I will look it up when I find my book. It is best to read this ahead of time if your players are leaning towards this path. We mostly do the work during the week and adventure on the week ends type thing but feel free to do what makes the most sense in your world. There is also a business encounter thing in that same book which could also be helpfull.
Ace_of_time 03-26-08, 11:26 PM	Players tips Weapon choices If you are going commoner only type game. Make your weapon choice wisely. They only get one weapon to be able to use so if you are not careful you could get stuck with a melee or ranged only weapon. Also as pointed out by our friend Half_Dragon_Infernal duel damage types may also be helpful. Most I would stick with weapon that can be used for both. WEAPON DESCRIPTIONS Table: Weapons Simple Weapons Cost Dmg (S) Dmg (M) Critical Range Increment Weight1 Type2 Unarmed Attacks Gauntlet 2 gp 1d2 1d3 x2 — 1 lb. Bludgeoning Unarmed strike — 1d2* 1d3* x2 — — Bludgeoning Light Melee Weapons Dagger 2 gp 1d3 1d4 19–20/x2 10 ft. 1 lb. Piercing or slashing Dagger, punching 2 gp 1d3 1d4 x3 — 1 lb. Piercing Gauntlet, spiked 5 gp 1d3 1d4 x2 — 1 lb. Piercing Mace, light 5 gp 1d4 1d6 x2 — 4 lb. Bludgeoning Sickle 6gp 1d4 1d6 x2 — 2 lb. Slashing One-Handed Melee Weapons Club — 1d4 1d6 x2 10 ft. 3 lb. Bludgeoning Mace, heavy 12 gp 1d6 1d8 x2 — 8 lb. Bludgeoning Morningstar 8 gp 1d6 1d8 x2 — 6 lb. Bludgeoning and piercing Shortspear 1 gp 1d4 1d6 x2 20 ft. 3 lb. Piercing Two-Handed Melee Weapons Longspear4 5 gp 1d6 1d8 x3 — 9 lb. Piercing Quarterstaff5 — 1d4/1d4 1d6/1d6 x2 — 4 lb. Bludgeoning Spear 2 gp 1d6 1d8 x3 20 ft. 6 lb. Piercing Ranged Weapons Crossbow, heavy 50 gp 1d8 1d10 19–20/x2 120 ft. 8 lb. Piercing Bolts, crossbow (10) 1 gp — — — — 1 lb. — Crossbow, light 35 gp 1d6 1d8 19–20/x2 80 ft. 4 lb. Piercing Bolts, crossbow (10) 1 gp — — — — 1 lb. — Dart 5 sp 1d3 1d4 x2 20 ft. 1/2 lb. Piercing Javelin 1 gp 1d4 1d6 x2 30 ft. 2 lb. Piercing Sling — 1d3 1d4 x2 50 ft. 0 lb. Bludgeoning Bullets, sling (10) 1 sp — — — — 5 lb. — *The weapon deals nonlethal damage rather than lethal damage. I bolded good choices to me. My favorite is Club. It is free and will not cost you anything. Going for damage would be spear and it has a times 3 crit. Daggers are also good and can be used for other things as well. Make sure the weapon you pick goes well with the concept of the PC and the backstory. Now most people don't like small races so if you don't human is about the best pick for commoner. If you don't mind being small I would go halfling and stick to thrown weapons. Plus halflings have a few other thing that would be a great help to commoner. (+1 to saves) Now some people will say that going commoner is not about building the most powerful PC you can, which I agree with but most of the thing you pick to start with will be for everyday life/skills. But it is D&D and your going to fight something some time.
Half_Dragon_Infernal 03-26-08, 11:58 PM	Ace, on that last one, I'd reccomend Morningstar also. One handed, d8, bludgeoning and piercing. Whats not to like?
Ace_of_time 03-27-08, 12:20 AM	Ace, on that last one, I'd reccomend Morningstar also. One handed, d8, bludgeoning and piercing. Whats not to like?I'll add it. I forgot the deal damage types. Commoner vs skeleton would be nice to see what that would end up like? The cost of that one is pretty high and That would be some back story on how they learned that. Thanks.
Half_Dragon_Infernal 03-28-08, 10:30 AM	And unarmed attack, You don't have to roll a d23 or a d33 for them, do you?
Ace_of_time 03-28-08, 09:46 PM	The SRD has a number 3 beside it that says deals non lethal damage. When I copied it the boards just changed it to a 3. It would be nice. I will change it thanks. There you go also Side note: There is a page in the old Arms and equipment guide has a page in there with prices for a bunch of things like spices, fruites,pants and the like. The book is 3.0 but the price could still be used as a base. I think there are a bunch of wines in there too but it has been a while.
Ace_of_time 04-06-08, 09:33 PM	My players plan to start this one soon and I have rolled a town to post and I'm using it on here. Also found a page in the arms and equipment guide that has adjustments for trade items for town and I'm going to add a few trade items that are cheaper and some that are more expensive. I'll post it when I have time. Been working on 4 worlds and my group has played the last 4 nights. Edit: page 39.
Ace_of_time 04-10-08, 09:20 AM	http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20010223d is the link to the tool of WotC for a tavern generator. I like it pretty good. Here are two towns. Minermold small town 1,500 (dwarf 79%, elf 9%, halfling 5%, half-elf 3%, gnome 2%, 1% human, 1% other). gold limit 800 cash on hand 60,000 power center Wizards 20th LG ran with a town council over seeing. LG council constable 10th warrior guards 15 militia 75 Climate temperate mountains trade goods oversupplied Iron Dwarfhead stout Armor surplus goats Copper Weapons under surplied Wheat sought flour popular Salt pepper needed cloves
Ace_of_time 04-10-08, 09:28 AM	Riverwane port city small town 1,000 (Human79%, elf 9%, halfling 5%, half-elf 3%, gnome 2%, 1% Dwarf, 1% other). gold limit 800 cash on hand 40,000 power center a town council over seeing. LN council constable 6th warrior guards 10 militia 50 Climate temperate Forest Also sets at the edge of a large river. trade goods oversupplied Wheat Flour Smoked cod Smoked salmon surplus Tobacco Linen Smoked herring under surplied Iron Cloves sought Copper popular Salt pepper needed Silver I mostly build the people in each town as I play so I didn't post those yet. Sorry.
Chapien 07-24-08, 07:40 PM	If the system is feudal, have the commoner PCs have difficulty with the local knights and lords. They always are picking on the poor 'lil pesants, and they LOVE collecting high taxes and leaving the commoners with nothing.:mad:
Ace_of_time 07-30-08, 09:35 AM	Cool thanks. I just hope all this stuff helps someone.