The Out-of-Character Chat Thread

[Kazic5000]

Hmmm. That's a steep price for a bad gamble. 25% chance to get on the table, 15% to even see the item, then a 30% chance to even be able to afford it. It's too much money right now.

Mainly I just wanted one because if we're gonna have to be dealing with spirits squatting in our new property, Badmaw and Pen are gonna struggle to damage them. But maybe holy water is a more sure investment for that department. Or perhaps we could ask around the portal if anyone can cast the magic weapon spell for us when we go in? @Kamishiro_Rin

Also @Doggie_arf I think the detect good and evil spell with help a lot with clearing out spirits. Those bastards love to pop out of walls, and if Rurik knows which walls they're coming from, it'll save us a lot of headache.

Also also, no problem with the cash conversions yall. I've been looking to do that since we picked up that first loot in the tavern. I think I may have missed the sewer gobbo loot, though. I'll go back and check my math before we start the next chapter.

[Kamishiro_Rin]

1 hour ago, Kazic5000 said:

Hmmm. That's a steep price for a bad gamble. 25% chance to get on the table, 15% to even see the item, then a 30% chance to even be able to afford it. It's too much money right now.

Mainly I just wanted one because if we're gonna have to be dealing with spirits squatting in our new property, Badmaw and Pen are gonna struggle to damage them. But maybe holy water is a more sure investment for that department. Or perhaps we could ask around the portal if anyone can cast the magic weapon spell for us when we go in?

Keep in mind that you are only second level. Even getting a hold of a +1 rapier before 4th or 5th level is going to be . . . unlikely . . . at best.

I don't pay much mind to the treasure sections in modules because they're entirely too sparse and miserly, and I firmly believe that the recommended number of treasure hoards that players are supposed to find as suggested in the DMG aren't just suggestions, but rules DMs really ought to abide by pretty fastidiously. So you'll be getting a lot more treasure than the module recommends, already. If I roll a +1 weapon, your +1 rapier will be first on the list.

@zaffo, @astronavigatrix, @Doggie_arf, @Peacemonger, this goes for you all, too. If you would, take a look at Magic Item Tables A through F and list up to 3 items you'd really like for your character to acquire by level 5, and rank them from most desired to least. I make no promises whatsoever as to whether you'll get any of them, but when I roll up treasure, it helps me to know what to replace in the hoards I roll for you, assuming I find the request reasonable. And the more reasonable the wish-list, the higher the likelihood I'll grant it.

As it stands, the DMG recommends that you earn 7 hoards by level 5. I think I've rolled you one such hoard, so far. So we're on track-ish. Not to mention you just got a home base!

Edit: Case in point: I've learned my lesson from my Dragonlance game. NONE OF YOU is getting a Staff of the Python, at least, not in this module! NOPE!

Edited February 21 by Kamishiro_Rin (see edit history)

[Peacemonger]

I'm far from an expert at DnD, but yes, anything summoning can be a game changer. Adding both Amberlyn's shopping and Amberyln's desired magic items from the Tables.

Poor farm girl got money, and the only thing to keep her from blowing it all is she doesn't actually know how to spend that much. Will post today or tomorrow in the new thread describing her week.

[astronavigatrix]

13 hours ago, Peacemonger said:

@Kazic5000: Thanks! That converting everything helps a lot.

 

@Kamishiro_Rin: Will there be enough downtime to sell/buy things? Now that I know how rich they are, I've some ideas for Amberlyn, but only when she's a day or two to go about the city. Specifically, she wants a glow up. Clothes, bathing, perfume, hair, the works.

Rani hears a makeover montage incoming and she is HERE for it-

[Peacemonger]

Makeover montage! When I post will also try I include something for each of the party, you know all that good downtime bonding to make for a stronger team dynamic.

@Kamishiro_Rin: Since Amberlyn is proficient in and owns carpenter's tools, any rolls needed for starting to fix the building? Also put in some starting gold for the cause.

[Doggie_arf]

Rurik is proficient in mason's tools. And is going to shop for some too during his shopping montage.

Nothing as ostentatious as what Amberlyn (and Rani) are considering since he is a dwarf of the cloth, but he is going to need new clothes thanks to that sewer dive.

[Kamishiro_Rin]

   Okay, so the next chapter (Trollskull Alley) centers around one or more of the many varied factions making contact with your character and granting quests for you. After you’ve completed a number of these quests, you level up to 3. In fact, these organizations will contact you with new quests at each level hereafter, as well.

   So, just one of you has a “Factions” entry in your app (Rurik, who mentioned the Harpers potentially gaining interest in him—and yes, they have), are any of you interested in any other factions. For Pen, I know that I can have Force Grey contact him—in fact, Force Grey will be contacting the party and have a quest for you as part of the module.

   How about Ouránia, Amberlyn, and Badmaw?

   Options of course are: the Emerald Enclave, Force Grey (the Gray Hands—these are the police force for Waterdeep), the Harpers, the Lords’ Alliance, and the Order of the Gauntlet. You might notice one of them conspicuously missing . . . well, that’s because they’re one of the antagonists of the campaign, and I’m not into having any of you join them.

Edited February 22 by Kamishiro_Rin (see edit history)

[Peacemonger]

For Amberlyn, taking a quick read through them, I see the Order of the Gauntlet being the best fit given her powers and temperament, with a philosophy she can grow into. The Harpers could also work

 

EDIT: Oh no! Guilds and red tape! I'll wait for others to post, but I'll make a note in my next post that Amberlyn's "roll up her sleeves and do things herself" mentality gets shut down quick, and she's both confused and upset by these city folk and their odd ways of doing things. 😆

Edited February 22 by Peacemonger (see edit history)

[astronavigatrix]

Can I just say, I'm picturing Amberlynn giving the ghost the Velma 'you stop that' vibe-

[Kazic5000]

@Kamishiro_Rin Are the regular expenses cancelled out if we break even? Could we build a stable out back for my donkey and perhaps other animals? Can I use my background feat to try to find information on a source of cheaper resources to try and offset some of these costs? If we include room and board for our employees, can we offset our recurring costs and perhaps get a bonus to our profit roll? Can I intimidate that asshole Justyn into doing his job properly without the gratuity? Can I climb down the yawning portal to retrieve the head of the troll we killed, and perhaps turn it into a fountain where it looks like it's drinking out of a big tankard?

And concerning factions- I think the emerald enclave or maybe the harpers might have words with Badmaw concerning his poaching if they ever find out. Force Gray or the Lord's Alliance may have heard of his involvement with the Zhentarim warehouse raid, and offer him more work killing Zhents.

[Kamishiro_Rin]

On 2/22/2024 at 1:21 AM, Peacemonger said:

Since Amberlyn is proficient in and owns carpenter's tools, any rolls needed for starting to fix the building? Also put in some starting gold for the cause.

On 2/22/2024 at 9:28 AM, Doggie_arf said:

Rurik is proficient in mason's tools. And is going to shop for some too during his shopping montage.

   Yes! Make a DC 11 Carpenter’s Tools check (for Amberlyn) and a DC 10 Mason’s Tools check (for Rurik) with either strength or dexterity—your choice, but strength should apply more to a lot of standard carpentry/heavy masonry, whereas dexterity should apply to more complex joinery and carving work just as a guide for flavoring your posts. Repeat the roll 12 times to represent the 12 days of work. Each success represents 1d100+50 gp knocked off the fixing up the place.

   For those of you who do NOT have any tools proficiencies, you can still contribute by doing unskilled labor on the place under the direction of other masons and carpenters. Knock 1d20+10 off the price for each success. These are all DC 11 Strength or Dexterity checks—again, your choice, and you should flavor your posts with either more heavy labor or more skilled labor, but you cannot apply your proficiency bonus to the rolls.

6 hours ago, Kazic5000 said:

Are the regular expenses cancelled out if we break even?

   That seems to be what that means. Any of the profit entries also mean that the expenses/tenday are not charged.

6 hours ago, Kazic5000 said:

Could we build a stable out back for my donkey and perhaps other animals?

   Sure, but you’ll need to add 100 gp to the cost of the fixing up + 2 gp/tenday (negotiated down from 5) to the owner of the building next to you to rent their land, which is the only space you can find to build the stable (see the map), and an agreement that their own customers have free use of the stable as well—and at least 4 if you don’t agree to let their customers use your stable.

6 hours ago, Kazic5000 said:

Can I use my background feat to try to find information on a source of cheaper resources to try and offset some of these costs?

   Because the cost of construction services tends to be within the same range, I’d say that you can use your background feature to source some people who are willing to cut you some slack. Roll 2d20 and you may subtract 1% for every 2 you roll (round down)—so if you roll a 14 or a 15, you may subtract 7% off the base cost of the 1000 gp, before everyone else does their own work to reduce the price. You could roll up to 40, coming out to 20% off, but at minimum, you’ll roll 1% off (minimum roll of 2 on 2d20).

6 hours ago, Kazic5000 said:

If we include room and board for our employees, can we offset our recurring costs and perhaps get a bonus to our profit roll?

   In terms of building costs, unfortunately, all your builders/refurbishers are residents of Waterdeep, so no action on that front.

   You could provide the spare room on the second floor for one employee, unless you all want to bunk together to open up one of the bedrooms (there are 4)—so really, you’re going to have to do that anyway, since there are five of you. But again, your employees would also already live in the city, unless you’re specifically looking for an employee from out of town.

   Thus, this won’t work out to reduce your weekly costs of running the place.

6 hours ago, Kazic5000 said:

Can I intimidate that asshole Justyn into doing his job properly without the gratuity?

   Yes.

6 hours ago, Kazic5000 said:

Can I climb down the yawning portal to retrieve the head of the troll we killed, and perhaps turn it into a fountain where it looks like it's drinking out of a big tankard?

   Yes.

6 hours ago, Kazic5000 said:

Lord's Alliance may have heard of his involvement with the Zhentarim warehouse raid, and offer him more work killing Zhents.

   The Lords’ Alliance it is!

Edited February 23 by Kamishiro_Rin (see edit history)

[astronavigatrix]

I think Rani would be best suited for the Emerald Enclave or the Harpers, though either organization would have a time convincing her... though all things considered maybe having some people who can keep eyes out on her behalf as well would be helpful too.

[Kazic5000]

If we treat our first tenday payment as a up front expense, and invest into promotion we can minimize our potential losses.

1–20     You made a loss of 90 gp this tenday - Investing 10g in this eliminates 30g of potential loss

21–30     You made a loss of 60 gp this tenday - Investing 20g eliminates 60g of potential loss

31–40     You made a loss of 30 gp this tenday - 30g. Will always let us "break even", replacing our standard tenday expenses of 60g with 30g.

Chances in rolls (1-20 20% chance of roll, -30g result) 100% loss (21-40 19% -25 to 0) 84.3% loss, 16.6% to truly break even. (41-50 9%, -20 to 50) 26.6% loss, 1/15 TBE, 66.6% profit (51-100 49% -15 to 120) 10.7% loss, 1/28 TBE, 85.7% profit
43.4%loss, TBE, 47.8%profit
4.4% profit margin

41–60     You broke even this tenday - Investment of 50g (effectively costing 45g because we will always get some return)

Chances in rolls (1-20 20% -45 to -15) 100% loss (21-30 9% -40 to 30) 53.3 loss 1/15 TBE 40% profit (31-100 69% -35 to 100) 25% loss 1/28 TBE 71.4% profit
41.9%loss, %TBE, 52.8%profit
10.9% profit margin pretty good. Small businesses average 10%

61–80     You covered your business costs and earned a profit of 1d6 × 5 gp. Investment of 70g (Effectively 60g because of lowest possible return.)

Chances in rolls (1-10 10% -60 to 20) 80% loss, 6.6% TBE, 13.3% profit. (11-100 89% -60 to 90) 42.8% loss 1/28 TBE, 53.5% profit
46% Loss, %TBE, 47.6%profit
1.6% Not a good profit margin for our size

81–90     You covered your business costs and earned a profit of 2d8 × 5 gp. Investment of 80g (Effectively 65g)
Will always roll at least 91 (-65 to 70) 46.4% 3.5%TBE 50%profit
3.6% still not great.

These are ballpark figures. I'm sure there's rounding errors in there, I'm not an accountant. Feel free to check my math

TLDR We should pay all our upfronts, the first tenday fees, and spend 50g on promotion every tenday for highest payouts.

Edited February 23 by Kazic5000 (see edit history)

[astronavigatrix]

...god, math people are so cool.

[Kazic5000]

4 hours ago, astronavigatrix said:

...god, math people are so cool.

😎 My buddy is quite fond of calling this game 'Spreadsheets and Dragons'.

Also @Kamishiro_Rin You mentioned you wanted 1-3 magic item choices from each of us. In addition to the magic rapier I'd also be interested in a strength booster like gauntlets of ogre power or belt of giant strength, and a ring of free action