Updated Pages Overview New Compendium posts: Journey Rules Arrival Table Updated Compendium posts: Notoriety

Greetings, Knaves! I wish you all a Happy Holidays as I wrap up this year's work on the campaign! I've been working on more content since the Playtest ended. Some of it even made it onto the Forum along with some updates. Some things to look forward to soon: details on boons, the unveiling of the Brancalonia map, and two new sections of the Compendium - one will be a sort of encyclopedia/glossary about Brancalonia and the other will be a hex key for the map - both of which will be expanded upon during the campaign. Don't forget the following important dates: Sunday, February 4, 2024 - Deadline to submit an approved Knave. Please do not wait until this date to submit your Knave for the first time, unless you are 100% confident they will be approved. Sunday, February 18, 2024 - The campaign starts. Please let me know your questions and comments in the section below! That's all for now 👋 Until next year... For the bounty!

Arrival Table 1. (or less) Weary to Their Bones The journey has taken a heavy toll on the spirits of the band. The paths they have followed have shown them little that is good and have left them feeling tired and without hope. The memories of any good fortune they may have experienced along the way now seem distant and intangible. Each member of the company must make a Wisdom saving throw, (DC 12 + Peril Rating of the Journey) to avoid receiving 2 points of strife. If their path has led them through a place touched by Evil (10 on the Events table), the DC increases by an additional 2 points. 2. Empty Bellies Regardless of whether the band has enjoyed fine food throughout the journey, or has subsisted on cold, hard trail rations, their supplies dwindle rapidly during the final leg of their journey and they arrive at their destination feeling the pangs of hunger gnawing relentlessly at them. This hunger will be a distraction to them and everyone in the band gains a level of fatigue and all Supply is destroyed. 3. Arrival in Poor Spirits They are beset by foul moods and short tempers that they must work hard to throw off. Each has disadvantage on all ability checks of social interaction until they succeed on one of these rolls. This penalty will apply to Notoriety checks to Make Demands. If there is a single upside to this dark mood, they are so spoiling for a fight that each member of the band receives advantage on their Initiative rolls until they take a short rest. 4. An Uncertain Arrival The band's arrival is poorly timed or it may be that they are unsure if they have even arrived at the correct destination. They may arrive at a settlement late in the night after the gates have been barred, they may need to work hard to convince a watchman to allow them to enter, or they may have been certain that the bandit encampment that they were planning to scout before attacking it was still several miles away, only to find themselves almost in its midst. The mechanics for this result will vary greatly, depending on the nature of the destination. A short but desperate fight may be played out as the band struggles to overcome enemy guards before an alarm is raised. A Wisdom (Survival) check from the Guide to successfully navigate to the correct destination may be needed, with a failed roll resulting in all members of the band receiving a level of fatigue, as they are faced with additional long miles to reach their true destination. 5. A Long But Worthy Journey As the band nears the end of their journey they feel every mile they have walked in the aches and pains that beset their bodies. But the aches are good ones, the legacy of a path well walked to a worthy goal. As they arrive, their fatigue seems to slip away like mist on a summer morning, leaving them feeling refreshed and invigorated. As a result, each member of the band may immediately remove a level of fatigue. 6. Grimly Determined The many miles that the company has traveled have filled them with a sense of clear purpose regarding their goals, difficult though the path ahead may be. As a result, the Guide will receive a +1 bonus to their next Embarkation roll. 7. Tall Tales and Great Deeds The band arrives with the tales of their journey on their lips, their spirits high and their thoughts filled with fine memories. This joyous mood is contagious to all but the most dour of folk they may encounter. Accordingly, each member of the band has advantage on all ability checks of social interaction. This bonus will apply to Notoriety checks to Make Demands. The bonus will remain until they fail at one of these rolls. 8. (or more) Inspired and filled with Hope The Journey has served to reaffirm the band's dedication to their struggles and their bonds with each other. Together they have weathered hardships, faced dangers, and persevered and their faith in themselves and each other seems unshakeable. As a result, each member of the band may remove 2 points of strife and gain Inspiration.

Journey Rules A Band will often roam across the countryside and beyond during their jobs. But traveling is not simply a means of getting to a destination, nor something to be undertaken lightly. A great part of the life of a knave is spent on the road. Often, what distinguishes a knave from a common villager is the skills they possess to help them survive while on a journey. Knaves make various ability checks along the way, to deal with the various perils that may occur, as well as to determine how the rigors of travel may have affected them when they face their next challenge. Once a Band decides to undertake a significant journey from one place to another, the journey rules outlined here will be used. It may decide that a journey is either short enough, or familiar enough, that the journey rules need not be used, and they can happily be ignored to serve the pace of the game. The journey rules break down a journey into three distinct stages, each one influencing the one that follows it in some way. The first stage represents the Band embarking on the journey: plans are made, supplies gathered, maps studied and routes agreed upon. The Band decides between them who will undertake which roles on the road. But there is more to this stage than simply preparations. It also represents the Band's ability to stay to the course, to keep their spirits high, and may take into account the fickle nature of weather. In broad strokes, it gives a feeling of the overall tone of the journey from its outset. The second stage represents events arising, and the tasks carried out by members of the Band during the main part of the journey. Depending on the length of the journey, the Band will make one or more rolls that represent the challenges or opportunities that they find placed in their way. These rolls will determine both the nature and the magnitude of the encounters they will face and may require several of the Band to work together to overcome any challenges. The third stage of the journey is representative of the Band's arrival at its destination. The result of this final roll will determine whether the Band arrives in high spirits, full of tales of bold deeds, beautiful sunsets, and delicious meals cooked over open fires, or if they trudge the final miles, footsore and dispirited, backs bent under the weight of packs, silently brooding upon empty bellies, wrong turns, and poor choices. Journey Rules Summary Players assign their Knaves a role and plan a route. The Peril Rating of the journey is determined in secret. The Embarkation roll is made and the results are applied. Determine the number of Journey Events. A Journey Event roll is made and the event is played through, noting down the result for reference. Repeat Journey Event rolls until the number of Journey Events has been reached. The Arrival roll is made and results are applied. Step One: Embarkation When the Knaves have decided on a destination, they need to choose the best route to get there. Using the map of Brancalonia, they indicate the general route that they intend to follow. This determines the Peril Rating of the journey. The difficulty and danger of the journey are based on its length, the area and terrain traversed, and the season in which the journey is taking place (journeys in the cold months of the year are more strenuous than those in the warm ones). Brancalonia can be a perilous place, so the shortest route may not always be the safest. The Band must choose wisely what paths to follow. Players assign their Knaves a role for the journey, roughly summarising what they will be doing for the length of the trip. An experienced band differs from a novice group of knaves in the capability of its members to collaborate effectively. When traveling, the knaves usually divide up some of the duties according to ability. Roles of the Band The roles divided between the Band are as follows: Guide - In charge of all decisions concerning route, rest, and supplies. Guides rely on Wisdom and Survival proficiency. Explorer - In charge of setting up camp and opening new trails. Explorers rely on Stealth and Investigation. Provider - In charge of finding food in the wild. Providers rely on success with Survival checks. Look-out - In charge of keeping watch. Look-outs rely on their abilities in Perception. Except for the Band's Guide, more than one Knave may be assigned the same role (in other words, there may be more than one Knave acting as Look-outs), but normally no Knave may assume more than one role at the same time (posing as the Band's Provider AND Explorer, for example). If there’s more than one Knave assigned to a task then nominate a lead Explorer, Provider, or Look-out. That Knave is the one who makes the test and gains advantage from the assistance of the other Knaves performing the Help action on that task. If a role goes unfilled, any relevant tests for that task that come up are taken at a disadvantage. Determining the Peril Rating of a Journey Whichever type of terrain forms the majority of hexes through which the proposed route passes through determines the overall terrain type: Easy Terrain: 1 Mild/familiar terrain, extensively mapped with well-traveled roads and/or frequent settlements. Moderate Terrain: 2 Areas that the Band may have some knowledge of or that they may have traveled through once or twice. Broken terrain, scattered paths, and trails. Hard terrain: 3 Unfamiliar areas, deep forest, trackless wilderness. Severe Terrain: 4 High mountains and treacherous swamps. Daunting Terrain: 5 Areas tainted by Evil. The Mistide. Increase the level of terrain by one when traveling in winter conditions to a maximum of 5. The Peril Rating of the journey will not be revealed to the players and the outcome of the Embarkation roll will be a secret, instead paraphrased to them to give some hints of what may lie ahead of them on their Journey. Once the route is decided upon, and the Peril Rating of the journey has been determined, an Embarkation roll is made using a single d12. This roll is modified as follows: the Guide’s Survival proficiency bonus plus half their Wisdom bonus, minus the Peril Rating of the journey. The result of the roll is used on the Embarkation table. Beasts and Boats When traveling, Knaves may ease their toil by bringing beasts to carry their burdens or may journey on boats when along a river, lake, or sea. If the Band travels aboard boats or is equipped with beasts for the greater part of their journey, ignore the first level of exhaustion incurred while on the Journey. Knaves looking for such assistance must be able to afford the expense. Note that many places in Brancalonia exist where beasts are unwilling to venture. Reluctant beasts can be coaxed over a mountain pass with a Wisdom (Animal Handling) test against a DC 15 in Summer and Autumn, DC 20 in Spring, and DC 25 in Winter. Step 2: Journey Events During the journey, members of the Band may be called upon to use their wit and talents to ensure that the journey does not fall to ruin. There are times when a single member of the Band may have to overcome a challenge alone whereas at other times several Knaves may need to work together to be successful. On a short journey, the Band will typically be faced with 1-2 events, on a medium journey, 2-3 and on a long journey 3-5. The number of events is influenced by the Peril Rating of the journey, with more dangerous journeys leading to a higher number of challenges. Determining the Number of Challenges The number of challenges to be faced is determined as follows: Short Journey (1-10 hexes on the Brancalonia Map): 1d2 number of challenges. Medium Journey (11-30 hexes on the Brancalonia Map): 1d2+1 number of challenges. Long Journey (31+ hexes on the Brancalonia Map): 1d3+2 number of challenges. Note that Long Journeys are extremely hazardous and likely to put Knaves in extreme danger. A wiser Band will break their journey into shorter, more manageable legs, with short rests at Havens in between. Journeys through predominantly Easy terrain result in a -1 modifier to this roll, to a minimum of 1. Journeys through predominantly Hard or Severe terrain result in a +1 modifier to this roll. Journeys through predominantly Daunting Terrain result in a +2 modifier to this roll. This roll is made in secret so the players will not know the number of challenges they will face. The Journey Events table gives a range of possible events. The lower numbers represent minor events whilst the higher numbers indicate some important or momentous occurrence. In all cases, the DC of checks made during a journey is determined by adding the Peril Rating of the journey to a base of 12. Therefore, on a journey with a Peril Rating of 3 (unfamiliar areas, deep forest, and so on) the DC of all checks would be (12+3) 15. To determine what happens in each event of the journey, a single d12 is rolled. The result may be modified by the Embarkation roll, or previous events on this or prior journeys. The result of a roll is used on the Journey Events table. Step Three: The Arrival As the Band completes its journey they make a roll to determine their overall mood and demeanour. Dependent upon the exhortations of the Guide, the difficulty of the terrain they have traveled, and the company’s successes or failures upon the road, they may be in high spirits or despondent; full of vigor or footsore and weary. They may have fine tales to tell, or they may be gritting their teeth and silently scowling at any folk with whom they must interact. This roll is additionally modified depending on the difficulty of the majority of the terrain that the company crossed, as follows: Easy Terrain: +1 to the Arrival roll Moderate Terrain: No modifier to the Arrival roll Hard or Severe Terrain: -1 to the Arrival roll Daunting Terrain: -2 to the Arrival roll To determine the outcome, a single d8 is rolled. Apply any modifiers from the Embarkation roll and the terrain of the journey, and then compare the result with the Arrival table. Tracking Time Usually, knowing the exact duration of a journey is not very important. The Band travels for days or weeks, and pays little heed to the exact date or how many days precisely the journey took. However, there may come situations where knowing the exact count of days is important – say, the Band is trying to reach a fortress before enemies besiege it in seven days. In such cases, the first step is to work out the effective length of the journey. Each hex on the Brancalonia Map is 10 miles across, but a mile of thick forest takes longer to cross than a mile of open ground. The Travel Time table below gives multipliers for the various terrain types. Travel Time Difficulty The traversed terrain is mostly... Modifier Very Easy good road* x0.5 Easy open terrain, well-trodden track or path, plains, meadows, on a boat along a navigable river x1 Moderate pathless wilderness, hills, sparse woods, bogs x1.5 Hard marshes, wastes, fells, woods with good tracks** x2 Severe dense woods, very rough ground, any road or path in Plutonia** x3 Daunting densest wood, desert, blighted or ruined land, mountain passes x5 *Traveling across a distance on a good road gives a modifier of x0.5, halving the time needed to cover the entire route, regardless of the terrain. **A Band cannot advance through woods or dense woods riding horses. The traveling Knaves must dismount and proceed by leading their horses on foot. Divide the outcome of the Travel Time by the Travel Speed of the Band, rounding all fractions to the nearest whole number. The result is equal to the expected length of the journey in days. The table below shows the distance covered in miles by a Band in an average day of travel. Travel Speed Band traveling... Miles per Day on foot 20 riding horses 40 using boats on a river 20 downstream, 5-10 against the current

Greetings, Knaves! I'm going to start where this all began back in January. Please help me decide which campaign to GM on Baldr I created this post because I had two goals for this year: Learn to use Baldr GM a campaign (one out of eight selected via poll) On February 12, the poll closed and Brancalonia had nearly a third of the votes making it the winner. And on February 18, I opened the Game Forum for those who voted for the campaign to join. Since that time, as I have slowly fleshed out the Game Forum, I feel confident with using Baldr now. However, I must admit that I will not reach my second goal. It's not as bad as it sounds. I just will not be reaching that goal this year. That's because the official start of the campaign will begin on the anniversary of the Game Forum opening. On Sunday, February 18, 2024, I will be dropping the first post of the campaign. You probably have some questions, so I'm going to try to cover as many as I think would be asked. What does that mean about the Playtest? The Playtest is over. Although I did not get to test the combat rules (we never even got to the combat 🙈), I really learned a lot about using Owlbear Rodeo. I also learned a lot about how it's going to take time for everyone to feel more comfortable using it, so that has given me ideas about how to best design and run combats. Who is invited to play? @SMARTAgentKC and @Shocker have been here since the beginning and they already have approved Knaves, so they are in. @guitarist still needs to submit an approved Knave. @Wizard of the Coat and @Morphling are invited to join and will need to submit an approved Knave. @Mizukami has been on standby since February and has not been active online since March. However, if they return and submit an approved Knave in time, then they will be joining as well. When is the deadline to submit an approved Knave? The deadline is February 4, 2024 - two weeks before the campaign starts. You mentioned something about Boons for participating in the Playtest. What's happening with those? More details about Boons will be provided before the campaign starts. Boons are not character-defining powers so you don't need to know what they provide when creating your Knave. Boons are useful for any type of Knave. Are you going to resume the weekly campaign progress updates? No. I think a comfortable rate for me at this point is to provide monthly updates about changes to the Game Forum. Will the Adventuring and Combat sections of the Compendium be completed by the start of the campaign? No, because I'm okay with leaving most of these sections as a work in progress that can be fine-tuned once the campaign starts. For some of the information that will go in these two sections, I think I need to be playing the campaign to find what is going to work best for us. As much as I'd like for the Compendium to feel more complete, I have to be honest with myself and you all that I don't think I will ever feel like it is complete. I've recently accepted that because I don't want that to be the reason why the campaign is continually delayed from starting. The Compendium is in a great place right now and there is no reason why we should not be playing even though some portions have not been completed. So then why are we not starting the campaign sooner? It's the holiday season, I'm still recovering from whatever I caught, I have a good chance of getting a promotion in the next few weeks, and we only have two accepted Knaves so far (Ren Gunther and Giacomo). For those reasons, I think it would be best to hold off on the campaign starting until Sunday, February 18, 2024. What are your posting expectations once the campaign starts? 2-3 posts per week if your Knave is actively involved in the situation at hand (such as a conversation between just your Knave and an NPC), 1-2 posts per week for combat and all other situations. I do not expect you to provide lengthy content for every post. Just as long as you maintain the Themes presented in the Game Expectations. The greatest of these Themes is "Light-Hearted Tone" because my aim is that this campaign has a good deal of comical moments throughout. That doesn't mean that you can not play a serious Knave. Please understand then that your Knave's role will be more of the "straight man" to provide a contrast to the comedic things that are happening around them. In that sense, a serious Knave can be an invaluable part of this kind of campaign. I think I missed all those important dates - what were they again? Sunday, February 4, 2024 - Deadline to submit an approved Knave. Please do not wait until this date to submit your Knave for the first time, unless you are 100% confident that they will be approved. Sunday, February 18, 2024 - The campaign starts. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments in the section below! That's all for now 👋 Until next time... For the bounty!

Be well soon.

yeah man, just letting us know you're still kicking (even if it is under some blankets and a cold compress on the forehead)

Take care! And thanks for keeping us posted.

I swear I have not forgotten about you all! How could I? After taking care of my sick family members, I am now sick 🤧 I think about this campaign every day and I'm committed to updating you all on what is coming next ASAP! I'm so sorry for the delay 🙏

Full disclosure: I have not caught up on posts and private messages yet. However, a huge announcement is coming soon 😁

aye, we can wait, family and real life first

Don’t worry, family is more important than a game.

I know, right 😅 I've got a sick wife and kids, so my hands are full! I promise that I will try to find some time to get back here.

No worries. Life happens, right? But thanks for the update.

Sorry for the extended wait! I'm a bit swamped at home, but I will catch up here by tomorrow evening.

Iata hunches down and stalks across the crumbling parapet, taking the time to look for any threats.

Dalrom Chetsk - AC 18 | HP 27/27 | Initiative: -1 | Spell Slots 3/2 Condition: Concentrating on Shield of Faith over Hadrian Dalrom slowly advanced keeping an eye out for anything judging by Enzio's signals he figured the halfling rogue saw something and informed the others who were now taking it cautiously. Dalrom was ready for combat

Enzio Belch - Small of Stature, Large of Personality (Halfling Rogue--Thief) AC 14 | HP 21/21 | Init +3 | Passive Perception 12 | Hit Die 3/3 | Inspiration 1/1 | Arrows 20/20 Enzio shrugged and nodded before sneaking after Hadrian. The human generally had good sense, and Enzio preferred to let others do the thinking in situations like this. The halfling found tactics and strategic thinking rather exhausting. His eyes darted about as he went, fearful of tiefling ambushers, but that thought turned his attention back to the lavender-skinned female, and he soon forgot all about ambushers. OOC Enzio will use stealth to follow Hadrian.

Hadrian, Human Fighter AC 14, Initiative +3, 28/28 HP, 13 Passive perception "Following somebody into a possible ambush sounds like a recipe for disaster, but meeting them from the other side, might be more succesful. How about we cut through the courtyard towards that spot you mentioned?" Hadrian carefully moves 30 ft toward the opposite corner of the fortification without making to much noise, trying to take a peak around the corner. to see if he can get a better picture. --- OOC with a natural one I assume that attempt at stealth might be not overly successful. After making a racket Hadrian will curse loudly.

No problem 👌

Glad I had the little guy open his mouth and blurt out the news. Apologies, the OOC text indicating he's moving stealthily was a "quote" error. Now that we're in combat mode, I'll make a new post with his action and move.

Enzio warned the others as a free action and then can make a move and an action. I see that you have created the path for Enzio. Using both a move and an action to move stealthily at half-speed, I will move Enzio's position once everyone else has taken their turn. I wanted Enzio to "go first" because he needed to decide if/how to alert the others, that way we know who is alerted because those not alerted only get an action. But now everyone is alerted and gets both a move and an action 👍

My previous post (warning the other PCs) had a move attached to it. Did that occur? I see on the map that you didn't update Enzio's position.