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ShadowSiege
2008-05-26, 12:22 AM
Original Article (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20080526a)


Excerpts: Fallcrest
4th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide

In today’s preview, R&D’s Rich Baker examines the town of Fallcrest—a place many PCs may very well start their 4th Edition campaigns!

One of the most striking new features in the 4th Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide is the town of Fallcrest, a ready-to-use “base town” for a low-level D&D campaign. We experimented with this in the 3.5 Dungeon Master’s Guide II, and we liked Saltmarsh enough to repeat the effort in 4th Edition with a new town. Fallcrest and its surroundings are just one of the handy DM tools included in the book.

First, Fallcrest is a convenient shortcut for new DMs—or busy ones. It takes time to think up even a small, self-contained setting like the Nentir Vale. One of our overriding goals in the 4E D&D game is to reduce the burden on the Dungeon Master! We want DMing to be fun, easy, and fast, not intimidating or mysterious. After all, every time a player becomes a DM, the game as a whole grows. However, a brand-new Dungeon Master doesn’t necessarily know how to create an imaginary landscape for the players to explore, or how to populate the world outside of the dungeon. The town of Fallcrest and the surrounding Nentir Vale give that new DM a good place to set their own games until they know more about what they want from their campaigns.

Second, Fallcrest serves as an example of town construction for DMs interested in creating their own campaign materials. It’s a good mix of contacts, adventure sites, potential plots, and local color. If you want to build your own town, then following the format established by Fallcrest is a great way to go. It’s also easy to layer on more detail simply by identifying more buildings, creating more townsfolk, and crafting additional storylines of artifacts and places the heroes might eventually discover.

Finally, Fallcrest and its environs serve as the foundation for a “default” D&D campaign setting. In upcoming months, you’ll find that adventures H1, H2, and H3 (Keep on the Shadowfell, Thunderspire Labyrinth, and Pyramid of Shadows) all have locations marked on the map of Nentir Vale. There’s no reason why the relatively generic settings and place names in those early adventures shouldn’t connect into a simple framework so that a Dungeon Master who wants to tie these places and events together can do so easily. After all, plenty of campaigns start when the same group of heroes winds up taking on a second adventure—or a third, or a fourth—after the first!
--Rich Baker


Where do the player characters go when they’re not battling through dismal dungeons or exploring ancient ruins? Where do they go to spend the treasure they win and rest up for the next adventure? The answer is simple: a base town.

A base town is a haven where the heroes can interact with patrons, listen for rumors, sell art objects or magic items, and buy new gear. It might be an elven tree-village that happens to be located near a dungeon the heroes are exploring, a prosperous human trade-town that interesting people pass through, an isolated dwarf stronghold in the borderlands, or a true city inhabited by thousands of people. Whatever the nature of the base town, it’s the place your player characters return to between adventures, and the place where new adventures begin.

Chapter 11 of the Dungeon Master's Guide introduces a town called Fallcrest, which you can use as a base town for your first D&D game.

Fallcrest

Fallcrest stands amid the Moon Hills at the falls of the Nentir River. Here travelers and traders using the old King’s Road that runs north and south, the dwarven Trade Road from the east, and the river all meet. The surrounding ridges shelter several small valleys where farmers and woodsfolk live; few are more than six or seven miles from the town. In general the people outside Fallcrest’s walls earn their living by farming or keeping livestock, and the people inside the walls are artisans, laborers, or merchants. People with no other prospects can make a hard living as porters, carrying cargo from the Lower Quays to the Upper Quays (or vice versa).

Fallcrest imports finished goods from the larger cities downriver and ironwork from the dwarf town of Hammerfast, and exports timber, leather, fruit, and grain. It also trades with the nearby town of Winterhaven.

The surrounding hills hold several marble quarries that once produced a good deal of stone, but the area has little demand for ornamental stone these days, and only a few stonecutters still practice their trade.

A small town built from the ruins of a larger city, Fallcrest is the crossroads of the Nentir Vale.

Population: 1,350; another 900 or so live in the countryside within a few miles of the town. The people of Fallcrest are mostly humans, halflings, and dwarves. No dragonborn or eladrin are permanent residents, but travelers of all races pass through on occasion.

Government: The human noble Faren Markelhay is the Lord Warden (hereditary lord) of the town. He is in charge of the town’s justice, defense, and laws. The Lord Warden appoints a town council to look after routine commerce and public projects.

Defense: The Fallcrest Guard numbers sixty warriors (see the accompanying statistics block), who also serve as constables. Moonstone Keep is their barracks. The Lord Warden can call up 350 militia at need.

Inns: Nentir Inn; Silver Unicorn. The Silver Unicorn is pricier and offers better service; the Nentir Inn sees a more interesting clientele.

Taverns: Blue Moon Alehouse; Lucky Gnome Taphouse; Nentir Inn taproom.

Supplies: Halfmoon Trading House; Sandercot Provisioners.

Temples: Temple of Erathis; Moonsong Temple (Sehanine); House of the Sun (Pelor).
Fallcrest’s Story

Up until four centuries or so ago, the Moon Hills and the surrounding Nentir Vale were thinly settled borderlands, home to quarrelsome human hill-chieftains and remote realms of nonhumans such as dwarves and elves. Giants, minotaurs, orcs, ogres, and goblins plagued the area. Ruins such as those on the Gray Downs or the ring-forts atop the Old Hills date back to these days, as do stories of the hero Vendar and the dragon of the Nentir.

With the rise of the empire of Nerath to the south, human settlers began to move up the Nentir, establishing towns such as Fastormel, Harkenwold, and Winterhaven. A Nerathan hero named Aranda Markelhay obtained a charter to build a keep at the portage of the Nentir Falls. She raised a simple tower at the site of Moonstone Keep three hundred ten years ago, and under its protection the town of Fallcrest began to grow.

Over the next two centuries, Fallcrest grew into a small and prosperous city. It was a natural crossroads for trade, and the Markelhays ruled it well. When the empire of Nerath began to crumble about a century ago, Fallcrest continued to flourish—for a time.

Ninety years ago, a fierce horde of orcs known as the Bloodspears descended from the Stonemarch and swept over the vale. Fallcrest’s army was defeated in a rash attempt to halt the Bloodspears out on Gardbury Downs. The Bloodspears burned and pillaged Fallcrest and went on to wreak havoc all across the Nentir Vale.

In the decades since the Bloodspear War, Fallcrest has struggled to reestablish itself. The town is a shadow of the former city; little trade passes up and down the river these days. The countryside for scores of miles around is dotted with abandoned homesteads and manors from the days of Nerath. Once again the Nentir Vale is a thinly settled borderland where few folk live. This is a place in need of a few heroes.
Some Key Locations

16. Moonsong Temple
The third of Fallcrest’s temples is devoted to Sehanine. It also includes shrines to Corellon, Melora, and Avandra. The Markelhays regard Sehanine as their special patron, and over the years they have given generously to the temple. The temple occupies a commanding position atop the bluffs, and its white minarets can be seen from any corner of Lowtown.

The leader of the temple is High Priest Ressilmae Starlight, a wise and compassionate elf who finished adventuring decades ago and retired to a contemplative life. He is a musician of great skill who happily tutors the local children, even those who are poor and can’t afford to pay for their lessons. He has limited access to the following ritual scrolls: Cure Disease (2), Raise Dead (1), Remove Affliction (1).

19. Naerumar’s Imports
Considered the finest of Fallcrest’s retail establishments, Naerumar’s Imports deals in gemstones, jewelry, art, and magic trinkets. The owner is Orest Naerumar, a tiefling who displays impeccable manners and discretion. Orest corresponds with relatives and colleagues in several towns and cities outside the Nentir Vale; given a few weeks, he can order in low-level magic items or other items of unusual value. Similarly, Orest purchases interesting items such as these, since other dealers in distant towns or cities might be looking for them.

Orest doesn’t ask questions about where characters in his store found the goods they’re selling to him, but he is not a fence—if he knows that something was obtained illegally, he declines to purchase it.

DM Tip: Orest normally arranges for halflings of the Swiftwater clan to transport special orders—jewelry, gems, or magic items of value. However, he sometimes makes other arrangements for items that seem especially valuable or dangerous. If the player characters are looking for something to do, Orest can hire them to carry or guard exceptionally valuable goods he’s sending to a merchant in another town.

Orest Naerumar
Level 8 Skirmisher
Medium natural humanoid, tiefling rogue
XP 350
Initiative +8 Senses Perception +5; low-light vision
HP 79; Bloodied 39
AC 21; Fortitude 19, Reflex 23, Will 22
Resist fire 9
Speed 6
MeleeDagger +1 (standard; at-will) Weapon
+11 vs. AC; 1d4 + 1 damage.
MeleeSly Flourish (standard; at-will) Martial, Weapon
+14 vs. AC; 1d4 + 9 damage.
MeleeDazing Strike (standard; encounter) Martial, Weapon
+14 vs. AC; 1d4 + 4 damage and target dazed until the end of Orest’s next turn.
Infernal Wrath (minor; encounter)
Orest gains a +1 power bonus to his next attack roll against an enemy that hit him since his last turn. If the attack hits and deals damage, Orest deals an extra 5 damage.
First Strike
At the start of an encounter, Orest has combat advantage against any creatures that have not yet acted.
Sneak Attack
Once per round, Orest gains +2d6 damage when he has combat advantage.
Bloodhunt
Orest gains a +1 racial bonus to attack rolls against bloodied foes.
Alignment Unaligned
Languages Common, Dwarven
Skills Bluff +13, Diplomacy +14, Insight +11, Stealth +10
Str 13 (+5)
Dex 19 (+8)
Wis 14 (+6)
Con 15 (+6)
Int 15 (+6)
Cha 20 (+9)
Equipment usually unarmored, might carry a level 6 through 8 magic dagger

23. Blue Moon Alehouse
This brewhouse on the banks of the Moonwash Stream is the best tavern in Fallcrest. The owner is a nervous, easily flustered fellow of fifty or so named Par Winnomer. The true genius behind the Blue Moon is the halfling brewmaster Kemara Brownbottle. She is happy to let Par fret about running the taphouse, while she spends her time perfecting her selection of ales and beers.

The Blue Moon is popular with halfling traders whose boats tie up along the Lower Quay, well-off town merchants, and the farmers who live in the countryside south of Fallcrest. The old dwarves Teldorthan (area 24) and Sergeant Murgeddin (area 18) hoist a tankard or two here on frequent occasion, and both can provide beginning adventurers with good leads on potential adventures.

Be sure to return Wednesday for a look at rituals!


Interesting little excerpt. And hey, look, an NPC with class levels!

Isomenes
2008-05-26, 12:39 AM
Hafta hand it to 'em; I just started a campaign this year, and boy it would be nice to have some material to crib from. I spent a bit of work developing the freeholds, and even so I've felt that many details were missing. My players are quite happy, and I'm overall fairly satisfied, but that's only because I'm good at on-the-fly BSing. :smallbiggrin:

Having this sort of template out there from Day One will be a boon, even to those of us who prefer homebrewing the setting. Hurray!

And now, please let it be Wednesday.

TheOOB
2008-05-26, 02:07 AM
As an excerpt, this kinda sucks, because it really tells is nothing new about how 4e works(except by giving hints as to how humanoid monsters work, ie similar to people with classes, but only with the 1 or 2 abilities you think they would actually use.).

As an actual thing that will be in the book, this is good. Crunch is good, crunch is important, and it should be (and likely is) the focus of the core rule books. Conversely, while fluff is good, and a certain amount of it is necessary to give players and DM's the right idea about the game, I personally prefer as little as possible in my core rulebooks. If I buy a campaign setting or supplement fluff is good, it helps me to create my game and gives me good ideas, but thats a choice I make buying the product, the core rulebooks are just that, rulebooks. This is mainly a D&D thing where the setting and rules are independent, unlike say world of darkness or shadowrun where the setting and the rules go hand in hand.

However, the town they have here is something between fluff and crunch which I entirely support. It's almost entirely setting neutral, allowing you to place it anywhere you want, and much of the stuff there is pretty decent(though it sounds like they got the name for the town and nearby towns from generic fantasy town name generator 2.0). However, it serves another purpose: it's also a guide showing a DM how to make a good town. It shows what kind of information is important and what you need to do to make a good believable town. You'd be surprised how many DM's know the rules like the back of their hand, but stumble over simple things such as town or dungeon design, either over/under developing it before play, or developing the wrong parts of it while the important parts are left undesigned.

Matthew
2008-05-26, 02:17 AM
Looks pretty nice. I could do without the giant statistics block, but this otherwise looks like a good idea well executed.

Azerian Kelimon
2008-05-26, 06:02 AM
Interesting indeed. Anyone noticed that, from the monster and monster previews, we can gleam that the "base" (0 as a modifier) for stats is 3-4? Guess they remembered that was the minimum for humanoids and said, "hey, that's pretty neat, let's use that as base".

Jarlax
2008-05-26, 06:41 AM
As an excerpt, this kinda sucks, because it really tells is nothing new about how 4e works

while it is true we gleam nothing about how 4e works, these are all excerpt articles. sections of the PHB, DMG and MM. obviously some DMG excerpts are going to have to be less mechanical and more about running and creating a campaign since that is the objective of the book (moreso since i remember reading things like magic items have migrated to the PHB, where they belong).

while it may be a shame to learn nothing new about 4e mechanically it is certainly good for DMs to know ahead of time that they will be provided a fully functioning start city within the DMG (especially for those running keep on shadowfell ahead of release).

Dhavaer
2008-05-26, 06:41 AM
Interesting indeed. Anyone noticed that, from the monster and monster previews, we can gleam that the "base" (0 as a modifier) for stats is 3-4? Guess they remembered that was the minimum for humanoids and said, "hey, that's pretty neat, let's use that as base".

My understanding of the modifiers was that they were the same as in 3.x, but with half your level added on.

SamTheCleric
2008-05-26, 06:42 AM
I don't know what that thing in the back of this picture is... but... I don't want it anywhere near me :smalleek:

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/art_preview/20080526_114737_0.jpg

kamikasei
2008-05-26, 06:45 AM
Interesting indeed. Anyone noticed that, from the monster and monster previews, we can gleam that the "base" (0 as a modifier) for stats is 3-4? Guess they remembered that was the minimum for humanoids and said, "hey, that's pretty neat, let's use that as base".

Looks that way. More precisely, it looks like (based only on Orest's stats) half the score, minus one, minimum zero. So, 1-3 = 0, 4-5=+1, 6-7=+2, 8-9=+3, 10-11=+4...

It's a bit strange; was the old system really so unintuitive? If it's a desire to eliminate negative modifiers, would starting at 0 have been so bad?

What I can't make out are the skills. They seem too low to incorporate level, training, and ability mods. I would have thought a level 8 rogue would have 4 (levels) + 5 (training) + 8 (dexterity) = 17 Stealth at a minimum. Even if he's somehow only a level 1 rogue just the dexterity and training should be more than +10. Have they made announcements on skills that go against the assumptions everyone had been making?


My understanding of the modifiers was that they were the same as in 3.x, but with half your level added on.

That seems to make a lot more sense - but that still means the guy's getting only a +2 to Stealth aside from his ability and level. Is that all that training gets you?

Morty
2008-05-26, 06:45 AM
Surprisingly small amount of concretes here. Some fluff and numbers for a town designed for DMs who lack time. It's interesting however, that NPCs with stats are simply "monsters" with class templates.

Dhavaer
2008-05-26, 06:49 AM
That seems to make a lot more sense - but that still means the guy's getting only a +2 to Stealth aside from his ability and level. Is that all that training gets you?

Where does it say he's trained? Wouldn't the +2 be his racial bonus, and he's untrained?

SamTheCleric
2008-05-26, 06:50 AM
Surprisingly small amount of concretes here. Some fluff and numbers for a town designed for DMs who lack time. It's interesting however, that NPCs with stats are simply "monsters" with class templates.

Wait... how is that any different than actually having levels? He's got the rogue powers, class abilities... tiefling racial abilities... He's a level 8 tiefling rogue. That's an NPC... he has a Class. That's what everyone was whining about. Now that its here, you say its just a template applied to a monster... Isn't a class just a template applied to a PC?

Also we learn that Tiefling Fire Resistance goes up with level... so at level 20 t hey will have 15 fire resistance... not great, but not terrible. (or at least I learned it)

Azerian Kelimon
2008-05-26, 06:53 AM
Where does it say he's trained? Wouldn't the +2 be his racial bonus, and he's untrained?

Makes no sense anyway. It seems you get half your level as a bonus, if SAGA was correct.

SamTheCleric
2008-05-26, 06:55 AM
Makes no sense anyway. It seems you get half your level as a bonus, if SAGA was correct.

I believe that you get half your level to skills... the monster stat blocks just put it into the base abilities in case they don't have a skill listed in the block.

PCs do not get half their level to their Attributes.

So really, he's got 4 (dex) + 4 (half level) + 2 (racial).

kamikasei
2008-05-26, 07:04 AM
Where does it say he's trained? Wouldn't the +2 be his racial bonus, and he's untrained?

I suppose that's the other possibility, that a "tiefling rogue" NPC does not actually have any levels in the rogue class which would automatically bring training in Stealth.

UserClone
2008-05-26, 07:05 AM
23. Blue Moon Alehouse
Think that Wizards is aware of the Blue Moon brand of beer (http://www.goodsearch.com/SearchImage.aspx?Keywords=blue%20moon%20beer) that actually exists? I wonder if Hasbro could possibly get sued for that?

Morty
2008-05-26, 07:07 AM
Wait... how is that any different than actually having levels? He's got the rogue powers, class abilities... tiefling racial abilities... He's a level 8 tiefling rogue. That's an NPC... he has a Class. That's what everyone was whining about. Now that its here, you say its just a template applied to a monster... Isn't a class just a template applied to a PC?


Well, yes and no. While all of his his attacks are rogue exploits, he's got only one at-will exploit, one encounter exploit and no daily exploits. So, he's far from being statistically 8 level Tiefling rogue.

Azerian Kelimon
2008-05-26, 07:08 AM
I suppose that's the other possibility, that a "tiefling rogue" NPC does not actually have any levels in the rogue class which would automatically bring training in Stealth.

The commoner railgun returns with a vengeance, before the game is published!

SamTheCleric
2008-05-26, 07:13 AM
The stats haven't changed. His 20 charisma is just a +5... the stat block has added +4 for his level to represent charisma skills untrained. They just streamlined the stat block in that way.

8 is still a -1
14 is still a +2

etc.

bosssmiley
2008-05-26, 08:40 AM
TL;DR: "Welcome to Adventuretown. Pop: 1350" :smallamused:

Pretty much nothing that the OD&D Expert Set didn't show us how to do then? :smallamused:


I don't know what that thing in the back of this picture is... but... I don't want it anywhere near me :smalleek:

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/art_preview/20080526_114737_0.jpg

Hmmm. A Devourer with decent artwork? About time those guys got the respect they deserve... :smallcool:

Haruspex
2008-05-26, 08:40 AM
I don't know what that thing in the back of this picture is... but... I don't want it anywhere near me :smalleek:

What is that? I think I recognize a mohrg and a devourer, but the last one isn't familiar. A new undead that traps ghosts?

Draz74
2008-05-26, 09:28 AM
So ... apparently the Monster Class-Imitation Templates, unlike most monster templates, don't bump a monster up to "Elite."

Interesting.

Charity
2008-05-26, 09:49 AM
What is that? I think I recognize a mohrg and a devourer, but the last one isn't familiar. A new undead that traps ghosts?

I think it's a Death giant, I dimly recall reading something that says they have some sort of soul stealing/keeping ability, they do look mighty nasty.

Drascin
2008-05-26, 10:00 AM
I think it's a Death giant, I dimly recall reading something that says they have some sort of soul stealing/keeping ability, they do look mighty nasty.

It looks much too undead to be a Death Giant, though... My money's on "new kind of undead that's like a Devourer on steroids"

Yahzi
2008-05-26, 11:39 AM
Fallcrest
In general the people outside Fallcrest’s walls earn their living by farming or keeping livestock,
In a pre-industrial economy (i.e. no tractors or combines) at least 75% of the population is engaged in producing food.

The people who write D&D simply can't get that through their heads.


Population: 1,350; another 900 or so live in the countryside within a few miles of the town.
If there are 2,000 people, that means there are nor more than 700 adult men.


Defense: The Fallcrest Guard numbers sixty warriors
Apparently 10% of the adult males of Fallcrest are gaurdsmen.

For reference, America has approximately 1% of her men under arms.

Most medieval societies had very small standing armies. Fallcrest should have 6 constables, and the rest should be militia to call at need.


The leader of the temple is High Priest Ressilmae Starlight, a wise and compassionate elf who finished adventuring decades ago and retired to a contemplative life... He has limited access to the following ritual scrolls: Cure Disease (2), Raise Dead (1), Remove Affliction (1).
I don't know what limited access means, but I suspect it's DMG jargon for will only cast on PCs.

Otherwise, think about it: this town of 2,000 can Raise Dead. They only lose 20 people a year, and (thanks to Remove Disease) at least half of those will be from simple age; that means that no one in this town dies from accidents, or disease, or murder. This is not a medieval town! It will not have medieval views on life, death, property, or morality.

Unless those numbers in parenthesis mean how many times the priest can cast the spell ever. In which case he's certainly not going to waste them on strangers!


given a few weeks, he can order in low-level magic items
Do they have any idea how cheap Continual Flame is? According to 3e it cost nothing to cast. Yet every single bloody shop sells torches. Or lanterns. Often for gold pieces.

If magic items are available, then the NPCs of the town should be using them.


Level 8 Skirmisher
If the shop-keeper is level 8... how high is the old, retired elf, or the mayor?

Second, is it true that the level 8 rogue described in the stat block isn't a level 8 rogue? I mean, why even call him that if it's not what he is?

kamikasei
2008-05-26, 11:52 AM
Do they have any idea how cheap Continual Flame is? According to 3e it cost nothing to cast. Yet every single bloody shop sells torches. Or lanterns. Often for gold pieces.

Do you mean this continual flame (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/continualFlame.htm)? The one with the 50gp material components?

Matthew
2008-05-26, 12:29 PM
Apparently 10% of the adult males of Fallcrest are gaurdsmen.

For reference, America has approximately 1% of her men under arms.

Most medieval societies had very small standing armies. Fallcrest should have 6 constables, and the rest should be militia to call at need.


Actually, 10% is not unreasonable. Medieval standing armies were comparatively small, but so were the populations. Eleventh century England, for instance, is estimated to have had a population of about 600,000 and about 6,000 Knight's fees, which corresponds to 2% of the male population. That means that in a town with a male population of 1,000 (assuming children are not counted) you should expect to see twenty knights. The number of household knights and none knightly soldiers could potentially shift that number much higher. D20 1e demographics in the DMG go with 5%+.

Trog
2008-05-26, 01:10 PM
I don't think Fallcrest really puts forth a whole lot of new ideas, but having a premade starting point is always nice. It'd be even nicer if WotC came out with a book of nameless towns/cities for DMs to use at their leisure. Save your standard DM tons of time. This is a good start.

Nice to see what an NPC with class levels looks like. Hopefully they will be easy and fast to create for the DM too. We shall see.

As for saying whether or not this town is somehow demographically accure vs. the real world past or present I will reserve my judgement until I see the rationale behind their decision. The real world doesn't have roving monsters and priests who can make the crops grow with an incantation and all of that, after all so I find it premature to toss around accusations of demographic wrongness.

Roderick_BR
2008-05-26, 01:26 PM
In a pre-industrial economy (i.e. no tractors or combines) at least 75% of the population is engaged in producing food.

The people who write D&D simply can't get that through their heads.


If there are 2,000 people, that means there are nor more than 700 adult men.


Apparently 10% of the adult males of Fallcrest are gaurdsmen.

For reference, America has approximately 1% of her men under arms.

Most medieval societies had very small standing armies. Fallcrest should have 6 constables, and the rest should be militia to call at need.


I don't know what limited access means, but I suspect it's DMG jargon for will only cast on PCs.

Otherwise, think about it: this town of 2,000 can Raise Dead. They only lose 20 people a year, and (thanks to Remove Disease) at least half of those will be from simple age; that means that no one in this town dies from accidents, or disease, or murder. This is not a medieval town! It will not have medieval views on life, death, property, or morality.

Unless those numbers in parenthesis mean how many times the priest can cast the spell ever. In which case he's certainly not going to waste them on strangers!


Do they have any idea how cheap Continual Flame is? According to 3e it cost nothing to cast. Yet every single bloody shop sells torches. Or lanterns. Often for gold pieces.

If magic items are available, then the NPCs of the town should be using them.


If the shop-keeper is level 8... how high is the old, retired elf, or the mayor?

Second, is it true that the level 8 rogue described in the stat block isn't a level 8 rogue? I mean, why even call him that if it's not what he is?

The same problem that 3.x have... I have a friend that when he's DMing, *anything* can be bought in WaterDeep. Even rise dead for low level characters, as long as they find good treasure.
And "limited access" I guess means they don't have that many. A scroll of rise dead should cost a bit over 5000 in 3.5. How much would it cost there? I don't think people have a magical health care system.

As for high level characters.. maybe now it's easier for npcs to level up? PCs level up faster, but retired npcs with considerable high levels are still possible.
An old joke in my gaming group are inn keppers that are retired 10th level fighters.

Charity
2008-05-26, 02:13 PM
Inn keepers are always CR overwealming encounters, else no-one would ever pay their bar bill.

Yakk
2008-05-26, 02:19 PM
I believe Rituals in 4e have a cost to use. They aren't "cast this and get the effect for free".

Getting a raise dead cast on a low level character requires I quest, I believe.

The same is probably true of the other rituals to a lesser extent.

...

A lower agricultural base makes some sense. A few fertility prayers that work would do wonders!

...

For 2000 people, 60 police is interesting. 3% of the population are police/guards.

kamikasei
2008-05-26, 02:29 PM
For 2000 people, 60 police is interesting. 3% of the population are police/guards.

Well, the town is under lingering threat of orc/goblinoid invasion isn't it? Think of them less as police and more as a border garrison.

Vikingkingq
2008-05-26, 02:55 PM
It's also 60 police who have to patrol an area of at least 7 square miles. Given the fact that those police are NPC warriors, I'd expect them to patrol in groups of at least 2-3, so you'd expect to have only 4 patrols in a given square mile.

Also, where does it appear that less than 75% of the population isn't engaged in food production somehow? We already know of 40% who are rural farmers; the remaining 60% of the town-dwellers could include say the other 35% engaged in food, given that the map shows four large farms and three orchards within the town itself.

Norsesmithy
2008-05-26, 05:55 PM
the remaining 60% of the town-dwellers could include say the other 35% engaged in food, given that the map shows four large farms and three orchards within the town itself.

Most people raising food in a pre industrial farming situation, or even in a hard to mechanize farming situation (like soft fruits and vegitables), will be day laborers, not landowning farmers. They can live in the burg just as easy as outside it.

Dhavaer
2008-05-26, 10:13 PM
If there are 2,000 people, that means there are nor more than 700 adult men.


Apparently 10% of the adult males of Fallcrest are gaurdsmen.

Remember that there are no mechanical gender differences in D&D, and the total population might not be including children. 3% doesn't seem unreasonable.