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A Pedantic NoteOn page 32 of the guide it says: The city is famous for its weekly dinosaur races through the streets. Faerun does not have weeks. It has Tendays. 1. How Cool is a Dinosaur Race?A good encounter will address two questions:
Most of the racing I've seen was in movies. I'm a movie buff, so I use movies for inspiration, but I also pull from comic books, novels, etc. Ben-Hur, Fast and the Furious, and Pixar's Cars films all have fun race scenes. Grease, Star Wars: Episode I, and Days of Thunder are fine sources too. What makes these races exciting is that they have
Dinosaur Betting - Preliminary NoteThe book gets this totally wrong. Don't follow it or you'll end up very confused. This is NOT how odds are written. Frankly, the dino betting element is boring. Focus on dino racing instead. I'll return to my betting notes at the end. 2. Why to Skip the Race as WrittenHere's how the book suggests you run it:
The whole race is abstracted, so it will really be a bunch of math problems on a sheet of paper in the end. Boring. If you want to run it as the book says, I would print handouts for the players, one for each dino. I don't like this way of running the race. It's not very fun, it's not dangerous, and it doesn't hit our secondary goal of touring the city. 3. Sean McGovern's Dinosaur RaceGo buy Sean McGovern's Tomb of Annihilation Companion (ToAC) right now. It's five bucks well-spent. You'll thank me. I will be stealing a lot of his dino race ideas for mine (I won't include the parts I steal here--so if you don't buy his supplement, you'll have to invent your own), but I won't be stealing how he runs the race itself. I don't like his actual race mechanic (sorry, Sean), so I'll come up with my own. What ToAC does well is threefold. It gives us:
Though this doesn't give the players a tour of everywhere they can go in Port Nyanzaru, it gives them exactly enough to learn the basic layout of the city and some ideas of where they can go to get started having fun. It has 8 stages, each with their learning experiences:
An example of the supplement's challenges is this at Stage 1: Pushing Riders Off the Bridge. Riders can make an opposed strength check to try to knock one another off their dinosaur. The loser of the opposed strength roll must make a DC 10 Dexterity save or fall off the bridge into the crowd below. This lets the player deal with a rival (the NPC doing the pushing or that THEY are pushing), experience some danger with HP loss or even death, and creates a set-back in the race that doesn't put them out entirely. I like all this. I recommend using all of the challenges from the race in the Tomb of Annihilation Companion. But I still don't like the racing mechanic. 4. A More Intuitive RaceThe main problem I see with the race mechanics is that they are complex, but will never be used again in the game. If I'm going to introduce a complex mechanic in a mini-game (like the raptor fight gambling I introduced), I want it to teach my players something that they'll be using later on (ie, flanking rules). The second problem is that they don't feel much like a race. They feel like a bunch of math problems: the first player to add up points to 300, wins. The third problem is that the race race mechanics aren't intuitive. I want my players to look at what we're doing and understand why a rule would be there on-sight. The better way to run the dinosaur race is as a board game. Players always love a mini-game and board games are good fun. All sorts of board games are races, from Candy Land to Life. Even children understand this sort of gameplay. Players go around the table rolling dice to move forward spaces until someone gets to the end of the board. Instead of a bunch of combat mechanics and calculating full and half movement speeds, we'll try to emulate a traditional board game. You can have all the players try to ride in the race if you want, but I would follow these guidelines:
Board Game RulesNOTE: These rules are under construction. Since receiving more feedback, I think they need to be tweaked. In particular, I think that all players need to be stopped at every challenge space, but there are other revisions as well that I think are useful. I'll update this when I can.
In order to run the race as a board game, you'll need to make the board. I like crafting terrain with foam, so that's how I'd build one. If that's not your thing, a board game for the race can be laid out using markers and 3"x5" index cards or just a sheet of paper. Here's a layout of what it might look like. If you'd like something a little nicer, go to your local print-shop (I use Costco Photo Center for this) and print out this 30"x20" game board I put together for you. (Note: this was the official point I decided to set up a Ko-fi account for tips. This gameboard was NOT in my documents folder, I built it for this blog because I have lost my mind now. Thanks. You made me lose my mind. See what you did??) Once you have your game board, you'll need descriptions and rules for the challenges. Again, I would go buy Sean McGovern's Tomb of Annihilation Companion and use his. With only tiny modifications (losing the half-speeds punishments, ditching the mount-swapping and the monkey, altering the flying lizards punishment to a skip-next-turn, cleaning up challenge 6's pit escape, and changing the canoe mechanic to a back-one-space), the race will be pretty fun. Some of the punishments from the challenges can be deadly too, which provides our game with danger. BONUS ADVICE Don't let your players die in this mini-game. If they reach 0 hit points, have rodeo clowns in the crowds rush to their aid and feed them one of Wakanga's healing potions. Rivals & DinosYou're going to need some toy dinosaurs. You could use any tokens you wanted--from another board game, player minis, dice, etc. But just go to the local dollar store and buy some tiny dinosaurs for this. These will represent the rivals and mounts for the players. Leading up to the race, be sure to have at least one of the NPC riders harass your players in some way. I recommend having Ekene-Afa's son, Tyrik, do so. Likewise, it's not a bad idea to have one be helpful. I would recommend having Faroul & Gondolo provide them with tack and harnesses or something so they can meet these feckless guides. Print out offer the following dinosaur cards to your players. If they are racing, they will use their own character sheet stats for Animal Handling, strength checks, etc. If they are running an NPC rider, they will use the card's stats. Zongo and/or Nasty Boy should be run by the DM, not a player. Don't forget that the Rider Stats get replaced by the player character's stats if they are in the race. When running the race, make sure to emphasize the antagonism of the rival (Tyrik). Given any opportunity, he'll try to throw a player character off the track and talk trash. He loves to brag that his mom is heroic Ekene-Afa. Also, don't forget that Zongo farts constantly. Make it stinky. Faroul and Gondolo are idiots, but you may want to conceal this so your party chooses them as their guides. This depends on how bad you want their jungle experience to be. Winning & LootIf your players don't win the race, they won't get prizes. What a bummer. You can move on from there if you like, your party a bunch of losers. Or, you can run the race two more times, doing the three races for the day (ignore the 2-legged vs 4-legged vs unchained. This is goofy and requires more dinosaur leg-knowledge than most of us have). This gives them two more chances to win the following (swiped from Sean McGovern's Tomb of Annihilation Companion).
5. Dinosaur GamblingI would skip betting on the race. However, players may be hungry for money and want to get in on it. If so, ignore the gambling rules in the book. They're gibberish. Instead, let the players bet on who wins the board game. Keep it simple. If they bet 100gp, they can win 100gp. Don't worry about odds and payouts. It's too much math to be fun. It will be interesting to see if any of them try to throw the race over a bet. If so, would Kamari the Fat come after them for taking a fall without his knowledge? Could be cool role-playing. Next Up: Guides!
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1. This Merchant Prince Stuff is Overwhelming!Tomb of Annihilation gives us three pages (p.25-27) of biographical info about the merchant princes and assorted factoids about them in a half-dozen other places. Though this groundwork seems ripe for exciting plots, it's not clear what we're meant to do with them. Getting a sense about what they're on about as a group first is a useful first step. Worse, there are a lot of vectors of intrigue, but it's not organized in an easy way to use. In order to play the princes, we'd need to study and internalize the priorities and allegiances of each one of the princes. I'll try to present these dynamics in a more easily referenced way to run. The book doesn't say exactly how the players are meant to meet or interact with the merchant princes, but it does suggest meeting Wakanga first. I'll put together some paths to all of them for us to use. Finally, The book mentions the "beggar princes"--and says they are a "mocking parallel" of the merchant princes. But none of these are described at all. I get the impression that we're not really supposed to meet them in the game, but they are an interesting opportunity. I'll put together a set of them for us to have on hand. 2. The Ytepka Society and The Rise of the Merchant PrincesFrom 1364-1479, Port Nyanzaru was a Amnish colony. It's now 1490 and it's been only 11 years since the Flaming Fist were removed from the city walls by the revolutionary Merchant Princes and sent packing to Fort Beluarian. Port Nyanzaru is newly independent. NOTE: I have not read the various preceding modules and novels that may flesh out what this part of the world was like before Tomb of Annihilation. It's entirely probable that my background information here DOES NOT MATCH established lore or continuity, but that's okay. I don't mind. For a hundred years, foreigners controlled Port Nyanzaru and funneled Chult's resources out of the peninsula. Then, there was an uprising--and this was orchestrated by the Ytepka Society. The Amnian kleptocracy was managed by 7 bosses and each managed a particular domain, usually attached to an export:
Besides 1 and 2, these are all exports desired by the wealthy and magically ambitious in the rest of the world. The Ytepka Society selected Merchant Princes to take over these roles when they overthrew the colonizers 11 years ago--for good or bad. Who were the Ytepka Society? No one knows! It's implied that there were much more than 50 of them at the time of the revolution. We are told that they are mostly neutral good. I think this is included to let us DMs know that they are a secret society working basically for the "good," but willing to break rules or ignore laws to accomplish that. Which is fine. But why are they secret? It implies two things. It implies that the revolution could not be done with public knowing its leaders. Why? Here are my suggestions:
It also implies that their tactics were both legendary and clandestine. It couldn't have been a totally secret revolution or they would not be able to exert their influence with their Ytepka coins--and it couldn't have been entirely public or there wouldn't be any mystique about what they are. It also means their tactics, at least sometimes, were terrifying. This is reminiscent of the final Mosaic plague of Egypt. In secular terms, this had to have been an attack in which Hebrews snuck into Egyptian homes and murdered the first-born of every Egyptian in the city. This would require both knowing who the first-born were and being able to execute the act of infiltration and assassination of so many thousands. The Ytepka Society did something similar. Maybe they snuck into colonizer and colonizer-friendly homes and destroyed things--or killed a pet--or murdered someone. Maybe they were able to convince the yuan-ti to slither into those homes and kill the youngest family member...or abduct them into their cult! Whatever they did, they left Triceratops Coins in the homes in question. I think every adult Chultan remembers the details of this event but does not talk about it, or at least, not with foreigners. The Ytepka Society selected 7 people to be the Merchant Princes of Port Nyanzaru, which was then monitored by the secret society. It's unlikely that all the current Merchant Princes were the ones first installed (for example, Kwayothé is not an original). However, all of the Merchant Princes know that, if they become too corrupt or stray too far from the interests of native Chultans, the Ytepka Society will remove and replace them. The book names only two members of the Ytepka society: Zindar the Harbormaster | Santa and Zhanthi the Merchant Prince (gems, clothing, armor) | McGonnagal. Since Zhanthi is named as a Ytepka, this implies that none of the other princes are Ytepka or know that she's one--and that the Ytepka always install a Ytepka spy in the ranks of the merchant princes to keep an eye on them--just like they must do in every industry in the city. Zhanthi and the Ytepka are the "good guys" in Port Nyanzaru. Starting with that is helpful for sorting out the political intrigue. 3. Merchant Prince Intrigue Sorted OutThe book (and most online guides) organize the various conflicts among the merchant princes by character. Instead, I'll organize this content by topic. There are 3 main issues of political conflict within Port Nyanzaru.
1. Transparency vs Secrecy (Maps & Information) The characters have a super-map of Chult. It is the most comprehensive map of the peninsula in existence, so they have a stake in the transparency vs secrecy conflict automatically. On the side of secrecy is Jobal's position. He most strongly believes that maps, lore, histories, etc. should be privileged and leveraged to increase Chultan wealth and power. If he discovers that the team has Syndra's map, he'll offer to buy it--then task thieves with taking it--and eventually kill for it. On the side of transparency is Wakanga O'tamu--who believes that shared information is a tide that raises all ships. He is good, so he won't kill to get the super-map--but he would offer trade for it. He would also be interested in making a copy of it--which his scribe could do in only a couple hours.
2. Isolationism vs Globalism (Guards, Guides & Trade) Rather than think about this set of conflicts in terms of colonizer and colonized, it's easier to think in terms of isolationism vs globalism. It's an interesting in-game role-play conflict because both sides can be embraced by either good or evil people for good or evil reasons. Characters will encounter this dynamic in a variety of contexts: by dealing with guards, guides, and buying supplies. Ekene-Afa is the most isolationist of the merchant princes. She sells nothing to the outside world; her products are only used in Chult. She would be happy if Chult cut ties with the foreigners, who once watched gladiator slaves kill each other for sport, and relied on themselves. Wakanga O'tamu is the most globalist thinker of the merchant princes. He is a Harper, which is a secret organization dedicated to disseminating information across all political borders. Ekene-Afa would rather Chultans be totally independent from their former colonizers. 3. Monarchism vs Populism (Who Should Rule) This populism vs monarchism theme is subterranean, but set up throughout the module. It may be that your characters never engage with this topic meaningfully, but this graphing helps lay out the assumptions of the major players. Also, you may decide to allow this tension to come to a head partway through the campaign, in which case this would become more immediately relevant to the players. Zhanthi is a monarchist -- and again, she's meant to be our "good guy." This makes sense because the game, as you move further into Chult, is decidedly monarchistic. Eventually, characters will meet the rightful heirs to the Omuan throne in Kir Sabal and learn about Ubtao's barae. Which is fine. Fantasy as a genre is typically monarchistic. Zhanthi, as the only Ytepka of the merchant princes, and of noble heritage, is a sort of clandestine queen. Kwayothe is so populist, she's a revolutionary. She wants to tear down the government itself and hand it to the oppressed poor of Port Nyanzaru (and then apparently have torture orgies in which she filets rich people!). Zhanthi is a noble and reveres the old royal family--seeing the merchant prince system as a "close enough" attempt to establish something like it. 4. How to Meet the Merchant PrincesYou'll need to decide how much of the merchant prince content your table even wants in your game. It may be that you don't care about them and need only to have them operating in the background. Or it may be that you want them to meet one or two of them before heading off on their adventures. Or it may be that you'd like them to deal with them all in some way. If your players only need supplies, these can be got through the vendors licensed under the merchant princes in the markets. Needing some rain catchers alone wouldn't warrant meeting a merchant prince in most cases. The book provides a suggestion for how to first meet one, Wakanga O'tamu by way of introduction through Syndra Silvane, and also hooks for how they could meet Jobal and Kwayothe, but there are reasons players may interact with the others--including a session that would introduce them all at once. NOTE: For politicians in D&D, I add a shorthand similar to the "basis" that indicates their "political style" for me. Wakanga O'tamu | Prince | Mitt Romney Syndra invites the characters to come to Wakanga's villa when they get to Port Nyanzaru. She suggests that he may have good advice for how to proceed. At his villa, Wakanga is hosting a get-together in preparation of the Dinosaur Races the next day. /u/Pababaloo suggested running a skill challenge (5 successes before 3 failures) to see if the players impress their host once there. Even bad rolls should get your players moving in some right directions:
Jobal | Lando Calrissian | Prince Humperdink The players may meet Jobal while trying to secure a guide, they may win a dinner with him after winning a dino race, or they may be brought before him if they were seen to be working with unlicensed guides.
Kwayothe | AOC | Queen of Hearts The group could meet Kwayothe if they take on the Help a Dying Man side-quest or win a dinner with her in the dino race. If a character has a noble background, she may send her incubus and succubus consorts, Ixis | Nikki Minaj and Indar | Lil Nas X, to seduce them into one of her torture rituals. Ekene-Afa |Donald Trump | Nelson Mandela Players may be introduced to Ekene-Afa through her son Tiryk | Dani Rojas if they meet him through the dino race. They may encounter her personally if they need to buy her magical weapons, which she sells herself. They may also interact with her if they find their way into an arena experience. Players might find themselves in a gladiator fight, sea battle, dino rodeo, etc.--just make it non-fatal. Clowns should be waiting in the wings with healing potions. Ifan Talro'a | Jareth the Goblin King | Richard III If the heroes hire Salida as a guide, she should convince them to go meet Ifan to buy a beast for their journey or get advice (but really so he can send message to the Yuan-ti that they're on their way south!). Otherwise, the only reason to interact with him is if you are playing dark intrigue with the merchants, since Ifan is so negative--which I would avoid. Again: keep their experience in Port Nyanzaru positive. Jessamine | Bride of Frankenstein | Gandhi Jessamine doesn't have much to offer the players unless you are going to make the merchant princes a dark intrigue (which I would avoid). She will help players if she finds out that they're working to stop the death curse, but players won't likely need poisons or assassinations. The main thing she could offer is her political power as the neutral deciding vote amongst the princes. Players may eventually seek Jessamine out after they've trekked into the jungle because she'll buy exotic plants. Zhanthi | McGonnagal | Mitch McConnell The only way the characters would meet Zhanthi early in the game would be if they were able to capture pirates for Zindar--for which, Zhanthi would pay the reward. They likely won't meet her until they start bringing back treasures at higher levels from the jungle. Or, if they learn information about the lost royal family of Omu, they may return to Port Nyanzaru to seek Zhanthi's advice about that. Meet All the Merchant Princes! I have not run it, but a cool gaming session would be one in which the players set aside their characters and got to run a meeting of the merchant princes at the Golden Throne. Each would be given a character synopsis (here's some I wrote up - but no Wakange, since he is already being run by you) that they would use to guide some official policy debate. This would give the players some insight into who they all are, but not require the DM to try to run an array of NPCs at once. Choose one of the topics below or create one of your own:
5. Some Ideas for the Beggar PrincesTomb of Annihilation gives us only the following about the beggar princes who run The Old City: The Old City is run by "beggar princes" in a mocking parallel to the merchant princes of the city proper. They have no official authority, but each of them sits atop a web of debts, favors, incriminating information, and loyal muscle that allows them to get things done with an efficiency that the merchant princes sometimes envy. Unlike the merchant princes, whose positions are based on wealth that passes from generation to generation in the same family, the identities and even the number of the beggar princes changes continually. These are clearly meant to be crime bosses! Woo! Mobster fun! The beggar princes ran their crime syndicate long before the merchant princes came to power. They existed under Amnian colonization as well...and probably under the monarchy before that. Organized crime is a constant. There are two main beggar princes. They get to rule over each of the ziggurats in Old City called The Beggar's Palaces (p.18). These two ziggurats serve as the best protection in Old City during an external attack. A third, smaller ziggurat in Old City is home to a third, lesser, beggar prince. Finally, there is a beggar prince for each of the other sectors of the outer city: Malar's Throat and Tiryki Anchorage. (Add or subtract as you will, of course). 1. Spotless Takataka - North Ziggurat - Sanitation Spotless Takataka | Tony Soprano runs a mostly-legit business through his gang Chultean Waste Services (CWS). His operations run in and out of the walled city and he is welcome at high-prestige events. He has a lot of power because they:
2. Madame Malaya - South Ziggurat - Prostitution Madame Malaya | Drexl from True Romance oversees all the pimps, prostitutes, and escorts in Port Nyanzaru. If she finds anyone hooking independently, the punishments are the same as Jobal's: BBB - beating, blinding, beheading. She has leverage over many people because she knows what they do with her prostitutes. 3. Kamari the Fat - Lesser Ziggurat - Gambling Kamari the Fat | Beetlejuice runs all the bookies in Port Nyanzaru. He's gregarious, friendly, and gruff--but he's also Joker-level ruthless with anyone who rips him off or tries to run books outside of his monopoly. He's as accepted inside the walls as Takataka is, though only ever shows up there for special events at the Grand Coliseum. He's happy amongst his friends and hangers-on, partying like mad, in his decadent ziggurat eternal-rave. Bets on Executioner's Run are handled at the Lesser Ziggurat itself, but bets on the dino races, Grand Coliseum events, and raptor fights are taken and collected by Kamari's bookies around the city. Also, even ship captains pay a cut of the below-decks games to the prince through his agents. 4. Pock-marked Po, “The Hideous Prince” - Southern Hilltop Mansion - Protection Altered from Adventurer's League Pock-marked Po | The Godfather presides over Malar's Throat and dwells in the mansion on the south hill overlooking the city. An old, stooped, pock-faced man seated in a bamboo chair, Po is surrounded by a cadre of young women he calls his "lovelies" who tend to his every need. He surveys everyone and everything with his one good eye, and his golden spyglass, for how it can benefit him. The Hideous Prince narrowly survived an encounter with the yuan-ti. Returning with a small fortune, Po set up a protection racket for denizens of the Malar's Throat forgotten by the merchant princes. Subscribers may retreat into the central hall during any dinosaur or undead attack, their entry secured by the possession of a facial tattoo that indicates they are up-to-date on their dues (these are removed by knifepoint if in arrears). Po is wickedly cunning and has a sharp, silver tongue. He displays professional courtesies in discussion and even when angry, never loses his temper. 5. Irokuro Kika, "Lady Death" - Cabin in Tiryki Anchorage - Drugs Irokuro Kika | Ruth from Ozarks was formerly one of Pock-marked Po's Lovelies, but she came to an agreement with him when the Merchant Princes rose to power. The two beggar princes maintain a close alliance. She lives in a humble cabin, inherited from her parents, in the center of Tiryki Anchorage. She embraces discretion. Very few people know she is a beggar prince; her neighbors know her only as a lady who volunteers at the temple's children's school. They do not know that she singularly tames the smugglers, estranged pirates, and street dealers of the Anchorage. Her sense of justice is unblinking and for-keeps, so the nickname "Lady Death." Her street dealers do all of her dealings for jungle drugs. They are both trustworthy and shrewd. They seek and sell dancing monkey fruit, menga leaves, ryath root, sinda berries, tri-flower frond orange blossoms, wildroot, yahcha, yellow musk creeper, and zabou mushrooms. Irokuro was childhood friends with Kwayothe and is her philosophical mentor. She is a radical populist, but the behind-the-scenes operator, not the charismatic. Next Up: Running the Dinosaur Races!
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MORE THAN JUST A PLACE TO SLEEPIn most D&D games, the characters are going to stay at an inn. You have permission, though, to let players find other places to stay--in this adventure and in others. WHERE the players sleep and wake will determine where and with whom they'll break bread. Hospitality is the traditional foundation for alliances, deals, and favors. The players can stay anywhere in Port Nyanzaru, so long as someone would welcome them. Consider being flexible about this. Most of these options will have cheat sheets so you can run these settings easily. The Thundering Lizard - The Loud One
We'll make this a cross between a Rainforest Cafe and the Mongolian tavern in Raiders of the Lost Ark. During the day, it's a family tourist trap; after dark it devolves into a wild pirate bar. This dichotomy gets amusing when hungover parties are trying to get their breakfasts down. Here's my flavor text for when they find the inn: The Red Bazaar--an open-air market stacked with heaps of shining fresh meat--is full of people from around the world. Over the red table banners, you spot the skull of a Tyrannosaurus Rex framing the doorway of a building with its mouth. Over the skull arches a giant sign of individual, self-illuminated letters glowing in reds and golds like Vegas: "The Thundering Lizard." Shrieking children are chasing each other in the entryway. If the players arrive during the day, keep the vibe very Chuck E. Cheese: lots of families from around the world, eating with kids. Toddlers are screaming, going wild. Waitresses are frazzled and annoyed. Management is putting out fires with upset families. Trying to secure a room at this time should be a pain in the butt and annoying. It costs 5 sp/night to stay at The Thundering Lizard. If they arrive after dark, it's a wild honkey tonk, full of drunk jeering revelers--many of whom are betting on dinos. Both inns have bulletin boards near their front doors with guide advertisements. If the players want to hire River Mist and Flask of Wine, they need to go outside the walls where Jobal has less reach. Volothamp “Volo” Geddarm | Mel Brooks' King Louie is staying at this inn and doing presentations on monsters once every nine days (a Faerun week). Have him drinking in the bar most nights too, bragging, and hawking his book. He is willing to pay good money for monster information about obscure species, so he'll be very friendly with the characters. ADVICE: The book says that Volo's Guide will give wrong information with the good. Don't do this. False information will confuse and eventually anger your players. Instead, make the information limited. If they ask to look up a monster in the book, hold the page of the Monster Manual up to the player for 60 seconds. It's easiest. Emeka Isrit | Arthur/Billie Madison--an ex-adventurer who runs the place with his family. At night, he's a sloppy-drunk--but super-friendly--bartender. He pours too many free drinks and sometimes slips and falls. During the day, he's a competent manager for the restaurant and hotel. The Thundering Lizard only sells their house-made tej; no other drinks. Tej is a honey wine made from honey, water and the medicinal shrub gesho. It's mellow and sweet, with a acerbic aftertaste that clears the palette in the heat. Tej is 4cp/mug; 2sp/gallon (when not being poured for free). My Drinking Rules: For every typical serving of alcohol after the first, characters should roll a DC12 Con check against being poisoned for 1 hour. Three failures in a row, and they're "double-poisoned"--rolling with double-disadvantage on all checks and periodically throwing up and falling down. You can also use some of the various carousing rules out there if your players are the types to really get into the drinking fantasy. Velociraptor Fights At night, the bar hosts heats of velociraptor fights. In real life, these dinos were the size of chickens, so this is a lot like cock-fighting. The game, though, presents them as they are in the Jurassic Park movies--and that's fine by me. I use the raptor fights as a way to teach players about how mechanics like pack tactics swing fights (similar to flanking and helping actions--which also give advantage on rolls). The fighting pen is a 10'x 10' square. This means that the raptors are always within melee attack range. I present the players with fighting data for the 3 teams of raptors and they are able to bet on the one they think will win the next fight. Here are their combat and gambling information. Players place their bets, then choose two players to run the dino fight against each other. Once one of the teams is knocked unconscious, bets are paid. The creatures are taken out of the pen and given a healing potion and this is repeated. Kaya's House of Repose - The Quiet One
Kaya's House of Repose is an elegant small hotel just barely outside the Merchant Ward. It's twice as expensive as The Thundering Lizard, but the quality of the stay, the range of the services, and the social access it provides is elevated as well. It costs 1 gp/night to stay at Kaya's. Kaya | Morticia Addams is an elegant and kind Chultan noble--and because of this, she has knowledge and access to the Merchant Princes and the royalty in town. If the upper crust is going to go out on the town, it's likely they'll eat at her inn (unless, they're out slumming it, as some do). Unlike The Thundering Lizard, Kaya's offers much better fare than tej and a sampler appetizer platter. Kaya's offers an extensive menu, a wide array of drink options, stabling, spa services, and a tobacconist shop. Consider offering temporary stat boosts and other effects for some of these amenities: +2 temporary hit points after spending the night at Kaya's, +5 temporary hit points for staying in the suite, +2 Charisma for 24 hours after a full spa treatment, or +2 Intelligence for 2 hours after smoking one of the hand-rolled cigars. Be creative; incentivize spending money on the best. Kaya's also houses a full staged theater that seats a 160 people between the floor and mezzanine. A few guides frequent Kaya's. Most significantly, this is the only location where players will find Eku, but she will only join a group of good characters. Similarly, Faroul and Gondolo | Rosencrantz & Guildenstern frequent Kaya's often because they see its clientele as more likely to fall for their BS--and they like the soft life. I include Salida's advertisement at all three notice boards because I think her betrayal is the most interesting to set up, leading into the Fane of the Night Serpent. An ad that connects the players to the Help the Lord's Alliance side quest (p.16) is on the notice board as well. Lerek Dashlynd | Mr. Wednesday occasionally gets a cocktail at the bar and asks if anyone has asked about the notice. This reinforces the map intrigue dynamic in Port Nyanzaru and can be used to send the heroes out into the jungle when you're ready. The main bit of fun for most is the "mixologist" Ronhip Foechuckle | Tom Cruise. He's a slick hipster bartender with rolled up sleeves and knows everything about booze. NOTE: some of his cocktails have special effects when poured--or drunk. Recipes will be followed by ingredient descriptions. RONHIP RECIPES
INGREDIENTS: Amberfire: hot whiskey Cherryfire: cherry whiskey Dragon’s Breath: Moonsea brandy Elverquisst: ruby-colored and fruity; gold flecks, magic makes them form shapes Fireseed: dwarven; in non-dwarves, DC 15 Con, fail = drunkenness; succes = +2 resistance rolls Flamebeard’s Firebrandy: rotgut from Mirabar Garlrawdwarven: buttery syruppy whisky Gulluk: giant booze; made from broth Harborbottom Whiskey: Rotgut; tastes like fish poop Heart of Wine: Zakhara desert or snow mountains Hultail spirits: Cormyr instant-drunk, +2 dmg +2 AC, disadvantage; pass out in 2 rounds for 12 hrs Kumiss: Zakharan mare liquor; sour milk Luiren Rivengut: For cleaning and fire Moon Rum: c. 1372; purple from beets Moonshae Moonshine Old One Eye: excellent cyclopsian pale red Sagecourse: From wildspace; smokey Sake: From Kara-Tur Seawine: Mount Sar liqour Thannaberry: dark blue; sweet, from Khôltar in south Wyvern Whiskey: scale in it; from Nimbral; super-excellent Zzarfortified sherry: orange/almond—elves hate it Merchant Prince's VillaThough the characters may not be able to figure out how to do so right when they arrive in Port Nyanzaru, they might find a way to make themselves guests to one of the Merchant Princes. The game comes with a detailed map and description for a generic Merchant Prince Villa, but I assume this was included as an infiltration and burglary option--not as a lodging option The Merchant Princes live in opulence and luxury. Play that up in the role playing. They have servants and access to all of high society. If the players are in their domain, turn up the dials in terms of intrigue and rumors they can overhear. Some Merchant Princes are more hospitable than others; likewise the accoutrements of each particular villa match the interests of the princes themselves (see p. 27). Double-check the details for each before introducing any villa to the characters. The villas are within the highest walls of Port Nyanzaru--and all have easy access to the political hub Goldenthrone (p.20), the research center of Temple of Savras (p.20), and the elite spas of the Temple of Sune (p.21). They also have cherry views for events like the dinosaur races. Alternative OptionsYour heroes may end up sleeping anywhere in the city. I've put together some options here and some ideas for how to handle them. Ships Any character with a sailor background can secure free passage on ships for the team as crew-members -- but they will sail at the mercy of the captain. Players may decide to sleep below-decks instead of paying for lodgings.
On the Economy The characters might impress a local enough to be invited to sleep in their home. This is an opportunity to dole out un-masked opinions of the Chultans about any of the happenings or people in the city. This could be done in any district, inside or outside the walls.
In the Streets The players may just find an alley behind a bar to sleep in.
UP NEXT: Merchant Princes!
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AuthorMicah Faulkner first started playing D&D back in 1985. He took many years off after high school, but came back in 2016 to find everything new and changed. Now he plays with his wife, son, and sisters every couple weeks. Archives
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IN DEVELOPMENT:
The Playa's Handbook (working title) A supplement for your campaigns with mechanics for romance! Fall in love! Get sticky! Stay tuned! |