Crafting skill

After much debate, my group of Player Characters have decided they wanted to add some "crafting" like skills to their talents. After debating on which ones to take on, we opted with only adding three large categories. I've included my "hand" modified version of the official WoC 4th  Edition Character Sheet with these changes.

The first being Alchemy:
Now this set of the crafting includes all "magical" crafting. So potions, remedies, poisons all fall into this category. We can also include potential illusion like magic into this category as well as attempts to perform transmutations of elements. Even chemistry like things could fall into this category. 

This crafting skill is based on wisdom. My logic behind this is that it takes more then just intelligence to build a magic syrup. Rather it would take magic know how and experience.

Next is Forging:
Now by forging, I mean blacksmithing. If it can be build with a hammer and anvil, then it falls under this category. Swords, Armor, Shields. We will also include equipment that would be crafted with hide/leather.

Now I was having a hard time picking between con and str for forging, but I opted for strength. I'm still not sure, but I figured if you hit hard you make good armor right? ;)

Lastly is engineering:

This is for when a player wants to build a canoe out of a log, or a torch out of a stick and leaves. Or perhaps add a room to his house? This is kind of like the Msc. crafting area.

I used intelligence for the modifier here as I figured it seemed to fit best. You need to be a smart cookie after all if you are trying to build using few tools.

But these three sections are not mutually exclusive. They're actually the complete opposite. They can be quite interesting if used together. If you wanted to build a enchanted sword you could combine alchemy with forging for instance.Or if you wanted to build a flying machine you could combine alchemy with engineering. What about a walking talking suit of armor? That could potentially be all three. The possibilities really are endless.


I've also added a profession section. This skill has no modifier. It is simply something that a character would have learned to do in their younger age as well a profession. Maybe their parents were fishermen, and thus they would be good at fishing. Or maybe they grew up in a rich district and know the ways of aristocratic life. Things like that.

NPC Character Sheet

My alternate form of the official 4th edition charather sheet by Wizards

Now I've been looking all over the internet for an NPC character sheet and none of them have what I'm looking for. Most of the ones I was able to find were much too bulky with lots of sections that I don't deem important enough for my campaign. The campaign I am currently running revolves around more "social puzzles" and has very little combat. Therefore I needed one where I could easily refer to the Skills and Defenses of my NPCs. Their common attacks didn’t really warrant a spot. Or if I needed to have them fight their bare necessities can still be found on the sheet and I would simply have to invent a "power" or attack that seemed relatively fair.

Therefore I decided to alter the official PC character sheet to make a cue card sized NPC Character sheet. They can easily be printed 4 times on one page, or more allowing you to avoid having to many large sheets of paper in your way.

I figured I couldn't have been the only person looking for a decent NPC character sheet, so here it is world!

Family Treasure Puzzle

Ivory Bucket by Five Gallon Ideas

As previously mentioned in my last post
The circular family crypt contained the family's heirloom that the player characters could potential obtain as a bonus item if they solved the puzzle.

When they enter the central part of the chamber they notice whispers coming from the corpses of the deceased.

"The first contains five,
The second contains three,
But only one will open the chest you see."

After the voices are done, three small buckets appear one by one. They are small metallic buckets, with very fancy carvings and details on them. In my case, I had the family crest carved on all of them as well as animals and clovers to represent the township the family came from.

The first of the buckets to appear is to the right of the chest. This is the largest of the three, scaling at exactly 5 cups of water. If inspected properly the base of the bucket has a "V" carved onto it. The second appears on the left side of the chest exactly opposite the first bucket. This bucket has similar features. This bucket contains 3 cups of water and has "III" carved into its base. These two buckets, when inspected are normal buckets that were enchanted with simple illusion magic, to seem invisible until the puzzle is triggered.


The third is a little more complicated though. The last bucket to appear is at the base of the chest. This one has the same carvings, but cannot be lifted from the floor. If inspected the bucket is connected to a mechanism that unlocks the chest. 

The way this puzzle is intended to work: The players need to fill the small bucket with exactly one unit of water. Once this is achieved the chest will click open. They will need to use the V and III buckets respectively to do so.

Fill III bucket
Empty it into the V bucket
Fill III bucket again
Empty it into the V bucket until full
Empty the remaining contents of the III bucket into the I bucket

If the small bucket doesn't have exactly 1 cup of water, the base opens up and the water drains. So if there is more, it drains immediately. If there is less, it will keep it there for a few seconds and then drain.

Secondary option: The chest can be picked. It would however be an extremely hard lock to pick. So choose a score that seems appropriate for the level of the PCs

Once the chest is opened, the contents can be whatever you’d like.
I used the Silvertongue Inkwell created by LS over at Papers and Pencils.



     
 

Family Treasure

 Before you is a dimly lit 50 foot corridor. It is filled with stale air and old but up-kept portraits that hang on either wall spaced out evenly. All the men in these photographs seem vaguely similar to one another, but they are clearly distinct people. The portraits' frames are glowing slightly (causing the light in the room) almost as if to allow viewers to properly enjoy their content. Below each photograph is a indent in the wall housing a stone coffin. When you reach to end of the hall you find yourself in a dark circular room with the sound of rustling water.  The center of the room has six pillars forming a hexagon in which the two middle pillars have unlit torches hanging from them.

Upon lighting the torches the players will notice a small man made stream that connects with all the pillars forming a circular formation in the floor. On the opposite side of the room (from the hallway) there is a raised stone slab and from either side of the slab there is water exiting the wall, feeding the stream. This water flows on either side of the slab and connects with the stream. The stream is carved into the stone floor. It is two inches deep and two inches wide.

 This room is a underground family crypt that can easily be added to the basement of any rich family's home or can be inserted into an ancient tomb or where ever you so fit really. I had this room connected to a large house via secret passage in my campaign.


resting on the stone slab of the circular room will be the family treasure available for your players. In my case I had them solve a puzzle to obtain it.

I will have the puzzle in the next post!

Mason and Gavin Lightfellow : Rogue Town Guards

Laurel and Hardy by Kennon9

Mason and Gavin Lightfellow are two members of the town guard and have been for a handful of years.  One could say that they've remained low ranked because they don't exactly do their job as ambassadors of the town law. Instead, these two guards prefer to bargain with people they catch. Providing those they capture with task in exchange for freedom. The tasks they propose can range from goofy to completely illegal (this usually depends on the severity of the crime they catch you doing)

But before I get to much into this, lets first describe them.

Mason is the elder, he is roughly in his late twenties and seems to be of a nervous personality. He is tall and skinny, and fumbles his words at times. When he speaks he normally touches his face with his hands and looks around often with shifty eyes to make sure the coast is clear.

Gavin is the younger brother by what seems to be about 5 years, maybe something closer to 10 even. Gavin is relatively new to the town guard, and upon his joining he was quickly able to bully his brother into his schemes.Gavin is a little more portly and has evident scars scattered through his body. He is loud and direct and spits after saying hello or greeting someone almost 100% of the time.

The two brothers at first glance seem to be polar opposites, but deep down they are twisted and corrupt men who will abuse their privileges at every possible occasion. One could even go so far as to call them sadistic, but then again that could be a little much. You can however easily turn them into humorous or dark characters by varying the "tasks" they give.

The two men once lived in the richer district of town, being the sons of the royal blacksmith they grew up without knowing the hardships of life. They were accepted into the town guard as a favor to their father and take little pride in their relatively sought after career.

Now regarding the "deals" they make, here is a list of a few possible requests they can send your PCs way:

1-
Gavin : So there's this guy, he stole my seat at the bar last night. D'you remember him Mason?
Mason: yeah... yeah I do, the one with the pocket watch?
Gavin: A real nice pocket watch. I think I'd like a pocket watch like that. Why don't you go and fetch it for me scum.
Mason: You her her her, were you listening! Go and get it

2-
G: So my brother here fancies miss (insertnamehere) but her father seems against the whole idea. I need you to help convince Mr (insertnamehere) that Mason is a standup guy.
M: *blushes*

3-
M: There's a large celebration going on tomorrow night at the docks, for the Elisabeth. 
G: That big fancy ship! Ha! Wouldn't it be funny if the ship didn't even make it out of the port? 

4-
G: My feet sure are sore from walking all day. 
M: I agree. A massage would be na, na, na, would be ideal. 
G: Why not have one right now! *takes off his boots and wiggles his stumpy toes.*

Riptide Knuckledusters

Antique Knuckle Duster by retrovertigovintage

These old iron knuckledusters are found washed up on a beach, rusted and covered with coral. At a first glance they seem like something washed up from an old shipwreck but you decide that after a little cleaning up they could be of value to you.

That very same night, as you are on guard duty you pull them out and try to scrub off some of the coral. You scrub and scrub and notice the coral will not under any force be removed so you decide to give in and put them on. As you do so, your fingers seem to vanish into thin air. You can still feel them though, and they feel as if they have been submerged into freezing cold water.

The next morning you have your wizard friend take a look, he immediately recognizes portal magic. The finger holes  of the brass knuckles are small portals transporting your finger someplace that seems underwater. Maybe the shipwreck the knuckles came from? The hull of a great ship under the ocean!

But the water doesn't come through, it might be a one way portal? Or is it water at all?

You decide to give the magic knuckledusters a try and you notice that every now and a again you feel large scales rubbing on your fingers. When it happens you pull your hands out immediately. You've considered getting rid of them, or selling them but they turn bloodied enemies into a puddle of water when you hit them with a critical hit. 

My Adventure Begins

The Adventure Begins by Jereme Peabody

So I've decided to begin blogging. I'm not entirely sure how to start this thing... but here I go!

I guess I should start with a description :

This blog will serve mostly as a collection of ideas and concepts that I've either come across or managed to think up myself to help inspire me in my current D&D campaign. I'm hoping to have posts concerning cities, characters, adventure hooks, monsters and who knows what else. If stats are used, I will be referring to the 4th edition D&D rules. For the most part though everything I'm thinking of posting will be entirely system independent. Therefore being focused mostly on concepts and ideas referring more to the story telling and less to rules in specific.


By posting these ideas here I will hopefully better be able to organize my ideas and story arcs in the campaign as well as share ideas with whom ever comes across them.

 If all goes well, this blog will be long lived and the road ahead will be filled with adventure.