Happy Leap Day!

Jonny knew what he was signing up for. :) The DM made it clear to me at the start that there wasn't really anyone to fill that role (or wanting to fill it), so I took it willingly. That's not to say I'll be better at it than anyone else, but I am going to be the face and mouth of the party - for better or worse!

Ha! Nice post Ken!

Bard? Uhhh...sure, we can go with that, totally the Rogue-type I was thinking of...*cough*

The 'not exactly Conan here' and belly jiggling comment did actually make me LOL!

Agree

In reply to Jonny Wilder (msg # 43):

Thanks!

Seems like a fun group.

No worries Vik. Feel free to take your time, make some plans, find training, buy some clothes that aren't falling apart, etc.

Don't worry too much about the Tavern's prices; we're going to largely abstract cost of living, which will cover food, lodging, and entertainment including the occasional mug of ale. I won't track that kind of expense unless it happens on the road.

If you want to live a pauper's lifestyle - living in the commons, surviving on what you can scavenge as much as possible, looking like a hobo - you can get by on 1 gp worth of expenses a month. This will lead to reaction penalties from almost everyone at the keep, but any lower than this and you'll suffer from malnutrition with lowered FP and HP from the stress of the lifestyle.

Living a poor lifestyle means sleeping in a shared room at the inn, eating cheap, scrimping on keeping your gear maintained so everything's a little shabby and only eating/drinking the cheapest possible. You'll have the stink of poor on you, but so do most people so the reaction penalties aren't as severe from people who are better off. Costs 3gp/month.

Want to live what's considered middle class? Private room at the inn, decent meals, being able to buy new clothes when the old ones wear out, occasionally party down at the tavern with everyone else? 6 gp/month. Probably easier to maintain once you're up and adventuring OR have a decent paying job.

I'll give you more details on the economic realities of living in this fantasy world as you discover them. But having visited the tavern you now have a good idea of what it'll take to get by.

For those familiar with GURPS this corresponds to status -2, -1, and 0 lifestyles. While you're technically status 0, you will be judged based on how you present yourself.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:56, Fri 01 Mar.

More good posts today! I don't have time to respond today, and weekends are usually busy but especially so this weekend - got a big surprise party planned for my wife's big birthday, so I won't be online until Sunday to catch up.

No worries. I got a party too, so I will be scarce... might update once or twice tomorrow, so the rest of you feel free to keep asking questions or exploring the keep.

I'll be moving solo exploration into your individual solo threads to avoid cluttering up the group IC thread.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:03, Mon 04 Mar.

Okay, to summarize your options for the coming days:

Employment:
A few jobs don't require an employer. If you have a Fishing skill of 12 or more - basically professional caliber - you can catch fish to sell. Same goes for a bow skill and tracking if you want to hunt. It's unlikely any of you have the skills necessary, but you can try and get a hunter or fisherman to show you the ropes. You won't make any money at it for some time.

Apprenticeships with craftspeople are likewise possible. These won't pay more than room and board - probably sleeping in the shop - until you've learned the skills in question. Even working as a building laborer requires a small bit of knowledge of carpentry or masonry to work successfully. Jonny's waitstaff job falls under this category; he won't be bringing in much in tips until he learns the ins and outs of the job

Other potential employers: The Blacksmith, carpenter, cooper, cobbler, dairy, tailor, tanner, farmhand.

Equipment:

The blacksmith sells tools, nails, horseshoes.
The quartermaster sells general goods.
The armory has limited supplies of broadswords (5 gold, 2 for a cheap one that might break on you), shields (11 silver), spears (10 silver), bows (1 gold), arrows (2 cp each), and leather armor (1 gold for a curias covering the torso).
The pawn broker has a rotating stock, currently including a suit of full plate (60 gold), a rusty chain mail hauberk (12 gold), a signet ring (1 gold), and a silver-plated dagger (15 silver).
The tailor sells clothes. To simplify it, a few patched together ragged outfits can be had for 1 gold, a set of plain outfits suitable for a peasant is 3 gold, and a middle-class wardrobe of more colorful and better quality clothes is 6 gold. Each option includes lighter clothes for summer, heavier for winter, and anything but the rags includes something "nicer" for formal occasions.

Training:

Dubricus offers to train people to read and write common for 10 silver/month. You can arrange for the guards to offer similar training in spear, broadsword, or bow for the same amount.  Neither of the wizards present will teach you any spells, but you can practice the one Bee Man taught you on your own... it's not as effective as with a good teacher but it's better than nothing.

You can of course seek out other training or practice other skills.

How many hours per day does training take?

We'll be abstracting training into monthly "training rolls." Roll Willpower, and you'll get 150 hours of training for the month, +/- 10% times your margin of success, to divide among as many skills as you're trying to learn through training and practice. This assumes you're approaching it with the vigor of a full-time student; if you're spending more time chilling at the tavern or doing something else beside working you can voluntarily use fewer hours.

It takes 200 hours to gain a skill point through training with a qualified instructor.
It takes 400 hours to gain a skill point through self-motivated practice or training with an incompetent (no teaching skill) instructor.

You will also passively be picking up Cultural Familiarity and improving from Broken to Accented in Common; this will probably take two months. It will take four or five to pick up a skill through on the job training.

Good to know GM. I think for my money, the tailor sounds most attractive. Nothing quite like being able to repair your own clothing in a pre-industrial world. Especially since we are likely to be in patched rags for a good while.

Once everyone has their plans for employment, housing, training, and any purchases (in their personal threads) we'll move on.

Quick retcon: Vik's possession of the Linguistics skill enabled him to learn Common a bit faster than the rest of you; he has it at Accented, meaning he can speak in amusingly incorrect phrases like "Please for to be helping me?" and "I am to go to the discoteque now." instead of the toddler talk the rest of you are currently relegated to.

His Shyness still means that Jonny is the faaar better spokesperson, but Vik will have a stronger understanding of what NPCs are saying.

Understood.

There's discos here?!? ;)

Perhaps if Vik can interpret and tell Jonny what to say, together we might communicate a lot better with others than individually?

You could do that, but he wouldn't get the benefit of your appearance, charisma, or social skills, and would still suffer the penalties from his shyness. The only real benefit is that he can communicate more complicated ideas - they're just not terribly convincing.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:23, Fri 08 Mar.

No, he wouldn't, but I would - I was meaning if Vik tells Jonny what to say in a given instance, Jonny can then use the benefit of his appearance, charisma, or social skills to apply Vik's words. Is that possible?

So Vik tells you what to say and then you repeat it phonetically? In the same language, not like it's one guy translating for another? That'd come off as pretty odd, honestly. Besides, a big part of charm is knowing what to say, and a big part of shyness is NOT knowing what to say. Just repeating what Vik's saying is probably even worse than just letting him talk.

I wouldn't worry so much; it's only going to be an issue until you have enough exposure to the language to get to Accented yourself.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:44, Fri 08 Mar.

No worries, it's good to know what might work and what will not.

Thanks please for to be helping me. :)

With Jonny's charm the Accent will be deemed attractive.

We will  all sound like idiots , he will just sound exotic

Hope you had a good weekend, remembered to adjust for Daylight Savings.

Thanks for the reminder.

Wondering if the guys are going to have to drag James out of his hidey hole to socialize.

Not a question of "if", more a matter of "when", and how many of us its going to take! :)