Aersalus Season 1, Session 9 Recon and a bargain

 

The Cast of B-Team (Aersalus)

Listens to Ocean aka Osprey (Rory) Halfling Magistrate, mage, healer, priest, historian.

Rhum Kaldalsson (Curtis) Minotaur artist.

Trapper (Chris D) Gremian, artificer, hunter, Armsmaster.

Unit 7 (Brice) A Cog, magical construct golem.

NPC's

Altan ru Chuulaii the tax collector

Raito

Tesseikai Watersinger, healer

Murk the Lurk, spirit crab

Bandit Camp

Listens is taken to the bandit camp by Snaffles. It is surrounded by a magical barrier and they seem to be using dark magic. There are a lot of different ways to use magic in Aersalus, Listens being a spellsinger and a shenin (shaman) and a bit of so called low magic is is mostly inborn gifts or those granted by spirits.

He is also familiar with several other types and it appears these guys are using witchcraft, in the setting this is dark magic and might explain a connection to the spirit Mama Blood, though she did kill some bandits in a prior session.

Listens walks around the barrier, avoiding getting to close as it will likely alert them and is probably harmful as well. He estimates 20 to 30 bandits plus support people, including children.

Snaffles suggests a deal with a local lake spirit may be possible though he seems uncomfortable dealing with her. They go to this spirit, Akachakh, the Lady of Silvered Waters and talk. She seems largely unconcerned with the bandits but offers to help in exchange for one of the children. Listens considers everything and makes the deal, losing his eye as collateral, to get it back if he gets a child to be a fosterling of the spirits.

These arrangements are rare but not unheard of and the child will lose time among humans but likely gain powerful spirit gifts in return for their service. Since the children will likely soon be orphans and fostering them off to a friendly family a difficult if not impossible task Listens feel that at least one will be interested. The spirits help may not be required but the presence of witches is concerning.

Akachakh seems to have no interest in Mama Blood at all, despite the majority of the local spirits being terrified or at least wary. This loses her points in Listens book, but many spirits are hyper focused on their own domains and not interested in what happens outside of that.

Listens then heads back to his boy and finds Seven has joined Murk to guard it. They have had some interesting if somewhat personal and private conversations.

Back in Town

Rhum has been talking to Rhiato and Meri and paints a picture of Wolftrap in its prime, or at least what he thinks it might have looked like. He gives it to the innkeeper Meri who is touched by it.

Trapper unhappily and rather begrudgingly finishes the task of counting and sorting the found loot. He also does some coordinating with the locals and our healer Tesseikai.

Aersalus Season 1, Session 8 Logistics is a Pain

 

The Cast of B-Team (Aersalus)

Listens to Ocean aka Osprey (Rory) Halfling Magistrate, mage, healer, priest, historian.

Rhum Kaldalsson (Curtis) Minotaur artist.

Trapper (Chris D) Gremian, artificer, hunter, Armsmaster.

Unit 7 (Brice) A Cog, magical construct golem.

NPC's

Altan ru Chuulaii the tax collector

Raito

Tesseikai Watersinger, healer

Murk the Lurk, spirit crab

We make it back to town and put the loot in the cellar. The team is entitled to 10%, the town another 10%, and the Duke gets the majority 80% as it was found on his lands.

Listens delegates handling the chests to Trapper as he has the most delicate touch and some of those locks look complicated and the contents may be fragile. Altan is likely the best choice for a proper evaluation but Listens does not fully trust him yet. Best to get a list then go into details later.

After morning meditations and appeasement rituals to the spirits Listens heads to the constabulary and checks in on the days plans. He figures the bandits are consuming vital resources and a trial should be done so, both for morale and possibly to reduce their drain on town resources. So sends Unit 7 to go measure them for disposal. Trapper has plenty to do and Rhum has his own things going on as well.

Unit 7 reports back that the quartermaster is short on supplies, a few weeks or a month is all. Doesn't sound urgent but it will take time to gather supplies so Listens goes to get the details. Turns out that the town is getting a large influx of people from those leaving their farms and such and will run out of food in a few days, not weeks.

Immediate threats are the bandits, the powerful spirit Mama Blood, and starvation.

The bandits are probably doable but will take some time to find.

The spirit is likely far too dangerous for us to address directly.

Supplying the town is the easiest and safest option, but only a temporary one as we need to concern ourselves with over foraging.

Listens then talks to Kohana (head town merchant) to check some details and figure out options. Hunters are scared to go out due to the spirit, this is a big contributor to the food shortage. Buying supplies is about a month out due to travel time.

Listens thinks the incoming tribe of water folk may be able to help, give them some money in return for food and supplies but that's still about a week out.

He considers organizing a mass fishing event, at least for a day or two. Some concerns over sea monsters if going too far out. Listens decides to see if he can find the bandits.

Utility of a Shen

Listens casts a spell to summon a local spirit for directions to the bandit camp, going for the leader as he seems well known and distinctive "Dogskull" A spirit possum appears "Snaffles", riddled with fleas and attitude. He knows where Dogskull is but needs something in return. Listens bargains ineffectively then comes up with the idea of ridding Snaffles fleas with a spell. It works and Snuffles offers to show Listens ot the camp but Listens is too slow in physical form so takes his spirit and drags it along for the ride.  Listens asks Murk to watch over the body while he travels and seals the deal for him to become a spirit companion.

Aersalus Season 1, Session 7 Bargains Made

 

The Cast of B-Team (Aersalus)

Listens to Ocean aka Osprey (Rory) Halfling Magistrate, mage, healer, priest, historian.

Rhum Kaldalsson (Curtis) Minotaur artist.

Trapper (Chris D) Gremian, artificer, hunter, Armsmaster.

Unit 7 (Brice) A Cog, magical construct golem.

NPC's

Altan ru Chuulaii the tax collector

Raito

Tesseikai Watersinger, healer

Murk the Lurk, spirit crab

Relic Recovery

(Day after the bandit fight)

The group heads out in the late morning after doing some local and personal errands. Rhum struck a deal with a young bandit to get a crystal stolen by them from a farmers widow and a shrine on her farm. It is a good cause, though one that may complicate things legally. Listens wants Trapper to scout ahead but Rhum is impatient to recover the artifact as the deal he struck with the spirit gives him a lingering wound until he returns the crystal.

Listens talked with Murk earlier, who seemingly feels almost rejected that Listens didn't immediately agree to a partnership. Listens is a little surprised given the power of the spirit and that since it is a land crab it would typically be more averse to traveling. Hence the getting to know each other stage. Murk really does seem bored here though and looking for some excitement and new sights.

He invites Murk along, given they are looking for a spirit crystal and he knows the area his advice may be helpful. At the least its more time getting to know each other and they engage in minor chitchat along the way.

Pretty Snake

Near the cave entrance we encounter the bandits guardian, a giant 5 headed snake.

Trapper and Listens are still wounded from the previous days fight. Trapper is off in the thickets scouting the cave so feels safe in sniping the besatie but it can see him and tries to kill him with laser beam eyes! Thankfully the thicket provides a lot of cover. Listens calls up his now signature mist as a defensive measure and the two bruisers go up to the snake. Rhum pretty much decapitates 4 out of 5 heads, the other killed by Unit 7 with two spears stabbed through the eyes.

We head into the cave and find loot hidden by the bandits. The kid does not find what he was seeking, wont tell anyone what it was though. We do get the crystal so our primary goal was met.

Trapper finds a secret door and asks Rhum to open it, pretty much breaking the stone door in the process. We explore a winding staircase down deep and find another door, this one with a combination puzzle lock which Listens figures out. (its related to the theology of spirits, his bailiwick).

.Inside are 3 large treasure chests, 3 smaller ones, misc scattered and mostly rotten items, and a central pedestal with a glowing crystal.

Listens cautiously examines it and with the help of Murk figures its a spirit related relic and the room is shielded from prying eyes. Carefully checking it out it appears to be a scrying device that can look anywhere (at least within the ranges checked) the user can clearly visualize and has seen. It wont see areas described by distance.

Listens is trying to decide if it should remain and is tied to the room or spirits here when Rhum picks it up and runs his own tests. Not having shattered or depowered we decide to leave with it as we cant re-secure the room.

Bargain Complete

We head back to town but stop at the farmhouse as its almost on the way. Listens holds onto the crystal for safekeeping in case we encounter more combat along the way.

We meet the widow and Rhum and Listens approach the shrine, Listens a pace behind Rhum as he is the one who made the deal but he wants to witness the completion in case anything comes up. He hands the crystal to Rhum who places it into he tree (shrine) and the local forest and farm suddenly come alive with new growth.

The grateful widow thanks us and offers shelter and food for the night. Listens pays her even though she tries to refuse. He tells her that she is going to need money to quickly get back on her feet, even with the spirits blessing. The group spends the night and everyone awakes healthy and refreshed, even the wounded.

We head back to town, putting the chests into our celler and leaving the rest for the next session.

Aersalus Season 1, Session 5 & 6

 

The Cast of B-Team (Aersalus)

Listens to Ocean aka Osprey (Rory) Halfling Magistrate, mage, healer, priest, historian.

Rhum Kaldalsson (Curtis) Minotaur artist.

Trapper (Chris D) Gremian, artificer, hunter, Armsmaster.

Unit 7 (Brice) A Cog, magical construct golem.

NPC's

Altan ru Chuulaii the tax collector

Raito

Tesseikai Watersinger, healer

Murk the Lurk, spirit crab

Two short sessions combined.

Marching Home

On our way back from the farm the group is ambushed by bandits. They start off by almost killing Listens with a crossbow bolt (Major Wound). Listens managed to recover enough to call a protective mist to make the group harder to hit. Trapper moves to the edge and snipes a few, Unit 7 goes to the edge and tanks the incoming fire, and Rhum goes out and starts cutting bandits into pieces.

We grab some prisoners and continue on to town.

Next session we get to town, lock the prisoners in our half rebuilt jailhouse.

Rhum scares most of them unconscious in an effort to question them and takes one kid downstairs to make a deal with.

Unit 7 takes a well deserved nap (Player gone)

Listens communes with the spirits, meets a new one

It whispers something into Listens ear that he almost understands but sounds familiar.

Listens goes back to base campo, finds out about the deal and is displeased with the minotaur who seems keen on doing his own thing, even when it may interfere with others or the mission.

The real center of attention though was Trapper who brokered a deal over some eggs he found and makes a fair amount of coin and a crystal knife.

Looking at Wealth in GURPS

 

Having more money is an advantage and less a disadvantage as it affects your starting capabilities. However, access to wealth is more complicated and will be very campaign specific. For instance, after the campaign begins how do you continue to get income? Jobs, passive income, or adventuring?

There are a number of options, but they have been expanded upon in supplements so here is an overall look.

Starting Wealth

see p. B25

You start off with a base amount of money and goods assigned by the GM, typically based on Tech Level (p. B27). Then pick your Wealth level which can be a disadvantage or advantage and modifies that base starting amount. Partial Multi-Millionaire (GURPS Spaceships 2: Traders, Liners, and Transports; p. 26) offers additional fine tuning.

This can get very expensive, but fair is fair, starting with a lot of money is a huge advantage.

Additional fine tuning can be done using one or more of the following.

Signature Gear (p. B85) gives 50% of the average (not your own) campaign starting wealth per point. There are a couple of caveats that come with this too.

Signature Assets (GURPS Spaceships 2, p. 27) I an enhancement to Wealth that multiplies starting wealth by 5% per +1% but only towards SM+2 assets, say a starship. It is capped at +20% for +100% of starting wealth (yours not the campaign average as it’s applied to the Wealth advantage).

You can also trade points for money (p. B26).

Finally, you could apply Potential Advantage (p. B33) Heir to Wealth, meaning you pay half cost but get half the starting wealth at the beginning. This one can be abusive though so GMs should be wary as Wealth increases multiplicativity you can get more than you paid for.

All of this affects how much you start the campaign with, not how much you earn on a regular basis. Though certain levels of Wealth may be a prerequisite for certain jobs.

Income During Play

Generally, you get money from working or adventuring. Independent Income and Debt (p. B26) can represent passive income or regular expenses. This is limited to 20% of your starting wealth. But unlike Trading Points for Money or Signature Gear this is affected by your Wealth level.

Ongoing Expenses

This includes Debt, Cost of Living (p. B265), and whatever comes up.

 

That it?

For most campaigns the above is probably just fine. You know how much you start with and have ways to get more money during the game, even a base line cost of living.

But there should be some other options, so here are some ideas.

Patrons and Benefactors

A Patron (p. B72) is a government, organization, or person who helps you out. Make the Appearance Roll and they offer some aid or advice. The Equipment modifier (+50% or +100%) means they will give you gear.

Hmm, asking for a loan you don’t have to pay back is rather like income, isn’t it?

So Patron (Sponsor, Fans, etc.) with Equipment, +50% can give you campaign average starting wealth. More for the +100% level! This could just as easily be a reliable supplier of goods for you to sell.

Not as dependable as Independent Income but it is another possible source of income or goods. Minimal Intervention is also an obvious limitation.

But what about say the scientist looking for help to cover inventing costs or a captain looking for a new ship?

Patron (Bank/Investor)

You have a good track record of borrowing money and paying it back. Banks or investors are willing to loan you money because they are confident, they will get it back with interest or another bonus. How much you can get is limited by the Patrons’ assets.

Equipment (+50%) gives you up to campaign starting wealth. Failing the Appearance roll means you couldn’t reach them, or they just did not want or could not offer you the money.

Minimal Intervention (-50%) You get what they think you need is a fair way to price the Patron choosing if the loan is appropriate or not.

Temporary Disadvantage (Duty or Debt) lasts until you pay them back. Debt is easy, just pay that amount each month. Duty might mean you get sent on jobs for them to pay them off, or perhaps just to cover the interest till you pay back what you borrowed.

Signature Assets (+1% and up) if it were allowed can give you +5% more money per +1%. +50% would be +250% of your Starting Wealth (up to the Patrons resource limit). Since Equipment (+100%) does not mention a limit this seems weaker or less valuable. However, I like the idea of it being tied to your Wealth advantage (normally minimally useful after the campaign start) and an actual cap the player and GM both already know rather than an arbitrary limit the GM applies if just using Equipment (+100%).

 

Lets wrap this all into a new modifier to keep things simple and avoid confusion with how the modifiers may normally work.

Enhanced Credit

This modifier to Patron (usually a bank but might be anyone willing to lend) represents your value to them as a reputable borrower. When you want to ask for equipment or money from a Patron make its Appearance roll and submit the request. Administration or other skills may help, and the Patron decides what is appropriate and reasonable as far as the loan is concerned. Success allows you to borrow up to 50% of your Starting Wealth (not the campaign average). The value of the loan should be limited to what can reasonably be expected to be paid back or written off. Resource Value (GURPS Boardroom and Curia, p. 10) is a good cap on what can be written off. Repayments should include interest or other benefits to the Patron. GURPS Spaceships 2: Traders, Liners, and Transports (p. 27) has suggestions for a space campaign, otherwise use what is appropriate for the setting.

Statistics: Enhanced Credit is a metatrait consisting of the following. Equipment, +50%; Minimal Intervention, -50%; Signature Assets, +10%; and Temporary Disadvantage, Duty, -10%. +0%.

Edited

While I like the Patron who can give equipment as an idea, the Enhanced Credit and Patron as lender just isn't good enough. I was thinking about how PCs could afford something unusually expensive but I don't see anyone wanting to pay points for this kind of thing. Not after a night sleep anyhow.

I'll leave it up for posterity and there is some decent stuff here, but this will need more pondering.

Review of GURPS Power-Ups 10: Skill Trees

 This is really an Alternate GURPS type of Supplement. I personally love skills over classes, however skill lists can be pretty long - especially in a game system designed to support all genres and settings.

GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes offers ideas for adding to or replacing the primary attribute set and this does something similar for skills.

In GURPS you roll against attribute + skill to accomplish most tasks. Picking a good mix of skills lets you fine tune a character to suit your tastes and needs. This lets multiple characters of the same basic type or role feel very different. However, it can be overwhelming and new players often miss important skills.

Even experienced players can do this, or misremember a skill and what it does. Wildcard skills (introduced in GURPS Basic) are one way to deal with this problem but they are very cinematic. GURPS Power-Ups 7 Wildcard Skills explores and expands upon them.

GURPS Power-Ups 10: Skill Trees is another way of handling this issue, less cinematic and more like Talents. Skills are grouped into broad categories called Trunks with subcategories of Branches, Twigs, and Leaves.

This feels more like a narrative game if used and the concept is more intuitive than a long skill list.

For example you could have a Trunk called "Animal" (listed in the supplement) and animal skills are included in it. You can do the same with Talents but they have at least two drawbacks.

1. If the affected list is large enough its often just as good to just buy the the primary attribute.
2. With a high enough Talent you can be just as good using a skill at default plus Talent as a trained person. I never really liked that myself.
3. In many cases the Talent does not cover as much as you would like, notably trivial rarely used skills are rarely explicitly included. Power-Ups 3:Talents  mentions the idea of simply including some of those for free but it can be a time taker at the game table.

It includes 26 skill trunks and enough guidance to make more that suit a specific campaign.

For example in an IOU or other college based campaign each major course of study could be its own skill Trunk. Each student would learn Scholar as a part of core academic training but also something like Natural Sciences or about half the other listed trunks would suit a Academic Divisions or Departments and each student would learn such a trunk but add detail of specific branches, twigs, and leaves that suited their interest and class schedule.

Some Examples

A specific martial style would typical be a branch and practioners could train up subcategories of twigs and leaves to represent their individual choices and flair.

This would suit Ritual Magic (optional version of the default magic system) rather nicely.

Lets say I wanted to use this for Shaman.

Shaman

Aptitude for interacting with spirits and peoples attitude towards them.

Main Skills: Autohypnosis, Diplomacy, Dreaming, Esoteric Medicine, Exorcism, Fortune-Telling†, Meditation,  Occultism, Public Speaking, Religious Ritual†, Ritual Magic†, Savoir-Faire†, Symbol Drawing†, Thaumatology, Theology†.

Other Skills: Any Current Affairs, Expert Skill, Hobby Skill, or Professional Skill relevant to gossip, rumor, paranormal activity, or anything that may be attributed to spirits.

That list took me less than 5 minutes to build using examples in the book, I took bits from two existing trunks.

It lets me build a shaman who is less cinematic than using a wildcard but results in a pretty clean sheet compared to buying and listing each skill separately.

If I wanted to give it more oomph, say in a campaign where spirits were real.

I could apply From Skills to Advantages (Pyramid #3/44 Alternate GURPS II) or simply apply modifiers to a trunk or subcategory. For example Add Cosmic and Reduced Time to do things faster. Most enhancements would likely be overpowered with a prerequisite Cosmic for each type. This might be a good thing to consider if doing this for a campaign or another edition of GURPS.

Summary

Overall I am not sure how much use this will see in my campaigns. Largely because were all used to the current method and changing will take some getting used to.

On the other hand I am considering partial implementations such as 

Skill Boosters such as some magic items and software that can enhance someone trained or not this can replace Talents in that roll. Its a bit broader but feels better to me, at least narratively.

Specific Training Programs or Martial Styles could benefit from this with no real hassle for my players or me as the GM in tracking something new. We just treat it roughly like a Talent. And I would include the Untrained Tasks section (p. 17) in this.

Offhand I would love to see this in GURPS 5e or perhaps a supplement bundled with Alternate Attributes and wildcards (which may need redoing for this as an Alternate GURPS GM Guide.

I also feel it is better for lower point campaigns where you want people to not be incompetent at related material.

 

Aersalus Season 1, Session 4 The Bloodbath

 

The Cast of B-Team (Aersalus)

Listens to Ocean aka Osprey (Rory) Halfling Magistrate, mage, healer, priest, historian.

Rhum Kaldalsson (Curtis) Minotaur artist.

Trapper (Chris D) Gremian, artificer, hunter, Armsmaster.

Unit 7 (Brice) A Cog, magical construct golem.

In Memorium Christian

NPC's

Altan ru Chuulaii the tax collector

Raito

Tesseikai Watersinger, healer

The Blood Filled Dawn

Tesseikai appears to have been the only survivor of the group that was at the farmhouse tending to people. Listens spends most of the night watching over her, waiting for her to be able to give a report on what happened and making sure her spirit is not damaged as well as tending to her physical wounds.

His Restoration spell fails to restore her finger and he thinks the magic of Blood Mama is the cause.

She does not want to stay but Listens orders her to stay, citing medical authority. Rhum seems to feel she should be allowed to do what she wants, leading to some tension but Rhum backs down as Listens asserts his rank and position to back up what Rhum seems to feel is minimal healing skill or status. He seems convinced she is the better healer, ignoring the the wisdom that healers make lousy patients.

Listens talks to  Raito and informs him that he intends to investigate the farm and would like additional backup. Raito has been moving people closer to town for increased safety, again impressing Listens with his leadership.

Come the dawn they for a small group of soldiers and the magisters team to investigate. Trapper seems to have spent much of the night making a clockwork prosthetic finger for Tesseikai, which she appreciatively takes.

Trapper is tasked to scout just ahead as the best tracker, Listens feels that others walking through first may erase some valuable clue that Trapper is best equipped to find. However, Rhum tries to rush ahead and go his own way. Listens notes the unwillingness to follow orders or perhaps work with the team and ponders solutions when things are not quite so urgent.

Blood, Lots of Blood

The group travels through an eerily quiet forest and reaches the farmstead.  They see lots of blood, everywhere but no bodies.  Trapper scouts the place around while Listens takes overwatch and switches his perception between the material and spirit worlds in hopes of spotting something, anything useful and keeping the group from being surprised.

It appears bandits raided the farmstead and likely the fighting attracted Blood Mama who then killed almost everyone.  Far as Listens and Trapper can tell a few bandits (likely 4) made it out alive. Trapper follows tracks and will come back to them later. Listens, not much of a tracker saw spiritual markers that helped him see more than most. Also the crops and plants in thee area are withered, as well as stuff in the root cellar which rapidly rotted.

Aftermath

We called it there, short game. good one overall but the group needs to develop more cohesiveness and desire to work together. Our background is that were new to each other, so that's ok but my job as character and player is to make that happen.