juergen_hubert

Yeah, if I were to do this, I would use QGIS.

4

Pathfinder 2E has a very similar power curve as D&D 5E. In fact, it might even be worse for Brancalonia as characters basically get their level as a flat bonus on everything.

Jürgen Hubert @ttrpg.network 1mo ago

Sounds like a fun game!

I am personally not overly enarmored of OSR rule systems, but I'm a sucker for good worldbuilding and worldbuilding tools - I buy Sine Nomine Publishing stuff unseen, for instance. Maybe I should give this a closer look.

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Jürgen Hubert @ttrpg.network 1mo ago

Ouch! That sounded rough. But I'm glad you learned some valuable lessons from it.

Jürgen Hubert @ttrpg.network 1mo ago

My work straddles the dividing line between fiction and nonfiction - I translate old German folk tales into English.

The "creative writing" aspect is in the commentary - these tales were told in a context that is very different from what a modern audience is used to, and thus I need to explain the cultural, geographical, and historical nuances to my readers.

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Jürgen Hubert @ttrpg.network 1mo ago

Darauf antworte ich mit Art. 14 (2) des Grundgesetzes:

"Eigentum verpflichtet. Sein Gebrauch soll zugleich dem Wohle der Allgemeinheit dienen."

Also, wie halten wir es denn mit der Vermögenssteuer?

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Jürgen Hubert @ttrpg.network 2mo ago

They were fascinated by the fork.

Or possibly disgusted. Either way is good. 😁

Jürgen Hubert @ttrpg.network 2mo ago

There were some naturally-occurring caves, but also the following:

Some eldritch horrors sleeping in the deepest caverns beneath the city who act as a "lodestone" for evil creatures, compelling them to come here.
An ancient cleric once attempted to build a massive vault here as a safe depository for evil artifacts. He became corrupted by them, and turned into the first Evil Overlord.
Much later on, a second Evil Overlord appeared who wanted the secrets of the first Evil Overlord. He expanded the caves and turned them into his military headquarters for his conquering horde of monsters.
There was also a major dwarf hold here at some point before they abandoned it.
There is an entire drow city deep beneath the surface.
Assorted other groups of monsters keep showing up and making themselves at home.
Oh, and the current incarnation of the city has been built on top of this, which includes a massive sewer system that is gradually breaking down from lack of maintenance.

The whole dungeon system has developed over the course of more than 8,000 years. The general inclination of the citizens above is to wall off any entrances they find, and otherwise let adventurers deal with it. (This is another unique aspect about this city - it's the only one on the continent which has a professional class of adventurers.)

As for the Thieves' Guild, they tend to grease a lot of palms in the city watch, so they don't have to worry much from law enforcement unless they do something too blatant. However, there is a new criminal organization which is giving them a lot of trouble, and there are a lot of adventurers around, so they do have reasons to take their security seriously.

The guild have mages in their employ who could help with magical security, but none of them is present in this safe house.

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Jürgen Hubert @ttrpg.network 2mo ago

The main headquarters are elsewhere, but the guild maintains lesser safehouses in most districts of the city.

But you are right, I haven't put much thought into whether this is a hub for activities or a place to lay low. I'd say it's primarily the former.

Jürgen Hubert @ttrpg.network 2mo ago

The city of Ptolus has a long and convoluted backstory, and is known across much of the continent as "that weird city with all the dungeons and adventurers". Suffice to say, there are reasons why the region attracts all kinds of supernatural creatures, and there were many, many different groups of people and creatures who expanded these dungeons.

If you like the whole concept of "dungeon delving mixed with city adventures", I can highly recommend Ptolus. Few do it better, or more exhaustively.

Jürgen Hubert @ttrpg.network 2mo ago

The closest I can think of is the "Earn Income" downtime activity, but that's not exactly the same as what you pay NPCs.

Jürgen Hubert @ttrpg.network 2mo ago

Here is a neat bit of ancient technology: A qanat.

A common problem in arid regions is how to get enough water for your irrigation needs. Digging wells is one possibility, of course, but the water table might be far beneath the surface.

However, the neat thing about the water table is that it runs parallel to the surface - so if the terrain rises up and forms a mountain, the water table will rise up beneath the mountain as well. Thus, you can tap the water within the mountain simply by digging a tunnel into the flank of the mountain.

Which isn't exactly a trivial undertaking, of course. Still, some qanats in the Middle East have been in use for several thousands of years.

And for #TTRPG , such qanats represent a good entrance to the "Underdark", or whatever the local "Realms Below" are called - or vice versa, and monsters might emerge from them. And what happens if a qanat suddenly ceases to bring water? Naturally, some daring adventurers have to go in there and solve the problem, or else an entire community might starve!

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Jürgen Hubert @ttrpg.network 2mo ago

Pathfinder 1E or 2E?

I don't have much practical experience with the latter, but it did move away from the notion that NPCs must be created with the same system as PCs.

Jürgen Hubert @ttrpg.network 2mo ago

Yeah, GURPS character creation can take quite a lot of time, but once the character is done it flows very smoothly, so that doesn't bother me. But GMs need to create NPCs all the time, and the speed of character creation is very, very important.

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Jürgen Hubert @ttrpg.network 2mo ago

I particularly like the monastery - we need more places like this as adventure locations!

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Jürgen Hubert @ttrpg.network 2mo ago

Another candidate: The Centralia Mine Fire, an underground coal seam fire that has been going for sixty years, and which could continue to burn for 250 further years!

I wonder how dwarves or other subterranean civilizations would deal with something like this?