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Post by warlord476 on Oct 23, 2013 1:56:52 GMT -5
It isn't so hard to believe putting this together took 4+ years; I'd moved twice, times, taken on a few different jobs, went broke, moved again (at least three times) and managed to keep my trusty Brother typewriter and the manuscripts.
This installment includes the intro (a recap of the Herald plus some more focused usage explanation) and citygaming, which isn't just how I think GMs ought to do it (I had an opinion of everything in those days) but specifically how I thought Esgaroth citygaming should be handled.
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Post by warlord476 on Oct 26, 2013 17:58:36 GMT -5
The North is where all the nobs hang out; the first section deals with said nobs. The second section covers administration and finance. The third section covers elite of other kinds - merchants, artisans, and wayfarers.
Each sector includes a section of the main city map, with the actual subject area clear and the surrounding areas "dimmed." Unfortunately this is a scan of a copy of a copy so the "dimming" may not be obvious. (There's also a scan of a poorly-copied plan for which I can only apologise.) Each sector also includes an encounter table and space for notes. Each encounter table entry (save for a few) refers to a detailed encounter sub-table and don't worry, those will be duly added.
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Post by warlord476 on Oct 26, 2013 20:21:04 GMT -5
The South has a wide range of sectors. This next section deals with the sectors west of The Market and north of Dwarf Way. You'll see it's the same formula throughout: a map showing the sector, with street names penned in around it, and occasionally the name of a principal feature added; accompanied by a page of text explaining what the sector is 'about' and any significant or unusual or unique feature in it.
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Post by warlord476 on Oct 26, 2013 22:55:10 GMT -5
This next section starts with the Market and begins a sector-by-sector clockwise treatment.
The Market you say? Don't most cities have more than one market? Yeah, so does Esgaroth, plenty of them, but this particular market's really big. And crowded. My players used to sweat when their characters needed to cross it: so many chances for things to go wrong.
Once again each sector has a short page explaining it. The exception is Downriverend where I run to two pages. It needed a bit more explaining.
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Post by zanshin on Oct 27, 2013 6:01:58 GMT -5
The remark about the dangers of the market reminds me of the board game Warhammer Quest, where all kinds of things go wrong once adventurers try to spend the gold they got from dungeoneering
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Post by warlord476 on Oct 27, 2013 19:04:44 GMT -5
Skipping over some specialist areas which are dealt with later in Non-Sector Areas, we move round the Market from Streets of Muster to the South and on out to deal with suburbs. The one map/one page changes up here: I deal with Coast, Dwarf and River way without any particular explanation: they are roads, here's the encounter chart.
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Post by warlord476 on Oct 27, 2013 19:13:21 GMT -5
Sectors are nearly finished now. This next section deals with communities and orchard communities (which are a little different). I take a number of pages here to explain what the heck the communities are.
We complete the city by covering non-sector areas (which are areas that deal with just one thing, or that have just one type of encounter).
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Post by warlord476 on Oct 27, 2013 19:21:05 GMT -5
I've also added a temple from a scenario I wrote. It wasn't a good scenario and I never used it myself, but the temple and notes may demonstrate how a middle-of-the-hierarchy temple works.
Then there are Landmarks. The original was designed with two layers, a clear layer and a key. I've done the best I can by scanning from original for the map layer but it is a larger scale than the key.
Finally, the calendar shows all the months and main days.
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Post by warlord476 on Oct 27, 2013 23:04:26 GMT -5
Encounter tables! Get your funny-sided dice ready!
They are petty straightforward: alphabetically organised, except that City Guard and Truerunners are both sub-tables of Administrators; and 'prentices and Journeymen are sub-tables of Guilds.
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Post by warlord476 on Oct 27, 2013 23:11:31 GMT -5
There are some cross-referenced rolls required - for example there's a Scenes Occurring table, but some other encounter tables generate a Scene Occurring around the specific person/event involved.
Special Events include some once-in-a-lifetime stuff, and finish with the infamous Luck Roll table.
In all cases you have to plan things out, but in the case of the Luck Roll the best policy is to kick off the session with LK SRs and just note them down for use at the "right time."
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Post by warlord476 on Oct 27, 2013 23:14:07 GMT -5
Wow, nearly done! Just the appendices to go!
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Post by warlord476 on Oct 30, 2013 1:36:16 GMT -5
The Appendices include a bunch of stuff that I felt ought to be there but hadn't quite covered in a regular place. There's some fairly banal stuff, like taverns, and some surprising stuff - tucked away in the fine print about the peoples of Esgaroth I noticed a thumbnail history of the Dwarf Realm of Gira and its part in the catastrophe.
So, quick summary:
Tavern gaming: Esgaroth taverns aren't necessarily the same as any other generic taverns. Seven pages (161-167) that probably could have done with some re-organisation and design.
Death in the city: I seem to recall I was surprised at not covering this in the G&BD. A brief overview (169-171) covering both the standard methods of disposal and less-official means.
Pages 173-176 are the folk of Esgaroth and near parts in close-typed, small font, which should probably have been seven normal-font pages.
Finally on pages 177-178 I deal with the river in winter. I always liked that short piece, full of references to all the material I put into G&BD and the Geographer. I hope you enjoy it too.
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