Mid-to-high level D&D 3.5? (Basically Full)

[TheGlyphstone]

I like bookkeeping too, but you may be right. Here's character descriptions for my character and cohort.

Eidan Maestri, Lord Maestri

Physically, if one were to view him through a scrying glass or a painting, very little would draw the eye’s attention. He is tall and athletically thin, with the pale skin of an aristocrat and piercing blue eyes. He dresses richly, in long black robes and tailored clothing, and is frequently adorned by a small assortment of jewelry. A fist-sized crystal of deep purple tends to hover or circle around him, or perch on his shoulder with spindly legs of glowing ectoplasm.
In person, though, the experience is indescribably different. As naturally as breathing, he need merely enter a room to have every eye drawn to him, and it is a conscious effort to stop focusing on him. His personal interactions definitely leave something to be desired, a corrosive arrogance  and disdain for everyone around him adding a foul aftertaste to his presence – but all the same he is almost literally magnetic, a palpable aura that extends to those nearby and marks his proximity unmistakably. Everywhere he goes, he is accompanied by his wife Alyssa, just as often in noble finery as in her custom-fit armor.

Alysssa Maestri, Lady Maestri


Tall, well-musculed, and with a figure that would not look out of place on a supermodel, any man would kill to have Alyssa Maestri as his wife. She is Eidan’s, though, devoted and literally bound to him in mind, body, and soul. In conversation, she is moderately friendly and very quick-witted, though with a certain detached demeanor – not cold or hostile like her husband, but more slightly disinterested. To those unfamiliar, though, her total and instant obedience to Eidan, sometimes to things he hasn’t even said out loud, can be most unnerving, and her almost fanatical protectiveness versus anything that might appear to be physically harmful to him can be a shock.
In private, or on the rare occasions Eidan deigns to host guests, she strongly favors low-cut, glowing gowns, often in burgundy or red, with jewelry and decorative attachments as befits a nobleman’s wife. When armed for combat, she is a distinctly different sight – she wears almost nothing save for an ornately molded and absolutely gorgeous form-fitting suit of armor. Custom-forged golden cups on a leather band cover her breasts, and a leather thong from which gold plates hang around her waist. Between them, her torso is covered by a hair-thin, almost transparent mesh of gold chain, and aside from a pair of boots, armored bracers, and gloves, that is all she has on. Her left hand carries a round small shield, but she is apparently unarmed - until combat threatens, when she produces a glimmering duom from thin air.

[Katina Tarask]

Other than the modifier for having a stronghold, ignore the rest; the surplus/deficit modifiers replace things like special powers or generosity.

NPCs with PC class levels use the elite array by default.

As mentioned above, I definitely need a bit of clarification regarding how the math works, because as it stands, it seems impossible for us to sustain ourselves, let alone turn a surplus of anything.

That's assuming the target is 1 each for everyone right off the bat.  1 food, 1 wealth, and 1 culture for everyone each month is to feed/pay/entertain them well.  .5 is to do so poorly (which is still getting the job done) and worse is to fail at whichever category (which isn't Game Over; it just means y'all may have to spend time keeping impoverished minions in line by whatever means).  Also, you're not actually expected to exercise a poor aspect under normal circumstances.  If you get your economy up to average, you're expected to exploit that as best you can and trade with the other PCs.

Also, you can tone down your hypno beams, forgoing some of the level 1 followers for now, but keeping the higher-level followers, with intent to draw lower-level mooks later.  (And folks assigned to the castle can still count as working in whatever capacity is appropriate, like kitchen workers producing food.)

This land sucks.  Surviving is difficult.  That's why it's unclaimed land.

Urr... these rules seem to make everything top heavy.  Are these flavor or are they pivotal for game participation?

Would it be wiser for me to just join up with someone?

These rules, in part, drive events.  The stability of your domain determines whether it's wiser to go out and expand or turn your attentions inward to tidy your existing holdings, they're what outside missions tie into, and so on.

Katina:
Chicken are 2 CP apiece.  So, they are 50 per GP. 

If I bought a couple hundred chickens, would that help my food situation?  Chickens are pretty good at scavenging crap off the ground, and produce eggs.

I could also obtain goats for milk, they are much hardier than cattle.

Nein.  There's a wall between the resources precisely because the D&D economy is so broken.  Y'all probably have swords that can feed countries.  You cannot cross the line between, say, wealth and gp.

However, things like food creation spells cast regularly or plant growth spells to improve agriculture are fair game.

FF: Foraging is an interesting idea, though the problem there is that the skill check doesn't account for rather barren land.  To that end, we'll just tack +5 on the DC and shift the increment from 2 to 3 (so 15 to produce one unit, +1 for every additional 3, no regard for character level).  It'll just be one unified roll for the entire month for all your minions.  So, if they get a good roll, there be much bounty that month.  If they roll poorly, I hope you weren't counting on it.  And I'd rather remove the option to take 10 on foraging, since it being unreliable strikes me as more interesting.

This passage needs clarification, because it can make or break us. By the strictest reading, failing to meet two categories of needs for all of our people for even one month basically drops our Leadership to 0, though we can each afford to let one category suffer indefinitely.

If you fail to meet two categories, you're eating a -4.  However, if you stop failing, that -4 goes away.

Kat, any chance you could maybe modify Trade so that in addition to increasing the amount we trade, it can increase the rate of return above 1-to-1? As it stands, all of our math is showing us in a steady decline that we can't stop and will continually get worse and worse until it's just us and our cohorts - heck, if I even lose 1 point of Leadership, my Clerics will start vanishing, and my entire population is utterly screwed, because it's impossible to feed them non-magically.

It's not a steady decline.  If you can maintain 1/2 of everything per person, you're at a steady N-3 for your leadership score.  It's not -3, then -3 next month, then another -3 the next month until you hit 0.

I mean, seriously.  I have a mighty tolerance for high-level sim stuff in comparison to the average player, but even I'm starting to feel like I've signed up for a game of Agribusiness and Accountancy.  I would feel infinitely better if we could get to some of the payoff for this work.

I did promise to give Aether until Tuesday.  Ixy definitely needs some time.  Latooni needs some time, yet.  Besides, for me, anything less than a couple weeks is rather abrupt as far as getting a game started is concerned, and I'm pulling a lot of stuff out of thin air.

(Oh, and anyone who needs to talk to me a little closer, I have three instant messengers.  MSN, AIM, YIM.  Just PM me for contact info.)

[WyzardWhately]

However, things like food creation spells cast regularly or plant growth spells to improve agriculture are fair game.

(Oh, and anyone who needs to talk to me a little closer, I have three instant messengers.  MSN, AIM, YIM.  Just PM me for contact info.)

This is useful information for me.

I am going to look back over my math with the addition of spellcasting for food, and I may contact you soon.

[TheGlyphstone]

What do we do if our resource ratio falls between 0.9 and 1.0?

[Katina Tarask]

It rounds down.

[TheGlyphstone]

Okay, time to finagle for bonuses then.

I've got a set of Craftsman's workshops in my basement to manufacture finished goods for export, along with the Smithy and stables. Are any/all of those worth a boost to my Wealth output or Trade?

[Katina Tarask]

Workshops would be +10% wealth production.

[PhantomPistoleer]

Can I put my wealth into someone else's domain?  The landlord feat allows you to share.  I just want to run a dungeon!

My fort would be really small, you see. :d

[TheGlyphstone]

Make your Fortress an Obdurium block that you cart around in your pocket. Stuff's expensive enough.

Would having a Luxury Library stocked with books on Psionics give a bonus to Research for the purposes of making psionic items?

[WyzardWhately]

Pursuant to my fortress's role as a University, I have:
An auditorium, rogue and combat training rooms, a chapel, two libraries, and a magic lab. 

Culture bonus?

[TheGlyphstone]

Speaking of combat training, I have that entire spiffy guardhouse - an armory and beds for 30 security guards, plus a combat training area. Even though it'll probably just collect dust and Small Monstrous Spiders, is having cashed out for it worth any Security boost?

[Katina Tarask]

Can I put my wealth into someone else's domain?  The landlord feat allows you to share.  I just want to run a dungeon!

My fort would be really small, you see. :d

Well, you can waive your domain if you want to, though it'd probably be wise to waive all your followers except your cohort since it'd be a problem to feed 'em.

However... what exactly do you mean by wanting to run a dungeon?  'Cuz I don't exactly get what you're going for, here.

Would having a Luxury Library stocked with books on Psionics give a bonus to Research for the purposes of making psionic items?

Magic is magic.  Psionics are also magic.  There isn't a distinction to be made.

The library can be a +10% to research, though.

Pursuant to my fortress's role as a University, I have:
An auditorium, rogue and combat training rooms, a chapel, two libraries, and a magic lab. 

Culture bonus?

Culture bonus.  Standard 10%.  Same to research.  The training rooms land you a +1 to security against thieves (this only applies to your territory, and stacks with whatever you're getting, wherever you're getting it from.

Speaking of combat training, I have that entire spiffy guardhouse - an armory and beds for 30 security guards, plus a combat training area. Even though it'll probably just collect dust and Small Monstrous Spiders, is having cashed out for it worth any Security boost?

That array'd be good for a +1 CR to your core four territories' security.

[PhantomPistoleer]

I have a question.

I decided to make a vessel that is able to fly and burrow to patrol his domain.  I decided to go with the Longship (which is 10,000 gp).  I'm not sure what goes WITHIN it, though.  Should I just put whatever I can fit into it based on that fixed price using stronghold spaces?  And how would I treat the deck?  As a "common" space?  o_o

[Katina Tarask]

Well, making a boat into a stronghold isn't something that's covered, but... I'll say it's three stronghold spaces of generic shippiness that you needn't worry about comes with free 3mph mobility and the ability to float/move in water (as normal for a ship of its type), and all other forms of mobility have to be applied on top of that (which can be rather expensive, even for something as small as three spaces).  Making three stronghold spaces burrow costs an extra 30k (10k per space).  Making it fly would be 45k more (15k per space).  Though crawling would just be 3k (1k per space).  You could also speed it up from 3mph to 10mph for 27k (9k per space).


And by a show of hands, who wants to just say, "Screw domain management," and just abstract all that along with the followers and assume they start out in relative squalor?

[Ixy]

*raises her hand*  However, I'm totally supportive of those who'd like to do the domain-management aspect with you.  It's totally fine.  It's just not for me.  I could see giving advantages to people who do it well. 

[WyzardWhately]

Well, making a boat into a stronghold isn't something that's covered, but... I'll say it's three stronghold spaces of generic shippiness that you needn't worry about comes with free 3mph mobility and the ability to float/move in water (as normal for a ship of its type), and all other forms of mobility have to be applied on top of that (which can be rather expensive, even for something as small as three spaces).  Making three stronghold spaces burrow costs an extra 30k (10k per space).  Making it fly would be 45k more (15k per space).  Though crawling would just be 3k (1k per space).  You could also speed it up from 3mph to 10mph for 27k (9k per space).


And by a show of hands, who wants to just say, "Screw domain management," and just abstract all that along with the followers and assume they start out in relative squalor?

Well, my actual facilities are all fancy and nice, we're just broke as a joke. 

I'm more or less okay with that, I'd probably prefer to introduce the elements gradually (preferably just for those who care about them ), once we've got our feet wet and gained a handle on the world.

[PhantomPistoleer]

Damn.  I didn't realize that the flying vessel would be per SS.

Hmm.  I don't care for how complicated it's become, to be honest with you.  But I hate how people have already done some work on it.

[WyzardWhately]

Damn.  I didn't realize that the flying vessel would be per SS.

Hmm.  I don't care for how complicated it's become, to be honest with you.  But I hate how people have already done some work on it.

Don't stress out on my behalf (Glyphstone must speak for himself.)  I'm much more interested in what will make the game the best for everyone.

[TheGlyphstone]

Eh, I was having fun with it (the domain management), but I can agree that it's a bit overcomplicated. If the majority vote is in favor of abstraction, I'm onboard. Plus, it'll let me have my Extra Followers back, and not need to re-map my fortress.

[Katina Tarask]

Damn.  I didn't realize that the flying vessel would be per SS.

You can still afford one fast landship.

But I hate how people have already done some work on it.

I put together six pages of domain management rules and I'm the one putting forward the motion.

That sunk effort's no big deal to me.  Glyph's still getting his beautiful keep, while those not interested in the fine details can just abstract their keep generically.

[Aether]

For the love of bacon and eggs, people, how the hell do you all generate 5o+posts while I am at work?

Okay this is the deal, I keep tinkering with dropping for my own sanity cept i really want to do this and have this wonderful idea bubbling in my head.  I may, however, need some more direct help.  So, I will send a pm out and see if I can get on top of this and make the numbers, bolts, and mechanics line up with my creative streak and desire to play D&D.

You Have Mail!

<.<

>.>

[PhantomPistoleer]

At any rate, I've constructed my stronghold, but I sank most on my money on equipment for my cavalry.  Nearly a fourth of my force is composed of rangers who have at least a +5 in survival.  The domain rules, though...  they are a bit much.  Sorry, K!

Cavalry Base:  Barracks (10), Combat Training Area (5), Guard Post (2), Basic Armory (4), Dining Hall (2), Basic Kitchen (4), Servants' Quarters, Basic Table (16), Smithy: Size: 46 stronghold spaces; Cost: 40,000 (28000), Two Trebuchets, Three Ballista.

Followers:  25 Rangers LVL 1 (Equipped as Cavalry, Light: light warhorse with studded leather barding, scale mail armor, large wooden shield, heavy lance, light flail); 2 Fighters LVL 2 (Equipped as Cavalry, Heavy:  Heavy warhorse with chainmail barding, banded mail, large wooden shield, heavy lance, longsword); 1 Marshall LVL 3 (Equipped as Mounted Officer; Heavy Warhorse with Chainmail Barding, Breastplate, Large Steel Shield, Longsword, Dagger), 50 Soldiers LVL 1 (*On Contract for Two Months, Equipped as Skirmishers: Studded Leather Armor, Buckler, Shortbow, 20 Arrows, Scimitar), 20 Barbarians LVL 5 (*On Contract for Two Months, Equipped as Heavy Foot Soldiers, Splint Mail, Greatsword, Dagger), 5 Fighters LVL 9 (*On Contract For Two Months, Equipped as Medium Mounted Cavalry, Bearing Breastplate, Small Steel Shield, Light Flail, Light Pick, Heavy Warhorse, Leather Barding), 40 Hounds plus additional hirelings equal up to 100gp.

[Katina Tarask]

It's alright.  I'll just go off into a corner and cry because nobody loves me.

So, you're not going with the landship, PP?

Anywho, Aether, we're simplifying things; no need to go into heavy details with your stronghold if you don't want to (you can be as vague as, "It's a small abbey") and the domain management is being abstracted out.  So, main focus is back to the character.

[Aether]

Its a great Idea, Katina, I am simply hoping to mold it into the setting, and it will quite run itself, which is what we want right?  ^.^  I just think the one i pm'ed may be able to help me get past the fact that I dont know EVERYTHING 3.5 and tell me whether or not I can put my idea into the system we have set up here.

[ff]

*raises her hand*  However, I'm totally supportive of those who'd like to do the domain-management aspect with you.  It's totally fine.  It's just not for me.  I could see giving advantages to people who do it well.

*also raises hand* I had no idea about the domain management when I signed up, and won't have enough time or energy to do all the "homework" to learn the SBG, the 'production units' rules/system Katina has outlined in the thread, and teh custom setting material.

I will abstract mine out and-or anyone who wants to fiddle with / optimize my stronghold/followers is welcome to do so in exchange for some suitable 'cut' or 'reward' (like tuning it to the benefit of the Trade with their people).