Dice The Crew (OOC)

[dae mec]

How big of an area do we get as our hunting grounds? I think we still wanted to have Six Towers be the main area. I marked a spot in red that's near the Night Market, just to start out. What do y'all think?

Spoiler: map

 

[Teh Frixz]

As long as we make sure to include Scurlock Manor in our hunting grounds. It’s in the lore page, I’m guessing something valuable and/or impressive in there!

 

[Seraph Darkfire]

It's good to have a starting point, at some point I'd like to hit Brightstone as well. Lots of mansions and fancy shops.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Sorry, guys. Work swallowed me today. Hoping to add my 2 cents either tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks for waiting.

 

[WlfSamurai]

How big of an area do we get as our hunting grounds? I think we still wanted to have Six Towers be the main area. I marked a spot in red that's near the Night Market, just to start out. What do y'all think?

Spoiler: map

View attachment 899818

Your hunting grounds are about 3-4 blocks. So that area can work just fine. And yes, we can put Scurlock Manor there for sure.

Everything in the city is someone's territory. Someone's turf. So, that area is claimed by Lord Surlock. How do you handle moving into it? You have three options:

1. Pay them off. Give them 1 coin in exchange for giving you room to work.
2. Pay the faction 2 coin as a show of respect and gain +1 status with them.
3. Keep your money and take -1 status with that faction.

And just so you have reference, two things. First coin's monetary value:

• 1 coin: A full purse of silver pieces. A week’s wages.
• 2 coin: A fine weapon. A weekly income for a small business. A fine piece of art. A set of luxury clothes.
• 4 coin: A satchel full of silver. A month’s wages.
• 6 coin: An exquisite jewel. A heavy burden of silver pieces.
• 8 coin: A good monthly take for a small business. A small safe full of coins and valuables. A very rare luxury commodity.
• 10 coin: Liquidating a significant asset—a carriage and goats, a horse, a deed to a small property.

Second, here are the faction status levels you can have with a faction:

• +3: Allies. This faction will help you even if it’s not in their best interest to do so. They expect you to do the same for them.
• +2: Friendly. This faction will help you if it doesn’t create serious problems for them. They expect you to do the same.
• +1: Helpful. This faction will help you if it causes no problems or significant cost for them. They expect the same from you.
• 0: Neutral
• -1: Interfering. This faction will look for opportunities to cause trouble for you (or profit from your misfortune) as long as it causes no problems or significant cost for them. They expect the same from you.
• -2: Hostile. This faction will look for opportunities to hurt you as long as it doesn’t create serious problems for them. They expect you to do the same, and take precautions against you.
• -3: War. This faction will go out of its way to hurt you even if it’s not in their best interest to do so. They expect you to do the same, and take precautions against you. When you’re at war with any number of factions, your crew suffers +1 heat from scores, temporarily loses 1 hold, and PCs get only one downtime action rather than two. You can end a war by eliminating your enemy or by negotiating a mutual agreement to establish a new status rating.

 

[dae mec]

1. Pay them off. Give them 1 coin in exchange for giving you room to work.
2. Pay the faction 2 coin as a show of respect and gain +1 status with them.
3. Keep your money and take -1 status with that faction.

Makes sense! How much money do we start out with first? I'm assuming that through the RP we can gain more coin. Also, do we know anything about Lord Surlock and what kind of stuff he does?

I think maybe the one coin option could work (assuming we have that much). That way we still have some starting cash but we don't start hostile.

Also, what does everyone think about having the red area with the mansion as our grounds?

 

[WlfSamurai]

Oh yeah! Barring any special abilities you may take during crew creation, you start with 2 coin.

 

[Seraph Darkfire]

In theory, if we like Lord Surlock we could occasionally work with him to get information on his enemies as well as our potential targets. If we pay him our starting two coin, it might open up doors into other areas besides our hunting grounds.

The same is also true if we know who his enemies are and they are more palatable to us. Having the area as our hunting grounds would enable us to provide more accurate information to his enemies in exchange for power in other places. If we go that route, we should still give him at least one coin so that he doesn't make things difficult to us just starting out.

The big question here is whether we work against the faction in our hunting grounds, possibly gaining the support of multiple other factions in the city, or working with this faction and possibly gaining information on the other factions as potential targets.

Either way, one of the first things we should do is get blackmail information on Surlock. If he's a somewhat good person, Myrke would be more reluctant to use the information, but if he was a bad person (and I admit both are rather subjective in a city of corruption) there would be no issue in using that information to ensure the safety of themselves or those they support.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Are we talking about the Lord Scurlock or his progeny because the actual lord doesn’t live in the manor anymore and I don’t want to be getting into bed with the second fiddle thinking it’s the first.

Spoiler

Scurlock Manor. The Scurlock family came to Duskwall centuries ago and was once a great force in the city, before some curse or calamity befell their line. This tumble-down manor house and tangle of vines is all that remains of their original fortune. It’s said that a young nephew or cousin still resides there, but Lord Scurlock
himself has moved on to finer abodes.

 

[D. Rex]

For hunting grounds, are we choosing it to be allied with Lord Surlock? Or to rob from him?

 

[WlfSamurai]

Are we talking about the Lord Scurlock or his progeny because the actual lord doesn’t live in the manor anymore and I don’t want to be getting into bed with the second fiddle thinking it’s the first.

Spoiler

Scurlock Manor. The Scurlock family came to Duskwall centuries ago and was once a great force in the city, before some curse or calamity befell their line. This tumble-down manor house and tangle of vines is all that remains of their original fortune. It’s said that a young nephew or cousin still resides there, but Lord Scurlock
himself has moved on to finer abodes.

No, the territory is his. So, this is still how you handle him. The manor still is his, as well, still. He just no longer stays there.

For hunting grounds, are we choosing it to be allied with Lord Surlock? Or to rob from him?

That is the choice at hand. Are you moving into his territory without permission? Or did you pay him off to let you work in that area?

 

[D. Rex]

I guess it begs the question. Why Lord Surlocks turf over any of the others?

 

[dae mec]

I guess it begs the question. Why Lord Surlocks turf over any of the others?

I think we want access to that manor/that area, which is why we're in Lord Surlock's turf.

I vote that we pay him a coin to appease him.

 

[D. Rex]

I think we want access to that manor/that area, which is why we're in Lord Surlock's turf.

I vote that we pay him a coin to appease him.

Well, if Surlock is our ally, I wouldn't really think he would like us preying on his manor. But if there are other manors in the region, that's a different story.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Well, if Surlock is our ally, I wouldn't really think he would like us preying on his manor. But if there are other manors in the region, that's a different story.

Yes! But you haven’t YET! Perhaps it’s all a ploy to get closer to his manor. And what if you pull off such exquisite operation that he doesn’t find out it was you? Oh, this’ll be fun!

 

[Teh Frixz]

I was just totally hoping to ransack his home to be honest

 

[dae mec]

I really like the idea of pulling a heist to steal the things in his home and get all the juice without him knowing it's us. The long con: we can quietly get the information we need to pull it off and do a perfect inside job! And in the meantime, we can properly ransack the other old ruined mansions, maybe even selling things to him that we might even steal back lol.

 

[D. Rex]

That sounds like a plan. Get in real good with him then turn the territory on its head by thieving him into ruin.


Phineas has a good friend thats an architect. As well I start with some detail Blueprints. I could say they are the ones to Surlocks manor. We could use that as base to form our plans to perform a flawless and well orchestrated heist.

With a bit of planning we can maybe pin the blame on an enemy of Surlocks. Or take full credit for his ruin and let our reputation sore as we take over his turf. Though that latter would be super dangerous.






Alternatively, there is an option, I think, for am upgrade that could let Surlock be our gangs Patron. Let's us halve tier upgrade prices I think, in return for keeping in his good graces.

 

[Teh Frixz]

Ohhhh another idea. Considering we are doing espionage correct? Can we just sort of pressure the world around us into thinking Scurlock’s place (or any other) is a safe haven for meetings? We stage robberies and high value thefts at other locations, then ‘bug’ Scurlock and just steal all the information we can from the folk meeting there?

 

[Seraph Darkfire]

While this discussion is interesting, I think we are getting more into the rp side of things.

Are we paying him off or not. If so, one or two coins?

 

[D. Rex]

Well at this point rp and mechanics likely start bleeding together. As it deals with out intentions as a crew.

But either way, if we take the territory it would be good to be on his good side.

But we only have 2 coins to start with. What other options do we have to spend coin on at start?

 

[dae mec]

Yeah, I think we all wanted to pay him off. The question is by what degree? Two would make him less likely to suspect us, but one would give us some leeway for funding other methods.

WlfSamurai Would we be able to give him an additional coin later down the line to make our status with him more friendly?

If we can, I vote one coin, and then we give him a second a later. Though I also do want to know what we can spend coin on, if not this.

 

[Seraph Darkfire]

Yeah, it would make sense to know exactly what we can spend our money on.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Well at this point rp and mechanics likely start bleeding together. As it deals with out intentions as a crew.

This for sure.

Good question on the use of coin. For crew creation, you can spend coin to gain status with the faction that helped you get upgrades if you want more status with them.

In general in the game, you can spend coin for various things:

"COIN USE​

• Spend 1 coin to get an additional activity during downtime (page 153).
• Spend 1 coin to increase the result level of a downtime activity roll (page 153).
• Spend coin to avoid certain crew entanglements (page 150).
• Put coin in your character’s stash to improve their lifestyle and circumstances when they retire. See the next page.
• Spend coin when you advance your crew’s Tier (see page 44)."

 

[D. Rex]

This for sure.

Good question on the use of coin. For crew creation, you can spend coin to gain status with the faction that helped you get upgrades if you want more status with them.

In general in the game, you can spend coin for various things:

"COIN USE​

• Spend 1 coin to get an additional activity during downtime (page 153).
• Spend 1 coin to increase the result level of a downtime activity roll (page 153).
• Spend coin to avoid certain crew entanglements (page 150).
• Put coin in your character’s stash to improve their lifestyle and circumstances when they retire. See the next page.
• Spend coin when you advance your crew’s Tier (see page 44)."

I think there is a second thing we spend coin on for crew. One being for hunting grounds and I think another to do with status during upgrades.


With hunting groundsdown.

1 coin is nuetral, let's us operate with no up or down status.

2 coins give status +1

0 coins is status -1.


With upgrades.

When you assign your two upgrades, the GM will tell you about two factions
that are impacted by your choices:

One faction helped you get an upgrade. They like you, and you get +1 status
with them. At your option, spend 1 coin to repay their kindness, and take
+2 status with them instead.

One faction was screwed over when you got an upgrade. They don’t like you,
and you get -2 status with them. At your option, spend 1 coin to mollify
them, and take -1 status with them instead.






So in total, we have 2 coins to spend. Amd we can't pick the best of all.


If we want to get in Scurlocks best graces, then:

Pay 1 coin for territory for no status benefit. He helps us get an upgrade and we pay 1 coin for a +2 status. And this passes someone off and we get -2 with someone.


Or if we want to go quiet.

1 coin for Scurlock for no status in territory. Get an upgrade from him and +1 status from him cause he likes us. And we use the second coin to mollify the pissed faction so we only get a -1 status with them.