Spears of the Dawn: Secret of the West (OOC)

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

Baeraad

Delicate Snowflake
Joined
Oct 4, 2017
Messages
1,107
Reaction score
2,270
OOC thread for Secret of the West.
 
Quest Notes! :alien:

Pewter "Kraken?" Merchant Weight, (Apprenticeship Sabbatical):
-- Town of Kouza, east bank Biashara River --
  • Local Oba might know, for a price...
  • Drowned Watchers, west bank of Kouza by the Biashara River. "Their god rules river and all that moves on it..."
  • Nozi Brightfeathers, local merchant of the exotic?
Kwaku, poor village old man:
  • Worry: Kwaku's daughter is in Kouza town's new plague quarantined district, by order of the oba. Likely she and her family is already dead.
  • Wants: her body returned to him for proper burial, even if she is poor.
  • Reward: Kwaku's noble nganga grandfather bequeathed enchanted blunt knife of protection to wife (and her line), willing to part with it.

Travel Rumors
  • Meru border has a 'city chieftain' claiming a cut/"tax" to go through. More dangerous for caravans, but better guard pay.
 
Last edited:
Does this take place in fantasy Africa (à la Bushido's fantasy Nippon) or a fantasy world resembling Africa?
 
OOC: we need a Character Sheet in the OOC topic, which you can Spoiler bracket if you care about GM editing and Theophilus cares to keep secrets. This way we would know our Skills, etc...

Currently the fulcrum would be skills socially applied, such as Perception or Insight, to garner more social info so as to guess Kwaku's reluctance and what we could counter-offer. I assumed my Leadership & Tactics would make such a logical offer to solve the adventure, and I am roleplaying without rolling.

I think we could safely use skill presence for GM Baeraad to feed differing degrees of obvious impressions so we can roleplay this exchange. Negotiating is often more fun than letting a roll decide -- and it often changes the context of any roll, too. Up to you guys, but I think there's more to dig out of this dialogue, even if we did "outsmart" the setup.

If Sabu has ideas on how to reassure Kwaku, Antwi is ready to listen. :smile:

Posting full charsheets is a probably a good idea. I'll see about getting on that.

But as far as roleplaying without rolling goes, well, like I said my immediate inclination was to say no for various IC and OOC reasons. However, "say yes or roll the dice" is a time-honoured rule of thumb, which might even be mentioned in this specific game somewhere. So this is is the second part in action. :wink:

ETA: Rolling e.g. Culture (Lokossa) for extra ideas of possible approaches would normally be a thing you could do, but I can't actually think of anything more to add there. You might consider the stuff I told you OOC about the dude's motivations to be the result of an automatic success at reading the situation.
 
SABU OF THE QAR CLAN
Meru, Meruan Olabon, Griot

Str 10
Int 12
Wis 11
Dex 15 (+1)
Con 10
Cha 14 (+1)

Level: 1, XP: 0
HD: 1d6, hp: 6
Attack Bonus: +1, Weapons: +1 Runku (1d6+2)
Armor: Leather, AC: 14

SKILLS

Artist 0
Athletics 0
Combat/Club 0
Culture/Meru 0
Language 0 (Meru, Lokossa)
Occult 0
Perception 0
Persuade 0
Scholar 1

SAVES

Physical Effect: 14
Mental Effect: 12
Evasion: 13
Magic: 16
Luck: 15

Inspiration Pool: 2
Minor Songs: Praising the Fearless Defenders, Remembering the Correct Words

Silver Trade Ingots: 74
 
Last edited:
ANTWI OF THE ASEKERE CLAN
Lokossa, Lokossan Apprentice, Warrior

STR 14 (+1)
INT 12
WIS 10
DEX 4 (-1)
CON 12 (+1)
CHA 8

Level: 1, XP: 0
HD: 1d8, hp: 9
Attack Bonus: +2, Weapons: +3 War Axe (1d10+1), +3 Dagger (1d4+1)
Armor: Leather, AC: 12

SKILLS

Athletics-0
Combat/Axe-0
Combat/Blade-0
Combat/Club-0
Combat/Missile-0
Combat/Spear-0
Culture/Lokossa-0
Language-0
Leadership-1
Medicine-0
Occult-0
Scholar-0
Tactics-0

SAVES

Physical Effect: 12
Mental Effect: 12
Evasion: 13
Magic: 14
Luck: 13

Idahuns: Tireless

Silver Trade Ingots: 14

Gear:
Healer's kit
Bush kit
Bedroll
3 rations
Pack
 
OOC: Uh, yes seriously, because the context does lead to that conclusion. It's weird that the easier solution seems too much. If Spears of the Dawn can logically be viewed with reticence, then vice versa as well. I am treating the setting's logic as a real place with real risk and asking real questions.

If you want to fiat it that this is the understood starter quest and its expected best practices approach, OK. But normally as GMs we usually just roll with the punches of our context if a better solution is found. Why are you so upset that it's been "solved" at the start? These things happen and yet complications still always happen along the way. :thumbsup: Relax, make some content up or shrug, admit to an unexpected painting into a corner, and we move on to rolling or handwaviums to continue the game.

I have already told you why your "better solution" doesn't really work for the NPC in question. He's afraid that as soon as the reward is within your grasp, you'll just take it off of him and not do the job - something he'd be entirely incapable of preventing you from doing. Keep in mind, he's kept this artifact hidden all his life instead of using it for fear that someone would take it. He's not a risk-taker, this one. He could conceivably be talked around to taking the calculated risk of trusting you not to screw him over, but that would require some considerable eloquence, i.e. a good Persuasion roll.

And no, I'm not arbitrarily blocking you from fixing everything all in one go either, as you seem to be implying. A Blunted Knife gives you a bonus to certain reaction rolls - it's not exactly gamebreaking, or I wouldn't have offered it up as the reward for your very first quest. And even charming the oba completely would just be the first step anyway. That's not the issue.

As for why I am "upset," that might just have a lot to do with the fact that we've been playing for all of five seconds and already you're complaining that the way I portray the game world makes no sense - in fact, you're declaring that there must obviously be some sort of sinister conspiracy afoot because things couldn't possibly work the way I tell you, up front, that they work. This does not bode for a long and happy campaign.
 
Eh, it's par for the course of logical caution. Kwaku worried all his life about this heirloom, sure. Antwi worries that he doesn't want the plague OR on the bad side of the oba & merchants OR caught in a political play. Nothing wrong with either lacking trust. All our assurances from Kwaku are similarly as flimsy, so there is no harm in pushing back with questions. This is the fun back & forth of socializing! :grin:

edit: And I am not even playing up Antwi's CHA 8 yet. :happy: He's just playing naïve to milk more info from Kwaku out of caution. This is part of the fun!
 
Eh, it's par for the course of logical caution. Kwaku worried all his life about this heirloom, sure. Antwi worries that he doesn't want the plague OR on the bad side of the oba & merchants OR caught in a political play. Nothing wrong with either lacking trust. All our assurances from Kwaku are similarly as flimsy, so there is no harm in pushing back with questions. This is the fun back & forth of socializing! :grin:

edit: And I am not even playing up Antwi's CHA 8 yet. :happy: He's just playing naïve to milk more info from Kwaku out of caution. This is part of the fun!

This is in no way fun for me, and I get the distinct impression that TheophilusCarter would also prefer to move on to a point where something actually happens. Please drop this. There will be NPCs further along who genuinely are something other than they appear.
 
Well then, I leave it. :hmmm: So we have Sabu roll off.
 
How much time will Sabu have before Antwi has finished his own errands? Sabu might poke around, look for provisions, etc.

Well, Antwi seems to be taking it easy... maybe an hour or two? What do you want to look for, to be more specific?
 
Probably whatever is closest to a general goods store. We'll need some rations, and maybe some random equipment for camping and such.
 
I assume we have a previously designate meeting space, likely our mutual "inn."

That said, OOC anticipation, I don't imagine our IC discussion about this quest will be all that fruitful. Antwi is not seeing much benefit here risking the plague, starvation, and wasted time. He'll be looking for other side quests, or main quest leads.

Antwi's compromise would be to let Sabu go in alone and wait on the other side, going in later if the quarantine takes way too long -- but he is otherwise unconvinced at the point. He would need a "plague healer" item/person to be persuaded this is worthwhile. Antwi would offer one of the River God rumors (known to heal, know source of plagues, etc.) as a palliative to Sabu's conscience.
 
I assume we have a previously designate meeting space, likely our mutual "inn."

That said, OOC anticipation, I don't imagine our IC discussion about this quest will be all that fruitful. Antwi is not seeing much benefit here risking the plague, starvation, and wasted time. He'll be looking for other side quests, or main quest leads.

Antwi's compromise would be to let Sabu go in alone and wait on the other side, going in later if the quarantine takes way too long -- but he is otherwise unconvinced at the point. He would need a "plague healer" item/person to be persuaded this is worthwhile. Antwi would offer one of the River God rumors (known to heal, know source of plagues, etc.) as a palliative to Sabu's conscience.

Splitting the party, especially a very small one like yours, drastically increases the chances of getting killed. It also doubles the work load on the GM, whose patience is already growing a bit thin.

If you want to consult with the Drowned Watchers before you do anything else, that's certainly a thing you can do. And like I've said, I'm not married to this quest anyway - if you really find it so unacceptable, then you can go and do something else. But I mean you in the plural here. Whatever you do, you are strongly advised to do it as a team.
 
I agree that splitting the part is a bad idea. With all due respect to opaopajr opaopajr , I don't feel we have particularly compatible playing styles. Antwi certainly shouldn't have to do whatever Sabu is doing, but neither should Sabu have to do what Antwi prefers. I'm increasingly not "feeling it" here, and wondering if we shouldn't just call it ...
 
I agree that splitting the part is a bad idea. With all due respect to opaopajr opaopajr , I don't feel we have particularly compatible playing styles. Antwi certainly shouldn't have to do whatever Sabu is doing, but neither should Sabu have to do what Antwi prefers. I'm increasingly not "feeling it" here, and wondering if we shouldn't just call it ...

Unfortunately, I can't help but agree. This just isn't working.
 
As you guys wish. :smile: But following up on the Drowned Watchers rumors was a good lead, for both info & healers, and has better coherency for self preservation & caution.
 
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top