An idea I wanted to bounce off the Playground for letting my players shop on the road

[AnonymousPepper]

In the setting I'm running with, thanks to the wonders of Sigil, you've got many of the settings of 3.5 as well as Golarion all in a unified setting (it was my justification for 3.PF).

The PCs are working for a sort of interplanar UN, one that actually has teeth (it has names like Elminster and Mordenkainen [and Circle] and the Dragonmarked Houses attached to it), to maintain order and protect the multiverse from the aims of any one faction that might get any ideas of general imperialism that would disrupt interplanar trade. They're hired mercenaries, essentially.

Currently the PCs are keeping tabs on and disrupting the plans of the Red Wizards, which is in turn sending them on long expeditions - right now, they're trekking through the wilderness of Xen'Drik, and I'm about to send them way, way deeper into the continent. Unlike their short hop about a week inland that they undertook last week, this one might last, once all is told, a couple of in-game months.

This being Xen'Drik and the PCs being non-evil and having, well, any non-Drow but especially having an Elf, they're not going to have any place to trade, buy goods, so on and so forth. I already just bit the bullet and handed out Company-issue Travel Cloaks (making it clear that they were not the players', so don't try selling it) so they - and I, more importantly - didn't have to worry about the headache of keeping track of rations and the like. But that doesn't cover actual shopping for improved gear.

My thought was to drop a minor schema of Sending on the PCs (again, Company-issue) and allow them to requisition items from their employers. At market price, no more and no less, because ordinarily my PCs would be the sort to barter for better prices, which this denies them (therefore effectively still being a higher price than they would usually pay); it's also substantially more expensive than just crafting the item themselves. A courier would teleport in, take their orders, take their payment, and return the next day (or longer, for particularly expensive items; I'd probably roll a d100 and figure out whether they have the item in stock, and if they didn't, I'd have it take as long as it could be reasonably expected to take for an optimized Artificer to spit one out).

This solves the problem of long campaigns in hostile territories and not being able to attain better gear during the process, and it - having a requisition system for its employees in the field - is something well within the power of a large interplanar NGO.

I could just drop items on them in loot, of course, but I prefer my screwing over of the PCs to happen because they made a mistake or rolled badly in combat, not because I rolled wildly randomly for loot, and I'm one of those DMs that generally prefers to just pay the PCs in straight gold and general magic items anyway, not specifically enchanted weapons and armor and such (you're either giving them something suspiciously like the thing they want, or you're giving them something useless to their playstyle that just takes up weight; the former breaks immersion, the latter just screws them over).

[AnonymousPepper]

No feedback?
I'll only kick this up once because I really do not enjoy bumping my own threads but I was just looking for some opinions, ideas for tweaks to it, and so on, since this is something I'd want to introduce for my game tomorrow if I was going to do it.

[Red Fel]

As far as ideas go, it depends heavily on what kind of tone you want for your campaign.

Usually - and this is a broad generalization, I admit - when you go deep into hostile territory, it's with the understanding that supplies and upgrades will be scarce. It's a fair assumption by the players and the PCs under the circumstances, and one for which they should be prepared.

Your proposal would essentially encourage them to wait a day or two between adventures to comfortably resupply. Despite my flippant language, that's not inherently a bad thing; as you mention, it means they can resupply effectively in a hostile region, without having to reply on diplomacy or random loot tables. There's fair logic to that.

Basically, forcing them to plan in advance and anticipate little in terms of supplies will create a scavenger-theme campaign, with survival being at a premium. By contrast, offering them the means to resupply or upgrade within a fairly brief (24-hour, give or take) period will better enable them to more openly wreck havoc. The former encourages stealth, pilfering, and occasional desperation; the latter encourages more open combat and brazen conduct.

Really, the question is this: Did you expect them to be skulking around the continent, hiding out in the woods and scavenging to survive, or did you expect them to charge in, guns blazing? Because that will determine whether you want them to be under-supplied or well-supplied.

[Gildedragon]

Well. The idea is cool. You might want to stat out the organisation.
As to how it would work: spell-pool like items? Something like a dragonshard pommel stone and generic body-slot using items that after a commune can be activated in a number of modes... That makes it so that the folks wouldn't ever sell the items

[AnonymousPepper]

Generally, the thing that would prevent them from going in guns-blazing is the enemies I'll have them face. Short of having an actual artificer on the crew - they don't - they're not always going to have the level of firepower needed to brute-force everything. I'm teaching them that discretion is the better part of valor and that blowing up everything and killing everything in sight doesn't always work.

For example, I had them have a "random" encounter with a CR8 Jungle Giant at level 2. They were in a hurry to reach an archaeological dig site; time was of the essence. They could have gone around but it would have costed them time. The party debated it for a while before eventually deciding, after rolling well on their knowledge checks, that, Jungle Giants on Xen'Drik being not immediately inclined to be hostile - just rather suspicious and primitive - they could try to talk their way through. They did and I rewarded them - full XP for that encounter.

When they arrived, they realized that, still level 2, they were up against a camp full of hundreds of people. So rather than killing everybody, they snuck in, and it worked. They got what they were looking for, and the giant that they'd spoken to earlier came back and razed the camp, thereby accomplishing all their goals.

Mostly, this is for the benefit of our Wizard, who took 20 on his Munchkin check, who I'm trying to get to accept that following a handbook is not a recipe for Great Success, but the whole party enjoys thinking outside the box.


So basically, the way I see it, the difficulty of being undersupplied doesn't have to be a constant thing. I can force it if I want to shake things up (Sending has a failure chance; 5% for basic interplanar communication and more for "local conditions"), and that might make a nice twist, but mostly I'm relying on providing encounters that can't be solved just by being well-supplied and using brute force.

[AnonymousPepper]

Well. The idea is cool. You might want to stat out the organisation.
As to how it would work: spell-pool like items? Something like a dragonshard pommel stone and generic body-slot using items that after a commune can be activated in a number of modes... That makes it so that the folks wouldn't ever sell the items

It'll be statted out as I need to do it, I guess.

I was more thinking that the deterrent on stealing any items would be that A. the party is all Good, including a Paladin (LG Asmodeus, it's a long and funny story), and B. that this is an organization powerful enough to influence interplanar affairs and therefore not likely to be trifled with. But I suppose I could include some sort of magical killswitch in the items - that might be a sensible thing, to prevent anybody from going rogue or selling stuff off for a quick buck (albeit one that could be found with sufficient effort, since I'm a fan of the party always having an option, even if an obscure one).

[jiriku]

This seems like a reasonable plan for a powerful, multi-planar organization. I'd suggest that the courier should also charge them for the two teleport spells he uses to arrive and depart. This both realistic (no free lunches) and encourages them to make occasional large shopping trips rather than force the fellow to drop in five times a week for micro-supply drops. And if they have the foresight to ask for something ahead of time, I think there's no harm in permitting a "craft now, pay on delivery" option.

Really, though, any way you slice it, it's fine. You've got a good premise and you've planned ahead to keep the game working even though some of its normal assumptions are undermined. Rock on, you're gonna have a good game.

[Red Fel]

Generally, the thing that would prevent them from going in guns-blazing is the enemies I'll have them face. Short of having an actual artificer on the crew - they don't - they're not always going to have the level of firepower needed to brute-force everything. I'm teaching them that discretion is the better part of valor and that blowing up everything and killing everything in sight doesn't always work.

For example, I had them have a "random" encounter with a CR8 Jungle Giant at level 2. They were in a hurry to reach an archaeological dig site; time was of the essence. They could have gone around but it would have costed them time. The party debated it for a while before eventually deciding, after rolling well on their knowledge checks, that, Jungle Giants on Xen'Drik being not immediately inclined to be hostile - just rather suspicious and primitive - they could try to talk their way through. They did and I rewarded them - full XP for that encounter.

When they arrived, they realized that, still level 2, they were up against a camp full of hundreds of people. So rather than killing everybody, they snuck in, and it worked. They got what they were looking for, and the giant that they'd spoken to earlier came back and razed the camp, thereby accomplishing all their goals.


So basically, the way I see it, the difficulty of being undersupplied doesn't have to be a constant thing. I can force it if I want to shake things up (Sending has a failure chance; 5% for basic interplanar communication and more for "local conditions"), and that might make a nice twist, but mostly I'm relying on providing encounters that can't be solved just by being well-supplied and using brute force.

You might consider a sort of hybrid of the two, then. Rather than simply outfitting them with the means to go shopping as they please, make them work for it a little.

Perhaps the means you put at their disposal requires a little more than a UMD check. Perhaps it requires a stable, safe location. An outpost, of sorts. Perhaps that's part of their mission - not just to infiltrate the continent for whatever reason, but to establish miniature planar anchor-outposts for their patron organization on the plane.

Consider it like this. The employer, before dispatching them on their mission, tasks them with finding a secure location once they're inland - someplace isolated, easily defensible, with some sort of ethereal signature or something. Gives them some sort of dimensional device. Once they find a suitable location, they activate the device, creating a stable outpost point. A small dispatch of scouts, soldiers, and minor tradesmen from the patron organization then establish a camp there. The PCs receive their next mission, another device, and a secure outpost where they can recover and resupply. They move further inland, perform more missions, establish another outpost. Each time they do, they have a safe haven to which they can retreat if need be, a place to go to resupply, and the increasing respect (with attendant compensation) of their employer. Or, to put that last part differently, having proven their ability, their employer authorizes the purchase of rarer and more valuable supplies and equipment.

Earn your way to better gear, as it were.

This method enables you to keep the subtle tone - they can't afford an all-out conflict if their purpose is to establish covert footholds - but it enables the PCs to have someplace to rest and resupply, despite being in hostile territory. Mission accomplished.

[AnonymousPepper]

This seems like a reasonable plan for a powerful, multi-planar organization. I'd suggest that the courier should also charge them for the two teleport spells he uses to arrive and depart. This both realistic (no free lunches) and encourages them to make occasional large shopping trips rather than force the fellow to drop in five times a week for micro-supply drops. And if they have the foresight to ask for something ahead of time, I think there's no harm in permitting a "craft now, pay on delivery" option.

Really, though, any way you slice it, it's fine. You've got a good premise and you've planned ahead to keep the game working even though some of its normal assumptions are undermined. Rock on, you're gonna have a good game.

Only catch I see with that is that it'd actually require a Plane Shift (Greater, actually) to pull directly from home base on Sigil with any reliability, or a Greater Teleport for something on Eberron itself, because of the miles of variance, which would be prohibitively expensive for a low-level party; you're looking at something like 2000 gold there per run.

But I do like your concept and I may just include it anyway.

[AnonymousPepper]

You might consider a sort of hybrid of the two, then. Rather than simply outfitting them with the means to go shopping as they please, make them work for it a little.

Perhaps the means you put at their disposal requires a little more than a UMD check. Perhaps it requires a stable, safe location. An outpost, of sorts. Perhaps that's part of their mission - not just to infiltrate the continent for whatever reason, but to establish miniature planar anchor-outposts for their patron organization on the plane.

Consider it like this. The employer, before dispatching them on their mission, tasks them with finding a secure location once they're inland - someplace isolated, easily defensible, with some sort of ethereal signature or something. Gives them some sort of dimensional device. Once they find a suitable location, they activate the device, creating a stable outpost point. A small dispatch of scouts, soldiers, and minor tradesmen from the patron organization then establish a camp there. The PCs receive their next mission, another device, and a secure outpost where they can recover and resupply. They move further inland, perform more missions, establish another outpost. Each time they do, they have a safe haven to which they can retreat if need be, a place to go to resupply, and the increasing respect (with attendant compensation) of their employer. Or, to put that last part differently, having proven their ability, their employer authorizes the purchase of rarer and more valuable supplies and equipment.

Earn your way to better gear, as it were.

This method enables you to keep the subtle tone - they can't afford an all-out conflict if their purpose is to establish covert footholds - but it enables the PCs to have someplace to rest and resupply, despite being in hostile territory. Mission accomplished.

This too I'll think about. You usually have really, really good ideas, so it's definitely something I'll consider including. If I make a campaign journal and I do use it I'll definitely give some mention towards the end about how well it worked.