Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Rival Adventuring Parties in Barrowmaze (and beyond)

Been on a bit of a break from Sorrow - exhaustion, Memorial Day, etc. Plus the group has been deeply engaged in some dungeoneering which didn't get me super inspired to write anything. My other group rolls some old school D&D (my BX variant BXDH). They are about to jump into the Barrowmaze, and one of the things that is great are the pre-made rival adventuring parties, but i wanted some more. Found this post and loved it, so added them as well. I also dropped the Fearsome Five from the list ... the name just irked me for some reason.

Which rival party? This one (1d100): 

1d100 Rivals
 1 - 8  Bastards of Bogtown 
 9 - 16  Bertrand's Briggands 
 17 - 24  Boon Companions 
 25 - 28  Gorelick, Kesselmann, Voboes, Inginok and Fritch  
 29 - 32  Halma-Khet 
 33 - 36  Lord Farthingale's Men 
 37 - 40  Morgenstern and Sons 
 41 - 48  Norse Whisperers 
 49 - 52  Order of St. Halachris 
 53 - 60  Outriders 
 61 - 68  Renata 
 69 - 72  Sisters of Ynis Nagahl 
 73 - 76  The Dragonslayers 
 77 - 80  The Forsaken 
 81 - 84  The Gallant Comrades 
 85 - 88  The Progeny of Lorbis Vu 
 89 - 100  Unknown (just some mooks)

What the fuck am I going to do with all these rival parties? They are the inspiration to get adventurers moving! 

As part of the restocking of Barrowmaze there is a little restocking table made popular ages ago.
every room they visited:
1: add a monster
2: add a monster with treasure
3-6: left as-is (1 in 6 change of treasure)

I also like this idea, so I'll also be rolling for each space ADJACENT to where they tromped, +2 if they bring back significant loot:

1d20 Situation
 1 - 13  No changes 
 14 - 16  evidence 
 17 - 18  evidence, changed feature 
 19 dead mooks 
 20 dead adventurer 
 21 looted room 
 22 here they are! 

Evidence: broken weapons, signs of a scuffle, discarded torches, scribbling/graffiti (maybe they recognize it)
Evidence, changed feature: broken door, scrapes from secret door, wrecked statue, etc - standard adventurer bullshit
Dead mooks: dead hirelings ... X in 20 they are recognized (X being the # of times they've hired mooks from the guild)
Dead Adventurer: roll on that rivals table and kill someone!
Looted Room: monsters and treasure all gone
Here they Are: the rival party is here. roll again!

 1d6  What's up?
1 All messed up - wounded from battle or traps, either what is/was here or not
2 - 3 Roll for surprise? Depending on what the PCs were up to, roll for surprise, or reaction 
 4 - 6  In the middle of it - fighting, looting, disarming traps, or whatever

In addition to seeing these rival parties fucking up their dungeon(s), they will likely interact with them. Everyone starts with a 0 to the reaction roll for the rival parties (they are rivals after all). Bad interactions lower this, good ones raise it. Nasty rivals might start their faction score at -1d6.

 Faction Score  How they Feel
-9 or worse Nemesis! probably try to kill  you and take your stuff 
 -5 to -8  Enemies: definitely not your friends, will try to take advantage 
 -1 to -4 Jerks: they don't like you, won't give benefit of the doubt
 0 Neutral: just more adventurers adventureing for adventure
 1 to 4 Upnod: acknowledgement and might help a bit
 5 to 8 Respect: will steer clear, maybe share info, they like you cats
 9+ My Good Friend!: will assist, maybe team up, definitely share info

similar faction system for pretty much everyone - not just rival adventuring parties. all factions! those cultists? FS starts at -6. The barkeep they keep tipping goes up to +1d4. This is, more or less, similar to the loyalty scale i use for hirelings

 Loyalty Score  How they Feel
0 They are going to mutiny
 1 - 4  Hate being employed by you, probably steals, definitely talks shit
 5 - 8 Disgruntled, will do bare minimum 
 9 - 12 just a job, but they do it as best they can within reason
 13 - 15 They like you and want to be your actual friend
 16 - 17 Absurdly loyal - may give their life to save yours
 18 True Companion - almost nothing they won't do for you, no questions asked 

so any hirelings have a Loyalty score of 8 or less? maybe that should be another +1 to the adjacent area where rival parties are dicking about. Yep. I'll do that. 4 or less? they'll actually tell about cached gear and the like. fuck the PCs! They are terrible bosses but i need this job to maintain my crippling addiction to smoking crab gills!


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