The Merchant: A Thief Sub Class now available!

 

Quick Update! I just released a little project I've been working on. I've always wanted to do some type of a merchant as a player class but I couldn't quite wrap my head around making it interesting and not dull. Who wants to be a shopkeeper when you can be a wizard?? I originally had an idea of including something with a  merchant flavor in Demesnes & Domination but I could crack it until recently. once it dawned on my that I could make a merchant a variation of the thief, the class felt like it wrote itself! Anyways, it's currently a pay-what-you-want price on DriveThruRPG. Check it out!

Demesnes & Domination Addenedum

 

 

Hey folks! I just uploaded an addendum to Demesnes & Domination to a shareable google drive. This addendum adds two additional concepts, the Demesne Bonus and the Adventuring Bonus. These bonus increase along with the player character's level

- The Demesne Bonus is used to modify the Influence reaction roll and for Diplomacy. The bonus reflects the character's renown as a ruler of a domain. However this comes with the increasing chance of a Class Complication, which function as an event that requires the player characters to take action due to their status within the milieu.

- The Adventuring Bonus is sued too provide a minor bonus to a specific class ability based on the player's class once they reach 9th level.

Both of these concepts are optional but are provided to give more options for higher level characters. This document is already uploaded on Itch and as a pay-what-you-want pdf on Drivethrurpg. It was designed to be printed out and inserted into your print copy of Demesnes & Domination, but if fine as a pdf as well!Check out the link below to access it. Enjoy!

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pqTXz-z8NeOnmQgVY7MNI-TtPgsHbA6_/view?usp=drive_link

One Year of Demesne Turns

In Demesne & Domination on page 32 I wrote about using a sequence of Demesne Turns as it's own game. For those that don't have their copy readily available, i will reproduce it here:

The Demesne Turn as a Metagame: The Demesne Turn procedure provides
the structure to allow for a passage of time while allowing the player characters
to make decisions that could affect the campaign setting. A referee
can choose to link together multiple demesne turns to allow longer stretches
of time to pass by within the campaign. This allows for the Demesne Turn to
function as its own metagame. When engaging in demesne turns in this way,
players are still required to give input to their decisions while collecting taxes
and engaging in Demesne Downtime. Depending on generated events, the
procedures such as Delegating Tasks and Quick Mass Combat can be used
to quickly determine the results of certain events. Other events that might
pop up such as obligations or reputation encounters might require engaging
with those events as a sub game, such as participating in a tournament. Any
significant passage of time should always be meaningful and consequential,
so the referee is encouraged to use this procedure when jumping forward in
time.

So I decided to do an exercise where I have a year pass in a campaign setting with a stronghold controlled by two player characters. The following is the notes I wrote where I logged each demesnes Turn and the events that transpired in the Village of Grünburg overseen by the player Characters Victoria the Valiant and Travis the Transmuter. This was as very fun solo game i played which made me think about the game setting in a new way. I definitely can see using demeses turns as a metagame could be a fantatsic way to give background to a settlement or any landowning NPCs or even if the PCs are granted a stronghold and walk into a castle and settlement with ongoing issues. Anyways, enjoy my Demesne Turn as a metagame solo play notes!

Example of  Demesnes Turn as a Metagame:

Stronghold controlled by two Player characters

Victoria the Valiant (F11- Str 16, Int: 9 Wis: 10, Dex: 11, Con: 10, Cha: 13, XP: 480,000) and Travis the Transmuter (MU9- Str: 10, Int: 17,  Wis:12,  Dex: 8, Con: 9 Cha: 12, XP: 300,000). Victoria was granted her stronghold at level 9 by Baroness von Stadler (f13, opinion score of 8), and was given 4 hex miles total (three plains, one forest) to control. She was given a pre-existing Large round tower as her stronghold, which belongs to a now disgraced knight (Sir Ivan F:9). The stronghold has hit points equal to 3,000. The settlement has a garrison of 80 zero-level fighters.

Victoria has two henchmen: F1, T3
Travis also has two henchmen: MU1, F2

The Settlement they control is the village of Grünburg with a current population of 2,250 with a morale score of 8. the passive treasure made each demesnes turn is at a rate of 1gp per villager. The Stronghold has a treasure collection of 10,000 gp along with 4 magic items (generate later). Any Demesne Encounters will be rolled with a d6

This example of The Demesnes turn will begin in the first  month of spring and will be generated procedurally to determine how the next year will play out.

Turn 1 (Spring): Pop 2,250, Morale 8, treasure 10,000gp
- Morale check is 7, resulting in a  population growth of 1d4 x20 (40), becoming 2290
- gain 2,290 gp
- Demesnes Encounter; roll d6, a 6 is rolled which results in a Reputation Encounter due to this being the main settlement the party manages. A d8 is rolled which results in a Envoy Arrives event. The generated Envoy is from: Liege Lord (result of 1), with the purpose of Quid Pro Quo (result 5), and the envoy's demeanor of suspicion (result 4)
The referee rules this encounter as: The Envoy is sent from Baroness von Stadler with a request of sending two henchmen to lead an army of reserves from Victoria and Trevor's stronghold in exchange for more land. The envoy seems to suspiciously eye the condition of the stronghold and Trevor's magical activities.
- Obligation check: the d12 result is 12, meaning Victoria has an obligation to their liege lord so this means Victoria HAS to provide the requested services otherwise gain a penalty. Victoria and Trevor both decide they can spare two henchmen and each send off their f1 henchmen each with a levy of 50 Normal men, for a total population decrease of 100 people for 2 months starting on the next demenses turn. They choose to send levies of normal men instead of the garrison so the garrison can be protection for the stronghold if needed.
- The player characters decide to engage in downtime activity, with Victoria gaining 8,000 xp  (1d8 x1000) and Trevor gaining 7,000 xp (1d10 x1000)

Turn 2 (Spring): Pop 2,150, morale 8, treasure 12290 gp
- Morale check is 8, resulting in population growth of 1d4 x20 (20), now becoming 2,180
- gain 2,150 gp in taxes
- Demesnes Encounter: roll d6; 5 is rolled which results in no encounter
- Obligation check: 1d12, with a 9 being rolled and result with no obligation requested this turn
- the player characters continue to engage with Demesnes Downtime with Victoria gaining 5,000 xp and Trevor gaining 8,000 xp

Turn 3 (Spring): Pop 2,160, morale 8, treasure 14,450 gp
- Morale check is 7, resulting in population growth of 20 with the population now becoming 2,190
- gain 2,190 in taxes
- Demesnes Encounter: 1-2 on a d6 will result in an encounter, and 6 will be a reputation encounter: a 2 is rolled. The referee rolls a d6 on the Demesnes Encounter table resulting in a 6 which is a Human Threat. The referee rolls an additional d4 and gets a 1 which is Bandits. This encounter immediately decreases the population's morale by -1, bringing it down to 7.
- Obligation check: 1-2 results in taxes. since a 12 was already rolled, there isn't a chance for another service result for eleven more demesnes turns. the result of the d12 roll is 4, so no taxes will be collected yet.
- The player Characters must confront the bandits. The referee uses their preferred game rules to determine the number of bandits in the lair. the referee determines there are 30 bandits that must be dealt with before the next Demenses Turn otherwise the settlements morale will decrease to 6. This can be done as a quest or it can be done using the Quick Mass Combat table to quickly resolve the situation. the players decide that they will use the hired job table to quickly calculate the results. Before going, the players hire 50 mercenaries and personally lead them to the bandits. The referee determines the morale to be 10 (8 for mercs, +1 for Victoria's charisma bonus, and +1 for being more than 20% larger fighting force). The party rolls a 4, (3 and 1) and they succeed. The referee uses the Results listing on page 44 to determine the casualties. The Player Party lose 30% of their hired mercenaries and the bandits lose 60% of their numbers. The bandits flee but leave their treasure type A hoard behind resulting in 12,000 gp value of treasure. The player characters split the treasure equal, both gaining 6,000 xp

Turn 4 (Summer): Pop2,190, Morale 7, treasure 26,450 gp
- Holdover: the Levies of men who marched off on obligation with the two henchmen return. Use the Quick Mass Combat roll to determine the results of their battle. the referee determines they had a Morale of 7 and rolls a 4 (2,2) resulting in a pyrrhic victory. Only 60% of the levies return (60 people total) with Victoria's henchman captures and Trevor's henchman being killed in action.
- Morale check is 7 (6,1) causing an increase in population growth of 80 and the returning 60 people results in the population becoming 2,330
- Gain 2,330 gp
- Demesnes Encounter: 1 on a d6 results in a demesnes encounter and a 6 is a reputation encounter. A 5 is rolled, so there isn't any encounter
- Obligation Check: 1-3 on a d12 results in being taxed. A 2 is rolled, causing the player characters to pay 400 gp plus 2,330 gp for the taxes totalling in 2,730 gp.
- The Player Party put out a call to recruit more henchmen for each of them. Victoria sends her other henchmen to deliver a message for paying off the ransom to return her captured henchman. the cost of ransoming a Henchman is equal to their XP level and level 1 henchmen are 1/2 xp value of 2nd level which means the first level henchman that was captured has a ransom cost of 1,000 gp. The success of this henchman task will be determined by Delegating Tasks on pg. 39 at the beginning of the next demesnes turn. Victoria stays in the stronghold and gains 5,000 xp. Trevor begins researching and developing a new spell called Move Earth which the referee determines is a 6th level spell and costs 1000 gp to research and will take six weeks before determining if it was a success. Victoria gains 2,000 xp and Trevor gains 3,000 xp from demesnes downtime.

Turn 5 (Summer): pop 2,330, Morale 7, treasure 16720
- Holdover: The referee makes a check for Delegating tasks to determine the results of the ransom retrieval. The referee determines the difficulty to be 8. The results are 6, 2 meaning the attempt was a success! Victoria's henchmen return without a problem. VIctoria and Trevor's call for henchmen results in Victoria attracting 8 more henchmen and Trevor attracting 7. Unfortunately they lack enough housing for them all to stay. The Round tower they have consist of four floors that each have a 700 square foot area (30 ft diameter) where each PC have a floor who they share with two henchmen (each henchman requires 200 square feet) and the two remaining floors allow for 7 more henchmen to fit in. Trevor takes on five henchmen and victoria takes on three, with the remaining leaving the settlement. The player characters can generate their henchmen using the guides on pages 65 and 66. If using the Demesnes & Domination addendum, the players can add their Demesnes Bonus to the die roll on the henchman level table.
- Morale Check is a 5 (4,1) causing an increase in population. The population grows by 20, resulting in a current population of 2,350
- Gain 2,350 gp in gold
- Demesne Encounter: a 1-2 on a d6 will yield a demesne encounter and a 6 will result in a reputation encounter. a 3 is rolled, so no encounter happens.
- Obligation check will yield Taxation on a 1 on a d12 roll. A 5 is rolled, so no taxes requested of the Player Characters
- Victoria invests in constructing a Barracks for 10,000 gp to house extra retainers. She has 100 local commoners from the settlement to aid with construction. She also hires an engineer for 750 gp per month to aid with the construction. The total amount of time it will take to construct the barracks is 100 days, or four demesnes turns starting this turn. Trevor is still working on researching his spell which will be resolved at the beginning of the next demesne turn's holdover events. Victoria gains 4,000 xp and Trevor gains 2,000 xp from demesnes downtime.

Turn 6 (Summer): pop 2,350; Morale 7, Treasure 8320 gp
- Holdover: Trevor checks for his success at developing the spell Earthquake. The chances are 15 + 17(Int score) + 45 (MU level x 5) + 77% chance. Trevor rolls a d100 and gets 11, which results in a critical success. The Spell earthquake was developed but also accidentally made an additional spell. the referee rules that the spell is a 3rd level spell (1/2 the developed spell level) and chooses the spell for them. Victoria's construction chance for an incident is 1-on-a-d20 with a 4 being rolled resulting in no incident. The morale of the workers is currently 10 and the morale check yields a 5, maintaining the morale of the laborers.
- Morale is 7 and the check results are 7 (4, 3). The population grows 80 more people resulting in the population becoming 2,430 people.
- Gain 2,430 gp in taxes.
- Demesnes Encounter: 1-3 on a d6 chance; a 5 is rolled so no demesne encounter or obligation check.
- Obligation: chance of a 1-2 on a d12; a 3 is rolled so no taxes are requested this turn.
- Victoria is presiding over the domain and is overseeing the construction of the barracks to make sure they are to her expectations. one of trevor's new henchmen is a zero-level magic-user whom he invests into become a 1st level magic user which costs 1,250 in training. Victoria gains 8,000 xp and Trevor gains 7,000 xp in demesnes downtime.

Turn 7 (Fall): Pop 2,430; morale 7, treasure 9500 gp
- Holdover: Victoria's construction is still ongoing for this turn and next. The morale check is 7 so the morale of the laborers doesn't change and the incident check is an 11, so no incident happens this month. Trevor's henchman becomes level 1.
- Morale Check: Morale is 7 and a 5 is rolled causing the population to increase by 20 for a total population of 2,450 people.
- Gain 2,450 in taxes (current treasure of 11,950)
- Demesnes Encounter Chances of an encounter is a 1-4 on a d6 with a 6 being a reputation encounter. a 2 is rolled, resulting in the referee rolling a 2 on the Demesne Encounter Table. The result is Event: Travelling Entertainers. If the Player characters decide to pay for them, it will increase the settlement's morale by +1 and the construction laborers morale by +1. The cost of the entertainer's is 100 x the settlement size multiplier (page 18) which is 20 costing the player characters 2000 gp. The player characters decide to go for it.
- Obligation Check: there is a 1-3 on a d12 roll that the player characters owe taxes to their liege lord. a 12 was rolled however the player characters already provided a service to their liege lord six months ago so they are not expected to provide additional services for another six months.
- Victoria continues to oversee the domain and the Barracks construction which has this turn and next turn to finish. Trevor decides to research the true name of a 3HD demon to bond as a familiar which will cost him 2250 gp. Victoria gains 2,000 xp and Trevor gains 4,000 xp from demesne Downtime.

Turn 8 (Fall): Pop: 2,450, Morale 8, treasure 6950 gp
- Holdover: Barrack laborer morale is 11 and a 4 is rolled so the morale stays the same.  However, a 1 is rolled on the construction incident. The incident is a Labor Dispute. The referee determines its the local mason guild requires more money due to them having a supply chain problem for adequate stone caused by the regional conflict the player characters sent their Henchmen and 100 normal men to. Victoria decides to pay an additional 50% to keep the remaining construction time on track. This will cost an additional 5,000 gp (1/2 of the original cost.) Trevor's chance to learn the true name of a 3HD demon is 62%: 15 + 17 (Int) + MU level (9 x 5% = 45) - Creatures Hit Die (3 x 5% = 15%). The roll is 79, so it is a failure.
- Morale Check: Current morale is now 8, and the rolled result of the check is 4 (3, 1) so the population grows by 40 with a new total population of 2,490.
- Gain 2,490 gp in taxes (current treasure amount is 4440 gp)
- Demesne Encounter chance is 1 on a d6 and a reputation check is a 6 on a d6. a 2 is rolled so no encounter happens.
- Obligation Check is a 1-4 on a d12 to pay taxes. The roll results in a 4 requiring the PLayer characters to pay taxes.
- Victoria and Trevor discuss if they should pay taxes due to the financial strain it will put on their current treasure amount. If they don't pay their taxes, then their liege lord's opinion of them (currently 8) will decrease by 1d4. However they need to expand their holding to include more land so the population can grow otherwise their settlement will take a penalty to their morale. The player characters decide to not pay taxes this turn. Victoria gains 3,000 xp and Trevor gains 5,000 xp from demesnes downtime.

Turn 9 (Fall) : Pop: 2490, Morale 8, treasure 3690 gp.
- Holdover:  The Barracks has finished construction! Baroness's Option of the player party is now 5 (the referee rolled a 3 on a d4 and subtracted it from the previous opinion score of 8.) Victoria assigns one of her fighter henchmen to the barracks.
- Morale check: Current morale is 8 and a 6 (5,1) is rolled. the population grows by 20 with a population now at 2,510.
- Gain 2,510 gp from taxes with a current treasure now being 6200 gp
- Demesnes Encounter chance of a 1-2 on a d6. A 1 is rolled, resulting in an encounter. the referee rolls on the Demesnes Encounter table and rolls a Domestic Conflict: Violence against a Person/group/property. The referee rules that there is a nearby dwarven blacksmith who was attacked on their way to the player character;s settlement to sell their goods. The settlers are upset this happened and their morale decreases by -1 each month starting next month unless the problem is addressed and fixed within this demesne turn month.
- Obligation: Since there was an obligation encounter last demesne turn, the chances reset to 1 on a d12 this turn even though the player characters refused to comply with the request.  The referee rolls a 7 so no obligation is made.
- Victoria and Trevor need to parlay with Baroness Stadler for more land even though she has a lower opinion of them now. in addition, they must deal with this unseen robber. The referee a d12 on the Human column on the Hostile encounter table on page 138 to determine the offender. The attacker was a bounty hunter who attacked the wrong person based on incorrect information. The referee decides to spin this into the bounty hunter was intentionally given false information. This is a good setup for an adventure which the referee can run but for the sake of this exercise, we will do a series of checks to resolve the conflict. First, the party must track the bounty hunter down. The referee rules that the first week of gathering information on them is a 1 on a d6 and the range increases by +1 per passing week. week one they roll a 4, week 2 they roll a 5, week 3 they roll a 3. They finally track down the bounty hunter. the reaction the bounty hunter has is a 6 (try again) so attempt to force him to talk to them resulting in another 6, but this time two 3s are rolled meaning a Try Again But.. result so the player characters bribe the mercenary with 1,000 giving them a +1 to the next reaction check resulting in a 9 which the referee has the bounty hunter give the information on who hired the bounty hunter to attack the dwarf. the referee rolls a d8 on the Faction group table on page 58 and gets an 8, which is Special meaning Criminal Group/Magic User/Monster/etc. So the referee rules that a local criminal syndicate hired the hit and must confront them. Trevor and Victoria discuss that they could lock up the bounty hunter in their dungeon so the settlement knows justice has been done since the bounty hunter did do the crime but is also innocent for being tricked into doing it. The player characters decide that they will capture him and use him as an example. The referee rules that the bounty hunter refuses to go willingly. The Player characters act out combat and accidentally kill the bounty hunter. Oops! they drag him back to their stronghold and make a show of it so the settlement knows justice was served. The bounty hunter had 4,500 treasure with them in their camp so Victoria and Trevor add it to the stronghold treasure and split the xp from the gold evenly with each gaining 2,250 xp this turn. There is still the lingering issue of a crime syndicate nearby, and the player characters can choose to investigate the dwarf's connection to them if they desire. However the primary offender of the violence was shown to the masses to be brought to justice within one demesne turn so the settlement does not incur a morale penalty.

Current xp: Victoria: 520,250 and Trevor: 344,250

Turn 10 (Winter): Pop 2,510; Morale 8; Treasure is 10700 gp
- Holdover: The Mystery of the violent attack against the dwarven blacksmith is fresh in the player characters minds. Barrack Checks:
- Morale Check: Morale is 8, and the roll is a 4 (2,2) resulting in no change in population.
- Gain 2,510 gp in taxes; treasure is now 13210 gp
- Demesnes Encounter chance of 1 on a d6 since there was an encounter last turn. a 1 was rolled, resulting in another demesnes encounter. Monstrous threat seeking a new lair. The referee rolls on their game's wilderness encounter table and generates a DRAGON (!!!). The referee determines it is a Green Dragon.
- Obligation: the chance of an obligation is a 1-2 on a d12 this turn and the referee rolled a 1. The players are expected to pay their taxes which they will do. The taxes equal 2910 gp.
- The player characters decide to confront the green dragon and hope to negotiate that the dragon won't attack the player character's holding or settlements. The referee determines if the player characters offer it magic items, it would help with the negotiations. The PLayer characters decided to give away two magic items they are not using. The referee has the player characters travel to the location and determines that the players see the green dragon stalking them from a distance and lands as they approach the location of the dragon's lair. the referee rolls a reaction check and adds +1 to the roll and gets a 9, resulting in the dragon agreeing to being neutral towards the player characters and their domain...for the time being.

Turn 11 (Winter): Pop 2,510; morale 8; treasure is 10,300 gp
- Holdover: Barracks Check:
- Morale Check: a 6 is rolled, but two 3s were rolled so no change in population
- Gain 2,510gp in taxes (now 12,810)
- Demesnes Encounter: 1 on a d6 and a 6 on a d6 for a reputation roll. The referee rolls a  5, no encounter
- Obligation: 1-3 on a d12, the referee rolls a 4; no obligation
- The players decide to travel to their Liege Lord's stronghold to negotiate getting more land. They travel to the stronghold and when asked about gaining more land. Since the baroness has a disapproval of the player characters, the reaction roll gains a -1 penalty. the referee rolls a 10 where the referee determines that they gain 1d3 more hexes (Victoria can have a max of 7 mile hexes granted to here at her level and already has 4.) The referee rolls a 2, so the player characters now have a total of 2 more hex miles, one is planes and the other is forest.

Turn 12 (Winter): pop 2,510; morale 8, treasure 12,810 gp.
- Holdover: Barracks check:
- Morale Check: the referee rolls a 10, resulting in a population decrease of 60. Current population is now 2450
- Gain 2,450 gp in taxes
- Demesnes Encounter: 1-2 on a d6. the referee rolls a 6, which is a reputation encounter. The encounter is Courtier Comes to Court. The Courtier is a representative of a Magic-User with Neutral Intentions. The referee rules that the magic-user is from a powerful necromancer 25 miles away and seek to assist the player characters and develop a friendly relationship with this necromancer
- Obligation: 1-4 on a d12, the referee rolls a 5, no obligation this turn
- The PLayer characters decide to let the courtier stay and aid Trevor in learning the true name of a 3HD demon. The magic user is only 1st level but trevor can use them and his other Magic-user henchmen to aid with the research. Victoria invests in training the 80 zero-level fighters that make up the settlement henchmen to become first level. This will normally cost 800 gp, but the barracks allows for a reduction in cost to be 400 gp.