doll day

all halflings make and keep dolls for each year of their life. on doll day, everybody puts aside their doll from the previous year, and starts a new doll to carry with them into the next year. dolls can be made out of anything.

village generator

made a new generator on abulafia:

www.random-generator.com/index.php?title=Village

sample output:

village at Tower of the Greeds
overrun with beasts
population 68
visiting: false-dwarf fighter (lv3), pig-keeper barbarian (lv1), hungry nocturnal buffalo-keeper druid (lv2)
60 water centaurs (goat) (with earth powers) with 5 giant revered rogue beetles

village at The Mines of Dread
egg mine, day of sacrifice
population 647 (has 2 noble houses, 2 tailors, tavern, mason, carpenter)

the baron of baddock and the duke of durham

the baron of baddock and the duke of durham are two brothers who hate one another, ruling two cities who hate one another. in arcadia there are three tourneys each year, one at each of baddock and durham and one by the crossing, the bridge city. knights of baddock ride in to battle on the backs of hounds, in durham they ride snow cats.

dwarves are knights, halflings are gypsies, elves are deodands.

how many thieves

HOW MANY THIEVES

(these numbers should also be good for clerics and clerical orders. for colleges of wizards, cut the numbers in half (for example, 100 wizards in 20 000 people), ignore the last guy.)

------------------------
TINY THIEVES GUILD (den) with 5 skilled thieves
(suitable for a population of 500 people)
-3 lv1 thieves
-1 lv2 thief
-for the last guy, roll a d20 (1-5 lv1, 6-9 lv2, 10-19 lv3, 20 lv4)

------------------------
SMALL THIEVES GUILD (band) with 20 skilled thieves
(suitable for a population of 2000 people, like a town)
-13 lv1 thieves
-4  lv2 thieves
-2  lv3 thieves
-for the last guy, roll a d20 (1-16 lv2, 17-20 lv4)

------------------------
MEDIUM THIEVES GUILD (cabal) with 200 skilled thieves
(suitable for a population of 20 000 people, like a normal city)
-130 lv1 thieves
-48  lv2 thieves
-20  lv3 thieves
-1   lv4 thief
-for the last guy, roll a d20 (1-16 lv4, 17-20 lv5)

------------------------
LARGE THIEVES GUILD (cartel) with 1000 skilled thieves
(suitable for a population of 100 000 people, like a large city)
-650 lv1 thieves
-240 lv2 thieves
-99  lv3 thieves
-9   lv4 thieves
-for the last guy, roll a d20 (1-16 lv5, 17-20 lv6)

------------------------
MASSIVE THIEVES GUILD (syndicate) with 5000 skilled thieves
(suitable for a population of 500 000 people, like a massive city)
-3250 lv1 thieves
-1200 lv2 thieves
-495  lv3 thieves
-45   lv4 thieves
-4    lv5 thieves
-for the last guy, roll a d20 (1-10 lv5, 11-19 lv6, on a 20 roll again 1-16 lv7, 17-20 lv8)

------------------------
similar groups of specialist heroes (independent thieves, spies, assassins, pirates, the adventuring 5% of a halfling clan) should draw their numbers from this population.

each guild should also have access to (and recruit from) a network of beggars, twice as many as there are thieves.

a realm with a million people can sustain 10 thousand thieves, enough for 2 massive guilds.

one massive guild = 5 large guilds =  25 medium guilds = 250 small guilds = 1000 tiny guilds.

how many items

HOW MANY ITEMS

one of the effects of DCC’s hero distribution is that magic items are very rare. in DCC every magic item (every potion, every scroll) is supposed to be unique, have a history.

Under DCC rules (but adjusted to match my numbers):

lv3 wizards can make staves, so there are ~450 staves per million people (150 000 staves worldwide).
lv5 wizards and clerics can make scrolls and potions, so there are ~15 scrolls and ~15 potions per million people (7500 scrolls and 7500 potions worldwide).
lv5 wizards can make +1 weapons, so there are ~5 +1 weapons per million people (1350 worldwide).
lv6 wizards can make +2 weapons, so there is ~1 +2 weapon per million people (135 worldwide).
lv7 clerics can make rods, so there is ~27 rods worldwide.
lv7 wizards can make wands and +3 weapons, so there are ~13 wands and ~13 +3 weapons worldwide.
lv8 wizards can make +4 weapons, so there is ~1 +4 weapon worldwide.

note:
this assumes all heroes of the appropriate level have access to the spell they need to make the item (which is not the case, really it’s something like 5%). but it also assumes that each character makes only one item of each type, and that the items do not outlive their creators, where DCC requires that items do outlive their creators (in order that they could fall into the PCs hands).

how many heroes

HOW MANY HEROES

( figuring out the hero population of a world running DCC RPG. )

95% of people are 0-level
those that are not 0-level are heroes
1 hero in every 20 people

a world has (i will assume)
300 mil people (which is the population of earth around 1AD)
15 mil heroes

60 mil square miles of land (not water)
5 people per square mile
1 hero every 4 square miles

----------------------------------------------------
TABLE 1 HERO POPULATION BY LEVEL
01-65 (65%) [LV1] An skilled expert in a field.
66-90 (25%) [LV2] An expert among experts, a leader.
91-99 (9%)  [LV3] A rare genius. A leader of leaders.
100 * (1%)  [LV+]
----------------------------------------------------

*if you roll 100, the character is [LVL4], and roll 1d10.
While the result is 10, add a level and roll again.

this gives you your remainder:

(.9%)   [LV4]
(.09%)  [LV5]
(.009%) [LV6]
...  and so on.

----------------------------------------------------


(this distribution does not exactly map to the numbers given in dcc rgp (HEROES, page 359) but it does add to 100%, where that table does not.)

so, for a million people you get:

[lv0] 950 000 (50 000 heroes)

[lv1] 32 500
[lv2] 12 500
[lv3] 4 500
[lv4] 450
[lv5] 45
[lv6] 4.5
[lv7] .45
[lv8] .045
...  and so on.

that means that with a world population of 300 mil, there are so many heroes:

[lv0] 285 mil  (15 million heroes)

[lv1] 9 750 000
[lv2] 3 750 000
[lv3] 1 350 000
[lv4] 135 000
[lv5] 13 500
[lv6] 1 350
[lv7] 135
[lv8] 13.5
[lv9] 1.35
[l10] .135

-------------------------------------
TABLE 2 HERO POPULATION BY CLASS
01-50  (50%) Warrior.
51-70  (20%) Cleric.
71-90  (20%) Thief.
91-100 (10%) Wizard.

-------------------------------------

If this is accurate (i made it up) then we get:

--------------------
world warrior population
(7.5 million warriors, 2.5% of population)
[lv1] 4 875 000
[lv2] 1 875 000
[lv3] 675 000
[lv4] 67 500
[lv5] 6750
[lv6] 675
[lv7] 67.5
[lv8] 6.75

-------------------
warrior population per million people
(25 000 warriors)
[lv1] 16 250
[lv2] 6250
[lv3] 2250
[lv4] 225
[lv5] 22.5
[lv6] 2.25
[lv7] .225

---------------------
world cleric population
(3 million clerics, 1% of population)
[lv1] 1 950 000
[lv2] 750 000
[lv3] 270 000
[lv4] 27 000
[lv5] 2700
[lv6] 270
[lv7] 27
[lv8] 2.7

-------------------
cleric population per million people
(10 000 clerics)
[lv1] 6500
[lv2] 2500
[lv3] 900
[lv4] 90
[lv5] 9
[lv6] .9
[lv7] .09

---------------------
world thief population
(3 million thieves, 1% of population)
[lv1] 1 950 000
[lv2] 750 000
[lv3] 270 000
[lv4] 27 000
[lv5] 2700
[lv6] 270
[lv7] 27
[lv8] 2.7

-------------------
thief population per million people
(10 000 thieves)
[lv1] 6500
[lv2] 2500
[lv3] 900
[lv4] 90
[lv5] 9
[lv6] .9
[lv7] .09

---------------------
world wizard population
(1.5 million wizards, .5% of population)
[lv1] 975 000
[lv2] 375 000
[lv3] 135 000
[lv4] 13 500
[lv5] 1350
[lv6] 135
[lv7] 13.5
[lv8] 1.35

-------------------
wizard population per million people
(5000 wizards)
[lv1] 3250
[lv2] 1250
[lv3] 450
[lv4] 45
[lv5] 4.5
[lv6] .45
[lv7] .045

---------------------------

This would mean that to be the best guy in a million, you have to be a lv7 warrior, or a lv6 thief, cleric or wizard.

China in 2AD
population 20 mil
3,710,000 square miles
5.39 people per square mile
9 lv6 wizards.

France in 1AD
population 5.5 mil
260,000 square miles
21.15 people per square mile
2.475 lvl6 wizards.

look at all these numbers: skills

-------------------------------
in the rules cyclopedia
-only the thief has skills
-the skills are hide in shadows, move silently, climb, open locks, find traps, remove traps, pick pockets, hear noise
-the thief rolls percentile dice to determine skill checks.
-the 1st level thief has a small percentage chance (lowest is 10% for hide in shadows, find traps and remove traps, up to 30% for hear noise) to do these things, by far their best skill is climbing walls (90%).
-the 10th level thief has a reasonable chance (50% for remove traps - 70% for hear noise) to do these things, and a very good chance (95%) to climb walls.
-higher level thieves can be assigned skill check percentages that exceed 100% - the highest listed is 195% (to pick pockets, at lv36 - that same thief's worst skill is find traps, at 110%)
-the dm assigns penalties (examples given are -5%, -10%, -20%) for difficult tasks.

-------------------------------
in the d20 system (third edition d&d)
-to make a skill check, you roll a d20, plus your attribute modifier, plus any ranks you have in that skill.
-everybody has skills:

-int: appraise, craft, decypher script*, disable device*, forgery, knowledge*, search, spellcraft*
-dex: balance#, escape artist#, hide#, move silently#, open lock*, ride, tumble#*, use rope
-cha: bluff, diplomacy, disguise, gather information, handle animal, intimidate, perform, use magic device#
-str: climb#, jump#, swim#
-wis: heal, listen, knowledge#, spot
-con: concentration
-misc: speak language

* armor penalty applies
# trained only; cannot make skill checks unless you buy at least 1 point of the skill.

-professions are available to all characters through use of the profession, craft, knowledge and perform skills, which is nice.
-each class has a list of class skills. you can buy 1 rank (+1, which is a 5% bonus) in a class skill for 1 skill point, or +1 in a non-class skill for 2 skill points.
- every class gets a specific number of skill points per level, modified by their INT score. The character gets four times that number at first level. the number is:

2+INT cleric, fighter, paladin, wizard, sorcerer
4+INT barbarian, druid, monk
6+INT bard, ranger
8+INT rogue

-you can buy a maximum of your level +4 ranks in each skill.
-DC10 (roll 10 or higher) is used for an average skill check. unskilled characters with no att bonus succeed 55% of the time.
-DC20 is a difficult skill check. unskilled characters with no att bonus succeed only on a 20. a good lv1 rogue (ATT +5, skill +5) succeeds on a 10, 55% of the time.
-DC25 is an average lock. a good lv1 rogue (+10) opens it on a 15, 30% of the  time.
-The highest listed DC for locks is 40 (which a good lv24 rogue (+33) will open 95% of the time - failing only on a fumble roll of 1. this rogue functions as would a OD&D thief with 165% lockpicking, which is 45% better than OD&D's maximum lv36 thief - but the OD&D thief doesn't fumble, so maybe this is negligible )


                 open lock DC
             25    30    35    40
lv1  (+10) | 30% |  .  |  .  |  .
lv5  (+14) | 50% | 25% |  .  |  .
lv10 (+19) |  *  | 50% | 25% |  .
lv15 (+24) |  *  |  *  | 50% | 25%
lv20 (+29) |  *  |  *  |  *  | 50%
lv25 (+34) |  *  |  *  |  *  |  *

. opens only on a 20, 5% chance
* opens on anything but a 1, 95% chance


-rogues can buy +5 in five skills at first level, and +2 in a sixth skill. treating these as climb, hide, move silently, open lock, sleight of hand, and +2 in search, a first level rogue is potentially very similar to an OD&D thief in terms of his abilities.
-however, the rogue in this game is much worse at climbing than is the OD&D thief. a lv1 rogue (STR +2, climb +5) is only better at climbing than is a lv1 fighter (STR+5, climb+2) where his armor is lighter. in similar armor, these characters will both succeed only 40% of the time on a typical DC20 climb check. a lv10 rogue (+19) succeeds 95% of the time, as would a lv1 OD&D thief.

-------------------------------
in dcc rpg

-the thief has thief skills, like in OD&D: hide in shadows, sneak silently, pick pocket, climb sheer surfaces, pick lock, find trap, disable trap - and these additional skills: backstab, forge document, disguise self, read languages, handle poison. (these recast other thief features or other skills from previous games as thief skills)
- there are three different skill progressions for lawful, neutral, and chaotic thieves. each has skills they excel at (+3 at lv1, +15 at lv10) and skills they have merely trained in (+0 at lv1, +8 or +9 at lv10).


lawful: good at hiding, climbing, finding and disabling traps. not good at forging documents, disguise, reading languages, handling poison.
neutral: good at hiding, lockpicking, finding and disabling traps. not good at backstabbing, disguise, reading languages, handling poison.
chaotic: good at backstabbing, sneaking, disguise, handling poison. not good at picking pockets, disabling traps, forging documents, reading languages.


-however, every character can make skill checks, and every character is trained in whatever skills can reasonably be said to relate to their 0-level profession (everybody gets a profession) - they roll a d20 for trained checks. For untrained skills, every character uses a d10. For knowledge that might relate to their profession, but not usually, they use a d10+2. For rolls that any adult could attempt and have a reasonable chance of succeeding, every character uses a d20.
-every skill check should add an appropriate ability modifier (usually -1, +0, or +1 in DCC).
-DCC uses DC5 (60% untrained, 80% trained) for stuff that you usually wouldn’t roll for, but this time it was really important not to fail (example is walking, but over a bridge, over a chasm, with no handrail). thief skill checks, and most skill checks for difficult tasks, are usually DC10 (success 10% untrained, 55% trained, 95% with +8 or more). a difficult task for a thief is DC20 (fail if untrained, success 5% trained, 55% with +10, the best thief (lv10, trained +15, att +3) succeeds 95%).
-climbing example: usually a DC10. the best lv1 thief (+3 DEX and +3 climb) can climb a stone wall 85% of the time - not quite as good as the lv1 OD&D thief, but pretty good. an ordinary level 1 thief (+0 and +0) succeeds on climb checks 55% - much better than the best lv1 d20 rogue.

unskilled      DC
            5     10  
d10       | 60% | 10%
d10+2     | 80% | 30%
d20       | 80% | 55%

skilled                    DC
            5     10    15    20    25    30
d20+0     | 80% | 55% | 30% |  .  |  .  |  .
d20+5     |  *  | 80% | 55% | 30% |  .  |  .
d20+10    |  *  |  *  | 80% | 55% | 30% |  .
d20+15    |  *  |  *  |  *  | 80% | 55% | 30%
d20+18    |  *  |  *  |  *  |  *  | 70% | 45% 


. only on a 20. (5%)
* anything but a 1. (95%)

rules of thumb: small creatures

small creatures:
-use small weapons.
-get +1 initiative.
-fit in small holes.

halflings and gnomes are small. dwarves are not small.
if the setting does not include either halflings or gnomes, dwarves are small.

rules of thumb: assassination for assassins

the ad&d dmg has a assassination table for assassins which basically amounts to:

[DC11]  roll (d20 + your level - their level) to assassinate a character

i think this is an abstraction of an offscreen assassination mission, and represents several days of planning and execution, it's not usually what you'd use to determine assassinations played out in person. But you might use it to determine the success of tactics like 'put poison in the guy's wine and then wait'. If it fails, the assassination attempt is discovered.

where your stuff is

i made a custom inventory sheet, and jack wrote about it, so I don't have to.

i think i may regret this.

here's my character from jack's pulpy dcc rpg / vornheim game:

I should get some armor.

dcc rpg skill stuff

Jack: Is having + and -4's, and letting the scores go up to 20, a bad idea?
me: doesn't bug me
Jack: Sure, I'm just wondering about ability checks and such
Jack: if you have 20 strength you just automatically win any strength check
Jack: no player is going to complain about that, but I know I got frustrated with your agility checks
me: well, call anything over 18 18 for the purposes of roll-under-score
me: remember that a 1 is always a fail, so having roll-under-18 is only slightly better
me: it means you fail 10% of the time
me: but if you have a score over 18 you can burn it down to 18 and suffer no ill effects, it's a buffer
Jack: hmmm, maybe. It's an awkward edge case rule though
Jack: I'll just use DC's.
Jack: easy, hard, very hard, impossible isn't too tricky
me: i like dcs in dcc
me: 5 is silly, 10 requires skill, 20 is ridiculous - except for thieves, who train in ridiculous skills
me: 5 is for things you usually wouldn't check, but in this case the consequence is dire if you fail, like walking across a bridge over a chasm
Jack: do you only roll d10 for anything a thief can train in?
me: if you're a thief?
Jack: if you're not a thief, obv
me: yeah, d10
Jack: well, normal guys should check dc5's for untrained skills
Jack: I mean, should you roll it for other skills you're not trained in, like haberdashery?
me: oh, everybody rolls a d20 for anything any human being could reasonably know how to do
me: if something is specific to haberdashery, make it dc10, roll d10, and the habadesher rolls d20. the haberdasher knows it 55%. someone who knows not haberdashery gets it 10%
Jack: makes sense.
me: if your profession is related to haberdashery but you wouldn't always know it, you get +2, so 30%
Jack: you'd think DCC would just use one of it's weird dice
Jack: why not roll a d12?
me: a d10 and a d5?
Jack: You can't get 15 with d10+2
me: anydice time
me: http://anydice.com/program/136b
me: i guess you're right
Jack: yeah, obviously you don't want that curve
me: yeah. d12 is good
Jack: DCC knows you have one, so it's weird they would change it
me: although it gives you 25% instead of 30%
Jack: d14
me: 28.56%
me: negligible
me: i guess do that
me: easy to remember
me: fuck it, just whatever dice between 10 and 20 you think the player should use that time
me: i guess that creates arguments
Jack: no, you don't want to make it more complicated
Jack: is the player: Shitty, ok, or good
Jack: is the task: easy, hard, very hard
me: yeah. anybody-level, craftsman-level, spy-level

realm of arcadia

click to expand

willow water from the willow sea is not salty (and as a result, mineral salt is extremely valuable) but it dulls pain (as lay on hands or cure minor wounds) and makes you forget.

alexandria, the domed city, is home to the burned library. whenever a book is burned anywhere, thery bring it here. most of the books are useless, but many have fragments that can be read. in the piles of the burned library you can find fragments of burned texts that were never written and have never been seen elsewhere, these books are 'born of the flames'. in arcadia, reading and writing are both acts of profanity. reading an unburned book curses the reader. it was reading and writing that ruined the world in times of old.

however, whatever words are spared by the flames are holy. everybody learns to read, but nobody is allowed to write anything - not a map, not anything. anyone carrying an unburned text can be freely attacked by priests of akkos. burned texts should be taken to the burned library in alexandria where they can be properly stored and preserved. the witch kings also practice book burning, and burned books is mostly what they trade with arcadia. in labrynthia, is is said, they read books unburned.

(in general, arcadia is law, the witch kings are chaos, labrynthia is neutral )

in arcadia they worship akkos, the king of fire, and terminus, the protector of the dead, and the hog king of rats.

all dead rise from their graves in the night to slay the living, but they should not be destroyed, instead they are taken to the dead lands across the river, where they roam free. priests of terminus have a 'sleep undead' ability.

(hex map by d7 at the seven sided die.)

rules of thumb: how to hit

d&d is a god-killing game. you can kill a god, if you want to. you don't, by neccessity, have to kill a bunch of kobolds first. (fighting all the guy's underlings' underlings, then all the guy's underlings, then the guy, is an unusual progression, and everyone - the players, the dm, the enemy characters - should try to avoid this.) every encounter is appropriate for every character.

to hit: roll a d20 + your attack bonus ('to hit' bonus, initially 0). if the result is greater than or equal to the enemy's AC, you have hit them. your attack bonus should include you STR modifer for melee attacks, and attacks with thrown weapons, or your DEX bonus for missile attacks.

on a successful hit: you roll your weapon's damage die (for swords, d6) + your damage bonus, if any. you deal that many hit points of damage.

An unarmored opponent has an AC of 10. If you have an attack bonus of +0 and you're trying to hit an unarmored guy, you succeed on a roll of 10 or more (55% of the time).

Demogorgon, Prince of Demons and God of Death, has an AC of 27. A character with an attack bonus of +17 will hit Demogorgon on a roll of 10+ (55% of the time). If your attack bonus is somewhere under +17, you should not try to hit Demogorgon.

leather armor is +2AC, chain armor is +4AC, usually plate armor is +6AC, but a full suit of plate armor is +9AC. a shield is +1AC. you add your DEX bonus to your AC.

a d20 roll with a result of 20 on the die is always a hit, a 1 is always a miss.

fighters get +1 to hit every two levels.
clerics get +1 to hit every three levels.
thieves get +1 to hit every four levels.
wizards get +1 to hit every five levels.

or

fighters get +2 to hit every three levels.
clerics get +2 to hit every four levels.
thieves get +2 to hit every five levels.
wizards get +2 to hit every six levels.

monsters get +1 to hit for each hit dice.

fighters get +1 damage at first level and +1 damage every two levels.

attack bonuses:
-when you're not in front of the enemy, ignore their shield bonus to AC.
-when the enemy cannot see you, ignore their DEX bonus to AC.
-get +2 to hit if you're completely behind the enemy.
-get +4 to hit if the enemy is distracted or cannot react. (stunned, prone, grabbed, running away, backstab. also, if they cannot see you, ignore their DEX bonus to AC.)
- if the enemy is helpless (magical sleep, paralysis, prone with no weapon and no shield) you ALWAYS hit them, and you can hit them twice per round, and you deal maximum damage each time.

you should not try to hit Demogorgon with your sword. you should try to hit him with Orcus, Prince of the Undead.

currency

copper coins are mice. anyone who can carve or stamp a mouse on a piece of copper, that's a valid coin. a live mouse is worth exactly 1 copper. you can trade with live mice if you don't have copper ones. also, you can eat the mice (mice are a staple of the peasant diet).
silver coins are owls. 1 owl is worth 10 mice. owls are made in presses, but each coin maker has their own press, with their own markings.
gold coins are sentinels. an owl-sentinel is a mythical blackbird that hunts at night and eats owls. nobody's ever seen one, but they find casings. the picture on the coin has about ten legs. 1 sentinel is worth 10 owls. by law, all sentinels are made in the royal press at alexandria.
an ounce of salt is worth 100 sentinels.

horse generator

Jack: because all you guys have horses
Jack: which I did not bother to give stats or anything
me: yeah. i guess i should make a horse table
Jack: do that, I love zak's dog table
Jack: I want you all to buy dogs
Jack: all the time
me: it'll be more structured, less gonzo
Jack: aw
me: like "this guy is selling racing horses - one horse is brave and loves crushing things, one horse is skinny and emaciated, one horse can only be ridden by maidens"
Jack: that's fairly gonzo
Jack: write a hundered of those.
me: yeah, but they're all racing horses, all three
me: instead of one flying horse, one camel, one wooly arctic horse
me: i'll put it on abulafia


but then it turned out more gonzo than I intended