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PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 3:18 am 
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Would it be worthwhile to generate some standardized, non adventuring templates? Rather than having a GM create one from scratch, perhaps we can create some simple stats for generic city militia, hostile farmer, village headman and others? Not sure if anybody would pay money for such a thing but I thought it might be worth the effort.

Thinking about the encounter tables in the original book 1, maybe some more common generic encounters with travelling merchants, peddlars, gypsies, beggars might be in order? I can't recall how dangerous it was, how high is the possibility of running into orcs? Maybe banditry was more common in the medieval age? Those that are easily intimidated by a few crossbow shots at a distance?

Does anyone have any historic references about medieval policing? Seems even a farmers kid would probably steal your stuff if you left it lying around... and unsecured.

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 3:22 am 
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Theres quite a few in Friends or Foes in the last chapter but it wouldn't be hard to add to those.

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 2:48 pm 
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Damian May wrote:
Theres quite a few in Friends or Foes in the last chapter but it wouldn't be hard to add to those.

I always wondered how they came up with those NPCs. There's no mechanism within Dragon Warriors for non-adventuring professionals to advance their secondary ability scores and the adventuring professionals are too focused to cater for how common folk might develop their secondary ability scores (the only fighting professions are Knights and Barbarians, neither of which are suitable templates for militiamen, tithemen, etc.). To plug this gap, a 'generic warrior' profession is needed, rather than lots of different sets of stats for soldiers, men-at-arms, bandits, etc., and would have made a much better appendix in Friends or Foes than just a bunch of stat blocks

For my NPC generator (http://cobwebbedforest.co.uk/workshop/CharGen.php), the only modifiers to the secondary ability scores for non-adventuring professionals are from exceptional primary ability scores. If the GM wants one of these NPCs to be a bit better at combat, just distribute a few points to Attack/Defence (and possibly Health Points) - the moment you publish what an average merchant's Attack and Defence scores are, you're implicitly directing the game to need them...

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 3:01 pm 
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Kharille wrote:
Thinking about the encounter tables in the original book 1, maybe some more common generic encounters with travelling merchants, peddlars, gypsies, beggars might be in order?

I couldn't agree more. As much as I agree with random encounter tables at all, of course, but monstrous and violent encounters should be the exception rather than the rule and the encounter tables in book 1 seem to have been very much influenced by the kind of hack'n'slash role-playing that defined the hobby's infancy. I'd much rather see random encounters with normal people going about their normal business. Travellers would have been few, so their reasons for being on the road could be interesting. The bulk would be villagers, farmers, pilgrims, roadwardens, etc., but if the characters are lucky, they may pass a gypsy caravan with its brightly cloaked wagons spilling strange scents into the air, or a travelling troupe of minstrels sharing bawdy limericks with each other.

I was also disappointed that the encounter tables from book 1, when ported into the revised edition, did not include the (rarer) creatures from book 4. Without the context that the little paperbacks provided, it just seemed 'odd' in a single consolidated tome, but opening that can of worms could spawn another thread altogether...!

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 3:23 pm 
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Hm, some of the book 4 creatures really seemed unique. Rolling up a Cadaver or Gryphon encounter, seems more suitable for being placed in specific locations rather than roaming in the open like a troll. I suppose, for an in experienced GM, a descriptive example of an encounter would be useful whereas an intelligent GM can build up to an encounter with corpses or stone statues or other evidence of what they're going to run into.

Yeah, a merged encounter table would be nice, but then again, they didn't do that much to personalize the 'merged' edition.


Or maybe even encounters with ... locations would be nice. A church here, an unattended well, some standing stone from an earlier age... would be nice to create these generic encounters to help save the GM the trouble of creating npcs and objects to interact with.

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 01, 2016 11:04 pm 
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I don't tend to use random encounter tables in game but they can be useful for having a quick look at what sort of folks and gribblies might be in an area; can't see any harm in doing some up. Maybe some more focused ones would be useful to people.

Ie. Encounter tables for Jewelspider Woods, or the shores of The Trackless Ooze, or even different ones for different boroughs of Ongus.


I'll add them in to my Netbooks.....I think I've done a couple already but it can't hurt to revisit.

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PostPosted: Sat Jan 02, 2016 2:04 am 
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Just thinking about the WFRP empire in flames where the players got ripped off by some gypsies. I suppose it would be appropriate, but my thoughts was "What is the point?". I suppose an encounter with Oliver twist or beggars in a city would be troublesome and not worth referring to a random encounter table. Still, some 'encounters' table or quick reference might break up the monotony of travel. Maybe there's other environmental encounters like flooded pathways, mudslides and encounters with farmers in distress or bandits.

Should be some generic encounters, merchants, preists, pagans, bandits.... maybe deeper reasons like why these deserters became bandits.... Would the farmers be looking for part time labourers? Or annoying details like random blood stains, broken weapons and rubbish....

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