Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

Your first fight proved quite tough - more than I expected, I admit. No shame in running away, unless you wanted to add that in as an RP element: "great things" are expected of Chevo because of his lineage, etc.

But, the chance to track down the captive human might not be there again. And as I said, it is pretty unusual for goblins to take a captive. Especially hungry ones.

Just so you know, Woe runs away all the time, and she hasn't lost a core party member yet, just a few unlucky NPCs.

Operation get behind the NPCs. I need some hirelings.

It will have to be hirelings rather than retainers at this point. Retainers only come at 2nd level and have to be about 1/2 your character level.

Chevo could probably use some influence and persuade some Greyforge mercenaries or even clan-members to come out with him, but it'd cost you. Because you are exploring in very dangerous territory, rather than guarding a fortress or going into a battle under a commander, the rates for mercenaries are much higher than the monthly rate in the core rules.

A 1st level dwarf fighter with leather, a shield, an axe and a crossbow will be 6gp per day in this situation. Chevo can have as many as 5 of these, if desired. Their base morale will be 8. Other types of characters are not really available right now.

HA! Chevo will need to find a little sweet loot first. At this rate he'd grab one merc for 6 whole days.... do they at least feed themselves? :p

Once we find some loot to bring back to Greyforge...

I do not run away all the time! I only make strategic withdrawals when... um... when victory is not assured. Longman has thrown wyverns, goblin tribes, a purple worm*, iron golems... all before level 3. He's truly psychotic, and I'm dreading the loss of a PC. Heck, the dirge I gave for the NPC death was fun to write, but I can't imagine doing that often, and it cost money!!

Ok, looking at your fight, it is similar to some of mine. You're short on food but I've spent a decent amount of time resting up in a homemade fort, a ruined tower, an underground kitchen, probably a lot more that I'm forgetting. The nice thing about level 1 is that you get back into the fight with low rest. Once you level up, the rest time will start drawing out. 2hp/day is pretty good recovery when you have 5hp lost, but gets more tedious if you start losing 11-15hp.

And yeah, NPCs = good for increasing the damage output and sharing the pain.


* he'll claim it was a completely innocent millworm but I don't believe him

Haha! I had to take a bear safety course a couple years ago as I was working in the Canadian oil patch and a few people get killed every year to the godless killing machines (Stephen Colbert's words). I had to laugh at all the decisions they expect you to make as you face down a potentially angry bear. They boiled it down to two options,
Option 1) The bear is in a defensive mood, and will charge. However, it probably won't charge all the way as it's just trying to scare you, so your best bet is to stand your ground.
Option 2) The bear is in an aggressive stance, and will charge and maul the shit out of you. Here your best bet is to play dead.

Pretty simple decision IRL when a bear is charging you in the forest...

Funny thing. Woe said much the same when she met a bear (in the game, that is). I'm from Australia so I have never seen a bear in the wild. All our safety courses are about what to do if there's a king brown snake in your campsite, or, what to do if there are box jellyfish in the water.

A Terra Australia RPG would be pretty weird.

I'm just trying to make a decision based on how far my rations can take me. What are the chances of us being able to make some gold if we head back to Greyforge? Understanding that this would take time. Otherwise, even if I do head back, I'll only really have enough gold for 8 weeks of rations for the party (also assuming the 10gp/week rate from the CRB)... which now that I put it in writing actually seems not bad, compared to my previous one week. Especially if I alternate foraging every other day or something.

Rations are 10 gp a week for 3 party members. That's 30 gp a week.

We could even things out and say Cholum doesn't need to pack any food at all, provided 1 day in every 7 is a rest / forage day.

If you want to alternate exploration and forage days like you suggested, I'll play that out day by day for a while, and see what happens. The main thing is, there will be extra chances for encounters if you forage all the time, and you might not all be together when they happen.

You've been given start-up money by Chevo's father in order to undertake the mission. It would look a bit odd if Chevo suddenly went and got a day job after having spent a considerable amount of it. He has never had a job before, I'm guessing.

Cholum might be able to get work at his old job, hunting. And as for Milly, she could try to earn money as a seer in Greyfoge, or in the bigger city of Aarn further west. Thann could probably get work as an appraiser and fur buyer / trader. Or he could get his job back as the Onyxbreaker clerk.

If you are genuinely interested in earning more cash by working jobs, let me know and I will work out rates of pay - and, if you can actually get the jobs in the first place!

But I also think if you spend 60 gp in rations and have a 2 week trip you should be fine for a good long stretch of adventure role-play.