I'm currently moving through the goods & services offered by each feature and, as you can imagine with 92 features, there's a metric shit-load of equipment and services available (don't get me started on the craft guild stuff...).

I have a question. I need to detail stuff like weapons, armour, shields etc because they have a direct mechanical bearing on the game. I am also detailing critters such as hounds, horse, hunting birds etc. That'll make the equipment chapter large enough. Do i need to detail all the rest? Stuff that is there for flavour but doesn't have a mechanical effect or do i leave it abstract?

Some of the goods & services are open to interpretation. Rather than put a rigid explanation on them, is it better to leave the customer to decide what the specifics are?

As an example, here's the goods & services section of the Aviary Towers feature.

Goods: hawking gloves (3 bits), raptor hood (3 pennies), birdseed, bag (6 pennies), box of mice (2 bits), untrained homing pigeon (5 crowns), sandy hawk (12 crowns), bat-hunting owl (50 crowns), songbird (10 crowns), giant shrike (40 crowns), belfry bird (15 crowns), raven (30 crowns), crimson parrot (25 crowns)

Services: Sending messages (3 bits), Caging & Feeding (1 penny per cage per day), Training (4 pennies per day), Training a pigeon to home to a location (15 crowns per week)

Seen in public for the very first time, here is a complete feature entry, in all it's glory (or not ). This entry is a bit longer than most of the others, but serves to show exactly what you can expect to find when you choose a feature for your character.

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41Aviary Towers

"Great Narda preserve us!" exclaimed Mistress Wingover. To make sure she had not misread, her eyes darted across the small piece of parchment once more. Ariel had flown in at first light, the tightly rolled message strapped to her leg. The news it brought sent a shiver down Wingover's spine. Yes, there was no denying it - Duke Hornblower himself had written the message in a shaky hand, unused to the codes of the tower. The great chamber of gears that had been found had started to activate, huge cogs engaging with spindles and winches. Suddenly, unknown passages had opened and hordes of vermin had emerged, low rumbling had rocked the area and vicious lightning had destroyed the Duke's aviary tower. He asked for advice. Could Mistress Wingover give it?

With a determined set to her mouth, she proceeded to do her best, inscribing tiny characters onto a fresh piece of parchment, codified to protect against spies.      

Player Character Information
Stat Mods: Pragmatism +1
Occupational Skills: Animal Husbandry – birds (Pragmatism) 3, Animal Care (Pragmatism) 2, Codes & Ciphers (Reasoning) 2, Animal Training – birds (Pragmatism) 1
Status: 3

Goods: hawking gloves (3 bits), raptor hood (3 pennies), birdseed, bag (6 pennies), box of mice (2 bits), untrained homing pigeon (5 crowns), sandy hawk (12 crowns), bat-hunting owl (50 crowns), songbird (10 crowns), giant shrike (40 crowns), belfry bird (15 crowns), raven (30 crowns), crimson parrot (25 crowns)

Services: Sending messages (3 bits), Caging & Feeding (1 penny per cage per day), Training (4 pennies per day), Training a pigeon to home to a location (15 crowns per week)

Description

Dotted here and there in the Stone Horizons these towers are put over to the usage of men and women who train and look after the birds of the local area. This is not an altruistic act, however, the birds are put to use carrying messages to far off places (which is much quicker and more efficient than sending a letter with a merchant caravan or porter) and hunting vermin. Most aviary towers are lofty affairs with open roofs so that the birds can come and go without difficulty, but the smallest might be just a row of cages on top of another feature's roof. Aviary Towers are noisy places, especially at dawn and dusk when the captive birds' songs ring out the loudest. They also have a distinctive acidic odour due to the bird droppings that are cleaned up regularly.  

There are normally one or two chambers put aside for the transcribing of messages. These chambers also hold mysterious tomes that hold the codes used by the bird trainers in their correspondences. Prospective spies should beware, as cracking these codes is no easy matter.

Because of the services they provide, it is only natural that local power groups utilise Aviary Towers. As a result, they can become centres of intrigue and espionage, as rival groups try to catch each other out and intercept messages. Some towers become centres of insurgencies, rebellion or resistance. Being able to coordinate the movements of troops and agents is a powerful tool. Most towers remain peaceful, however, and resist overtures by powerful local agencies.

A Day in the Life

If you live with birds, you're an early riser. The cacophony of the dawn chorus in the confines of the tower is enough to wake the dead. After a brief repast, the trainers feed the birds and replenish birdbaths and trays with water. Next is the apprentices favourite time of day – mucking out. If there are gardens or orchards nearby, the waste is transported there in return for a morsel or two of food, otherwise, watch out below.

Once the morning chores are over, the day is spent in training the birds to carry messages, training them to return to their coops and stretching the wings of the raptors so that when they are sold to noble patrons, they can hawk with the best of them. The day normally sees a small trickle of visitors wanting to send messages to other towers and features that have a homing pigeon. Discretion is assured, but not always given, in transcribing these messages into code small enough to be wrapped around a pigeon's leg. You can find a strange assortment of folk visiting the tower at all times of day, availing themselves of this service.

When dusk comes, the birds roost – another noisy time of day, and the workforce go about their own business, some of which is clandestine at times. The dorms of the workforce are located below the lofts. The walls are normally draped with thick rugs to dampen the sound of the birds somewhat. It doesn't work, but it keeps the workers sane.

Local Area

There are no special instructions for this feature.

GM Information – Problems, Politics & NPCs

Roll once on the Politics table (see Problems & Politics) and then create another problem as usual. Implement both results.

Quote from: One Horse Town;284113Seen in public for the very first time, here is a complete feature entry, in all it's glory (or not ). This entry is a bit longer than most of the others, but serves to show exactly what you can expect to find when you choose a feature for your character.

Sweet, Dan! Question - could they use their hawks to intercep another tower's messenger birds? I guarantee that would be my players' first question.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;284121Sweet, Dan! Question - could they use their hawks to intercep another tower's messenger birds? I guarantee that would be my players' first question.

-clash

Sounds feasible to me. Animal Training test! Of course, if they're trying to bring down Speckled Jim, they'll need to get 3 successes - he's a tricky bugger.

Mrs. Wingover - "Never in the field of avian conflict, have so many owed so much to so few,"

Quote from: One Horse Town;284125Sounds feasible to me. Animal Training test! Of course, if they're trying to bring down Speckled Jim, they'll need to get 3 successes - he's a tricky bugger.

Mrs. Wingover - "Never in the field of avian conflict, have so many owed so much to so few,"

Hehe!

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;284130Hehe!

-clash

Any thoughts on explaining goods & services? I truly don't think it's feasible given the breadth of stuff available. But that means that the exact nature of some items will be left to folk's discretion.

Quote from: One Horse Town;284131Any thoughts on explaining goods & services? I truly don't think it's feasible given the breadth of stuff available. But that means that the exact nature of some items will be left to folk's discretion.

That isn't a bug, it's a feature! Give them enough to base an informed judgment call on, and you're golden.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;284137That isn't a bug, it's a feature! Give them enough to base an informed judgment call on, and you're golden.

-clash

That's what i figured.

A tiny re-adjustment to the features table again - i've got rid of Stone Trawlers Guildhouse (too similar in nature to Trailblazers Camp) and replaced it with Gaming Dens. Gotta have some career card-sharps!

Quote from: One Horse Town;284340That's what i figured.

A tiny re-adjustment to the features table again - i've got rid of Stone Trawlers Guildhouse (too similar in nature to Trailblazers Camp) and replaced it with Gaming Dens. Gotta have some career card-sharps!

Good call!

-clash

Here's a sample disease from the Problems & Politics section of Veiled Horizons.

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Blind Man's Rheum

This unpleasant condition affects the eyes of the victim. Fluid builds up around the eyes, causing them to swell shut in some cases. The victim's eyesight deteriorates from faint blurring to near-total blindness.

Contraction: It is thought that washing in polluted water causes this condition – tiny organisms burrow into the skin around the eyes. These organisms seem to like water downstream from Purification Works, and Dying and Tanning factories, but can be found in areas where human waste is discarded into the water system.

Virulence: 1

Incubation Period: It takes between 48-72 hours for the victim's immune system to attack the bugs. Inflammation follows.

Short Term Effects: 1 die penalty to sight based Perception tests and work that requires fine detail. After 1 week, the victim makes another Physique test. If he fails, he then suffers a 2 dice penalty to these tests. Furthermore, all Bearing tests suffer a 1-dice penalty.

Long Term Effects: After 2 weeks, the victim makes another Physique test, if he succeeds, then he recovers in the next week with no lasting effects. If he fails, he suffers a permanent 3 dice penalty to sight based Perception tests and work that requires fine detail.

Cures: A Potency 1 Apothecary Cure rids the victim of the disease with no ill effects if applied within 2 weeks of contraction. It is also thought that dripping vinegar into the eye cures the victim, but not many are brave enough to try it. More fanciful alleged remedies include bandaging the eyes with a compact made from crushed barley, cat's urine, and cream, leaving a calf's head on the bank of a river as an offering, and staring at a candle flame until it burns out.

Another little feature shuffle...Alchemists Tents are out - the Laboratories feature is now Alchemists Laboratories (they had near identical skill sets anyhow). The Alchemists Tents feature is being replaced by Menageries.

81Sewer-Jacks Tunnel Houses

"Got a floater here, boss!" yelled Mr. Muckraker.

"Tell me something I don't know," laughed the overseer sourly.

"No, I mean a body, like. You know, a floater."

The overseer waded over to the junior sewer-jack, watching as he snagged the clothes of the body with his pole. They dragged the unfortunate to the side of the tunnel where there was at least some dry land. "Look here," muttered the overseer, "he's been stabbed and chucked in the drink."

"Ooh, nasty business that. They say that the Midnight Mangler is about again. Maybe 'e done it." Said Muckraker.

"Don't be daft," scoffed the overseer, "now, let's see what he's got in his pockets."

Now that everyone has got the idea (long ago, i suspect) and we're moving towards the end-game, i'm going to stop posting direct passages of the book. Instead, i'll be telling you what i've been doing.

Today, i've mainly been creating names for different types of beer and coming up with some exotic animals that characters might come across. Who wants to stumble apon a Sabre-toothed padhound in the dark?

Today i am mainly expanding the Goods & Services chapter, explaining the monetary system and expounding on the idiocy of punching someone who is wearing heavy armour.

BTW, Clash, i suspect this wasn't in your playtest document. It was in my head, if that's any consolation.

20 copper pennies = 1 silver bit
100 copper pennies = 1 gold crown
5 silver bits = 1 gold crown

Quote from: One Horse Town;285388Today i am mainly expanding the Goods & Services chapter, explaining the monetary system and expounding on the idiocy of punching someone who is wearing heavy armour.

BTW, Clash, i suspect this wasn't in your playtest document. It was in my head, if that's any consolation.

20 copper pennies = 1 silver bit
100 copper pennies = 1 gold crown
5 silver bits = 1 gold crown

I thought I had somehow missed it...

-clash