More Nerath Optional Rules

Since this is a D&D game, it seems odd that the hero units (fighters and mages) never improve as they clear out dungeons. The dungeon-delving portion of the game seems underdeveloped relative to the rules for land and naval battle, even though treasures are a major source of victory points. So adding a system for leveling up heroes seems like a natural candidate for some optional house rules.

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I. Level

Unlike other units in the game, heroes now have a "level" as an additional attribute. Heroes begin at 1st level, and can eventually rise as high as 4th level. Placing chips under heroes no longer indicates the number of units in a stack, but instead the levels gained by that particular hero; a fighter on top of three chips indicates a 4th level hero.

II. Gaining levels

Whenever a group of heroes defeats all monsters in a dungeon, they may go up in level. Take the total number of monsters in the dungeon, and add the amount of any bonus gold gained by killing monsters. If this total is greater than the current level of any surviving heroes of less than 4th level, those heroes each gain one level.

III. Additional hero types

In addition to the two existing heroes (fighters and wizards) there are two new types: rogues and priests. They function just like fighters (2 movement, can fight on ships, etc), except as indicated below. During the set-up at the start of the game, you can swap in rogues for fighters, or priests for wizards, on a 1-for-1 basis.

A rogue costs 2 gold like a fighter; if you don't have a unique miniature of your own, just put a "1 gold" marker under a fighter to indicate it's a rogue. A priest costs 3 gold like a wizard; again, if needed, place a "1 gold" marker under a wizard figure to indicate a priest.

Rogues and priests roll d8 instead of d10 for their attacks, and do not have the First Strike ability. However, they have additional abilities of their own (see below).

IV. Additional dungeon battle steps

At the very beginning of a dungeon battle, before the first round only, make a trap check. The number of traps is equal to the number of monsters in the dungeon. Roll a d8 for each trap, and apply hits before the first round begins. If you have a rogue in your party, you may Disarm Traps by rolling a number of d10 equal to the rogue's level, with any result of 6 or higher being a success. (Use only the highest level rogue.) Subtract the number of successfully disarmed traps from the total, and then apply any other hits from traps as damage.

At the very end of a victorious dungeon battle, you automatically gain one treasure. You make then make a Search & Open Locks check to see if you can find a second treasure. Roll a number of d6 equal to the level of your highest level rogue. If you get at least one 6, you have found a second treasure.

V. Benefits of gaining levels

As fighters gain levels, they gain the ability to absorb multiple points of damage up to their level, representing improved armor and health. This works like the Durable ability for dragons, but provides the ability to absorb up to 4 hits, instead of just 2. You can use red chips placed beside a fighter to represent wounds. After winning a battle, any wounds on a surviving fighter are automatically removed. IMPORTANT: This ability applies ONLY during dungeon or naval battles, not land battles (which are on a much larger scale!)

As wizards gain levels, they gain additional secondary attack dice to roll. For each level a wizard gains, they add another d6 to their attacks. A 4th level wizard would roll one d10 and three d6 attacks, all during the First Strike phase. Note that some monsters may require higher than a 6 to hit, in which case the extra dice have no chance to hit and can be skipped. (Wizards are good at clearing out lots of weak monsters, like the horde of orcs.) This applies during both land and naval battles as well.

As rogues gain levels, they improve their attack dice to reflect flanking and ambushing. At 1st level they roll a d8, at 2nd level a d10, at 3rd level a d12 and at 4th level a d20. (They're good at hitting a single difficult monster with high armor, in contrast to a wizard's area spells.) This applies during both land and naval battles as well.

As priests gain levels, they improve their ability to heal. Instead of rolling an attack in a given round, a priest may roll dice to attempt to heal any wounded fighters. Declare that the priest is attempting to heal during the First Strike phase, and then roll a number of d8 equal to the priest's level, along with the wizards First Strike attacks. Any "hit" for a healing attempt is immediately applied to remove wounds from one or more fighters. IMPORTANT: Like the fighter's extra health, healing can be used ONLY during dungeon or naval battles, not land battles.

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That's it. Having lots of unstacked heroes around makes the board crowded, so it's probably a good idea to keep them off-map and use a marker to indicate the location of an entire party. This also makes heroes very powerful, so it's recommended to limit them to only the provided figures in the game (so you can never have more than six fighters/rogues, or six wizards/clerics).

Fix This Game! : Conquest Of Nerath

This summer we've picked up a few new board games for the collection: an expansion for Firefly, a pocket copy of Ogre (for only $3!), and WotC's Conquest of Nerath (CoN). The latter is something I've been eyeing for a while, as it resembles a deliberate retro throwback to the 80s-era Milton Bradley games, but the price was out of my range. When it hit 40% off, I tossed it into a bulk order from Amazon to have a look.

The game was released in 2011 as part of a string of board game releases with tie-ins to the 4th edition RPG rules, and this board provided the fullest look at the default campaign setting map for 4e. (Perhaps permanently, now that the 4e setting is being unceremoniously orphaned.) It's a standard Risk/A&A map with around 100 map regions, partitioned between four starting kingdoms. Each of them is roughly but not exactly balanced, creating a different strategic situation than the historical setup in Axis and Allies. In particular, there are no "punching bag" players like the USSR, and every nation has equal ability to implement both land and naval strategies.

Before I say anything critical of the design itself, I should point out that the components are all high-quality, with many unique sculpts for each player realms' minis. The box comes with a well-designed plastic divider that makes set-up easy, and everything feels sturdy and durable (aside from some thin cardstock for the card decks). It looks suitably impressive to see all the little armies spread out across the map. And (apropos of something using a D&D license) the game features a set of multicolored polyhedral dice that can be satisfying thrown around in huge handfuls to resolve battles between massive army stacks. Finally, the basic idea of a game that balances dungeon delving and exploration is a nice twist on the classic Risk model of pushing armies around a board, creating a two-linked-games approach reminiscent of the (admittedly better playtested) War of the Rings game. It also keeps the game from dragging out longer than 5 or 6 rounds, since by that point at least one side has done enough dungeon-delving to win.

Unfortunately, the designer of the game (Richard Baker, best known for the TSR-era Birthright setting, and a primary designer for the A&A miniature games) was unexpectedly fired for unknown reasons shortly after CoN was released. This means that the game has mostly been abandoned, with little support from the publisher and virtually no prospect of an expansion or follow-up game. It would have been lovely to see a similar strategy game for a familiar setting like Greyhawk or Faerun. One of Baker's interviews mentioned some prospect of a Dragonlance version, but all that seems to have fallen by the wayside.

It also means that there's little chance of an official resolution to some of the observed balance problems in the game. The rules allow for both a free-for-all and an alliance version. The free-for-all version is somewhat self-balancing, in that everyone tends to gang up on the strongest player. Hidden event and item cards can make it a little difficult to identify exactly who is ahead, but you can't be on the verge of wiping another realm off the map without gaining a lot of attention! The alliance version, though, has produced a lot of objecctions, with some reviewers claiming it favors the evil side (which always gets to move first). Curiously enough, three solo playtests of the game produced exactly the opposite result for me, with the good side pulling ahead and winning cleanly.

What's happening is this: The game allows for both short and long victory conditions. The evil side gets a position advantage from the first move, which leads to a jump in initial victory points that puts them ahead. Then the good side gets a bunch of catch up mechanisms (better event cards, and more access to dungeon loot) to help them fight back into the game. This makes the game almost impossible to balance for all length options. Play a short game, and Evil has a natural edge. Play a long game, and Good can usually make up the difference plus a bit more; a long game usually is won on dungeon loot, given equally skilled players, and Good has better access to more dungeons unless they completely collapse. (Reviewers who failed to discover this probably didn't keep playing until the later turns, I think.) There's a "medium" game that is probably the only alliance-victory version that plays with reasonable balance, but the other two victory conditions each create an imbalance in one direction or another.

As a secondary problem, the game also features several units that feel underpowered relative to the others, and don't have clearly defined roles. It's pretty straightforward to do a statistical analysis of dice outcomes that proves that "fighters" (a basic hero unit) are uniformly superior at equal cost to either siege engines or monsters (the other two primary offensive land units). As a result, virtually no siege engines or monsters will be built by an experienced player, and armies become less diverse as play progresses. This problem only gets worse as the game progresses, as dungeon delving coughs up multiple cards that grand more abilities to heroes.

Richard Baker, on his personal blog, has already recommended reducing the power of dragons -- which are basically flying A&A battleships, for only 5 times the cost of basic infantry! -- by preventing them from ending the turn in the same region. This makes them powerful on the offense as they converge on a target, but forces them to spread out and become vulnerable again on the defense. It's a decent hack for its own sake, but it still doesn't address the main problem of siege engines and monsters feeling underpowered relative to heroes.

I've been contemplating some rules changes to help both of these units and make them viable choices again. On the BGG forums, I've seen some basic recommendations like "give siege engines an extra attack die", but they feel too pedestrian and not strongly flavored from a simulationist standpoint. I feel like in addition to balance, it's also beneficial to give the units specific roles. Here are my short recommendations for making these units useful again. As a side-note, these changes strengthen the advantage in initial armies provided to the evil side, which helps with long-game balance issues (while making short-game balance problems even worse -- but more on that in a bit!)

Conquest of Nerath House Rules
1. Richard Baker's semi-official dragon nerf: All dragons must end the turn in a unique region. If a dragon shares a region with any other dragon(s) at the end of a turn, all additional dragons must be removed until only one remains.

2. Hard counter limit: No additional figures or chips may be used beyond those in the box. Red chips placed under figures count as 3 grey chips, not as 5. (Note that in conjunction with the dragon nerf, this means no realm can ever have more than four dragons on map at once.) If a card provides free units that can't be built, it may be held until those units are available again, even if it says "play immediately".

3. Siege Engine siege-combat attack buff: Any time a siege engine is attacking or defending in the same region as a castle (friendly or enemy), it gains one extra attack die. This means that siege engines would then get 2 dice on the defense, and 3 on the attack.  (Note: This enhances the ability of the Evil side to capture at least one castle by the second turn, which I think is the only way they can get far enough ahead to win a long game.)

4. Infantry / cavalry / artillery synergy rule: For each matched triplet of footsoldier, monster, and siege engine units included in the "Roll Other Damage" step of any land battle (after removing any First Strike losses), you get a "re-roll" -- the opportunity to roll again any one die that initially didn't hit. So if you have 5 footsoldiers, 4 siege engines, and 3 monsters in a battle round, you can re-roll up to 3 of that round's (non-First Strike) attack dice that would otherwise have missed. You only get one chance to re-roll each die, even if you have more re-rolls than misses. (This works like the similar mechanic in War of the Ring.)

5. Warship / elemental synergy rule: As above, but for matched pairs of warships and elementals in a naval battle.

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The counter limit makes it a bit harder to turtle with ridiculous stacks of two dozen footsoldiers, like the Soviets usually do in Axis and Allies. The siege engine rule makes it easier to attack castles, which also shifts the military side of the game toward an offensive bias.

I especially like the last rule, since it reflects the idea that each set of dice rolls is representing some complicated set of tactics on the micro level: siege engines softening up defensive embankments, monsters crashing through the lines to pocket them, and footmen finishing off the encircled pockets. Units work better in cooperation than they do alone, so you want to bring a well-balanced force. I thought about creating a similar fighter/wizard rule, but they seem strong enough as it is!

What about the final situation, when using the short victory conditions that favor the evil realms? I thought of two possible rules. First, you could reverse the order of the 3rd and 4th player. That means that Evil would go 1st and 4th, and Good would go 2nd and 3rd in each turn. As a side benefit, that would allow players on the same time to do their turns simultaneously, reducing downtime.

Alternatively, you could introduce a defender retreat rule, which allows defenders to limit combat to a single round, and then retreat to any friendly adjacent region at the end of the round. Only the attacker would get to roll, and any defender units that are destroyed during retreat would instead by "shattered" and be available to immediately come on as reinforcements for 1 gp each (just like the "Rod of Resurrection" item in the game). This would mitigate the effect of trying to defend against a superior opponent, as happens frequently to Good in the first couple turns.

Thinking Ahead To Next Fall

It's becoming apparent that the semester has drawn to a close without allowing enough time for me to get to any of the major "set piece" battles I intended to do in the Domains at War system in the current Green Pass fantasy campaign. There were actually a couple of possible outcomes (based on how players acquired and responded to information), but none of them will be ready by this weekend, and I'm not even sure who will show up this close to final exams.

So I'm thinking ahead to next fall. Currently, after discussions with club president Peter Cowles, it sounds as if we're planning to split off our activity into a third night (Thursday), with distinct activities each night: RPG sessions on Thursday, anime movies on Friday, and board games on Saturday. There's a part of me that likes the idea of clearing Saturday for board games, since it presents some possibility of letting me try some historical battles (ship battles using miniatures, or my impossible dream scenario of a huge WW2 campaign).

However, this segregation of activities probably will present a deathblow to the idea of an integrated RPG-and-wargame campaign of the sort I want to run. My guess is that this is true not just because the nights will attract different player types, but also because the RPG night is going to be dominated by Pathfinder players, and doing another PFRPG campaign is the path of least resistance.

At the moment, I'm anticipating reverting the Green Pass campaign back to the kind of "simulated" campaign I was doing with Walley last fall. Players will no longer be tracking strategic level production or doing the associated paperwork (which caused confusion for a number of players), but just doing occasional battles using point-buys and pregenerated characters. I'll continue to draw scenarios and personae dramatis  (the various lords and heroes generated by this spring's players) from the campaign documents I've developed, so that they'll extend the existing history. I can probably still run the anticipated finale battle I had planned at some point, with the scenario being arranged around some private roleplaying sessions I've been doing at home with my wife in the capital city of Durnovar. The RPG content I had planned (including a beautifully lethal and massive crypt complex stuffed with ghouls in Balewood!) is probably going to be orphaned.

On question I've had for a while is whether there's any way to integrate other campaigns into my own. I've tried to describe the campaign setting of Proxima as a crossover-friendly (and slightly "gonzo") world where refugees from other magical worlds (including a thinly-fictionalized Earth) can rub shoulders with one another. The TARDIS spell from a couple weeks ago was one example of how to rationalize a crossover mechanic as an in-character domain-level action.

A more difficult question is how to convert characters in a post-3.0 system (d20 OGL, or Pathfinder) into the pre-3.0 system of ACKS. The substantial buffs to abilities, feats, skills, and special class perks would make any character from a post 3.0 world function at the equivalent of 3-4 levels higher than an equivalent classic-era character. Many abilities in one system simply have no equivalent in the other. One of the major complications with the development of the 3.0 era (and 4.0, for that matter!) was the complete eradication of back-compatibility. This is especially galling for someone like me, with a huge library of plug-and-run modules from the 80s (a few of which I've borrowed to flesh out Proxima!), but virtually no content for modern game systems. One of the appealing features of running ACKS has been its strong emphasis on compatibility with 80s-era gaming that feels comfortable and familiar to me.

In any event, I'd very much like to have everyone in the current campaign send me a full list of all their heroes, castles, and lands (with associated statistics), so that I can keep running the world in a way that integrates player-generated content with the stuff I've been creating on the DM side of things (the various villains, dungeons, and chaotic-aligned realms). I'm hoping that even if the RPG night runs a Pathfinder campaign, we can still find ways to overlap some of our activities, and I can develop more of my intended history using point-buy battles using some of the existing heroes as generals and commanders.

Firefly Board Game: First Impressions

Due to the holiday (and my general feeling of being overwhelmed by work and children) there was no official MEK OP event this weekend, although some members were talking about meeting at our FLGS, Three Suns Unlimited. Instead, I stayed home and played some two-person Firefly with my wife.

Firefly is a pseudo-RPG with a strong thematic tie-in to the short-lived TV show of the same name. You control the crew of a tramp freighter which cruises around a small map with a localized star cluster, looking for shipping jobs and performing acts of petty crime on the side. You can upgrade your ships, hire crew, and equip them with new gear. There's no "leveling mechanic", but otherwise it's all standard RPG fare with the standard dice-rolling skill tests, here using a d6. Run quests, get money, buy more loot.

The game has the standard strengths and weaknesses of other games of its type. It does a superb job of matching the feel of the original show, which is an impressive feat given that the show lasted for barely half a season. Virtually every bit of dialogue has been mined for some kind of event card or character profile. Any extra who appeared for 7 seconds is probably in this game on a mercenary card somewhere.

There are a few nice mechanics here. Every time you complete a quest ("job"), you have to make an extra pay-out to your crew. This motivates you to run jobs with the smallest crew possible, and forces you to keep looking for harder jobs to pay your growing crew. The game creates a strong sense of self-pacing, even aside from the incentive of competing with another player.

The most original mechanic is a couple of hostile ships representing the Alliance (law-and-order, trying to catch smugglers and criminals) and the Reavers (psycho space marauders who just want to kill everyone). The two ships move based on decks of cards that you're forced to draw as you move your own ships. Eventually each deck has a card that will teleport one or another of the ships directly onto you, causing lots of nasty effects. This creates an unpredictable timer that tends to go off right as you're about to execute some brilliantly devised scheme, rendering it all for naught.

Whether you like or dislike this kind of random mechanic, it certainly is a faithful representation of the thematic source material. By the end of the game, you'll really feel like a harried freighter captain, abused from all sides by demanding underworld figures and constantly on the run from the law.

There are a number of mechanics missing from the game that I would rather enjoy seeing included. The map is always fixed, and playing every game on the same fixed map starts to feel repetitive. (This is one of the reasons I'd like to design a random-map game of my own, if I ever find the time!) There are underutilized game concepts that feel like they might be vestigial bits of some earlier design of the game: ships have a printed "purchase cost", despite being all identical and coming for free at the start of the game, and the "stash" cargo storage area on your ship is literally referenced by only a single card in the entire game.

The level of randomness in the game is high. Sometimes the dice will reward someone for using an ill-conceived strategy, but punish someone else for playing cautiously. Screaming at bad die roll results or ill-timed event cards is an expected outcome of play.

The production standards for the game are uniformly high. Everything is beautiful, down to the money, and the game sells at a fairly impressive price point below $50. If you have any interest in the old show, it's highly recommended as a nostalgia trip.

ACKS Example: Merchant Ship

The rules for trade arbitrage in ACKS are potentially quite detailed and offer a lot of room to add flavor to an expedition. For passive trading to make a steady profit, there are default estimates of the average profit per month for any ship or caravan. But I want to see how well the detailed system matched up with these default values. So here's an example of the trade arbitrage system in action.

Master Leonhard is a 1st level mage aboard the Wyvern's Spur, a large sailing ship. He's been given responsibility for running a trade route between the docks of Straddleport (a Class II market in Elysion) and the capital city of Durnovar (a Class I market in Winlend). His ship can carry an impressive 30,000 stone of cargo, which amounts to hundreds of "loads" of different cargo. (A load is typically 10 to 100 stones in weight.)

First, let's look at the demand modifiers in the region. These are generated randomly for each market, based on its local environment and other properties. Positive numbers indicate that a good is in high demand and more expensive (sell it here!), and negative numbers indicate that a good is already well supplied and less expensive (buy it here!) The first column is for Durnovar (Class I), and the second is for Straddleport (Class II). The third column, which we don't need, is the Class III market in Green Pass at the military depot of Centerpost.

Generally, a spread in demand creates a reliable profit. At Straddleport, we'd like to buy grain, pottery, precious metals, or ivory, since all of these have a relative spread of at least -2 vs Durnovar. Anything else might turn a profit, but it would be a matter of luck. In Durnovar -- planning ahead for the return trip -- it would be better to buy common wood, salt, hides, spices, or semiprecious stones. The Wyvern's Spur is a peaceful sort of ship with 140 structural hit points, so it will pay 140/10 = 14 gp as a mooring fee every time it stops in harbor.

First we need to figure out how many local Straddleport merchants will sell to Leonhard. We pay a toll of 1d10+10 = 16 gp to enter the market, and discover 2d4+1 = 5 merchants willing to sell goods. Each of them will have 4d6 loads of some single type of merchandise. We can either let them suggest a good to sell to us (probably something they are itching to unload), or we can try to look for a particular type of good. The former gives a random result. The latter approach requires a reaction roll with a 9+ target (or 12+ for rare goods, anything after "mounts" on the list).

Let's see what happens with a random selection. Checking for the type of goods available (a d100 roll) gives 84  (mounts), 1 (grain), 98 (rare goods), 9 (wood), and 38 (hides). A second check for the type of rare good gives 51 (ivory). That's a very nice result, since ivory has a -3 spread and is a costly commodity. The other three are less appealing, since they are in low demand at Durnovar and will probably command lower prices there.

Let's check the grain merchant first. He's offering 4d6 = 13 loads of grain, each weighing 80 stone. The base cost of a load would be 10 gp, but it's modified by (4d4-2)*10% = 80%, so each load costs 8 gp. That's 104 gp to load 1040 stone of grain cargo.

Next let's check the ivory merchant. He's offering 14 loads of ivory, each weighing 8 stones (mammoth tusks are heavy!) The base cost would be 800 gp, but this is modified by (4d4-1)*10% = 80%, or 640 gp each. So it will put us out 8960 gp to buy all 14 loads, which will weigh 112 stone. We can see the massive difference between luxury cargo (expensive and light) and common cargo (cheap and heavy). All the good profit is in the latter.

We still have plenty of room left on our ship, so let's look for passengers and third party contracts. There are 2d4 = 6 passengers expressing an interest. One of them wants to reach a distant city 2400 miles away (this occurs with a check of 19+ on 1d20), probably somewhere near exotic Chukchi in the Beringian isles. This can be lucrative for a ship going that way anyway (he'd potentially pay to charter the whole ship, for up to 3000 gp!), but here it's going to ruin my attempt to use this as an example. The other 5 are going our way.

Each of them will need to pass a 2d6 reaction roll to trust our crew. With a target of 9+, it turns out that none of them regard us as seaworthy. With a higher CHA score, this would be a different story.

Now we look for shipping contracts. There are 2d4+1= 4 contracts available, each for 4d6 loads. The average weight of a load is 70 stone, and for this many loads, it's simplest to just assume they all average out. So there are four contacts available for 8, 9, 15, and 11 loads each, or a total of 43 loads. This will weigh 3010 stone. If we travel about 500 miles (Durnovar is a bit farther than this, actually, but that's a good first estimate), then the value of all the contracts will be 3010/10 = 301 gp. This doesn't require any selling or customs tax at the other end, it's just straight profit.

The ship now contains 3010+1040+112 stone. There's another 200 stone needed for a merchant representative to take care of the shipping contracts. That's a total of 4362 stone, out of a full capacity of 30,000 stone! That leaves a lot of empty space. You can see that there might be some appeal in just carrying around extra cargo in search of a good price. (I guess in ACKS, perishable goods are magically warded against spoilage -- or at least there's no rule giving them an expiration date!)

For now, let's just take the current cargo and set off. The route to Durnovar is around 500-700 miles away. With 144 miles per day of sail movement, this is going to take less than a week, probably more like 4-5 days. Let's just call it a week for simplicity, and to allow for a few days of bad weather.

Arriving in Durnovar costs another 14 gp for mooring, and a 1d6+15 = 21 gp toll. Now we start trying to sell. There are 2d6+2 = 11 merchants here. Do any of them want to buy our ivory? That requires a 12+ on a reaction roll, alas. Even with the +2 demand modifier, that's still hard to get. After rolling 11 times, I get nothing better than an 8, which occurs 4 times. That's good enough to unload the grain (+1 demand, to hit the 9+ target for common goods), at least. So I can sell the 13 loads of grain. Each merchant will buy 6d8 loads, which means they will easily purchase all my grain. Unfortunately, the prevailing price of 4d4+1 is only 80% of the base price, or 8 gp. That's what I paid for the stuff! After a local customs duty of 2d10% = 10%, I'd be selling the loads for a net of 13*8*0.9 = 93.6 gp, a loss of 10 gp. Oh well, I might as well unload the grain before it attracts rats. The price has only a 10% chance per month to change, so there's no sense waiting for that. Unloading it costs another 5 gp for labor.

At least I can collect on the shipping contracts, to pick up a 301 gp check to cover my various fees and the cost of feeding my crew. Otherwise, this trade mission isn't shaping up well.

The bottom line is that I desperately need a character with a CHA or proficiency bonus to make this work. Buying and selling specific luxury goods requires a reaction roll, and that's where all the money in arbitrage is.

At the very least, I can now pick up some additional shipping contracts and head back to Straddleport. Maybe I can talk my high CHA character (Halward the gnomish trickster) into coming along, and then try again!

A bit of good news: A Class I market has better contracts than a Class II market. I can roll 2d6+2 for contracts, resulting in 8. I pass the reaction roll (9+ on 2d6) for 5 of them. Each of them has 6d8 loads, for a total of 22+24+18+18+21 = 103 loads. That will provide 7210 stone of cargo, and earn me 721 gp on delivery. All of them are "going my way".

The same check applies for passengers. There are 2d4+1 = 5 passengers here, and one of them passes the reaction roll. He's also going my way, and will pay 20 gp for the trip. That's another 200 stone of cargo.

 The return trip takes another week of travel, and so, after 2 months, I've completed a full round trip.

Total revenue:  301+94+721+20 = 1136 gp (after customs duty)
Total expenses: 2x14+2x5+14+21 = 75 gp
Crew wages: 2x6x17+2x2x25+2x100 = 504 gp

Net profit: 557 gp
Profit per month: 278.5 gp
Experience: This compares against a xp threshold of 25 gp, so Master Leonhard earns 253.5 xp per month, or 507 gp.

Moral: The estimated profit in the table on page 145 probably assumes that most reaction rolls are successful. With a low CHA characters, this isn't a good assumption. I recommend that instead of just using the default value (of 2600 gp, for a large ship), you roll five 2d6 reaction attempts. For each failure, reduce your monthly profit by 20%. For a character with no bonuses, this will typically yield only about 1 success, for a monthly profit of 520 gp. (Which is still better than I could manage, alas.)

MEK OP Game Night: Isigwold Incursion

Last night's group: Reba playing the gnomes (with Ruthy as a paladin lieutenant), Zac as the elves, and Peter as the giants.

March 14, Caudex Annales 71 AUP

At initial set-up

In response to reports of a small beastman encampment in the Isigwold to the north of the Viadunian Road, three divisions of indigenous natives under the command of local heroes launched a preemptive reconnaissance in force into the forest lands. Scouts reported a small assortment of goblins led by wolfriders. Seeking to set up an ambush for the goblins, a detached group of 10 elven light cavalry sallied forth to picket them in order to entice forward into the foothills. The goblin scouts made no prior contact with either group (aside from one captured as a prisoner!), and rode off at once in enthusiastic pursuit.

The wizard Xangold deployed a wall of smoke to conceal both the storm giants (on the left flank) and the archers (on the right flank), and for the initial round of combat, only the archers fired. Expecting to discover a wizard and the hidden archers, the goblins advanced resolutely into the center of the gorge, smashing apart the unfortunate cavalry and making contact with sturdier gnomish ranks. During the light exchange the smokescreen was pulled back just far enough to shield only the giants, allowing them to wait until the goblins had arrayed themselves into neat lines below the cliff wall. At that point a sequence of three lightning bolts cut through their ranks, shocking them into disorganization and general retreat. A second round of hurled boulders from the giants were sufficient to rout the battlefield. 

Attention turned to the reports of a force of larger-size humanoids along the Isig Coast near Straddleport... (next week?)

Order of Battle - Isigwold Free States

• Elven Division, 3 platoons: Light Cavalry-r, Bowmen, Longbowmen
• Gnomish Division (Spellbinder Elrohir), 3 platoons: Heavy Infantry #1 and #2 (Sir Collier Rolando), Arbalest Platoon
• Arcane Division (Xangold Spectregrasp): 3 storm giants, 2 giant eagles

"r" denotes routed
"x" denotes destroyed

Entering the ravine

Order of Battle - Isigwold Incursion Force

• 1st Smasher Division (Bugbear Sub-Chieftain Phraal), two units: Bugbear Ribcrunchers-x, Goblin Wolfbrawlers-x
• 1st Shrieker Division (Goblin Chieftain Pixyag), six units: Goblin Gutskewers (Light Infantry) #1-x and #2-x, Goblin Eyebleeders (Bowmen)-x, Goblin Nobnockers (Slingers) #1-x and #2-r (Goblin Sub-Chieftain Boglux)

Spoils

2085 gold pieces (348 gp share for each division's leader)

sword +1, +3 vs undead

potion of healing

Note: Half of this gold is claimed directly by soldiers, and would be used to slowly level them up to veteran status if they were human (demi-human races begin already as veterans, so they don't benefit but still take their share). The other half is divided equally between each divisional commander, creating a share of 348 gp for each division.

Experience

For treasure: 1 xp per gp (that is, 348 xp per division) awarded to each division to split between the commander and any of its lieutenants and heroes (you can decide how to divide this among your heroes, if you have more than one of them present)

For leadership: 1575 xp to each division commander

Note: The campaign rules indicate that you should pay 15 gp per week to supply an infantry platoon in the field, or 60 gp to supply a cavalry platoon. (Storm giants cost 48 per week each.) Marching to and from the battlefield should take most of the month (4 weeks), so you can assume that amounts to 60 gp per infantry platoon and 240 gp per cavalry platoon, and 192 per giant. This will roughly cancel out with the small amount of gold claimed from the battle, so you can probably just ignore both the gold and the supply costs if you want, and just assign the experience.

I think the elves should get the sword, since they took more of the risk and the other commanders were both spellcasters. But you can decide that among yourselves if you like.

This is just the campaign equivalent of a nuisance random encounter. If you want serious treasure, find a stronghold and conquer it!

State Of The Realms: March 71 A.U.P.

A short review of recent events:

• Investigators in the Green Pass region have found evidence of a gathering of rival beastman factions to explore the haunted moors north of Balewood Keep in search of something.
• Goblin operations were disrupted, but several other organizations seem to be competing with them.
• Tomb robbers are plundering some of the moor's ruins as well, but act nervous about the area.
• Orcs are planning some kind of concentrated assault force. They were found in close proximity to the goblins, suggesting they may be coordinated with one another, despite different objectives
• The region north of Green Pass is inhabited by a relatively friendly wizard, as well as some rather unfriendly gorgons and troglodytes.

Possible objectives in this region would include:

• Discovering whatever the goblins are after, and getting to it first.
• Continuing to search other areas around Balewood, to see who else is being attracted by the same rumors (another adventuring group was driven off by a more professional group of hobgoblins in the same month!)
• Locating the gathering place of the orc(?) army, and discerning its objectives in time to stop it.
• Cleaning out monster lairs around Green Pass for magical treasure.

Meanwhile, the following incursions into the lands of Elysion have been reported by scouts:

• The Isig Coast (the area surrounding Straddleport): A medium (platoon-scale BR 5d6) force of giant beastmen has been spotted 144 miles from the populated outskirts of Straddleport. It is not marching, but gathering in the field to await future reinforcement. This force will disrupt travel and trade between Straddleport and the inland regions along the River Isigflod for as long as it is present. Spies could be dispatched to investigate it while it camps.

• Isigwold (the home region of current player domains except Xangold's Tower): A medium (platoon-scale BR 5d6) force of normal beastmen has been spotted about 120 miles from the domain of Tallibrick Sheerclift. If not interdicted, it could arrive within two weeks. Scouts might be able to gather more information as the army approaches, or spies could be dispatched to investigate it while it camps.