Affiliations for 4E

One great idea that came late in the 3.5 curve was Affiliations. These were originally introduced in PHB 2 and for some reason haven't made it into 4E yet. I used them in a campaign very successfully and really like how they work. Here's a brief adaptation for 4E. Reference the 3.5 PHB II page 163 for further information.

THREE CATEGORIES OF AFFILIATIONS:

• Social Affiliations: Interest generally restricted only by common interests or cause. Requires higher levels of activity to gain and maintain status. Benefits come more slowly. However, social affiliations tend to grow rapidly and can become more powerful than others if conditions are ripe.
  
• Racial Affiliations: Restricted membership (must have a character of the correct race). Status has more benefits at lower levels.
  
• Power Source Affiliations: Restricted membership (must have a character based on appropriate power source). Generally easier to gain status.

MULTIPLE AFFILIATIONS:

• Penalty: Each affiliation you join imposes a -5 penalty on all future scores. Thus you join the first at -5, the second at -10, the third at -15, etc.
• Benefits: You may only benefit from one affiliation at a time, regardless of your status in multiple affiliations. You may change which set of affiliation benefits affect you after an extended rest.

And that's all players need to know, other than the table of benefits/duties and titles/criteria for each affiliation they join! To create an affiliation, follow the following steps:

1. Device a concept, name, symbol, and background.
2. Choose affiliation's Type and Category.
3. Choose Executive Powers.
4. Choose Affiliation's Scale.
5. Choose Affiliation Score Criteria.
6. Create Titles held by members. Define Duties and Benefits.

2A) TYPE: Each affiliation is of one of the following types. The type affects the trained "skill" of the affiliation as well as its selection of executive powers. It may also affect the power source it tends to be associated with and other characteristics.

• BUSINESS
• CABAL
• COLLEGE
• DRUID CIRCLE
• FIGHTING COMPANY
• GOVERNMENT
• SPY RING
• TEMPLE
• THIEVE’S GUILD
• TRIBE

AFFILIATION TYPE AND AFFILIATION SKILLS: Affiliations are dynamic and can act in the game world. They may make checks similar to skill checks to impact their environment. Affiliations may "aid another" and do other actions similar to a normal skill check, except they generally operate on a broader scale and longer time frame. Each affiliation is considered "trained" in negotiation, violence, or espionage.

	BUSINESS	CABAL	COLLEGE	DRUID CIRCLE	FIGHTING COMPANY	GOVERNMENT	SPY RING	TEMPLE	THIEVE’S GUILD	TRIBE
VIOLENCE					X	X				X
ESPIONAGE		X					X		X
NEGOTIATION	X		X	X				X

Use 1d20 + the following modifiers vs. a level appropriate DC and evaluate success or failure just as if it were a skill check:

• Tier: Affiliation is Heroic (+1), Paragon (+2), Epic (+3)
• Scale: Add 1/2 scale
  
• Trained: Affiliation is skilled in particular action (+5)
• Leader: Add the better of the affiliation leader's relevant ability score modifier. STR/CON for violence, DEX/INT for espionage, and WIS/CHA for negotiation. For example, if a Fighter with 18 (+4) STR, 12 CON (+1), 14 WIS (+2), and 8 CHA (-1) leads a Fighting Company attempting a violence check, the check is at +4 due to the leader's strength. If the same affiliation attempts a Negotiation Check, the check is at +2 due to the leader's Wisdom.
  
• Capital: Affiliation expends one point of capital (+2, one time bonus).
  

2B) CATEGORY: As described above. Select Social, Racial, or Power-Source based. This choice will have impacts on the later steps.

3) EXECUTIVE POWERS: Affiliations wield executive powers, which are a cross between Skills and Skill Powers. They represent more specific portfolios than the broad checks described above. Each type of affiliation may only select certain types of executive powers per the table below. Note that the table is color coded to include information on the broad Affiliation Skills; Blue (Negotiation), Red (Violence), Orange (Espionage). Reference the 3.5 PHB II for complete descriptions.

	Business	Cabal	College	Druid Circle	Fighting Cpy	Government	Spy Ring	Temple	Thieve's Guild	Tribe
Assassinate		X		X		X	X	X	X
Beatify				X				X
Craft	X	X	X	X				X		X
Crusade					X			X		X
Excommunicate				X				X		X
Gift	X		X			X		X
Harvest	X									X
Holiday				X		X		X
Inquisition				X				X
Law				?		X		?
Mint	?					X
Pariah		X					X		X
Plague				X				X		X
Plunder					X	X	X		X	X
Raid		X		X	X	X	X		X	X
Research		X	X				X
Shadow War		X		X			X		X
Terrorize		X		X	X	X	X		X	X
Trade	X		X
War					X	X				X

4) SCALE
Scale is generally similar to Level. Most new affiliations -- especially player-character created affiliations begin at Scale 1. At the DM's discretion, if the character founding them is a Paragon Tier character, they may begin at Scale 11 (DM's discretion), and if an Epic Tier character, they may begin at Scale 21.

Scale is important because it is used to determine an affilaition's effectiveness when using Actions or Executive Powers. It is also used to determine the value of an affiliation's capital. Finally, it is used qualitatively to determine the influence of the affiliation. A King (leader of a Scale 18 Affiliation) probably seriously considers what his Dukes request (leaders of Scale 16 Affiliations), may occasionally consult with Barons or Major City Leaders (Scale 13 and 11), and probably doesn't often meet with the leader of the Ninth Alley Gang (Scale 4).

1. Neighberhood
2. Neighberhoods
3. 
   
4. City quarter
5. City quarter(s)
6. 
   
7. City
8. City
9. 
   
10. City and outliers
11. City/county
12. 
    
13. Regional/barony
14. Regional/march
15. 
    
16. Multiregional/duchy
17. Multiregional/kingdom
18. 
    
19. Multiregional/kingdom + vassal states
20. Continental/seafaring kingdom
21. 
    
22. Continental/empire
23. Multicontinental/empire
24. 
    
25. Global
26. Astral Plane
27. 
    
28. Multiplanar
29. Cosmos
30. 
    

CAPITAL

• Abstraction: "Capital" represents a broad variety of assets including lands, finances, magic, and the talent of its members.
  
• Starting Capital: An affiliation begins play with capital equal to its scale.
• Minimum: Minimum capital is zero.
• Maximum: Maximum capital equals Scale x 2. Capital in excess of this amount is lost at the rate of 1/day (2 for paragon, 3 for epic) unless it is spent.
  
• Increasing Capital: Donations of wealth or magic equal in value to a magic item of the Affiliation's current scale increases the Capital Score by one. Capital may also be gained through use of executive powers, bargains with other affiliations, quests, or other means.
• Decreasing Capital: Affiliations may expend capital voluntarily to gain bonuses on checks or utilize executive powers. Additionally, other affiliations may utilize offensive Executive Powers or wage a campaign against another affiliation to decrease or even steal its Capital. Generally, day-to-day operating costs are assumed to break even, but in particularly hard times the DM may rule that an affiliation loses capital just "treading water" to keep up appearances or adjust capital based on one-time major events, such as quest outcomes.
  

WAXING, AND WANING

• Disbanding: An affiliation whose capital falls to -1 is disbanding. A disbanding affiliation cannot take Actions or exercise its Executive Powers. Members continue to receive benefits. Each week the disbanding affiliation makes a Disbanding Saving throw. Success indicates that the members remain scattered, but the memory remains alive and the cause lingers. Failure indicates that the affiliation loses one cumulative point of scale (-1, -2, -3, -4, -5, etc) for each failure. Once scale reaches zero the affiliation is dead. A 20 or higher indicates that the Affiliation has recovered. An infusion of capital can assist a disbanding affiliation; add a bonus to a Disbanding Saving Throw for each point of capital donated to the affiliation. Note that this means that an affiliation might shrink greatly in scale and then be resuscitated -- albeit with greatly limited influence -- with a more modest capital infusion.
  
• Increasing Scale: An affiliation whose capital remains equal to its scale (1/2 its maximum) for a number of consecutive months equal to its scale rolls a saving throw at -5. Success indicates that it increases in scale by one. An affiliation may expend capital to gain a bonus on this check equal to +2 per point expended. Up to three points may be spent in heroic tier, two points in paragon, and one point in epic. Large organizations tend to grow more slowly than small ones and are often more conservative, husbanding resources.
  Special: Social affiliations -- due to their inherently looser requirements for joining -- make their growth saving throw roll at -0. They grow much faster than those restricted to a single race or power source.
  

5) Choose Affiliation Criteria

• Reference PHB 2: Reference the PHB 2 unless otherwise noted for examples of criteria.
  
• Breakpoints: Instead of using the Scale breakpoints noted, use scales 1-10 (heroic), 11-20 (paragon), and 21-30 (epic). An affiliation may only have a number of criteria both positive and negative equal to 5 + 1/5 its scale.
• Financial Criteria:
  - Change "Wealth" to be "Possesses GP or other portable wealth. Convert Wealth to Magic Item Cost. Bonus equals Magic Item Level - Affiliation Scale / 10 (round up to 1, but not for scores higher than 1)."
  - Change "Magic Item Significant to Affililation to be "Magic Item Significant to Affiliation. Bonus equals Magic Item Level - Affiliation Scale / 5 (minimum of 1)."
  - Change "Loses or Destroys Affiliation Property" to be "Loses or Destroys Affiliation Property. -1/Capital Value."
  
• Number of Criteria: In general, select three positive criteria. Each additional positive criteria beyond that requires addition of a negative criteria on a 1:1 basis.
  - Racial Affiliations: As described above.
  - Power-Source Affiliations: Additional postive criteria require addition of negative criteria on only a 2:1 basis (round down always in 4E), so an affiliation could have 3 positive/0 negative, 4 pos/0 neg, 5 pos/1 neg, 6 pos/1 neg, 7 pos/2 neg, and so on.
  - Social Affiliations: As described above.

6) TITLES, BENEFITS AND DUTIES

When Benefits are Gained: In general, use the following guidelines for determining when characters gain titles and thus benefits.

• Minor Benefits: Affiliation Score >10
  
• Major Benefits: Affiliation Score >20
  
• Flagship Benefits: Affiliation Score >30
  

How Many?

• Choose three benefits for free.
• Four benefits requires selecting one duty.
• Five benefits requires selecting two duties.
  

Special:
- Racial Affiliations: Gain Minor Benefits at >3. Gain Major Benefits at >14.
- Power-Source Affiliations: None
- Social Affiliations: None

Utilize PHB2 for a description of general benefits. Convert numerical bonuses to be appropriate with 4E. In general, that means +2/tier for damage or skill bonuses.

4E: Heroes and Supporting Cast

I've been thinking a lot about raise dead and mortality in campaigns, especially influenced by Campbell (Hero myth stuff). I've come up with one big general conclusion.

One big part of being The Hero is the miraculous return to life. Whether it is by "we thought he was dead, but he wasn't," a miracle, magic, reincarnation, whatever, the hero must willingly sacrifice himself at some point or accept some great risk in order to progress to the land of the dead and then return with some boon. There are a lot of ways to do this mechanically in 4E now; Raise Dead, reincarnation (especially Devas -- they scream "Reincarnated Hero by means of the divine" to me; Tieflings could also be reflavored as such using the infernal, and so could Shifters by using the Primal), and so on.

In contrast, supporting cast, while vitally important, are not heroes. Han Solo is not really a Hero (at least in the first Star Wars movie). Jesus was the Hero, and the Disciples were his supporting cast. Archetypes like the Wise Man (or The Hermit), the Magician, the King/Queen, the Trickster, etc are all vital and they help the Hero on his/her journey and they can make great PCs. But they are not immortal like the Hero. Obi Wan Kenobi needs to be struck down and not come back. The Hero may decide to try and recover the supporting cast member, and some supporting cast may find themselves becoming heroes, but not always.

In any event, I've come to the conclusion that in a story driven game, not everyone needs to be a Hero in the Campbell archetypal sense of the word. The essence of the Hero is not being the strongest or fastest or toughest; it is willingly accepting risk and ultimately even death in order to facilitate change and grow in wisdom. Not every player wants their character to change that much; many are happy with a relatively static character.

---

The question is, how to model this in mechanics?

First off it can be done qualitatively. Heroes get recovered from the Lost or are Reborn. Maybe not super easily (perhaps they play a temporary character and have to adventure into the Void to find their buddy after drawing from that Deck of Many Things, like the crew in the Pirates movies goes to find Jack Sparrow), but they will come back. You can deal with it on a case by case basis.

Supporting Cast generally do not get recovered from the Dead. They may have influence throughout the campaign (Obi Wan can communicate from beyond the grave), but they remain peripheral and advisors only once slain.

To model that mechanically and with more rules, you could do something like this:

For each Quest completed (maybe differentiate between Major and Minor here?), the DM will assess whether a player acted as a Hero -- which involves sacrifice, personal risk in a deep and meaningful way, and ultimately transformation of some level-appropriate type -- or as a supporting Archetype. Heroes get one "I'm Not Dead Yet!" Hero Token which can be spent in a variety of ways to bring one back from the dead:
- Reduced cost Raise Dead Rituals
- Reincarnation as a Deva, Tiefling, Shifter, Revenant or other appropriate form
- Third Failed death save is considered a 20 automatically
- Quest opened to allow party to recover you from the dead

Additionally, Heroes are viewed as special by Karma and may get situational bonuses when dealing with essentially random or unknowable events such as events driven by Fate, Luck, or the Gods. For example, the DM might give a +1/token bonus to Diplomacy checks when dealing with a God's Archon.

Supporting Cast are equally important to the narrative but play a different role. They generally do not go through difficult and risky transformations themselves, but they help the Hero on his Journey. They may be the wise old man that helps the Hero learn his true name, or the magician with a mystical tool to overcome challenges, or even just a loyal friend or guardian. For each Supporting Cast token, the player may select a minor mechanical benefit which is useful in a tangible and temporal sort of way:

- Select one ritual, alchemical formula, or martial practice. You may master and cast that ritual once per day. You gain a +2 feat bonus to the related skill when casting this ritual and for monster identification checks.
- When using the Aid Another Action, you grant a bonus equal to +2 or to the number of Hero's Tokens the recipient has (maximum 1/2 level), whichever is greater.
- You gain one use of the Beyond the Grave power. Make a note of this, and if your character ever dies, you may use the power. You may take this boon multiple times.
- Once per Day, you may use the Guardian Mark power.
- Once Per Day you may use the Hero's Escape power.

Hero's Escape
Fly, you fools!
Daily *
Move Action * Close Burst 5
Target: Allies within burst
Effect: Push the targets one square for each Hero token they possess.
Special: You must be bloodied to use this power. There must be at least one foe, trap, or natural terrain hazard within the Burst.

Guardian Mark
Daily *
Minor Action * Close Burst 5
Target: One creature in Burst
Effect: You mark the target until the end of your next turn.
Special: You may expend a healing surge when using this power. You regain no hit points, but an ally within the burst gains +1 to all defenses for each Hero's Token they possess (minimum 1) until the end of your next turn and temporary hit points equal to 1/2 your level + the number of Hero's Tokens they possess.

Beyond the Grave
Use the force, Luke.
Free Action * Immediate Interrupt
Trigger: A hero's initiative occurs
Target: One ally with at least one hero token
Special: You conjure a spirit, send a telepathic message, or even just inspire a fond and useful memory at a critical juncture. Grant one of the following boons:
- Skilled Spirit: The target gains a power bonus to a skill equal to the number of Hero Tokens he or she possesses until the end of the encounter and can reroll a skill check that he or she just rolled. This skill must be one that the previously slain character was trained in.
- Rejuvenating Spirit: The target rolls a Saving Throw against one effect that a save can end. Until the end of the encounter, the target gains a power bonus on Saving Throws equal to the number of Hero Tokens he or she possesses. Special: This may only be used if the slain character was a Leader.
- Defending Spirit: An ephemeral, shimmering spirit coalesces controlled by a Hero. It behaves like the Astral Defender (Cleric Attack 9), except the Hero may select any Ability Score + 2 (+4 for Paragon) for its attack, and the damage it deals is not radiant. Remove the Divine, Implement, and Radiant key words. Special: This may only be used if the slain character was a Defender.
- Vengeful Spirit: The Hero gains a Power Bonus to their next attack roll equal to the number of Hero's Tokens they possess. The target of the attack must be one that was known to the slain spirit, or must be a member of a group or race that the slain was dedicated to combatting. Until the end of the encounter, the Hero gains a bonus to damage against this one foe equal to the number of Hero Tokens they possess. Special: This may only be used if the slain character was a Striker.
- Controlling Spirit: The area is haunted by a controlling presence. Until the end of the encounter, on the Hero's initiative, you gain a standard action which can be used to direct any Wizard cantrip. Once per encounter, when the Hero is bloodied, as an immediate reaction, you may use any Wizard At-Will power (use the Hero's best at-will attack power to determine to-hit and damage), centered on the Hero. You may repeat this attack if the hero is knocked unconscious or slain. This attack does not provoke an OA. Special: This may only be used if the slain character was a Controller. At the DM's discretion, you may substitute another Controller class' At-Will powers (for example, a slain Druid may grant a Druid At-Will power).

On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 9:01 AM, Dan Lucas wrote:

So, I've been thinking about dead characters, and the fact that, in some ways, it seems better to come back as a new character rather than raise the old one (in fact, I don't think I've ever been in a 4e game where anyone used Raise Dead). I was thinking about this, and several possible house rules came to mind. I was wondering what you thought of the issue, and whether a house rule is needed at all.

Intention: These proposed rules are meant to encourage players to raise characters rather than making new characters, hopefully without penalizing players who are already down from a bad encounter. The problem is that new characters come pretty well equipped--very well equipped if the party loots the dead character's body.

Rule #1: I call this one the Auracrux Funeral Rites enforcer.

It is common practice among adventurers living in the world of Auracrux to inter their companions with all of the possessions they held in life. Sometimes exceptions are made for trophies, or mementos for loved ones, but this is done with caution, as karma will judge the keeper's motives. If possessions are taken from a dead player character and used or sold, a character may be afflicted with a curse. The origin of the curse is debated--it may be spirits, angels or devils inflicting punishment for weakening the soul on its astral journey, or it may be the ghost of the departed. Sometimes the curse may be inflicted on a companion of the departed's associates who unwittingly benefits from the grave robbery. Whichever member of the party benefits most is inflicted with the curse. This curse does not affect those who sell the deceased's equipment in order to raise the deceased. The effects are such: The character takes a -1 penalty to all attack rolls, skill checks, saving throws, and ability checks. It can only be removed by a special ritual called "Assuage the Dead."

Assuage the Dead
Level: 8
Category: Binding
Time: 8 hours
Duration: Instantaneous
Component Cost: Special
Market Price: 680 g.p.
Key Skill: Religion

You douse the recipient in special oils and pray to your preferred power to remove the animosity of the dead. The Graver Robber's Curse is removed.

The cost of casting this ritual varies based on the level of the player character whose body was looted. An heroic tier character incurs a cost of 500 g.p.; a paragon tier character incurs a cost of 5,000 g.p.; an epic tier character incurs a cost of 50,000 g.p.

(Essentially, this rule means that you have to pay the same penalty as raise dead if you choose to loot the old character).

OR

Rule #2: This one's less flavorful, and more of a stick, but more straightforward and even stronger incentive to raise dead characters.

Reduce the amount of liquid assets at character creation by 500 g.p. at heroic tier, 5,000 g.p. at paragon tier, and 50,000 g.p. at epic tier (to a minimum of 100 g.p.). As they acclimate themselves to a new party, characters joining the party take a -1 penalty to all attack rolls, skill checks, saving throws, and ability checks until they have passed three milestones. (Essentially, this means new characters are treated just as if they had been raised. Also, it frees characters to loot their fallen comrade).

I don't know if either of these are necessary, and they seem rather stickish (as opposed to carrotish). But I really do want people to raise dead characters. Another option, I guess.

Rule #3: Update Raise Dead as follows:

Raise Dead
Level: 1
Component Cost: 0 gp
Market Price: 180 gp

Remove the second paragraph of the ritual.

Add the following: This ritual may only be used on characters who still have some destiny to fulfill. As players characters are powerful agents of change, they are always valid recipients (unless the player deems otherwise). Most non-player characters, on the other hand, have followed the path of destiny to their deaths and cannot be raised by this ritual. A ritual caster can tell whether the recipient is valid with a standard action before the ritual begins.

So essentially, Raise Dead would require only a body, some time, and a ritual caster (or scroll). Again, characters would be allowed to loot their friends.

So yeah, what do you think, are any of these three rules desirable, or is the status quo preferable?

On AD&D Assassins

This is a post I made over at DF. I figured it was worth reposting here. The topic is "A Guide to Playing Assassins."

I really think that the best guide to playing assassins is actually playing one, BTB, from level 1.

A starting assassin has no real thief skills, marginal HP, and only the option of adding a shield to their marginal leather armor. They can't hire hirelings and do the "level 1 fighter as the leader of men, a sergeant in charge of a squad" strategy. The assassins guild may be helpful, but I'd expect most help to have strings attached. They also have tough ability score requirements and incentives that make prioritizing DEX unlikely; that reduces AC, surprise, and dual-wielding possibilities. These limitations prevent them from using traditional fighter or thief strategies. What do they have?

Bonus XP and GP for conducting assassinations.
Low level targets are reasonable and pay a decent amount of dough. They also get bonus XP for doing the deed. This is even possible in a megadungeon setting; I can imagine missions like, "Assassinate the goblin slinger that hangs out with a band of thugs on level 2 of the dungeon." Depending on the campaign it may be possible for the assassin to power up through the lower levels.

Fighter-quality weapon selection.
While they only get three choices, I think fighter-quality weapons are very worthwhile. I think every assassin should have at least one back-stab capable weapon, so that probably means a long, short, or broad sword. The other two should probably include some sort of polearm; long weapons strike first, and 1d10 damage is enough to kill many low-level monsters. A polearm also lets you fight from the second rank and avoid heavy combat. The other should probably be some sort of hurled or projectile weapon. If lucky enough to have 17+ DEX, then a hand axe or dagger seems wise for dual-wielding.

Given that BTB (non-UA) only fighters get bows, it is a pretty big deal to be able to use a bow. Thieves don't get them, BTB (PHB only). Same thing for polearms. An assassin that chooses proficiencies unwisely is giving up a major strength.

Poison usage.
The DMG gives guidelines for different types of assassin poisons. Some are quite reasonably priced. While at first blush they seem lackluster, remember that 10 HP of damage is basically the same as doing 3 HD of damage. A poisoned arrow might be enough to slay an ogre outright, which is pretty impressive.

Disguise capability.
I don't have my PHB in front of me but I believe that even low-level assassins can use their disguises as a class function. This makes INT important, as speaking a wide variety of languages will be helpful for impersonating many different kinds of foes. It also makes CHA important, as getting good reaction rolls up front will be helpful.

Basically, my bottom line is that an assassin character has few mechanical advantages over thieves. The real key, if you play BTB, will be player creativity and tactical sense. Using things like disguises or setting traps will be the key to success, and that requires both player savvy and roleplaying skill to get away with. The only other option is to be relegated to second-rate fighter status, standing in the back with the polearm. While some situations may call for that (and while it may be the best of poor options in some tactical situations) I don't think many parties will be happy dragging along such a character. To be useful the player will have to use their creativity (if allowed by the DM in the campaign), or better yet, an extremely shrewd and opportunistic tactical sense.

Many players will try to be a fighter, charge in, and die. Others will try to be a thief, and realize that they are not sneaky or good at scouting. With the right DM, campaign, and player, an assassin could be enormous fun. I think they would shine in a smaller party, especially. While I would require them to be evil, evil doesn't necessarily mean dumb.

This is why I say the best education is playing BTB: players who can't hack it will die and try another class that they are better suited for. Likewise if the campaign is unsuited for them then that will become obvious quickly as well. Assassins are an advanced class meant for advanced players, similar to the other sub-classes.

Additionally: I would point out that an elvish assassin is quite possibly highly effective with a less skilled player, because of their inherent racial bonuses to surprise. This could mean lots of backstab and/or assassination attempts, depending on your DM. While more approachable for a less shrewd player, I am not convinced this is the best way to go; long term there is a level cap, and moreover there is no Raise Dead for elves that bite the dust so eventually you'll get unlucky, fail a save, and die for good.

Linky to AX Rebirth; Comments Policy

First off, my friend Dan is starting up a blog for an upcoming campaign. I expect some good writing there, probably more story and campaign-world building oriented than you get here at the Potion Shop, so it will be a nice change of pace. The first campaign Dan ran was my first and I can highly endorse his writing skillz. It will be added to the blogroll.

Secondly, I'm thinking of making comments moderation only. I don't want to moderate comments as it is a pain. However, I don't get that many comments anyways. I am just sick of getting Chinese Gold Farmer advertisements on here.

4E & Lasting Damage

I was thinking about damage in 4E today and had a quick thought. There are basically three types of damage:

• HP loss
• Healing surge loss
• Conditions

In general, HP loss and most conditions are remedied easily with a 5 minute rest. Healing surge lost is remedied with an extended (8 hr) rest.

That fits nicely enough onto my scales:

• 1 year (12 months)
  
• 1 season (3 months)
  
• 1 month: 48 leagues (consider rounding to 40, 45, or 50) -- ~850 x 1300 miles (empire or small continent)
  
• 10 days: 18 leagues
• 1 week: 12 leagues -- ~215 x 325 miles (kingdom)
• 3 days: 6 leagues
  
• 1 day: 2 leagues -- 36 x 54 miles (duchy?)
• Morning/Afternoon/Night (1/3 of a day): 1 league, with one part usually reserved for downtime
  
• 2 hour "chunks:" 2 miles (if you require 2 chunks/day for downtime)...or 0.5 leagues (if downtime is abstracted -- 12 x 18 miles or 9 x 13.5 miles (barony?)
• 1 mini-chunk (~40 mins): 1/2 mile
  
• 1 turn (~10 mins): 1 furlong (220 yards) -- 6/8 mile x 9/8 mile (manor)
  
• 1 partial-turn (~3 minutes): 3.3 chains (~70 yards)
  
• 1 minute (~60 seconds): 1 chain/4 rods (22 yards) -- ~130 x 200 yards (5 acres)
• 1 round (~20 seconds): 1 rod (5.5 yards)
  
• 1 segment (~6 seconds): 1 pace (~1.5 yards) -- 10 x 15 yards (perch, or 1/160th of an acre)

It also implies that there should be another type of damage which takes approximately a month to shrug off. It is roughly a scale factor of 1:100 between 5 minutes and 8 hours (which is about the same as four levels on my table above), so 8 hours * 100 = 33 days, which is more or less a month. This would be really nice for abstracting out damage in larger encounters, long overland travel forced marches, and so on.

The basic function of healing surges is to ration resources for the "one more door" question which is really a strategic question. The basic function of HP is to differentiate how durable characters are in tactical combat.

SOME OPTIONS FOR "STRATEGIC DAMAGE"

The simplest approach is to use some sort of "mega healing surge," where in order to take an extended rest you need to expend a Mega Healing Surge. This replicates a "one more door" effect ("one more hex?") but has the downside of making not only the 3-encounter adventuring day but also the 3-day adventuring month, which is probably undesirable.

I also shy away from using mega-conditions. 4E is finely tuned so much to the point that if you impose quantitative numerical penalties like -1 to hit or something that it will significantly degrade the effectiveness of characters in tactical combat. Note that a character with 1 healing surge is just as effective as one with 10 healing surges. Now, I would be willing to make an exception for some "mega-conditions," especially if rituals are brought into play to allow you to heal them. I would also be willing to use watered down conditions; for example, instead of "slowed" it might be "-1 speed;" instead of "weakened," perhaps -2/tier damage.

Another approach we have used before is "resistant healing surge damage." This is damage that basically knocks off healing surges and cannot be healed until you've hit a milestone. So, you can't just sit around and get better, you actually have to go do something adventurous.

I was thinking about one final option for long-term resistant damage and it is loss of powers. In general powers are nice but not essential perks. Losing a daily or encounter power hurts but it hurts a lot less than -1 to hit. One thing I don't like about this is that higher level characters tend to have many more powers than lower level characters, whereas healing surges increase relatively slowly.

Additionally, because long downtime is hard to get in many campaigns, I would allow ALL long-term strategic ailments (short of those with plot significance requiring rituals) to be thrown off after a month of rest, and I would allow one or some to be healed after a week of rest. You could also treat it like the death penalty and erase the penalty after active adventuring (3 milestones or something), or to encourage risk-taking you could allow an Endurance Check (with level appropriate DC) after a character completes 3 milestones in a day.

So, perhaps when one takes strategic damage, one picks up one of the following (roll 1d6 or pick if appropriate to the injury):
- (1-2) Power Down: Lose the use of any one power you know
- (3) Crippled: -1 speed
- (4) Frail: -2/tier on all damage rolls
- (5) Bad Magic: Start each day with -1 magic item power usage
- (6) Exhausted: Lose a healing surge (resistant, only restored after the strategic rest interval)

Those would all be significant blows to a character without being crippling. To remove each negative condition you'd need to do this:

• One month of bed rest removes all such negative conditions.
• 
  
• One week of rest removes one such negative condition.
• When a character hits their third milestone in a day, they may make an Endurance check. If successful, one condition is removed.
• Certain rituals may allow these to be removed.

Real World Distances

TRAVEL TIME AND DISTANCE

Ah, D&D travel. I remember plotting out how many 24 mile days my character could cover back in the day. Not very realistic if you've ever done much rucking in the real world in rough terrain. Anyone that has ever done any walking knows that this is a lot of ground to cover. That's why I think my hexploration movement rates are fairly realistic. They are generally geared to allow characters on foot to cover 4 (perhaps +/- up to 3) hexes per time period with perhaps 6 hexes for light horse.

DW and I recently covered ~35 miles on foot over three days. We hiked the Resurrection Pass North trail. We had excellent weather, good trail conditions, and it is of moderate elevation. We were hiking with full packs; I estimate that I had around 3-4 stone in my pack + 1 stone of rifle and other misc gear and DW had ~2 stone plus 1/3 stone of shotgun. We are both 20 somethings in good health and decent shape, although we are definitely not super athletic by any means. We also had the benefit of excellent boots, synthetic fabrics, and good modern packs.

My formula would say that we could cover four hexes each day. Going to the day-by-day scale and we get hexes which are two leagues across. Over each day we should have been able to cover four hexes which is 24 miles (eight leagues). That means over three days we should cover around 72 miles. We only did half that on our trip. Is the formula bad, or should we have applied modifiers to ourselves?

REDUCTIONS TO MOVEMENT ALLOWANCE

I think it is the latter. The first modifier would be anything that reduces our movement allowance.

First, DW walks slower than me even unencumbered. Her normal move might be only three hexes, not four. Nothing about male vs. female here, but maybe she took some sort of flaw at character creation to get build points for musical talents or something, setting her base move to three.

Another factor would be encumbrance. With a four stone pack plus a 2/3 stone carried rifle in my hands I am definitely encumbered to some degree -- probably enough to lower my move. If my normal enc limit is average (4 stones) then carrying 5 stones of gear would drop my move by some amount. Likewise, DW is not very strong by self admission (she must have also dumped STR at char creation) so she might be encumbered with more than 2 stone of gear.

On day two we dropped packs for a few hours and went ahead with daypacks only. That might have earned up an extra MP but we were already fatigued and possibly moving slower anyways.

TERRAIN MODIFIERS

We were in hilly terrain with mixed growth (forest to taiga) but we were going up a pass so the elevation gain was pretty moderate. As a side note, if we were bush whacking, it would have been MUCH slower going. Going on a trail is much faster, at least twice as fast. I think this illustrates the importance of trails and how they should affect terrain modifiers.

Anyways, say each hex normally costs 1 MP to enter. The dense growth would have added +1 MP. Our gentle elevation gain might have merited 0.5 MP extra but certainly not a whole extra MP (it didn't slow our speed THAT much). The trail definitely mitigated the undergrowth penalty. So I think a cost of 1-2 MP per hex is probably about right.

One neat idea that crossed my head was to use contour lines as a way of assessing extra cost for elevation change. Rather than saying, "All hill hexes cost an extra MP to enter" you can say, "It costs an extra MP to cross any contour line." Some old school maps already have these (think of B2's map). It allows for a much more natural depiction of topography and doesn't limit you to static "Hill" and "Mountain" terrain, although it can make map drawing a LITTLE harder if you don't "get" topography. I'm comfortable with topo maps so I don't mind it much. The trick is just setting the major contour interval appropriately.

On our scale with 2 league hexes an appropriate interval would probably be around 500-1000', just as a WAG. Charge one extra MPs for going up and 1/2 MP for each line crossed going down (50% to lose a MP perhaps). Anyone that thinks going down is super easy is wrong, it is really tough on your knees and feet, especially when carrying a load.



PUT IT ALL TOGETHER

What you end up with is a base speed of 3 hexes due to encumbrance, and a move cost of 1 MP per hex with perhaps 3 extra MP sucked up for crossing contour lines. So going with that we should have covered 3 * 3 -3 (for elevation) two-league hexes over three days: 6 total. That's 36 miles: which is exactly what we hiked, real world. If the DM had been generous and given us an extra hex for a half day of light load with daypacks then we'd still be close, but I spent my extra hex of move bushwhacking off trail a bit to explore rather than covering distance.

Here's a rough table of ROT's:

Average Unencumbered Move: 4 hexes on foot / 6 hexes mounted

• Light Encumbrance: 3 hexes
• Moderate Encumbrance: 2 hexes
  
• Heavy Encumbrance: 1 hex

Base Cost to Enter Hex: 1

• Light cover (tall grasses, light undergrowth): +1
  
• Moderate cover/rough terrain (dense forest): +2
• Heavy cover/rugged Terrain (dense swampy forest with alder thickets): +3 (use rarely)
  
• Extremely Rugged Terrain (you're on the friggin' moon, and there is a swamp with alder thickets there somehow): +4 or more (use rarely)
  
• Crossing contour line (uphill): Costs one MP
• Crossing contour line (downhill): Costs 1/2 MP (roll D6, 1-3 = lose a MP)
• Using trail: Negate effects of cover if on foot; some sort of bonus to fatigue checks?
• Using path: Negate effects of cover if on foot or mounted; some sort of bonus to fatigue checks?
  
• Using road: Negate effects of cover if on foot or mounted or with wheeled vehicle; some sort of bonus to fatigue checks?

This basically lets you use trails to negate penalties for heavy cover (with an obvious channeling effect), and it also makes using them even in non-cover a smart idea to avoid fatigue. Or you could just say that most off-trail areas except for wide open plains have even light cover, which is fairly realistic.
Even people on the great plains used roads and trails, especially for vehicles. A more complex (but less usable) table might have a column for each terrain assigning a cost for on foot, mounted, and wheeled traffic with trails/roads being especially important for the latter options. That represents the advantage of foot travel in rough terrain. It also allows you to say things like, "Mules are treated as foot in rough terrain" to make mules cooler than horses in some situations.

Another way to tackle it would be having two short tables:
COVER: None (+0), Light (+1), Heavy (+2), Legendary (+3)
FOOTING: Good (+1), Rugged (+1), Poor (+2), Legendary (+3)

So, the savannah (good footing) with tall grass (light cover) might be 2 MP to enter each hex. Up here, an alder forest (+1 or +2) growing on rocky rugged ground (+1) would be 3-4 MPs; if it is also a swamp (not uncommong) then it might be 4-5 MPs per square, which means the average guy would spend a whole day bushwhacking to go two leagues... Or find a trail in a hurry!!!

OTHER NOTES

As a side note we did some packing with horses too for a few hours recently and they do appreciate trails too. They also don't go a whole lot faster than people do most of the time. I just want a game mechanic to represent the idea that light infantry r0xors in rough trackless terrain. The trail/paths/road mechanic does that, I think. A vast forest with only trails is a great place for elves to hang out. If human knights want to travel there then they better start hacking paths for themselves, which will also have the effect of neatly channeling all those said horses into predictable areas most of the time. Otherwise, a horse (6 MP, costs 3 MP to enter every non-path hex) will move slower than a light infantry (4 MP, costs 1 MP to enter trail-ed hexes), and then why bother bringing horses? If dwarves want to roll through with big wagons then they'll need an actual road, or else it will be painful hauling through the woods (probably 3-4 MP with costing 3 MP to enter each hex...).

If you don't have enough MPs to enter a hex then a few things could happen. First you could just forbid it; this is simplest. You could also allow it with a random check: say 1 MP is left and 2 MP are required to enter; you spend the MP and have a 50/50 shot of actually moving. You could also require the extra MPs to be spent with some sort of consumable resource ("forced march") and/or check. We basically forced march the last few miles on the first day; a good way to represent that would have been needing 1 MP to move a hex and 1 MP to cross a countour line and only having 1 MP left. We fatigued ourselves and it was dicey whether we'd make it to our site or just give up and set up camp where we were, so maybe we expended some willpower or emotional HP too.

Real World Visibility

I found another reason for slow blog posting: Alaska Summer. The days here are getting really long, so you'll be out doing stuff and think, "Self, it is only like 7 PM, I've got hours before bed! Then you realize you are mowing your lawn at midnight." Even though I try to be careful about living by the clock I continually seesaw between sleep deprivation induced coma and manic outdoor activity.

However, I have had a chance recently to "field test" two Hexploration related concepts.

VISIBILITY

First, we went down to Colorado for a mini-vacation and did the Pike's Peak thing. The view from Pike's Peak is about as good as you can get in North America, with visibility of around 200 NM on a clear day. It was enlightening to note what can and cannot be seen on a "strategic" scale. That would be 1 or 2 48 league hexes; imagine being able to see all of the heart of a small empire and parts of the periphery from one spot (yes, I am calling Kansas the periphery of the Mighty Coloradan Empire).

Also notable was what you can and cannot see. At the strategic scale only strategic features are visible. Mountains yes; foothills, yes; small hills and embankments, no. Highways, yes; roads, sometimes; trails, no. Rivers, yes; streams, sometimes; creeks, no. This led me to think of a few levels of terrain feature that match up with the scales of play (Strategic, Operational, Tactical). Perhaps you get something like this:

Major - Obvious on all scales
Minor - Obvious on tactical, operational scales
Miniature - Obvious on tactical scale
Hidden - Never obvious

So, if I'm on Pike's Peak, mapping at a strategic scale of some sort, then I can note other mountains, big hills, major highway, major watercourses, towns, and so forth, but locating a minor feature like a hamlet or rutted carriage road requires some sort of time, effort, and check (luck). Locating a miniature feature from there might be possible with lots of time, effort, tools (optics), and a hard check (lots of luck).

To illustrate this, imagine spot and stalk hunting. It is a hunting technique where you climb up a major terrain feature and look for animals. You start by glassing with binocs at 8-10 power magnification which lets you note minor features but scan large amounts of area relatively quickly. You then pull out a spotting scope with much higher magnification to investigate possible animals and evaluate trophies before setting out after one. If I sat on top of Pike's Peak with a 60x spotting scope I could probably locate a miniature feature like an individual cottage or a small trail in the woods, but it would take a LONG time, good conditions, and a fair amount of luck.


Next time you get a post on Travel Times & Distances based off some real world travel we did in Alaska. I've scheduled the post for the near future for your reading pleasure. Until then, I'll let you enjoy a photo from our recent trip!