Edge City - Armourers Guild

One of the players has this Dwarf smith, and he has stayed behind in Edge City to work on the armourers skill. We decided that a guild would be necessary to help him learn the skills. So borrowing a bit from the Compleat Guide to Ankh-Morpork (the book came with a huge map which is now Edge City in my universe) and expanding a bit on the rules, and adding a tad from the Hexagon #4, I came up with the following (link to PDF available at the end)

Guild of Armourers of Edge City is located at the Armory on Siege Street.

Lead by the estimable Mr. Burleigh, the Guild has not only supplied the city with Cidri-class weapon and armor smiths, but has trained generations of smiths through the greater regions.

Per the general guild rules (p60-61) Guild fees are 2% of your monthly income, but gives access to the library, workshops and Guildhall. Apprentices are allowed full access but pay their teachers an additional 2% throughout their journeyman years. Journeymen smiths can earn between 25 to 75 silvers a week making basic tools armourer or smith earns about 100 silvers a week, and a master armourer can earn 150 silvers a week, with their respective 8 to 12 silvers a month going to the Guild. Members also pay for the materials needed, but the Guild gets an excellent discount for most materials.

Learning skills takes time and patience, as well as the requisite IQ.

Armourer (IQ 10) build and maintain ordinary weapons and armor.  Once he character has the needed IQ, this will take 6-14 months to get to journeyman status. Roll (15—the number of months of training) vs IQ to achieve the skill. So in month 6, 15-6 = 9D vs IQ. Month 7, 8D to month 12 which is a 3D vs IQ.

Master Armourer (IQ 12) can make fine weapons. Requires Goldsmith to make silver weapons and armour. This takes more time, so the roll is 18—the number of months studying at the Guild.

Bypassing this, characters may of course use experience points to get the skills, with the assumption that they are adventuring between studying and gaining experience not only at surviving but honing their skills in the broader world.

In addition to the standard metals, as per Hexagram #4, there are additional materials that armourers, and particularly master armourers, would be familiar with. The rules are specifically laid out there, but mentioned here to broaden the knowledge that our would-be armourers should know.

Bronze is a softer metal, and easier to work with. Weapons require more care and are generally not as effective as steel.  Common.

Iron and steel. The basis of most weapons and armor in The Fantasy Trip. No changes as these are the assumed standard. Common.

Silver used by magic users to not suffer the negative effect of cold iron on magic. Rules per book p110.  Uncommon.

Meteoric iron star-stone stuff. Also known as starsteel. Has a huge impact on magical attacks. Rare.

Chryseton crystal formed deep underground that has caustic effects. Also known as blood crystal. Rare.

Volastre Found in dormant caldera of deep-rooted volcanoes and is prized by Goblins. Also known as Goblin Steel or volcanic iron. Rare.

Abdurum forged by ancient dwarven masters, the formula has been lost through the ages. No known weapon or armor forged of this has ever been known to break.

Link to the PDF here

Just a little update

With all that is going on, I've not had time to post anything recently.  As an FYI, my entire company is now working from home. I did this a long time ago for a long time, but it is taking some getting used to. Plus so much has changed, as then I was the only developer and working on Unix & Linux machines for software. Now I am part of a 6 person team that was already a bit dispersed and we have so many channels of communication!

Anyway, I hope all who read this (as 12 I think now :) ) are doing okay. These are troubled times for a lot of people and it won't change anytime soon. Neither of my gaming groups are meeting for a while, and now I barely get out of the house. But as I live with someone with an already compromised immune system, I cannot take any chances!

The pandemic does bring out some potential seeds for gaming, though. There was an interesting conversation over on COTI about how to signal that your ship is a plague ship. There were some interesting posts, including links to the international code of signals. So, in light of the current situation but not in making light of it, here are some possible seeds as I riff off the top of my head:

1. plague ship seeds
   a. coming in system, there is a ship in orbit or at the jump interface with the signal for plague ship. no one is answering the comms
  b. some one is answering the comms and begging for help, life support is failing
  c. some one is answering and indicates nothing is wrong but they just can't turn off the signal
2. world seeds
  a. the port indicates a world-wide quarantine is in effect. no landings. yet there is no other place to refuel. Just how much life support do you have left?
  b. land at the port (or station) and all buildings/compartments are in lock down. is anyone alive?
  c. you contract some disease and are not cleared to leave port or your ship. quarantining on-board
  d. you contract some disease out in the city and are not allowed back to your ship. you may get hunted down

There are probably more. And for fantasy games, very similar things could happen:
1. you come to a village and the plague doctors are making house calls.
2. is the sickness magical in origin? can a quest for some magical cure save the town?
3. are their plague beasts about, prowling and making people ill?
4. everyone in the town is dead, some only in the last few hours. why? and do you just plunder the town?

None of these are meant to be in bad taste, and hopefully not read that way. Years ago COTI also had a run of "translate real-world stories into Traveller news posts". Basically take a headline & file off the serial numbers to create a news post for the Traveller universe. It was a flashback to the original Journal of the Traveller's Aid which started a series of news posts from various systems in the Traveller universe. I never paid them much attention as we were more sandboxy, but I can see playing in the bigger world as events transpire. I just was never good at integrating rumors and things as well as I should have been. Trying to get better for the games (both Traveller and the Fantasy Trip) so that players can feel that there is a bigger world around them.

Again - I hope everyone is doing well. Stay safe!

And yes, we have plenty of toilet paper! Hmm, another adventure seed: the life support resupply is out of toilet paper and you need to go across the world to the last remaining stash...

The Elemental City of Athukthad

The Elemental City of Athukthad, also known as Sunshi Troph by the original tribes that inhabited the city, is a small city located along the southern trade route at the junction of the Duchy of Windmere, the jungles and the Kalor Desert. It is a town of low, adobe buildings decorated with banners and tapestries of brilliant colors. The city is known for its rich plethora of merchants and craftspeople who create wonderful rugs, tapestries and clothing full of vibrant colors. This location has access to the grasslands and their multitude of plants that have an amazing assortment of colors, as well as the jungles that have at least as many plants that may be used as dyes. The grasslands are full of sheep, llamas, alpacas and other fleece bearing animals with some of the finest wools produced in the Puddlejumpers Quarter.

There are guards about the walls, a huge merchant quarter, camels, and a lot of noise. This is not a quiet town. There is enough water for all, and guides can be found to trek through the desert for those getting off the trade route to head south.

For our group, it would be 3 or 4 day ride along the merchant route to get to where the dragraffe Lollipop needs to go; heading directly south it is a 2 day trip. If they can find the oasis. And I think the dragraffe is starting to get antsy in his travelling wagon. So 4 days may be pushing it, or so I will indicate to the players!

The Elemental City also got its name as one of the origin stories is that a sand elemental created the city in a single day at the behest of a wizard. While the wizards don't deny this, nor do they confirm it.

The city has a few guilds in it, such as the Mechanists Guild, the Wizards Guild and a large Mercenary Guild. Guards are often used for travelling caravans. There is no known Thieves Guild as thieves tend to have severe and often fatal punishments when caught. Searching for such a guild could also have dire consequences. The Hanging Garden next to the Judges House is not for the botanists nor the faint of heart.

I'll have to see about comong up with some additional information, but it is a warm and inviting city yet has some dark undertones.