Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Bat in the Attic Status Report #2

It been an exciting week. The good news that sales been good I made back my investment (small but still) and I have some money for better art for the next product. I appreciate the support of the Old School Community.

In particular I would like to thank Dwayne, Tim, Al, Akrasia , Havard, Bliss, Atom Kid, Chris and Moritz for their shout outs.

Thanks for the reviews by Grognardia and Jeff Rients. Good, neutral, or bad I hope to see more.

Also thanks for for Zach and the RPG Circus Crew for mentioning the Majestic Wilderlands on their recent podcast.



All Contributor and review copies have been mailed as of Friday Dec 18th, 2009



Well the week been exciting with the crash of my main hard drive. I had backups and was able to recover everything the last four paragraphs I wrote of Nho. One thing I will be doing is getting a hard drive to along with the replacement and cloning the main drive monthly. Hopefully this will allow to get back up quickly.



I started work on the District of Nho for the next issue of Fight On! I settled on the following format for the stat portions of my settlements.

0104 Usudir Keep
Pop: 345, Holds: 48 urban/21 rural; Acres: 2,850, LQ: 95%;
Econ: Size 4; Market: 1/wk, Fair: None: Resource: Market, Farm;
Notable: Captain Olen Warsin, Prefect Baden Denoi, Senator Stephen Denoi;
Military: 31 Militia, 8 Yeomen, 10 men at arms, 6 Cavalry; Spec: Mill

Pop is population rated in total number of people

Holds is the number of household which most of the military and taxes are derived from. In most settlements it is all rural but in some like the large village that surrounds Usudir Keep there are urban households comprised of craftsmen and unskilled laborer.

Acres is the number of acres under the administration of the settlement. Typically 2200 to 3000 acres with an average of 25 households.

LQ is Land quality. Whatever system used for generating revenue or supplies you multiply by the LQ factor to get the actual amount. The area around Usudir is mostly swamp hence the lower than normal LQ.

Econ is Economic stats

Size is the market size from 1 to 10. 4 is typical of the large villages that surrounds a keep.

Market is the frequency of the local market. PCs will be hard to pressed to buy anything outside of special orders outside of market days.

Fairs are special markets that held up to 4 times a year. They can be specialized (furs, gems, etc) or general fairs. They attract a far larger crowd than the regular markets and can be a great place to find leads for adventures. Usudir doesn't have a fair as it would be too close to Nho's annual fair.

Resource are the most abundant resources found in the settlement. Usudir is both a farming community and a local market. A referee can look at the surrounding villages and hamlets to see what other goods may be found here.

Notables are important local personages. This list may be modified as I write up the town description and develop adventure ideas. Since Usudir was formly part of the Viridstan Empire it still retains it's imperial hierarchy. This consists of the Captain in charge of the keep's garrison, the town's Prefect the local administrator and representative of the Shah of Gormmah. Finally Usudir is home to Senator Stephen Denoi, the partiarch of the Denoi family and a senator in the regional senate that sits at Nho.

Finally a listing of the military capabilities. Militia are regular townsfolk that have minimal training at arms generally only called out in emergencies. In the lands once dominated by Viridians the militia's weapons and arms are kept safe in a central armory. The alternative is to make the individual militia members responsible for the upkeep of the arms.

Yeomans are regular townfolks that have training comparable to normal soldiers. They probably have a level or two in fighter. They are available to be called up to augment any imperial forces in the town. In exchange for keeping up their training they are given tax breaks.

Men-at-arms are imperial troops garrisoned at the Keep. Mostly 1st to 2nd level Soldiers. In Viridstan they are armored with scale mail, plate pot helms, spears, short sword, and a medium sword.

Finally there are 6 Imperial Cavalry stationed at the Keep with the Captain counting as one. The remanding 5 are a quarter company on permanent station at the keep. In the former Viridistan Empire the cavalry are organized as Cataphracts and are often used as fast infantry as well as regular cavalry. Their armor ranges from Scale Mail, Chain Mail, to Splint Mail, and their kit include the Scimitar, Spear, and Heavy Shield. In the past when fighting against Ghinorian Knights of the Dragon Empire they will opt for a mace instead of a sword. However since the rise of the Tharian Overlords they have reverted back to the Scimitar.



Haven't done much work on the Beast of Kensla. Work on this will pick up after the first week of January.

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