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boojum
boojum
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Posted: Mon Nov 19th, 2007 12:39 am |
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Hi everyone, this is Boojum the brown bunny. A while back, ShadowCat-X (my girlfriend and sometimes StormWarden) gave me a wonderfull present. It was a wonderfull picture by Susan VanCamp of a female rabbitmorph in asian style clothes. If you look behind her you can see the vermites working in the rice paddies. With this beautifull picture there was also a card. The Ren Tau Dragon character card for DragonStorm.
Then, a group of our Valarians ended up on the isle of Penglai, where they have become embroiled in the politics of the land while trying to return to the more familier regions of Grandilar. Indeed, they don't even know they aren't on the planet at the moment.
ShadowCat-X had developped a whole island, complete with races and stories all it's own. It's a wonderfully fun place to adventure. Then, several things came together. The theme for Further Confusion 2008 is the "Fur East", an asian theme. We approached Susan about the possibility of making the Ren Tou and Penlai authorised for official dragonstorm use, and she very graciously agreed.
There will be at least 2 guild Stormwardens running games at Further Confusion (ShadowCat-X and myself) with the possability of 2 more also agreeing to run. I haven't discussed it with them yet. I'll be buying a whole bunch of the Ren Tou and Eastern Dragon form cards to hand out at the convention to anyone who wants to play. We are also trying to put together a panel where members of the West Coast Dragonstorm can discuss how to play and reveal their favorite tricks!
At any rate, the rabbit is now out of the bag *giggle* and I wanted to let people know about the background of how this came to be. Feel free to post in these forums and ask questions about the land.
Here are some things I know of to begin with.
1. The isle of Penglai information (including maps) will be free for people to download. ShadowCat-X has provided a wealth of information into a document that you'll be able to download from the BlackDragon Press website.
2. The money system on Penglai is different (the reason's why are revealed in the full document) and uses jade coins. Money tracking cards have been posted on our website which people can download and print. Again, no charge. *grin*
Well, it's dinner time here. I'll post more details as I have the chance!
Boojum the brown bunny
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SVCamp
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Posted: Thu Jan 3rd, 2008 09:23 pm |
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Hi Boojum, Sue Van Camp here. I've seen those money cards and I like them. I am looking forward to playing with them in person in a couple of weeks.
I've had people suggest using actual tokens for money, but it seemed to me that this method could get clumsy fast.
I am tempted to steal this idea for the DS itself, although that would require that I do some work on currency on the mainland.
Sue Van Camp
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boojum
boojum
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Posted: Thu Jan 3rd, 2008 09:32 pm |
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SVCamp wrote: Hi Boojum, Sue Van Camp here. I've seen those money cards and I like them. I am looking forward to playing with them in person in a couple of weeks.
I've had people suggest using actual tokens for money, but it seemed to me that this method could get clumsy fast.
I am tempted to steal this idea for the DS itself, although that would require that I do some work on currency on the mainland.
Sue Van Camp
Certainly your welcome to use the idea for Grandilar as a whole. As a matter of fact, Djager (David Green) came up with a set of money cards for our group to use in Grandilar. It makes tracking coin a lot easier.
In my opinion, whatever is used should fit into a regular game box. As in a standard card box. Otherwise it's more stuff to carry about. 
(Sorry about not posting sooner, for some reason these forums weren't showing up on my new message scan.)
Boojum the brown bunny
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SVCamp
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Posted: Thu Jan 3rd, 2008 09:37 pm |
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No need to apologize, this is my first post here and you are already replying, before I even log out . ^^
Are David's cards posted somewhere on The Warren?
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boojum
boojum
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Posted: Thu Jan 3rd, 2008 09:47 pm |
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Not at the moment, but I can certainly host them for him if he wants. 
As to my apology, it was mainly because I thought your post had been there since last month. *blush* I'm not sure how I managed to get that.
Boojum the brown bunny
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SVCamp
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Posted: Sat Jan 5th, 2008 12:01 am |
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Penglai has little in the way of metal resources, and what little there is has long since been mined out. As a result, useful metal, and steel in particular, carries a premium price, and most of the steel on Penglai is firmly grasped in the talons of the dragon clans. By comparison, gold is relatively common and considered useful only for decoration. The coin of the realm is embossed jade coins of various colors and rarity. The coins are approximately the size of a Grandilar gold piece, but half the weight, and have a square hole in the center. Prosperous Penglaian wear their coins on a silk cord as a necklace or hanging on strings from their belt.
This is a interesting idea that I would guess has significant impact on your campaign. I suspect that the price for a long sword is quite a bit higher than what is listed on the DS card and that a stew pot would be considered a real treasure.
Sue Van Camp
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shadowcat-x
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Posted: Sat Jan 5th, 2008 12:54 am |
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SVCamp wrote: This is a interesting idea that I would guess has significant impact on your campaign. I suspect that the price for a long sword is quite a bit higher than what is listed on the DS card and that a stew pot would be considered a real treasure.
Sue Van Camp
For simplicity's sake, I've instituted an across-the-board conversion of steel to jade coins. Any item that is made of useful metal (swords, axes, breastplate, etc.) is worth double the card's "face value" in jade coins.
A stew pot, being heavy, might seem to break that system (since the "face value" of a stewpot is relatively low, and there's a lot of metal in a stew pot). Stewpots, however, aren't necessarily made of steel. In fact, I'd think they most often be made from copper or cast iron, which is useful, but not nearly as useful as steel. Still, twice face value (plus whatever the haggling roll can get you) is nothing to sneeze at for a metal bowl.
As for gold, it can be traded in (or purchased) at a 2g/1blue jade rate. A canny trader could end up with a fourfold return on their investment by working the exchange rate, assuming they could carry it all--and that the GM will let the PC's out of the country with that much swag. . . <mwa hah hah hah>
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BlueNinja
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Posted: Sun Jan 6th, 2008 04:01 am |
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Am I the only person who uses dice to track the consumables (food/water/gold) during a game session?
I'll miss FC this year (look at my location, you'll understand) and so I'll have to remember to look at this setting when the pdf gets posted up.
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gilrandir
Gilrandir
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Posted: Sun Jan 6th, 2008 04:01 pm |
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BlueNinja wrote:
Am I the only person who uses dice to track the consumables (food/water/gold) during a game session?
I use scrap paper during a session -- but it is also necessary to track consumables between sessions, if you are playing in a 'multi-parter'. For that, there are the Guild character sheets and the 'consumables' cards.
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SVCamp
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Posted: Wed Jan 9th, 2008 01:48 am |
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For simplicity's sake, I've instituted an across-the-board conversion of steel to jade coins. Any item that is made of useful metal (swords, axes, breastplate, etc.) is worth double the card's "face value" in jade coins.
That makes sense to me.
A stew pot, being heavy, might seem to break that system (since the "face value" of a stewpot is relatively low, and there's a lot of metal in a stew pot). Stewpots, however, aren't necessarily made of steel. In fact, I'd think they most often be made from copper or cast iron, which is useful, but not nearly as useful as steel. Still, twice face value (plus whatever the haggling roll can get you) is nothing to sneeze at for a metal bowl.
Now that I think of it, would a wok make more sense than a stew pot for the Penglai Campaign?
As for gold, it can be traded in (or purchased) at a 2g/1blue jade rate. A canny trader could end up with a fourfold return on their investment by working the exchange rate, assuming they could carry it all--and that the GM will let the PC's out of the country with that much swag. . . <mwa hah hah hah>
Ooo, first class evil laugh, and a lovely, wicked plan for driving characters mad......
Sue Van Camp
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SVCamp
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Posted: Wed Jan 9th, 2008 01:51 am |
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Blue Ninja, for informal home games I usually depend on players to keep track of this themselves. I'll announce usage once a twice a game day and let them mark it off.
Sue Van Camp
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SVCamp
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Posted: Wed Jan 9th, 2008 01:53 am |
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I use scrap paper during a session -- but it is also necessary to track consumables between sessions, if you are playing in a 'multi-parter'. For that, there are the Guild character sheets and the 'consumables' cards.
Darn, you may make me rethink my 'slothful about paperwork' policy. 'Since your last game you have used up 3 water and 4 food rations each." Lovely way to start a game. ^^
Sue Van Camp
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BlueNinja
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Posted: Wed Jan 9th, 2008 03:46 am |
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gilrandir wrote: I use scrap paper during a session -- but it is also necessary to track consumables between sessions, if you are playing in a 'multi-parter'. For that, there are the Guild character sheets and the 'consumables' cards.
Yes, all of my players have the little 1/3-sheet character records, that they use to keep track of the consumables and current HP between game sessions. After they record it, I keep hold of it as GM.
I only ask because I find it rather easy to keep track of things at a glance from across the table. Also, on a 1" square map for battle, d20s make excellent character markers - and you can put everyone down in order of initiative too.
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boojum
boojum
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Posted: Wed Jan 9th, 2008 01:39 pm |
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BlueNinja wrote: Yes, all of my players have the little 1/3-sheet character records, that they use to keep track of the consumables and current HP between game sessions. After they record it, I keep hold of it as GM.
I only ask because I find it rather easy to keep track of things at a glance from across the table. Also, on a 1" square map for battle, d20s make excellent character markers - and you can put everyone down in order of initiative too.
The players take care of their own consumables tracking in our games. We all know and trust each other. Of course, since we all play together we would tend to find out if someone is not tracking.
For myself, when I'm playing, I tend to keep track on a sheet of scratch paper of everything used/gained by my character and then settle up on my character sheet at the end of the game. That way if I use a Vale of Refreshment but get another one during the game I don't have things lined out on my character sheet. Then, at the end of the game, I line out my net gain/loss on my character sheet.
Each player also keeps track of their initiative and independents. Towards this goal I bought all my players those wonderfull Battle Tracker from http://www.kennardweb.net/ I love it because it fits inside a normal card case.
Boojum the brown bunny
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