Equipment List for my USR Sword & Sorcery Campaign

Equipment List for the World of Xoth

The common coin of the realm is silver, and following equipment list costs are in silver. 10 silver pieces make for one gold. Copper is the lowest coin, needing ten of these beggar chips to make one silver. Copper is usually only good for buying moldy bread, and cheap clothing. The sourest of wines can be had for a few copper, but only slaves would be found drinking such foul fare.

Gems are the most concentrated form of wealth, ranging in value from 100 to 1,000 gp’s and up! Most cutthroats would sell their soul for a chance to steal but a few gems.

Player characters start with basic equipment relative to their character backgrounds, and therefore get to list three such items for free. They also get to roll 3d6x20 starting silver to purchase some additional gear. Remember to keep some silver on your person to by that first nights round of ale, and mutton.

Rules for the game using Scott Malthouse's USR mechanics can be found here!

Weapons

Dagger                                  20           +1

Mace                                    50          +1

Sickle                                    60         +1

Club                                      2           +1

Heavy Mace                       120          +2           2H

Morning Star                       80           +1          

Spear                                  20           +1           ranged weapon

Long Spear                         50           +1           first strike opportunity, set against charge

Quarter Staff                      5              +1

Heavy Crossbow               500           +2           ranged weapon

Light Crossbow                 350           +1           ranged weapon

Dart                                    5                           ranged weapon

Sling                                    1                          ranged weapon

Throwing Axe                    80           +1            ranged weapon

Miners Hammer                 10          

Hand Axe                          60           +1

Light Pick                          40          

Short Sword                     100         +1

Battle Axe                         100         +2

Flail                                    80           +1           first strike opportunity

Long Sword                      150         +2

Scimitar                            150         +2

War Hammer                    120         +1/+3 vs. Plate

Pole Axe                            85           +2           2H, first strike opportunity, set against charge                   

Great Axe                          200         +3           2H

Great Sword                      500         +4           2H

Long Bow                         750         +2           ranged weapon

Short Bow                         300         +1           ranged weapon               

Armor

Leather coif                       100         +1           head only

Steel Cap                          100         +3           head only

Leather Jerkin                   600         +1           body and arms

Quilted Jerkin                   400         +1           body and arms

Chain Shirt                       600         +2           body

Leather Leggings               350         +1           legs

Quilted Leggins                 250         +1           legs

High Leather Boots           250         +1           legs

Chain Cowl                      250         +2           head

Full Helm                         350         +3           head

Chain Jerkin                     1,500     +2           body and arms

Hide Coat                         900         +1           body and arms

Scale Corselet                  1,500     +2           body and arms

Bracers                           100         +1           arms

Armored Gauntlets           200         +2           arms

Greaves                           100         +1           legs

Chain Skirt                      100         +1           legs

Breastplate                      900         +3           body

Banded                           750         +2           body

Fully Armor Suits

Quilted                          1,500     +1           all

Leather                         2,000     +2           all

Chainmail                     5,000     +3           all

Scale                            5,000     +3           all

Plate                            15,000   +4           all

Shields

Buckler                        150         +1           you may use a bow or crossbow while equipped

Small Shield                 70           +1

Large Shield                 100         +2

Tower Shield               300         +4           provides cover from aimed ranged weapons

Mundane gear can be bought using the same prices in the Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook. Keep in mind that most of the prices there are listed in gold coins, so multiply the cost by ten to determine the price in silver!

USR Halberd Character Generator

Peter Gagliardi has made a fine character generator for Scott's USR fantasy rules. Link to the generator can be found at Gags Dev website here.

Gets one into a game quick!

So I'm playing now

Instead of talking about how I want to play role playing games now.

Not truly face to face, but on line.

Outside of my face to face scrum of a railroad adventure mashing up B10 Night's Dark Terror with Chaosium game mechanics, I have not enjoyed face to face play since 1988.

But the live play via on line video chat has been really enjoyable, and has let me try these lovely games once again.

But answer me this. Why are people thirty years later playing D&D the same way I played it when I was eleven? Seasoned gamers wax poetically on player agency, sandbox play, collaborative story building, the thrill of open ended adventure and what if. Why role playing games are so off the hook when it comes to social entertainment compared to watching sports or pitching horseshoes with your buds. All sorts of heady stuff.

Finally, it seems to me, there are a plethora of experienced players loose on line available buying into the greatness of the medium. I find them blogging, playing, creating, publishing here on line.

While available technology such as video chat has allowed instant gaming opportunities gathering a good gaming group is still something to cherish, and takes work. I feel very lucky to meet complete strangers on line and get nothing but good vibes, good cheer, and a good time. Now lets play. Okay, we head to the caves. How many days travel? Okay, what do we hear? We rush in. What do we see? Faaack.  My first on line game with the OSR was a trip down eleven year old lane.

Yeah we were playing B2 Keep on the Borderlands, a well known adventure relic, but that whetted my appetite all the more. I looked forward to tackling a long ago played treasures with a more informed, and enthusiastic intent.

So I was completely mystified why most PC's were against any other plan than to march directly to the caves, charge in, and have to with whatever came our way. My PC has survived three hack and slash approaches. Just barely. Bumping and grunting against psychotic subterranean foes. Jabbing spears into each others vitals, letting the probability die fall where they may. It has left me with meager gains, and a character still breathing. Not much else. I ponder a better way to ring the caves like a blood soaked rag filled with diamonds. I ponder the absurdity of the economic system of the Keep itself. I ponder the validity of stumping into someone's home, slaughtering them and their family, and taking their valuables.

My mistakes in this situation are numerous. I've not asked other players around the virtual table what their expectations for the game are. I have not asked my DM what his expectations for the game are. I have not stated my expectations for the game at the outset. And I sure as shit did not think to make the Thief take a full wineskin of oil with him into the ogre cave. We could have easily torched the beast while he slumbered on his rancid bear skin bedding. Could have spared Anselm the retainer's poor life.

A lot of it probably has to do with going along to get along. Finding a game to play live, whether in the flesh or through the internet, with others which fits your time schedule isn't always easy. And I truly enjoy talking with all the players around the table trying to forge an exciting adventure.

But I find a lot of resistance from the group to. No one seems interested in, say, muck stables for three months at the Keep. Watch the coming and goings of the place. How many wagons of food a day does it take to keep people fed, how far do these goods come from, do the hired guards seem satisfied with their pay or is their a high turnover, is the Keep ever attacked by the monsters from the caves, do the people love their Lord, what relationships exist among the inhabitants of the Keep? Does anyone live outside its walls? If I'm working out of this place paying top dollar for food and lodging why doesn't the group start wholesaling to the Tavern, Provisioner, Smithy, etc? Why are players reluctant to approach the caves of chaos from above, and spend days watching the comings and goings of the place? To recon, gather information of the world in which our PC's inhabit so as to begin to find the tools we need to exploit our surroundings, satisfy our ambitions and goals? But I only find my character in front of some cave entrance trusting to the luck of a d20 roll.

It is most likely these interests of mine are just not the interest of anyone else in the group. Then clearly I am barking up the wrong tree. I'm sure I'm barking up the right game though :)

New games, new posts, old music to my ears

Feeling to full of myself I demanded Treasure Island was the best adventure ever written. Pacing, dialogue, immersion, character development; the whole work is entirely off the hook. The electricity coming off the fingers while the quill dipped the inkwell, well, if I could capture that call me Stephen King!

This was orated in front of the television before a not too interested roommate who had just completed a Jules Verne story.

While Jules Verne illuminated great ideas Stevenson breathed stale breath in my face, forcing involuntary fingers to twist powder in the breach of my flintlock.

That is story telling. That is TRPG!