Game Journal Entry #1 & Fragged Kingdom Holding rules.
over 7 years ago
– Mon, Jun 12, 2017 at 07:11:35 AM
For today’s update I want to walk you through what’s being going on with my regular Friday night game of Fragged Kingdom. My hope is that this will not only be interesting, but may also give you a glimpse into what sort of stuff you can get up to in FK.
There is also a detailed breakdown of the FK Holding rules towards the end of this Update.
Game Session 1: Finding a New Home.
This session happened a few weeks ago, and it mostly consisted of character creation and an introduction to the setting.
Here are the PCs:
- Eshet, a Tolatl warrior cleric of Corp (the god of Commerce). He is armed with a Spear and Shield, he also has a dog-like mount named Balaam. Eshet is the talker and the tank of the party.
- Itai, a Remnant enchanter rogue. Itai has invested all of his Resources into a fancy Enchanter shield ability that lets him stealth at any time by clouding people’s minds, and he has chaotic long range enchantment spells. He acts as the party scout.
- Liz Dirk, a tribal Kaltoran archer. She will be providing lots of fire support and insight into the wilds.
- Siris, a Legion woodsman. He is tough (as most Legion are) and has a keen interest plants and animals. He will be assisting with the town’s production abilities, and has just kind of fallen into the whole ‘adventuring’ thing by accident.
- Mythra is a tribal Kaltoran shaman with a blue spirit, a bow and some alchemy. I expect her to be diving head-first into all things magical.
Gameplay:
The non-tribal characters have just left Stronghold as 1 of 3 different scout groups who are assisting a group of settlers. These settlers have been forced to leave the great city of Stronghold due to dwindling supplies and overpopulation. But nature has re-claimed the world and it must be tamed and fought back to make room for them. No one knows what’s out there, and there is no going back.
The party leaves Stronghold and passes through the ruins of Port Carthage (H). A tyrannical (or possibly just firm out of necessity) Lord has claimed these lands as his own and the newly founded town is overrun with crime and refugees from other failed settlements, a chilling reminder of the urgency of their situation. The PCs and the settlers are keen to move on, as the locals have started to hound them and steal their precious supplies.
Moving west around the top of the Arcane Bay the settlers make camp and the 3 scout teams (including the PCs) split up to find a suitable location for the new town. One group goes to the mountains (never to return), one group goes to the ruins of Jinder (J) and the PCs head out to the Haven Citadel (I).
Like most places, the Citadel was destroyed by Druids during the great druidic war and is now flooded and overgrown. Inside the ruins the PCs discover a small tribe of 6 Nephilim. Ever keen to make a deal, Eshet seeks to talk to them, but that does not go well and a combat ensues.
The PCs and the NPCs are on opposite sides of a small waterway and the PCs must walk across a fallen pillar, which is acting as a bridge. Eshet with his shield takes the front position as they slowly make their way forward. The fight goes well, but with some comedic moments :) One PC falls over Eshet in his eagerness to get to the enemy, and kills a Nephilim druid while lying on the ground. Itai, using his invisibility, sneaks forward to the dead druid and throws a random potion that he looted at another druidic foe. The potions turns out to be a rage potion (which had caused them some earlier trouble), causing the druid to attack one of his allies, who was swimming after being pushed off the pillar bridge, with vines. The vines drag the Nephilim warrior down to his death, which prompts his surviving allies to flee.
After spending a few more days scouting the area for fresh water and other resources they return to the settlers to make their plans about where to settle their town. During this time the PCs also discover some information about this place. The tribal Nephilim here are able to clone themselves (the clone is weaker than the original) by spitting a glob of bio-mass out of their mouths. These few weak Nephilim are the clones or clones of clones … etc … of a great army that once destroyed this area.
They return to the settlers to report their findings and to decide where to found their town.
- The scouts from the mountain have not returned and are presumed dead.
- The Citadel that the PCs scouted is very defendable, has moderate amounts of natural food resources, access to the sea and large amounts of pre-cut stone.
- 2 of the 3 scouts (1 died) that explored the ruined town of Jinder reported that it is in a wide open valley with a river. The location is really exposed, but has large amounts of space for farming and easy access to wood and the sea. The ruins also have a large number of spider like creatures.
The PCs and the NPCs decided to settle in the ruins of Jinder.
After spending their newly gained Renown (works like Influence) that they gained by risking their lives to help the settlers, their towns Stats look like this.
Next session, they plan on clearing the ruins of spiders, and they are visited by a wild Kaltoran and Remnant tribe who are in need of help.
Holding Rules
Let’s walk through a step by step guide on how Holdings in FK are created and how they work.
Step 1) Find and secure a location
The location of your Holding is probably the most defining factor about your Holding, from a story and mechanical perspective.
Once you’ve secured a location (ie: cleared out any local monster and scouted the area) your GM will set Attribute Maximums of your Holding. All Maximums added together should equal 16, but can be as low as 12 if the land is particularly harsh or inhospitable or as high as 20 if the land is especially fertile and well suited.
Traits and in-game development actions may be used to increase or alter your Holdings Max Attributes.
Each Attribute may also be given one Trait (costs 2 Renown, and some Trade Goods), with many Traits requiring particular environments (ie: a port requires water).
In my Friday night game my players had 3 locations to choose from:
- Citadel Ruins: These ruins are ideally located (increasing the Total Attribute Maximum to 18), moderate Food Wood and Stone access, defensible (high Security Attribute), and would come with some free Stone Trade Goods.
- The forest: Excellent wood access, but as it is located close to an existing town (H) it would be competing for resources (reducing its Total Attribute Maximum to 14).
- Jinder Ruins: As it is located in a valley with river access to a forest it has high Fields and Woods Maximums, but will be difficult to defend (low Security Maximum), comes with free Lumber Trade Goods (form the ruins) and would be ideally located (increasing the total Attribute Maximum) except for an unknown problem (which the players will discover in a couple of sessions… there is an ancient dungeon under the town. This makes the location dangerous, but grants access to some unique Traits).
Step 2) Allot the PCs Renown.
As with Influence, the PCs may pool their Renown together to spend on their Holding. Renown is spent on Attributes and Traits.
What do Holding do?
Holdings may have a massive influence on your story, as they’re not only a home base and a place to meet NPCs, they will also generate unique Production Trade Goods which may be used to re-invest in the Holding or used to build personal Buildings (homesteads, castles, business, etc…) for your PCs.
Primary Holding Attributes:
- Fields = Primarily produces Food which primarily sold to increase your Renown, great for speeding up the growth of your Holding.
- Woods = Primarily produces Lumber which is required for most forms of construction.
- Hills = Primarily produces Stone which is used for advanced structures and defences.
- Population = Increases your taxable income and your workforce. Population Traits define the culture of your Holding (ie: industrious, pious, mercantile, etc...)
- Security = Increases your taxable income and your armed forces. Security Traits define the nature of your armed forces (ie: defensive fortress, mobile army, etc…).
- Loyalty = Increases your workforce and armed forces. Loyalty Traits define the nature of your populations loyalty (ie: pious, charmed, tyranny, etc…).
