Does an Inn in a Dangerous Area Count as Town?

Last session, my players found the Sign of the Broken Head, a fortified inn located just ouside the crumbling northern wall of the ruins of Arden Vul.  And one of them asked if it counted as Town.  And my answer was "sometimes, sometimes not."  I should elaborate.

In most fantasy RPGs, Town is where PCs get to exchange money for goods and services, and otherwise interact with NPCs in a relatively safe environment.  I'd say the minimum standards for a place to count as Town are:

• You can rent a reasonably safe and comfortable place to sleep.
• You can buy food and drink.
• You can buy at least basic equipment, like rope and torches.
• You can find training for at least basic skills.
• You can use various abstract skill rolls to brew potions or carouse for rumors or maybe earn some money.
• You can get magic items identified, curses removed, and wounds healed.
• You can sell stuff.
• You can meet new PCs and hire hirelings.

Of course there may be levels to all these things.  A better Town could have better equipment available, more esoteric trainers, the cash to buy more expensive items, access to the really good healing like Resurrection, sages or libraries to give bonuses to Research rolls, etc. 

In this campaign, Gosterwick qualifies as Town.  It's not a completely abstract safe zone: it has a name, it has businesses and NPCs with names, and things can happen there.  But it has the basics.  It even has a few features that not all Towns in all games have, like banking and caravans.

The Sign of the Broken Head definitely isn't a full Town.  It's just a small fortified inn on a dangerous map.  So:

• There is one private room.  If it's available, you can rent it, but it's expensive.  If it's not, you can sleep in the shared bunkroom, unless that's full too.  If they're out of bunks, they'll rent you a spot on the dining room floor.
• You can buy beer or ale, brewed on site.  It's actually good, but expensive.
• You can buy whatever kind of food they have available that day, but it's expensive and there will not be much selection, as they have to carry most of the food up the Long Stair on mules.
• There may or may not be any traders at the Inn that day.  If there are any, you can buy what they have, at the prices they ask.  There will not be a lot of selection, as they have to carry their wares up the Long Stair on mules.
• Finding trainers is unlikely.
• It's too small a place for most Town skill rolls, but there's beer and ale, so Carousing is a possibility.
• Magical and divine services look unlikely, but who knows?  Estelle was wearing a holy symbol of Tychias.

The one surprising thing at this Inn was not one but three different merchant factors, competing to buy statues from the ruins.  So there does appear to be some economic activity beyond selling beer.

The PCs decided to go back to Gosterwick this week, rather than staying at the Broken Head.  We'll see if they keep doing that consistently, or if they start varying where they sleep.  That could get complicated if it splits the party.

Shopping in Gosterwick and the DFRPG Arden Vul Campaign

Some of my players seem to enjoy shopping for equipment a bit too much.  "What can we buy here?" is a common question.  Here's what they've visited so far in the town of Gosterwick:

• Torunn the Smith.  Torunn, a large Wiskin woman, seems to be the best smith in town, or at least the best smith they've met.  She showed samples of good, fine, balanced, and dwarven weapons, and both good and fine armor, so it appears that she can produce high-quality items and has apprentices to do the more mundane work.  She only works with metal though; she doesn't do leather or wooden items.  In addition to selling weapons and armor, she was also willing to provide training in Armory and Connoisseur (Weapons).
• Creon's Curios and Pawnshop.  Creon, an older Archontean man, has a shop full of random stuff.  He seems willing to buy used items.  His stock seems highly variable; he actually had a magic wand for sale the last time someone checked, but the price was high.
• Jeremias the Money Changer.  Jeremias Smallleaf, a halfling, has his main shop in the walled Upper Market.  He also has a couple of smaller stalls in the Upper Market and near the Hill of the Gods, run by his daughters Marla and Cassie.  He was willing to identify old coins for free, and charges a small fee to change coins and gems.  It appears he also loans money, but the PCs have not yet discussed the terms.
• Temple of Demma.  Ioannes is a cleric of Demma and so was able to negotiate a good donation rate for a Remove Curse spell there.  The Remove Curse was cast by Vivian, the Thorcin male chief priest of the temple; it's unclear whether any of the other four priests can cast spells that powerful.  It's not yet known what the surcharge is for non-members of the congregation without a cleric to vouch for them.  Training for clerical spells and skills is also available.
• House of the Gods.  This is a shared space for shrines of all the approved religions that don't have full temples in town.  No major services are available, besides basic religious information from lay volunteers, or possibly the occasional chance to meet a visiting cleric.
• The Yellow Cloak Inn.  This is a full-service inn, with both private rooms and shared bunkrooms, and both common and upper-class common rooms with a variety of food available.  It is run by Margot the Red, a Thorcin woman.  Her husband Bricwine is a bartender.  Rates for double-occupancy private rooms and common meals are reasonable; single-occupancy private rooms and better meals would increase the cost of living.  Margot does not allow spellcasting on the premises, because You Might Accidentally Summon a Demon.
• The Arcane Practitioners' Club.  The club is not affiliated with any of the seven official Archontean colleges.  It is run by two Archontean women, Lyssandra (the senior wizard) and Pelteon (her former apprentice).  They offer magical training, identification of magic items, and spellcasting services.  Fee-paying members of their club can also use their alchemy lab, their small library, and even rent apartments.  (The apartments aren't quite as nice as the Yellow Cloak Inn, and no maid service or food is available, but there are fewer rules.)
• The Baliff's Truncheon.  This is a dive bar down the hill from the Azure Keep, near Totey Lake.  It has a bad reputation, which means it's a good place to find trainers for less savory skills -- or possibly get robbed trying.
• Livestock and Horse Market.  On the outskirts of town (but still within its theoretical future walls) is a large building that buys and sells and stables horses, and buys and sells livestock, and also butchers livestock and sells meat.  They also sell farming and mining equipment on the side.  It is said to be run by identical twin brothers, with Sakeon handling the horses and Trucleon the livestock.
• Tasha's Tailor Shop.  Tasha, a Thorcin woman, has a high-end tailor shop in the Upper Market.  She sells various clothing and is also able to alter or repair clothes, or to sew clothing to order.  She aims at the higher end of the market; there are cheaper options in worse parts of town.
• There are fishermen by the docks on Totey Lake.  One was willing to give swimming lessons, even in early spring.  Presumably you could also learn fishing or boating or knot-tying from them, and not be quite as cold.  There are also a couple of fishmongers to sell their catch.

And here are some other locations they've heard about but not actually visited:

Temples of Mitra, Lucreon, and Heschius Ban.

Astableon the Scribe and Bookseller.  This shop, located in the Upper Market, is apparently the place to go if you need to buy or sell a book, or have someone read or write a letter for you.

The Stunned Acolyte Inn.  This is where you get a very high-quality room or meal, if you don't mind paying a lot and dressing and behaving appropriately.

The Rarities Factor, the Prosperity Factor, and the Silent Factor.  Three competing Archontean merchant factors have buildings in town.  They provide financial services such as safely holding your money for a fee, letters of credit that let you access your stored money at their other locations, and organization of merchant caravans to transport goods or letters across the Empire.  They may provide other services as well.

The Azure Keep is home to the local sept of the Knights of the Azure Shield.  Lady Alexia Basileon, the Green Lady, lives in the Residence connected to the Keep.

There are at least four Archontean government buildings in town.

The Central Market is held twice a week, on Totsday morning and all Demmasday.  Some merchants and farmers who don't have full stores operate stalls at the market.

Kaelo's Bathhouse is apparently a major social center, not just a place to get clean.

There are about 7 more taverns.  Apparently getting a drink at every inn and tavern in town on the same night is a challenge among irresponsible young people with money to spend, and the hardest part is getting into the Stunned Acolyte.

There are other craftspeople such as leatherworkers, jewelers, stonecutters, potters, weavers, furriers, a bowyer, a herbalist/apothecary, and a ropemaker.

What does this all mean in game terms?

• All standard equipment from DFRPG: Adventurers (not Special Orders or magic items or Elven/Dwarven equipment) is available at list price.  (Except plate armor, which is unknown in the Archontean Empire.)  No interaction with the GM is required here; if you want a normal knife or wheelbarrow you can just buy one.
• High quality versions of standard equipment are also available, but might require some lead time for custom construction.  So if you're in a hurry, first make an availability roll to see if what you want is available off the shelf.  And if it's not, see how long it will take to make one.
• The pawnshop buys used items, so disposing of unwanted goods (at the usual fraction of their value based on Wealth) is easy.  No interaction with the GM is required to sell most used goods.  If something is very valuable ($5000 or more), the sale should be cleared with the GM to make sure the local merchants can afford it.
• Special Orders or magical equipment might be available, but not reliably.  You're either waiting for something to show up for sale somewhere, or finding someone who can make it for you.  Again, the GM will make an availability roll, and if it fails you can try again next week, or see if someone can make your item.

What about other towns or cities?

• The only bigger town in Burdock's Valley is Newmarket, about 60 miles (three days' walk) to the south.  It's about twice as big as Gosterwick, so a bit more robust of a market, but still not exactly huge.
• The only real city in this part of Irthuin is Narsileon, the capital of the Exarchate.  Narsileon is about twenty times as big as Gosterwick and ten times as big as Newmarket, and is also a seaport with access to wider trade routes, so has much more available.  Unfortunately it's about 400 miles away, which is two to three weeks each way on foot, or a bit faster if you have horses.
• The biggest city in the Empire and the known world is the capital, Archontos, on the island of Mithruin.  It's about three times the size of Narsileon.  If you can buy something at all, you can probably buy it in Archontos.  Getting there means first travelling to Narsileon, then catching a ship and sailing 1100 miles across the Winedark Sea.  The ocean voyage should take about a week if the winds are cooperative, or potentially longer if they're not.

Arden Vul: The Archontean Calendar

One of my players actually asked about the Archontean Calendar, and once again someone else already made a great web page about it which I will just link rather than recreating.  (Thanks!)

Okay, I'd feel bad making a blog post consisting totally of a link, so I'll talk about the Archontean calendar, as an non-spoiler example of how well developed the Arden Vul setting is.

The nice thing about the Archontean Calendar is that it has 12 months (easy to remember!) and each has exactly 30 days (how convenient, none of the variable days per month nonsense like we have).  Are we done?

Sadly, no.  The year on Magae is 372 days (not 365, not 365.25, not a nice evenly-divisible-by-everything 360), so that leaves 12 leftover days.  Wait, 12 days, 12 months, can't we just make them all 31 days and declare victory?  Well, that's what I would do, but the Archonteans are like the people who brought you Daylight Saving Time: never settling for a simple solution (ask your boss if you can move your shift an hour earlier in the summer so you have more time to play with bugs after work) when a more complicated one (redefine time itself for everyone!) would do.  They instead added two 6-day intercalary (new word for me; thanks Richard Barton) periods, which makes the calendar really ugly but does mean they don't have to count to 31.

Are the intercalary periods at least evenly spaced, like right at New Year's and Midsummer, or right at the solstices?  Of course not.  Again, this world feels realistic.  One of the intercalary periods (the Mercedonian Days, or Days of Wages) is right after the New Year, which is convenient.  But the other one (the Voluptarian Days, or Days of Pleasure) is two-thirds of the way through the year, between the eighth and ninth month.  Which totally makes faux-historical sense because it's the harvest festival, and harvests for annual crops in temperate climates are most often in autumn, but it drives me nuts because it's asymmetrical.  Just like our real-world calendar where we have 4 30-day months, 7 31-day months, and a 28-sometimes-29-day month.

The different year lengths and intercalary periods complicate any translations between the real-world and game-world calendars.  But it doesn't really matter much, so I probably won't bother.  If the players care deeply about the date for some reason that actually justifies burning GM time I'll track it accurately; otherwise I can mostly wing it by taking the real-world date (since we play once a week and PCs probably mostly delve once a week since all the DFRPG Town rolls are weekly) and changing the month name to the Archontean version.  The main need for dates in the game world is seasonal weather, and I just assume game seasons are roughly in sync with real seasons and use today's real-world weather in a city that's a decent analog in terms of latitude and terrain for the campaign location.

Finally, I'll mention the days of the week.  They are Basilsday, Lunday, Tothsday, Mitrasday, Tahsday, Horasday, and Demmasday.  So one for the emperor, one for the moon, one for Thoth (a greater god of the old pantheon, no longer popular), one for Mitra (new pantheon), one for Ptah (old pantheon), one for Horus (old pantheon, and not just unpopular but possibly dead), and one for Demma (new pantheon).  I just love the inconsistency; it feels like a silly jumble of historical accidents rather than something designed on purpose, just like the days here on Earth.

I guess if there's a point to this ramble it's that if you're trying to create a fictional world inhabited by humans, don't make things too neat and tidy.  Humanity is a mess of legacy systems and fiction should reflect that.

Arden Vul Character Creation Rules

We're using Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game as the base rules set.  Anything from the rest of GURPS will only be brought in with GM approval.  (I'm trying to keep this simple so that a new player with only the DFRPG has a chance to keep up.)

PCs at the start of the campaign get:

• 125 points
• -25 point disadvantage limit
• Sense of Duty (Adventuring Companions) [-5] does not count against the limit
• -5 point quirk limit

We are using the Five Easy Pieces character generation option from Pyramid 3/113 (also in GCS).  There are a bunch of 50-point templates and you get to pick as many of them as you can afford.  With 125 + 25 + 5 + 5, you can afford 3, unless you bought an expensive racial template and can only afford 2.  Disad points embedded in a Piece *do* count against the limit.  Any leftover points can go to anything on any of your Pieces, or any abilities that are not reserved to a particular template in DFRPG.  (Anyone can buy up their attributes, buy most skills, and buy most advantages.  But a some things are reserved for a particular template, like Halfling Marksmanship is only for Halflings and Turning is only for Clerics.  If you're not sure, ask.) 

The only available racial templates are dwarf, elf, half-elf, halfling, human, and Imperial Goblin.  (Links to someone else's worldanvil page.)

Human  (Pick Archontean, Thorcin, Wiskin, or Khumus as your native language)

Elf (Native language: Elvish)

Half-Elf (See both Human and Elf, and pick Archontean, Thorcin, Wiskin, Khumus, or Elvish as your native language.  If you were raised equally in both cultures, feel free to buy a second native language.)

Dwarf (Native language: Dwarvish)

Halfling (Native language: Archontean)

Imperial Goblin (New racial template below, and in GCS.  Native language Archontean.)

Imperial Goblin [0]

SM -1 [0]

Per +1 [5]

Basic Move -1 [-5]

HP +1 [2]

Night Vision 5 [5]

Resistant to Poison +5 [5]

Sharp Teeth [1]

Ugly [-8]

Social Stigma (Second-Class Citizen) [-5]

Everyone gets one native language for free as usual; which one depends on your racial template as listed above.  (If you don't pick a native language the default is Archontean, unless you're an elf or dwarf.)  The most commonly spoken languages in the area near Arden Vul are Archontean (more urban and ruling class) and Thorcin (more rural and working class).  It might be useful to speak both.  Mithric, the language of the ancient Archontean Empire, is currently dead as a native language but still exists as the language of magic, some religions, and some sages and scholars.  Spellbooks and scrolls are written in Mithric so all mages and clerics who want to be able to use them should know some Mithric.  It's allowed to take languages at Accented or Broken, for fewer points.  (In GCS, use the GURPS Basic Set version of languages instead of the DFRPG version to get these options.)

Starting money is per the DFRPG rules.  You can buy Wealth to get more.  You can also trade points for cash (only at the start not later).  You can start with any equipment from DFRPG: Adventurers (only) *except* plate armor, which doesn't exist in the setting.  (If there's some obviously common non-magical item you want that isn't on the list, like twine or a chicken, ask the GM.)  After the game starts, some equipment (special orders, magic items) may not be easy to find; you may need to make availability die rolls, or travel to a big city, or hire an enchanter...

Coins are different from those in DFRPG; we're using AD&D coin value ratios and the silver piece standard.  So a copper is $0.1, a silver is $1, an electrum piece is $5 (but that doesn't matter because nobody uses them), a gold piece is $10, and a platinum piece is $50.  You can mostly just use GURPS dollars and ignore the exact coins, unless you enjoy that kind of thing or find a hoard so big that the weight actually matters.  These coins are in GCS under Home Brew / Arden Vul Equipment.

There is one new perk for this campaign, Burdock's Valley Local [1].  (Also in GCS.)  If you take it, you've lived in the Burdock's Valley area long enough to know stuff; you get extra rumors and an area map and default Area Knowledge for the local area.  If you don't take it, you just arrived from somewhere else and have to ask NPCs for directions.

Religion in Arden Vul

Someone else already really nicely summarized the religions of the Arden Vul setting on worldanvil , so I'm going to link to theirs rather than making another one.

(If the link goes dead, let me know and I'll make a full page.)

There are only four full temples staffed by full clerics in Gosterwick (the closest town to Arden Vul, about a half-day's walk depending on how much you're carrying and how wounded you are).  If you think you might need clerical assistance in a hurry, you might want to focus on:

• Demma (goddess of fertility and crops)
• Heschius Ban (god of power; there's no alignment in GURPS but I hear disturbing things)
• Lucreon (god of wealth and merchants)
• Mitra (god of justice and contracts and defending the weak and paladins)

Gosterwick also features some small volunteer-run shrines to the other six major Archontean gods, some of the Archontean minor gods, and a few Thorcin gods.  These are nice if you're studying basic comparative theology, but not so great if you need a Cure Disease.

The larger town of Newmarket another three days to the south has temples to all of The Ten major Archontean gods, several of The Seventeen minor Archontean gods, most of the Thorcin pantheon, and the Wiskin god Odin.

Note that even though The Twelve are listed at the top of the page, they are no longer sponsored by the Empire and no longer have many worshippers.  Worship of Set is actually illegal, and Horus is presumed dead and is apparently no longer handing out spells to his few remaining clerics.  So PC clerics should not pick them, unless they want to Fast-Talk the GM into letting them pay for an Unusual Background.

The History of the Archontean Empire in 3 Maps

Here are 3 non-spoiler maps describing the rise and fall and re-ascendency of the Archontean Empire.  (These maps are copyrighted by the folks who made Arden Vul, but they let people download them for free so I don't think they'll mind GMs running Arden Vul sharing them with their players.)

The bottom map shows the Empire as of the current game year, 2993.

Announcing DFRPG Arden Vul

I've been going back and forth on which game to run next, and a couple of months ago I decided to try another fantasy megadungeon.  So I bought and read most of the available ones, and the one I liked the most was The Halls of Arden Vul, by Richard Barton, written for OSRIC (which is basically Advanced D&D First Edition with the beholders removed and carrion crawlers renamed).

I don't want to write a long review of Arden Vul here, because I don't want to spoil prospective players, but I will say that it's huge (1100+ pages), and has both a very well-done world with all kinds of interesting lore to discover and a huge dungeon full of interesting NPCs and monsters and traps and secrets, and it looks hard.

Anyway, I've got enough of the adventure converted to start recruiting players, so here's the general summary of the game that I'll share with prospective players.

• I want to use Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game (DFRPG) as the base rules set.  Assume anything in DFRPG is allowed and nothing else in GURPS is allowed, unless noted otherwise.
• Despite being hard, Arden Vul is designed to start with first level D&D characters, so we need to reduce the starting power level.  I find that about half of the DFRPG default works well:
• 125 points
• -25 point disadvantage limit
• Sense of Duty (Adventuring Companions) [-5] doesn't count against the limit
• -5 point quirk limit
• I'd like to use templates to simplify character generation.  The standard DFRPG templates are 250 points, so those won't work.  So I'd like to try Five Easy Pieces from Pyramid 3/113.  (They're also in the GCS master library.)  The idea is there are a bunch of 50-point mini-templates.  With 125 + 25 + 5 + 5 = 160 points, starting PCs will only be able to afford three Pieces (or two and an expensive racial template) rather than five.
• The only playable PC races in this setting are dwarves, elves, half-elves, halflings, humans, and Imperial Goblins (new template, in GCS).  No cat-folk, no half-orcs or half-ogres, no gnomes.
• Languages matter in this setting, and some PCs will need to take a second language, so I'll allowing languages at Accented and Broken levels to save points.
• I will award XP for loot, exploration, and achievements.  A threshold level of loot (which will increase with character points) recovered and brought back to town will achieve 1 point, a great haul 2 points.  A significant amount of new territory explored will achieve 1 point, a great amount of exploration 2 points.  And then any major achievements will grant bonus points.  The idea is to encourage players to be bold and achieve things, rather than grinding slowly.

Beyond game rules, here are some high level ideas to see if this is the right game for you.

• No spoilers.  If you've read Arden Vul or watched an Actual Play of it, you can't play.  Don't read reviews of it either as those tend to leak spoilers.  You can safely read this blog though; anything I post here is fair game.
• This adventure is hard enough that you need a certain amount of caution to survive, so some experience with fantasy RPGs is good to have.  GURPS expertise is not as important, though any players new to the system should probably avoid spellcasters to start, and get advice from other players.

A brief introduction to the setting:

• The world is called Magae, and the major power is the Archontean Empire.  
• The old Archontean Empire was vaguely like ancient Rome, except centered on an island in the ocean instead of a peninsula in a sea.  The empire expanded to occupy all the nearby islands and also colonize parts of the large continent of Irthuin.  
• 1200 years ago, the empire suffered a magical civil war, and the survivors withdrew from their colonies to fight over the home island of Mithruin.
• Now the empire is again growing and re-occupying its old territories.  (Imagine Byzantium, if it didn't fall in 1453 and instead grew.  It claims to be the old empire, but everything is a bit different.)  Arden Vul was a city at the extreme frontier of the old empire, destroyed in the civil war.  Now the new empire's borders have extended to near the ruins of Arden Vul, and the small town of Gosterwick has been founded just a few miles from the ruined city, close enough to support adventurers trying to explore and loot the ruins and the dungeons underneath.
• There are four major human cultures: the Archonteans (rulers of the empire, with a Byzantine feel), the Thorcin (the local population in this part of Irthiun, conquered then independent and now conquered again), the Wiskin (vikings from the northern islands), and the Khumus (horse nomads from far to the west).
• There are also halfling and Imperial Goblin populations within the Archontean Empire.  They are fully assimilated into the empire, though the goblins are second-class citizens.
• The are elven and dwarven kingdoms, outside the Empire.  They are fiercely independent and secretive, speak their own languages, and have their own religions (or lack thereof).  There are also half-elves, who might live in elven culture or in any of the human cultures, or straddle both.
• The Archonteans offically worship ten major gods and seventeen minor gods.  The Thorcinga, Wiskinga, Imperial Goblins, and Halflings have their own pantheons (though some Imperial Goblins and Halflings worship Archontean gods).  Dwarves are monotheists and Elves are "spiritual but not religious" and lack clerics.  To simplify life for those who want to play clerics or other religious characters without reading too much backstory, only four of the major Archontean gods have temples in Gosterwick.
• There is no plate armor.  This doesn't matter much.
• It's a normal mana area.  Magic is well known, and studied and regulated by colleges.
• The play area is called Burdock's Valley.  It's about 90 by 80 miles and contains the ruins of Arden Vul, the small town of Gosterwick (a half-day's march south of Arden Vul), the larger town of Newmarket (about 3 days further south), six small villages, and a couple of castles.  It's a frontier part of the Archontean Empire, but most of the inhabitants are Thorcin.

Logistics:

• I'd like to run a weekly game.  Tentatively Friday nights from 8 pm - midnight North American Eastern Time.
• I'd like 4-5 players.  More than 5 gets hard to run.  I'd like to play any week that the GM and a majority of players are available.  I'll poll players for availability each week on Discord, then announce whether we have enough for a game.
• To avoid having to drag along inactive characters, I'd prefer that PCs return to a safe place each week, so it's easy to leave characters behind there.  To encourage that, I'll only award and allow spending points in safe places.
• Software
• Foundry VTT (GM already has a license; players just need a computer with a web browser) as a virtual tabletop (maps, character sheets, dice)
• GCS (free, runs on Linux/macOS/Windows) for editing character sheets, 
• Discord (free, runs on Android/iOS/Linux/macOS/Windows) for text and voice chat.
• I'd like to run a voice game, so players need a microphone.
• I'll do recaps of each session on this blog.  

Ownership of the March Harrier

The subsidy contract complicates things, but to a first approximation, the March Harrier is owned half by the subsidy holder and half by the crew.  (Any crew members who bought Merchant Rank 1 or higher at the start of the campaign were part owners.  Any crew members without Merchant Rank, and any crew members who joined later, were just employees.)

At the start of the campaign, the March Harrier's ownership was:

• Aramis Trace Commercial Development Trust, LIC (Duke of Rhylanor) 50%
• Captain Dale Conan Wilder: 12.5%
• First Officer Randal Dorsainvil: 12.5%
• Second Officer John Matrix: 12.5%
• Engineer/Medic Everett de Clisson: 12.5%

After Randal Dorsainvil left the crew (to get married and join his new wife's crew), the other crew owners split his shares evenly, resulting in revised ownership:

• Aramis Trace Commercial Development Trust, LIC (Duke of Rhylanor) 50%
• Captain Dale Conan Wilder: 16.7%
• Second Officer John Matrix: 16.7%
• Engineer/Medic Everett de Clisson: 16.7%

After Oberlindes Lines bought the March Harrier's subsidy contract from the Aramis Trace Commercial Development Trust LIC, ownership was updated to:

• Oberlindes Lines 50%
• Captain Dale Conan Wilder: 16.7%
• Second Officer John Matrix: 16.7%
• Engineer/Medic Everett de Clisson: 16.7%

After Captain Dale Conan Wilder died (of a machine pistol bullet to the forehead while attempting to rescue Lisa Fireau and Gvoudzon from Vemene kidnappers) and his will (pending completion of probate or any other legal challenges) divided his share of the ship evenly among the surviving crew, ownership became:

• Oberlindes Lines 50%
• Captain John Matrix: 20%
• Engineer/Medic Everett de Clisson: 20%
• First Officer Sacha Bright: 3.3%
• Steward Ganidiirsi Ashran: 3.3%
• Chief Security Officer Gvoudzon: 3.3%

Interstellar Mail Order in Traveller

I haven't seen Traveller rules for interstellar mail order.  What if you don't have time to visit a high-tech or low-law-level world where the gizmo of your dreams can be found?  Can you get a merchant there to ship it to you?

The trivial case is same-world mail order.  On any world high-tech enough to have a datanet (TL8+) or at least a telephone system (TL6+) and with enough population to have a reasonable number of merchants (Population code 4+, or at least 10000 people), there should be mail order businesses, selling any products that are legal on that world.  Cost should be roughly the same as that of visiting a store, possibly with some additional shipping costs, especially for larger items.

But it gets more complicated across interstellar distances.  The customer needs a copy of the store's recent catalog.  This should be relatively easy to find, at least for larger merchants who broadcast xmail out their catalogs to all nearby systems regularly.  The customer then needs to send an xmail to place the order, along with sufficient funds.  If the customer's current location and the merchant's world have a bank in common (which should be the case for any high-TL high-population worlds within a subsector or so), then the customer can deposit their Imperial credits at the local bank and send an interstellar money order along with their order, typically for a 1% fee.  (If the buyer actually has an account at that bank, they might reduce or even waive the fee.)  The xmail costs the typical Cr 10 / parsec, and typically moves at around Jump 2, faster along xboat routes and major trade routes, slower between backwater planets.

Once the merchant receives the order and the payment, they can ship the goods, assuming they're still available and the price hasn't increased.  Shipping for large items runs at the rates given in GURPS Traveller Interstellar Wars: Cr 700 per dton per parsec on minor trade routes or better, or Cr 800 per dton per parsec on branch routes.  Shipping for smaller items runs into minimum fees: Cr 100 per parsec.  Freight typically moves at about Jump 1, as most cargo ships are Jump 2 but spend about half their time in-system rather than in jump.

That assumes the recipient will be staying put on a known planet.  If they expect their cargo to chase them down, there will be extra time and expense.  First, they'll have to send periodic xmails to update their own location, so their goods can be forwarded.  Second, they'll have to pay for any extra hops their cargo takes, at the usual price.  Third, if they want to be updated on the current location of their items, they need to pay for more xmails, from the item's location to all the worlds they might be.  It all adds up, so it's probably simpler to ship to a world the buyer visits regularly, and pay for storing the item there.  Storage fees for large items can add up: the standard rate at starports is Cr 2 per dton per day, with a Cr 1 per day minimum for small items.

March Harrier Operating Expenses

Here's is an overview of the expenses of running a 400-displacement-ton Subsidized Merchant starship using the rules in GURPS Traveller Interstellar Wars.

The single biggest expense is the subsidy payment.  In exchange for paying for the starship, the subsidy holder (a trust run by the Duke of Rhylanor) gets 50% of the ship's gross income.  Gross income consists of all passenger and freight income before expenses.  Note that if the crew decides to speculate on cargo, they have the option of leasing the cargo hold space at standard freight rates (half of which goes to the subsidy holder) and then keeping any profit made.  There is however a clause in the subsidy contract that the crew should not monopolize the cargo space for private purposes, so they should only do this with a small amount of the available cargo space, or when there is not other demand.  The good thing about the subsidy payment is that since it's a percentage of the gross, it's lower in months where there's not much money coming in.

The second largest expense is crew salaries.  The suggested formula for crew salaries is given on GURPS Traveller Interstellar Wars (GTIW) page 175: Cr 600 + (Cr 900 * Merchant Rank) + (Cr 300 * best job skill), per month.  For the March Harrier's current crew of 6, this comes out to Cr 37500 per month, and that could go up if any crew members increase their rank or best job skill.  Note that some of the crew are owners of the ship and so might be willing to forego or defer their salaries if the ship operating account is short on funds.  Asking non-owners to do the same would be unlikely to go over well.

A relatively small expense is provisions.  Everyone on board the ship needs to eat, with crew meals included as a fringe benefit on top of their salaries, and (middle and high) passenger meals included in the cost of their ticket.  (Low passengers are unconscious in their low berths and thus don't need to eat during the trip.)  GTIW page 175 says that standard provisions cost Cr 6 per person per day.  As a house rule, the cost for high passengers is higher: Cr 20 per person per day, as high passengers demand high-quality fresh food, prepared well.  (Gani, the March Harrier's steward, has Cooking skill.)  A full ship with 6 crew and 14 middle passengers would cost Cr 120 per day just to feed.

Fuel is a variable expense.  GTIW 175 says that refined fuel costs Cr 350/dton and unrefined fuel costs Cr 80/dton.  The March Harrier now has 100 dtons of fuel tanks, so a complete fillup (sufficient for two Jump-1s) would cost KCr 35 refined or KCr 8 unrefined.  However, the March Harrier has fuel scoops and a processing plant capable of refining unrefined fuel, so the crew can often avoid paying for fuel, trading time for money.  If on a planet with sufficient water and sufficiently permissive local law, they can take water from a lake or ocean.  If in a system with a gas giant, they can scoop hydrogen from the gas giant.  In both cases, that costs time: from an hour or so to fuel from a nearby water source to days to travel to a gas giant and scoop fuel, plus time to process the fuel.  If there's no ocean and no gas giant, then buying fuel is the only option, but buying unrefined and refining it onboard is still a way to save money.  The fuel processors table on GTIW page 192 says that a 4-dton TL 10 processor can process 3.2 dtons/hour, so the March Harrier can process a complete load in 32 hours, or enough for a single jump in 16 hours.  (It's possible to jump with unrefined fuel, but that leads to increased chances of problems, so is typically only done in emergencies.)

Using a starport means paying berthing fees and starport administration fees.  These are detailed on GTIW page 175.  The berthing fee is typically Cr 20/dton (or Cr 8000 for the March Harrier) for the first 6 days then Cr 2/dton (Cr 800 for the March Harrier) per day afterward.  The starport administration fee is a flat Cr 500 per landing at all Imperial Starport Authority starports.  Both fees are unavoidable, except by landing away from the starport on a lawless planet.

Carrying freight can involve paying for freight handling.  The March Harrier's crew is capable of handling some cargo on their own, but for cargo that requires special equipment or that the crew doesn't have time to deal with, the cost is typically Cr 20 per dton of cargo, with a minimum cost of Cr 500.  Some cargo requires special handling, which adds a 50% surcharge.

The charge for shipping other people's freight is net of taxes, so customs duties on freight don't really affect the crew.  However, if the crew ships speculative cargo that they actually own, then they are responsible for any customs duty.  Customs duty is variable depending on the world and product, but averages about 4% of declared value.  Some crews have been known to smuggle cargo or lie about the value of cargo to avoid such duties, but that's risky.

The final major cost is the annual starship maintenance overhaul.  This only happens once per year rather than every week or month, but smart captains budget for it anyway, as it costs 0.1% of the base price of the ship.  For the March Harrier, a MCr 182 ship (as built using the GTIW rules), this is KCr 182.  It also means the ship is not making money for two weeks as it undergoes maintenance and the crew takes their vacation.

GURPS Traveller: March Harrier Character Generation

More details on character generation

• Starting PCs are based on 150 points, with a -30 point disadvantage limit and a -5 point quirk limit.  All negative attributes count against the disad limit.  (For example, if you take IQ +2 with Per -2 and Will -2 for a net cost of [20], you've used -20 points of disads buying down Per and Will.)
• Sense of Duty (crewmates) [-5] is optional and doesn't count against the disad limit.  (If you take a larger Sense of Duty that includes this one, then -5 points of it don't count against the limit but the rest of the cost does.)  Yes, this is a bribe from the GM to encourage team play.
• Partial, subsidized, strings-attached ownership of the March Harrier is a "free" campaign feature; you don't have to pay points for Wealth or Ship Patron or Ship Owner.  Each PC can choose whether to be an owner and crew member, a non-owner crew member, or a non-crew member.  Owners must have at least Merchant Rank 1, and the Captain and First Officer should be owners.
• The Captain needs to take Merchant Rank 3 [15].  (This gives some free Status.)
• The First Officer needs to take Merchant Rank 2 [10].  (This gives some free Status.)
• Other Officers need to take Merchant Rank 2 [10] (Second Officer), Merchant Rank 1 [5] (for a Third Officer or Fourth Officer who's an owner) or Courtesy Merchant Rank 1 [1] (for a non-owner Fourth Officer).
• The maximum starting attribute is 15.
• The maximum starting skill is 16.
• All PCs should use one of the occupational templates from GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars.  (If you don't have the book, they're also in GCS.)  Some particularly useful templates are Starship Commander, Starship Bridge Officer, Starship Engineer, Starship Deckhand, Doctor, and Marine.  Additional points beyond the template cost can be spent on any attributes from any GURPS Traveller occupational template.  Some deviation from the template is fine; ask the GM.
• A March-class subsidized merchant nominally has a crew of five.  (Pilot, Navigator, Engineer, Medic, and Steward.)  If we have exactly five players and everyone wants a different mandatory role then we have a full crew.  If we have fewer players or someone doesn't want to fill one of those roles, then the crew may need to be filled out with NPCs.  Note that crew members need to be paid, fed, and supplied with stateroom space and oxygen, so the bigger the crew, the harder it is to make a profit.  (PCs, especially owners, may choose to not take their salary if times are tough.  NPCs will probably insist on being paid.)
• Imperial regulations require that the March Harrier have a Captain with a Master's License, a First Officer with a Mate's License, a Chief Engineer with a Chief Engineer's License, and a medic who is a Certified Medical Technician.  See GCS for these licenses (from GT Far Trader) ported to 4E rules.  Steward is the one crew role with no explicit requirements -- it would be nice if the Steward had Savoir-Faire (Servant or Merchant) and Cooking and Spacer and First Aid and a positive reaction modifier, but it's not strictly required that Stewards be good at their job.
• In order to be allowed to carry Imperial Mail, the March Harrier is required to have two members of the crew who are qualified gunners: Gunner (Beam Laser) at 12 or higher.
• Most PCs should be human Imperial citizens.  If you really want to play an alien or non-Imperial, talk to the GM.  There may be an Unusual Background in some cases.
• If desired, one PC may be a pre-generated plot-hook non-crewmember who will be met during the first game session.  This character's backstory and basic capabilities are fixed, but minor tweaks are okay with GM approval.
• There are other pre-generated characters available, if you don't feel like making a PC or don't have time.  Talk to the GM about what crew role you want to fill and the GM will give you a rough idea of the pre-generated character that fills that role.  If you accept a pre-generated character, you're allowed to tweak it to your liking, subject to the usual rules.
• If you don't want a pregen but you're having problems making a character on your own, ask the GM and other players for help.
• Starting wealth is KCr 50 or $50000.  Because PCs are itinerant spacers whose home is their spaceship, all of it may be spent.  Owners should consider holding some money in reserve for starship expenses.
• Equipment is limited to what is widely available in the Aramis Trace: GTL 10.  The GM has a GCS file containing Traveller-suitable equipment.  (Basically the Safe-Tech rules from Ultra-Tech, so out-of-genre stuff like swarmbots and cyberware is not allowed.)  The ship's locker will contain some common equipment.
• The game starts on Aramis/Aramis/Spinward Marches on 001-1105.  The ship is on Aramis for two weeks to receive its annual maintenance, which has already been paid for.  The crew gets two weeks of (mostly) vacation on Aramis.  (At least some crew members should probably do some ship's business during that time, like trying to find cargo and passengers for when the ship is ready.)
• You need to submit your GCS character sheet to the GM for approval.  It's up to you whether you want to share your character sheet with the other players, or keep it private and just share a summary of what everyone knows about your character with everyone.

Worlds of the Aramis Trace

Your subsidy route is the Aramis Trace, a group of 8 worlds reachable via Jump-1 in the Aramis, Rhylanor, and Sabine subsectors of the Spinward Marches and Deneb sectors.  The worlds have mostly good to excellent starports, but small populations.

Here are some brief highlights of each world.

Aramis is the capital of the Aramis Subsector.  It's located on the Xboat route from Rhylanor to Vland, so while it is not a very populous world, its starport is quite busy.  Aramis High is the best port in the subsector.  The planet itself is a hellworld, with a corrosive atmosphere that requires special equipment to survive.  The vast majority of the planet's population lives in one underground city, Leedor, adjacent to Aramis Downport.  Leedor has a population of about 600000 people, and is a fief of the Marquis of Aramis.  Leedor was originally a mining settlement, and there are still active mines on the edge of town, while played-out mines are reused for habitation.

L'eoul d'Dieu (LDD) is a water world.  The planet is effectively owned by the megacorporation Sharurshid, which harvests seafood and other aquatic resources.  Sharurshid currently does not allow additional settlement, to protect the marine environment, so the population has been kept to about 500000.  The Imperial Navy base is on a nearby moon.

Natoko is another corporate world, dominated by Tukera Lines, the largest shipping megacorporation in the Imperium.  Tukera uses the world to overhaul its starships, and does not allow non-employees to live there.  The population is about 800 Tukera and starport employees plus some personnel at the Imperial Navy base.  It's unclear why Tukera has chosen to leave a garden world so empty.

Reacher has an exotic atmosphere, and its major industry is extraction of organic resources.  In recent years, trade of these resources has declined, and the population of Reacher has blamed offworlders.  The Travellers Aid Society has posted Reacher an Amber Zone, as it can be dangerous for offworlders to leave the starport.

Vinorian is a mostly-water world with a tainted atmosphere requiring filter masks to survive.  It is dominated by Dirkstrom Industries.  The population is about 4 million, the highest in the Aramis Trace.

Nutema is a hot planet whose atmosphere is tainted by a horrible smell.  The planet is home to about 9000 inhabitants spread across the planet in small family groups, who mostly only interact electronically.  There is a small Imperial Navy base in orbit.

Margesi has an excellent starport, Navy and Scout bases, and a tiny native population of 300.  The tainted atmosphere poisons food, making the world unsuitable for agriculture.  The main industry is entertaining off-duty Navy, Scout, and Starport personnel at a recreation center just outside the downport.

Saarinen is the location of Imperial Research Station Epsilon, centered on underwater planetological studies.  In addition to active research, there is a training center for underwater science and exploration.  There are no population centers outside the starport and Research Station.

March Harrier Subsidy Contract

Starship Ownership and Subsidy Agreement

between

Aramis Trace Commercial Development Trust, LIC ("the Trust")
March Harrier Lines, LIC ("MHL")
Individual Principals of March Harrier Lines, LIC
(names TODO)

295-1099, Rhylanor/Rhylanor

The Aramis Trace comprises the following worlds:

•    Aramis subsector: Aramis, L'eoul d'Dieu, Natoko, and Reacher
•    Rhylanor subsector: Vinorian, Nutema, and Margesi
•    Sabine subsector: Saarinen

The Aramis Trace worlds not currently connected by Imperial Interstellar
Scout Service Express Boat Routes are Reacher, Vinorian, Nutema, Margesi,
and Saarinen.

It is in the interests of the Worlds of the Aramis Trace, the Subsector of
Rhylanor, the Domain of Deneb, and the Imperium to ensure that all of the worlds of the Aramis Trace are regularly connected by reliable starship service allowing for delivery of freight, passengers, and mail.

Due to the currently small populations of some worlds of the Aramis Trace, there is currently a scarcity of commercial traffic between some of these worlds at some times.  The Trust believes this scarcity is likely to continue.

MHL is interested in conducting commercial passenger and freight operations in the Aramis Trace and would benefit from doing so without sole responsibility for the cost of a starship.

The Duke of Rhylanor has authorized the Trust to purchase a 400-displacement-ton Type R Subsidized Merchant starship (Imperial registry A90FD58D578C, referred to as "March Harrier") at a cost of not more than MCr 185) for delivery as soon as possible but no later than 001-1100.

Ownership of March Harrier shall be shared 50/50 between March Harrier Enterprises and Aramis Trace Development Trust, within the limits of this agreement, for 30 years.  After 30 years, March Harrier Enterprises shall assume full ownership of the March Harrier and this subsidy agreement will be voided, unless both parties agree to an extension.

March Harrier Enterprises shall name the captain and crew of the March Harrier.  At least two of the above named principals of March Harrier Enterprises shall remain part of the crew at all times, unless an emergency prevents this or The Trust agrees to a change.

The March Harrier shall be crewed (at a minimum) by a Captain with a Master's License, a First Officer with a Mate's License, a Chief Engineer with a Chief Engineer's License, and a Certified Medical Technician.  All qualifications must remain current and in good standing.

Because Imperial Mail regulations require that starships carrying mail be armed for self-defense, the Trust will ensure that the March Harrier is armed with at least two turrets, each with at least two operational beam lasers.  MHL will ensure that the crew contains at least two persons qualified to operate such armament at any time the March Harrier is carrying mail, and that said armament is properly maintained and
operational.

Because Imperial Mail regulations require 5 displacement tons of secure cargo space for starships carrying mail, the Trust will equip March Harrier with a certified mail locker, and the crew will be trained in its secure operation and will follow all Imperial Mail regulations to ensure the security of the mail.  (In particular, except in emergencies, the mail locker will only be opened when both an officer of the March Harrier and an authorized agent of Imperial Mail are present.)

MHL agrees to conduct regular commercial freight and passenger service between the worlds of the Aramis Trace at least 70% of the time.  The remaining 30% of the time can be spent persuing any legal business anywhere within the Imperium.  (The ship shall not leave the Imperium without explicit permission from the Trust.)

At all times, 50% of the gross revenues generated by the March Harrier will be paid to the Trust.  MHL receives the other 50%.  MHL is responsible for all expenses.  The Trust has banking services at every starport within the Aramis Trace, and on other major worlds throughout the Domain.  Payment must be made within one month of the time revenue was received.

MHL agrees to keep accurate records of all commercial transactions by March Harrier and to submit said records for audit annually, or immediately on demand.

MHL and the Captain of the March Harrier shall have freedom to decide routes, passengers, and freight, except that any Imperial Mail enroute to the desired destination shall have first call on the ship's freight capacity.  Furthermore, during the 70% of the time that it is following the subsidy route, MHL agrees to support a diversity of freight and passenger traffic, rather than allowing the ship's resources to be monopolized by charters, private cargo speculation, or shipping to a
single corporation, to the extent that other passengers and freight are available.  (Nothing in this agreement shall prevent the crew of the March Harrier from using any passenger or cargo space for any legal purpose when there is not other demand, as long as the crew pays 50% of the retail cost of the space to the Trust.)

MHL agrees to visit and attempt to conduct commerce on every world in the Aramis Trace at least once per six months spent following the subsidy route.  An exception will be made if a world is Interdicted.

MHL agrees to maintain the March Harrier in accordance with Imperial best practices for commercial starships, including an annual overhaul. MHL agrees to have major maintenance and repair work done within the Aramis Trace, to the extent practicable, and to forward annual maintenance reports to the Trust.

In the event that this contract is violated by MHL or any principal of MHL is  convicted of an Imperial felony, the Trust reserves the right to end this subsidy  contract and assume possession of the March Harrier.


Sir Amin Brogers
Director, Aramis Trace Development Trust, LIC
for
Leonard Stephanos Kirgashii, Duke of Rhylanor

[electronic signatures attached]

GURPS Traveller: March Harrier Campaign Intro

High-level description:

This is a GURPS 4th Edition campaign, in the Traveller setting, set in the Aramis subsector of the Spinward Marches sector in the year 1105 of the Third Imperium.

The PCs are the crew of the March Harrier, a 400-ton Subsidized Merchant starship.  It theoretically requires a crew of 5, and has 13 staterooms (so 8 left for passengers), 13 low berths, and a 200-displacement-ton cargo hold.

The background of the campaign is making a living as star merchants: trying to find enough passengers and fixed-rate freight to carry from world to world to make a profit.  And possibly also looking for speculative cargo or other money-making opportunities.

Of course some less routine events might happen, leading to Adventures.

Player-facing information:

It's a science fiction game, with starships and laser rifles.  The Traveller setting is what GURPS Ultra-Tech calls "safe-tech", which means it feels like 1970s SF, not newer SF.  Not a lot of cybernetics or nanobots.  Think Firefly.

An important feature of Traveller is that there is faster-than-light travel, but it takes at least a week to travel to a nearby star, and there is no faster-than-light radio.  So news travels relatively slowly and interstellar governments are somewhat limited.

The PCs are ordinary (though skilled) humans.  Starting point values will be fairly low, advancement will be slow, and there will be caps on both attributes and skill levels.

Because the frame of the campaign is interstellar trading, at least a couple of players should be interested in that.  Other players might just want to play starship crew who don't deal much with the business end, and that's fine.

One major difference between a starship crew and many groups of PCs is that a starship has one or more owners and exactly one captain.  So the players need to decide who owns the ship.  The default setup will be that 4 starting PCs will each own an equal share of the ship.

Once ownership of the ship is determined, the owner(s) need to pick a captain and first mate from among qualified members of the crew.  Other important roles also need to be filled: pilot, navigator, sensor operator, communications operator, engineers, mechanics, gunners, steward, medic, cargomaster, launch pilot, ATV driver.  That is more roles than PCs, so most PCs will have multiple jobs.  (And of course there should be backups for every critical role, just in case something bad happens.) If there aren't enough PCs to fully crew the ship, the players can ask the GM to supply NPCs to round out the crew, or they can try to hire NPC crew members in play.

There will be combat in this game, but probably not every session.

There will be character advancement in this game, but it will be slow.  Your PC will not become dramatically more powerful.

There is an opportunity for one player to play a pre-generated character with a backstory important to the plot.  This character does not start the adventure as a member of the March Harrier's crew, but will meet them during the first game session.

Should I try to play in this game?

Do I need to be a GURPS expert to play?  No, I want to keep this pretty rules-light, and most of GURPS is "roll under your attribute or skill on 3d6."  There will be pre-generated PCs available for those who don't feel like making one, or you can have the GM or another player help you make one.

Do I need to know Traveller to play?  No.  I will try to explain enough of the background as we go.

What if I'm a Traveller veteran.  Should I play?  I'd prefer not to have players who've already read or played this exact adventure.  Other than that, Traveller experience is welcome but not required.

What rules do I need to own?  The free GURPS Lite PDF will get you most of the way there.  Almost all the skills will be in the GURPS 4E Basic Set.  I will use stuff from GURPS Traveller Interstellar Wars, the 3E GURPS Traveller line (converted to 4E as needed), GURPS Ultra-Tech, GURPS Starships, and random Traveller books, but players don't need to know all that.

This will be a Rule Zero game.  Players need to be willing to abide by GM rulings rather than arguing.

How about dates and times?

I'd like to play once a week, on Monday nights, from 8 p.m. to midnight US Eastern time.  My goal is to play every week that a majority of players are available.  So if we have 5 players and 1 or 2 can't play that week, we play anyway.  I'd like to end each week with the PCs on the ship in a safe location, so that if someone can't make it one week, it's easy to just leave their PC on the ship rather than having to run them as an NPC.

What about software?

I want characters in GCS format; you can find GCS at https://gurpscharactersheet.com.  It's free and portable and excellent.  You need at least version 5.0.  I already added the Traveller templates that we need to the GCS master library.

https://travellermap.com  is a handy map of the Traveller universe.  (Search for "Aramis" to see where this campaign starts.)

The game will be run using FoundryVTT, but it's web-based so players don't need anything beyond a computer and web browser.

I plan to use Discord to coordinate things between game sessions, and for voice during play.

There will be Google Sheets for tracking money and points.

I'll do session recaps to this blog.

Character generation details:

(This is just a high-level summary; I will give more details to the players later.)

Starting PCs will be based on 150 points, with a -30 point disadvantage limit (including negative attribute costs as disads), and -5 points of quirks.

A -5 point Sense of Duty to crewmates is optional and doesn't count against the disad limit.

Partial, subsidized, strings-attached ownership of the March Harrier is a "free" campaign feature; you don't have to pay points for Wealth or Ship Patron or Ship Owner.

The Captain needs to take Merchant Rank 3 [15].

The First Officer needs to take Merchant Rank 2 [10].

Other Officers need to take Merchant Rank 2 [10], Merchant Rank 1 [5] or Courtesy Merchant Rank 1 [1].

The maximum starting attribute is 15.

The maximum starting skill is 16.

All PCs should use one of the occupational templates from GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars.  (If you don't have the book, they're also in GCS.)  Some particularly useful templates are Starship Commander, Starship Bridge Officer, Starship Engineer, Starship Deckhand, Doctor, and Marine.

A March-class subsidized merchant nominally has a crew of five.  (Pilot, Navigator, Engineer, Medic, and Steward.)  If we have exactly five players and everyone wants a different mandatory role then we have a full crew.  If we have fewer players or someone doesn't want to fill one of those roles, then the crew may be filled out with NPCs.  Note that crew members need to be paid, fed, and supplied with stateroom space and oxygen, so the bigger the crew, the harder it is to make a profit.

Most PCs should be human Imperial citizens.  If you really want to play an alien or non-Imperial, talk to the GM.

If desired, one PC may be a pre-generated non-crewmember who will be met during the first game session.

How are you picking players?

I will start by asking people I've enjoyed playing with in the past if they want to play.  Then, if there are slots left, I will advertise them on the Internet.  Once we have a full crew I will put anyone else who wants to play on a waiting list, and contact them if someone drops out.

When does this campaign start?

Once I manage to find 5 players, I'll try to schedule a Session Zero within a couple of weeks, and then regular weekly sessions after that.

How long will this campaign last?

I really don't know, but my best guess is about a year.

Time Spent on Travel to the Dungeon

In a traditional megadungeon campaign, where most sessions start in the same town and then move to the same dungeon and then back to the same town, how much time and energy should be spent travelling back and forth between town and dungeon?

Answers in published megadungeons vary.  Castle Greyhawk and Ruins of the Undermountain are right under cities, avoiding all that pesky travel completely.  The Temple of Elemental Evil is about a half-day's walk from Hommlet, and right next to Nulb.  Castle Whiterock is "a full day's ride" from Cillamar.  (Ride!  Clearly their PCs aren't as cheap as ours.)  Rappan Athuk is off in the wilderness somewhere, an unspecified distance from the nearest town, surrounded by brutal wandering monster tables.

Regardless of the game-world distance, what really matters is its effect on play.  If the travel distance is 500 miles but the GM handwaves the trip every session with "you hike to the dungeon and nothing happens on the way," without so much as a random encounter roll, and the time and provisions spent travelling don't matter, then the dungeon might as well be in town.  On the other hand, a 20-mile trip featuring horribly risky terrain and monsters might be as hard as the dungeon itself.  So perhaps it's better to talk in terms of the travel time in terms of percentage of session time consumed, and amount of risk to the PCs.

At one example of the time-versus-risk continuum, imagine a game where mundane travel is impossible, but the wizard has the ability to teleport the entire party to the dungeon instantly, except there's a decent chance of critical failure resulting in a total party kill.  (Let's call this "Star Trek Redshirts.")  Given that scenario, most PCs are going to try to dramatically reduce that critical failure chance as quickly as possible.  (Luck, Bless, more Teleport spell skill, etc.)  If they can't, they're going to make that trip as seldom as possible.  They're going to want to move into the dungeon, or set up a permanent base camp nearby.

At the other extreme, if town is safe and travel to the dungeon is risk- and pain-free, the PCs will probably return to town almost every session.  Town has nice things like rooms, hot food, healers, sages, trainers, and shops.  Unless you have very particular disadvantages (like you're a "monster" that townspeople might try to kill, or you're afraid of crowds, or you're terminally cheap and think that sleeping in a tree and hunting for your food full-time is a great bargain), you're going to want to live in town.  Beyond the shopping and training and such, one great advantage of returning to town is that it makes it easy to swap PCs between sessions.  So if you want to run a "pickup" game with rotating players and/or characters, like Peter's Felltower campaign, easy travel to and from town is the way to go.

Somewhere in the middle, you make travel to and from the dungeon take a non-trivial part of every session, and there's some risk (wandering monsters, bad weather, etc.)  But if the PCs are going to the same dungeon every session, clearly their commute can't be that hard, or they'd stop doing it.  If you want outdoor travel to be a major part of the game, maybe you want a hexcrawl with lots of little dungeons rather than a single megadungeon.

Castle Whiterock is designed for a quick trip from town to dungeon.  The adventure doesn't come with a local area outdoor map, or wandering monster tables.  Clearly, as published, the intent is to move the PCs quickly from town to dungeon, where the fun is supposed to be.  The castle is "a long day's ride" from town.  But the terrain is pretty rough, so horses are only so much faster than walking.  Since the PCs are (so far) too cheap to buy horses, that means a very long day's hike, modified by encumbrance level and whether the slower PCs make their Hiking roll.  Also, there's a lake between Cillamar and the castle, so going over the lake rather than around it is noticably faster.  (Unless something in the lake eats you, of course.)

I could probably just handwave the trip to the dungeon every time, both ways, but I can't resist making the players make some choices about travel.  Do you buy horses?  A wagon?  A boat?  Snowshoes?  Skis?  A sleigh?  A flying carpet?  (Ha, good luck finding one.)  The Flight spell at a high enough level to keep it going for the whole trip?  Winter clothing or Warmth spells?  NPCs to help?  Applicable skills?  And I make them roll Hiking every time, on the way to the dungeon.  (The trip home is often handwaved for out-of-time reasons.)  And I roll for random encounters every time, though it's a not a super-dangerous area, so the odds aren't high of meeting a challenging one.  My goal is that we usually spend about 30 minutes per four-hour game session on town business and travel.  If a non-trivial wandering monster attacks, it might be more.

So far, the answer this group of players has come up with is "we're too cheap to buy horses, and we're afraid of lake monsters, so we walk and we take the long way."  They have a few wheelbarrows for hauling heavy gear and loot overland.  This has worked well enough that I don't see it changing, until Seépravir achieves Flight-25.  (Flight has a 1-minute duration, so if you have to pay even 1 FP to maintain it, that's 5 FP per minute for 5 PCs, not sustainable.  But skill 25 gets the maintenance cost to zero, and at that point why wouldn't you?)

Of course travel to the dungeon is only half the story; I'll talk about travel within the "cleared" parts of the dungeon another time.

Testimony of the Order’s Investigation of Castle Whiterock and Efforts to Slay the Wyrm Benthosruthsa

This book was found in a secret room inside the hidden shrine of Justicia, in the underground river level of the dungeons under Castle Whiterock.  It's a large, leather-bound tome, containing a cloth-of-gold bookmark that was placed about one third of the way into the book.  The entire book is handwritten, in Celestial.  All but the last page are written in a pleasant, curving script.  The last page is written in a different hand, spiky.  The last two-thirds of the book are blank.

Title: "Testimony of the Order’s Investigation of Castle Whiterock and Efforts to Slay the Wyrm Benthosruthsa"

Section One: "The Call to Muster"  This describes the Order of the Sundered Scale, a group of six holy warriors of Justicia dedicated to killing evil dragons, based in Galaron (the capital of the Kingdom of Morrain, about 250 miles northwest of Cillamar).

The commander of the Order was Knight-Commander Usila Fairglade, a half-elven female.  The Order's wizard was Knight-Arcanist Argent Theophal, a human male.  Their cleric was Knight-Chaplain Benden Talbusk, a human male.  Other members were Knights Lorio Ranither (a halfling male), Ancival Dupre (a human male), and Felgin Forgefire (a dwarf male).

The order was engaged in their usual business of researching dragons and planning trips to faraway dragon lairs, when a woman calling herself Lady Chauntessa approached them with apparent proof that the great red dragon Benthosruthsa (who had destroyed Cillamar almost 300 years previously and had not been seen since) was still alive, and living deep under Castle Whiterock.  Chauntessa challenged them to slay Benthosruthsa.  They didn't have to be asked twice.

Section Two: "Knowing Thine Enemy"  Gives background information on Benthosruthsa.  He is supposedly directly descended from the noble red dragon line of the mythical Sunscratch.  His sire was Vaulnox of Ul Dominor (slain, 2829).  His brother Dorvenruthsa (cross-referencing Lord Mirias Stormwarden) and is son Pyraxus of the Trolltooth Peaks are thought to still be active.  There are several accounts of Benthosruthsa's almost total destruction of Cillamar, 289 years before the book was written.  It was done quite methodically and skilfully: first the large siege engines were destroyed, then the wizards and archers were picked off, then the rest of the defenseless town was razed.

Section Three: "Assayance of Castle Whiterock"  This gives a level-by-level description of major factions within Castle Whiterock and the dungeons beneath, as of about 30 years ago when the book was written.

Ground level: goblins and hobgoblins of the Twisted Tooth tribe
First level: orcs of the White Talon tribe
Second level: orcs of the White Talon tribe
Third level: orcs of the White Talon tribe
Fourth level: troglodytes, ruled by a Evil Cleric of the Toad-Fiend Bobulbubilz
Fifth level: underground river, secret Fane of Justicia placed here as a base
Sixth level: huge cavern, featuring a pyramid (unexplored)
Seventh level: Bleak Theater, an evil arena run by Duergar and Drow
Eighth level: Narborg, fortress of the duergar Thane Vejik
Ninth level: lower levels of Narborg
Tenth level: Burning Maze (?)
Eleventh level: Benthosruthsa's Lair (?)


Section Four: "Progress of the Mission"  This gives a history of the quest to slay Benthosrushsa.

The Order of the Sundered Scale defeated the goblins and orcs, fought the troglodytes and toad-cultists to a draw, found another entrance to the dungeon on the fourth level, then decided to build the Hidden Fane of Justicia to serve as a base deeper in the dungeon so they wouldn't have to constantly fight their way past the troglodytes and any other monsters that invaded the upper levels.  After completing the Fane they fought their way through the Bleak Theater and down into Narborg but were repulsed.

The Fane contains a Basin of Cleansing that can convert water to holy water, convert holy water to healing potions, and (with a sufficiently large gift left for Justicia) even raise the dead.  It has one-way doors that can only be opened by a good believer with a holy symbol of Justicia, and so should be safe from invasion.

The Thane Vejik is a tough opponent, with many duergar mercenaries.  Worse, he figured out that the Order was there, and started sending assassins.  Finally, a duergar deserter named Vinfol came to the Order, saying he wanted to renounce evil and worship Justicia, and that he could help them defeat the Thane.

The last page of the journal is in a different hand, Talbusk's.  Vinfol was lying.  He told the Order of a chance to kill the Thane, but it was an ambush, by the Pack of the Night Wolf, and five of the six paladins were killed.  Talbusk was the sole survivor.  He escaped, then recovered the bones of his companions.  But he does not have the means to bring them back to life, yet.  He needs to kill the Thane, then sacrifice the Thane's treasure to the Basin of Cleansing to persuade Justicia to raise his companions from the dead, so they can continue exploring past Narborg and find and kill Benthosrushsa.

Shopping in the Town of Cillamar

This is a rough description of known shops in the town of Cillamar.  Rules for buying and selling are at the end.

Common Quarter

The Common Quarter contains most of the working- to middle-class residents of Cillamar, and most of the shops.

Hawker's Row

This is a row of open-air merchants just inside the King's Gate.  Many kinds of food can be purchased here.  There are also beggars.  It is considered lucky to give them money.

Remy's Maps and Charts

Remy buys and sells maps.  He only buys maps that he doesn't already have a copy of.

Hall of the Manticore

This inn is a bit upscale and overpriced by Common Quarter standards.

League of Stone Artisans

There are several jewelers, gem-cutters, and filigree artists here.  Cillamar is a surprisingly good place to buy and sell gems and jewels for a small town, owing to the presence of gems in the nearby hills.

The Brass Dwarf

This unimpressive tavern features a pawnbroker in the back.

Bao's Blades

Bao makes high-quality and expensive weapons.  He does not buy used goods.

Inn of the Slumbering Drake

Good food and clean rooms at affordable prices.  A very popular meeting place.  Lady Chauntessa has been known to purchase books and scrolls.

Quintus' Tower

Quintus mostly sells potions and Continual Light stones.  He can also recharge power items.  He occasionally sells scrolls and magical training, though he doesn't know every spell.  He sometimes buys odd ingredients, like monster organs.

Grand Bazaar

Most common items can be found here.  A few uncommon items too.

Sekuhn the Snake

Fortune telling.

Sign of the Scimitar and Shield

Buys and sells affordable weapons and armor.  He sometimes even gives credit.  Most of the items are not the highest quality.

Sign of the Silver Armiger

Alrux is considered the best armorer in town.  He does not buy used items.

High Quarter

The high quarter is where most of the wealthy people of Cillamar live, and has shops that cater to them.

Hall of Worms

This is a library, and shrine to Delvyr.  There are many books here.  Admission is free to experts, expensive to others.

Phadoh's Stables

High quality horses.

Sisters of Elyr

A temple with some excellent healers.  Clerical power items can be recharged here, at least for faiths reasonably friendly to Elyr.

Sanctuary of Justicia

Another temple, those Justicia is more into smiting the evil than healing the sick.  Clerical power items can be recharged here, for clerics friendly with Justicia.

The Warrens

This is the bad part of town, full of poor refugees and thieves.  Its wall has still not been fully repaired after the last dragon attack.

Myna's Bones

This is a gambling house.  People of all classes come here to gamble.  Some of the winners even make it home with their winnings.

Sign of the Drunken Minotaur

A rough inn, popular with bards.

Auntie's Boarding House

The place to stay if you can't afford anyplace better.

Rules for Buying

Basic equipment is widely available.

Cheap and good-quality weapons and armor are generally available, unless the GM declares something Weird, in which case it might require a roll to find.  (9 or less for Weird).

Fine, balanced, dwarven, etc. weapons and armor will be rarely found off the rack (6 or less, per special attribute desired, except that dwarven armor is always available at Alrux's shop).  But they can be custom-ordered.  There will be a wait for a custom item to be built.  Enchanted weapons and armor are typically unavailable as there are no local enchanters.

Potions costing $500 or less are typically in stock.  Potions costing up to $1000 are available on a 9 or less.

Scrolls can be found on a roll of 10 or less, minus the total number of prerequisites the spell has.  (Magery 2 or Power Investiture 2 counts as 2, Power Investiture 5 counts as 5, etc.)  4 or less always succeeds.  Also, scrolls can be Special Ordered, making the roll 6 or less, at the cost of time.

Anything not mentioned above is a Special Order.  Special Orders are typically not available locally unless you get very lucky (4 or less to have one just show up in a shop).  However, they are sometimes available (6 or less) in a bigger city (usually Galaron).  Unfortunately, this requires waiting for a merchant or an entire trade caravan to travel there and back again.  At least 2 weeks, more likely 4.  In the winter, possibly longer.  Typically with half of the payment required in advance, half on delivery.

One roll for a special order per PC per week.  Not "there are 100 items I might want someday so I'll roll 100 times."

Rules for Selling

Routine items (up to $1000) are in reasonable demand in Cillamar, so normal DFRPG prices (40% for average Wealth) apply.  There is no room for haggling on normal items; that's the best price you're going to get.  (The GM is unwilling to deal with dice rolls every time you want to sell some smelly used orc armor or an ordinary torch.)

Because of the local gem industry, it's easier than in most small towns to sell gems and jewels.  For gems and jewelry up to $10000, it's a routine transaction.  More than that, and you're getting outside their comfort zone, so die rolls apply.  (They might get the value wrong and give you too good a deal, or they just might not have enough capital to buy that item.) 

More special and expensive items (magic items, luxury goods, etc.) might be in serious demand due to local rarity, or may be hard to sell for a good price if nobody's really looking for such a thing.  Skill rolls are appropriate here.

Items that a buyer is specifically looking for and has specially requested the PCs to find may sell at a premium.  Special orders work both ways...

Basically, cheap stuff goes at a fixed price, so that we only roll dice for the good stuff, to save time and so the rolls actually matter.

Using Real-World Weather and Time In a Fantasy Game

Just got a question from a player about what the weather's like now in the game world, which determines whether the PCs should have winter clothing and sleeping furs.  I decided that actually generating random weather and keeping track of an in-game calendar with seasons sounded too much like work, so I'm going to steal an idea from Peter's Felltower game and use real-world seasons and weather from a location that could stand in for Cillamar.  (This also implies that game time mostly moves at about the same speed as real-world time.  So if we play every Friday, the PCs typically get a week of downtime in town between game sessions.  And if things in the real world force us to miss a weekly session, the PCs probably stayed in town for an extra week too.)

The Kingdom of Morrain is kind of far north and kind of hilly, so at first I thought maybe somewhere in Eastern Canada would make a good match.  But I'm an American and I'm more familiar with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's weather.gov site than with the equivalent in Canada, so I went with Syracuse, New York.  For those who haven't been there, Syracuse is inconveniently cold and snowy in the winter, but not usually Drop Dead Instantly If You Go Outside Naked Without A Warmth Spell cold.  (Sometimes, but not usually.)  It's mostly pleasant in the summer, with some hot days and humid days and thunderstorms mixed in.  There are a lot of cloudy days year round, so it's not the place to live if you need sun to be happy, but the natives of Cillamar, like the natives of Upstate New York, are mostly used to that.

The game is starting in late spring, which is convenient for the PCs, because it means a long time until they likely have to deal with snow.  And by the time winter rolls around, the (surviving and/or replacement) PCs will probably have more money and character points.

A Very Brief Introduction to the Kingdom of Morrain and the Town of Cillamar

I was planning on just dropping the players into the game without too much background info dumping up front, because most players tune out during that.  But I got a request for some, so here's a very brief introduction to the setting.

--

The Kingdom of Morrain is a small Northern backwater kingdom, with a few towns squeezed into some nice fertile valleys, between some very rough terrain that forms natural borders.  It's independent of the larger nations nearby largely due to geographic isolation (think Switzerland, except with humans and elves and gnomes instead of German- and French- and Italian-speakers).  The foreboding Ul Dominor mountains lie to the East (imagine the Alps, except with monsters and dwarves instead of ski resorts).  The weather is a bit hot in the summer, inconveniently cold and snowy in the winter, and spring and fall don't last long (think Eastern Canada).  Valfors Bay lies to the north and has access to the ocean, when it's not frozen.  The capital, Galaron, is on Valfors Bay to the north.  (Think Archangel, before icebreakers.)

Morrain has natural resources: lumber in the large forests, gems and silver in the hills, fish in the bay, and some good farmland in the valleys.  But the elves are touchy about the environment and influential enough that the woods are mostly left intact; Morrain only cuts enough trees for local use.  The gems and silver are exported, though.

Morrain is pretty much a strict monarchy, too small to have developed many layers of nobility.  Fortunately for the subjects, it's been ruled by good kings who seem to care about their people for several generations.  The current king is Mirias Stormwarden, who sits in Stormkeep in the city of Galeron.  The standing army is small, and mostly mans a series of border watchtowers, but the militia is large, well-trained, and loyal.  (Think Switzerland again.)  No foreign human kingdom has invaded Morrain in a long time, but monster incursions are a constant threat.

Cillamar is a small town in the hills in the eastern part of the kingdom, less than a hundred miles from the Ul Dominor mountains.  It was almost completely destroyed by dragon attack a few hundred years ago, turning it into a ghost town.  It's been mostly rebuilt over the last century, but there are still scorched ruins nearby, leaving no doubt that the dragon was real.  It's ruled by Lord Mayor Franz Mentzer, on behalf of the King, from the Lord's Gate Citadel in the southeast of town.

Some rich silver veins were found nearby about five years ago, turning Cillamar into a boom town once word got out, with prospectors and miners (mostly human, some dwarven and gnome) showing up daily to try to strike it rich.  Also, wars in the neighboring kingdoms have led to a steady flow of incoming refugees over the past few summers.  The quick population growth has led to the old ruins in the south part of town growing into a poor, crime-ridden slum called The Warrens.

The population boom in turn has brought merchants, and thieves to prey on the merchants, and guards (both private and the town's Lantern Guard) to stop the thieves.  It's a happening place, and a destination for adventuring types to seek their fortune.  They tend to congregate at the Inn of the Slumbering Drake, which is safer than the sketchy holes in the wall of the Warrens, but cheaper and more fun than the fancy inns that appeal to nobles and merchants.