Guildschool

[LordVreeg]

The Bazarr of the Steel Isle is named for the Old market areas that used to stretch off from the sides of the Merchant Row, before the settlement really filled in. A few centuries ago, it really was a collection of tents and ramshackle buildings, where today it is the less beautiful buildings and warehouses behind the businesses that stretch along the strip of commerce known as the Merchant’s Row.

Once the home purely of businesses that could not afford the rent on the Row, it is now a place of twisting streets, Inns, family businesses, and Ladies of the Night. While portions (subsections) of the Bazaar could be characterized as slumlike, most of the area is very middle class, and there are currently northern sections that are downright up and coming, though even these are somewhat cramped.



It is a hard area to describe, as the Bazaar is actually seperated into the Water-side Bazaar, the side to the east of the Merchant Row Section, and the Leeward-Side, to the west of the Merchant row.



The Leeward Side has more residential areas and more shops, but less storage. The Leeward side also connects to the Leeward Docks on the southern side, which is a very poor area. Much of the Middle section of the Leeward Bazaar is the Omish Crookery (or just the Crookery), an area of inns, eateries, bars, and Houses of Ill Repute. This area also has a few open-air cafes, especially in Laxman Square, where 5 streets come together. Chorlman the Axe is one of the most fashionable restaurants in this area, speciazing in Omish and Omnian foods. The Iambic Treblehorn is a real Bardic inn, complete with a large stage on one side, that is a real treat and the Crokkery's main destination for those that would be 'In The Know'.

The Northern part is called the "Rotee Bazaar"., named for Rotee Street, a residential tangle of flats and single family homes where almost all the homes are decorated with the Rotee Vines with their red flowers. This area has 'filled in' recently, mainly in the last hundred years, abbutting the Lower Hill Region of the city. The oldest buildings in this area include an old Venolvian Round Theatre, a long, Marcher-era Stable, and a long, high Temple to Verbren of the Hunt.



The Water Side Bazaar Is connected to the Main Dockside on the south, and this is why the southern Water Side Bazaar is full of warehousing and Shipping guilds. The Main dockside that this connects to is built on top of some of the nicer venolvian docks, and there are some very nice temples that are in the dockside and southern Waterside bazaar. There are also flophouses, and towards the middle and east side, very respectable homes that belonged (or still belong) to mates, officers, and captains of various ships, as well as guild officers. The 'New Jail' is also here, in a tree cleared area, built on the foundation of an old venolvian entropic temple.

The Eastern Edge of the Waterside Bazaar is called the 'East Farm', as the buiildings give way to yards (some of which are nicely appointed) and then the Coastal farmland. Much of the East Farm Bazaar area is markets, or businesses servicing the farms directly.

[LordVreeg]

Celtricia, World of Factions: Disease and Sickness

from the sickness and disease page

Sickness and disease are a part of everyday life, the reality of a cold or a flu as much as an infection or a parasite.

In gameplay, we rarely concern ourselves with this, though it is always good for a GM to keep sickness and disease in mind when the groups go trouping into towns.

For the purpose of the game, there are 5 categories of disease, very mild, mild, moderate, serious, and life-threatening. This is used in terms of how people recover from them as well as how magic can affect them. Because one of the reasons that the Celtrician world is healthier than many is the presence and use of magic. Magic takes the place of technology in Celtricia, and with the relatively ease of access to magic, moderate and under diseases are easily taken care of. However, Serious and life threatening diseases are harder to take care of, especially away from populaiton centers, and especially if they are prodded on by Death Magic.


In the case of any of these, regardless of life cycle, they are treated similar to when a character goes into the negatives.


Sickness severity roll needed typical longevity typical penalty example

Very Mild fort+10 to remove (+11 to+20 stabilize, +21 more move down) 1-3 days none sniffles, light cold, minor stomachache

mild fort to move up (+01 to+10 to stabilize, +11 or more move down) 2-5 days -5% feat, -10% HP heavy cold, bad headache., virus

Moderate fort-10 to move up (-09 to 0 to stabilize, 01 or worse move down) 1-2 hawaak -10% feat, -10% HP bronchitis, mono

Serious fort-20 to move up (-19 t -10 to stabilize, -09 and up to move down) 1-3 hawaak -20% feat, -20% HP

Life-Threatening fort-30 to move up (-29 to -20 to stabilize, -19 or more to die) 2-7 hawaak -25% feat, -20 HP Typhus, Cancer



The CC roll is made at the end of the sickness period. A success based on the parameters above means the patient moves up one chart and goes into a milder version of the sickness, (recovering). If they miss but are within 10, they stay at the same level for another disease period, and if they miss by more than 10, they move down the chart to a more serious version.

Please note that most of the cureative spell for sickness are not very costly.

Please also note that there are many ways to improve the success rolls, some magical, some skills related, and many just pure common sense. Many herbs or other medicinals help.

Bedrest for at least 75% of the sickness period +15% roll
Special diet +10% roll
Near other contagious -12%
kept at proper temperature +05% to roll
etc

[LordVreeg]

Spells are critical for creating in-game logic and verisimilitude. Why? Because one definition of a ruleset is the physics engine of the world/setting. So using a generic spell list and spell system is injecting genericism into your setting, missing a chance to create a deeper implied cause and effect.
Guildsschool was made for Celtricia, obviously, though pretty flexible. Magic (the Woo) is avialable to about 1/20th of the population, but the % that can do more than the simple stuff is more like 1/200, and any level of upper-middle level spells at all tales multiple spell types and a decent amount of points. Even with the Scroll use rules, moderate power spells are out of the reach of all but the powerful and wealthy

The Steel Isle Group, on session 42 last night, spent what would be considered a years income for a pretty wealthy family to buy and have written in their books some 5 or 6 low and moderate power spells
.

This set is an example of spells fitting fitting game logic. Read the Disease page in the above post. I created diseases and their mechanics with the ideas of magic being somewhat avaialble. Plagues happen, death magics happen, but magic is what has mainly replaced technology in Celtricia, what makes it more of an Age of Enlightenment analog to earth in terms of the social mores, business mechanics and philosophical outlook.

The spells are designed to allow minor sicknesses to be treated easily, but more severe ones to require some heavy casting.

Spell Name Cure Very Mild Sickness
Major Sphere Restorative
Spell Source
Initiative 15
Range touch
Duration inst
Save none
Save effect none
Spell Success 0
Area of effect target
Counter

Spirit cost 3
Earth cost 0
Water cost 0
Fire cost 0
Air cost 0
Life cost 0
Death cost 0
Law cost 0
Chaos cost 0
Restorative cost 2
Necromantic cost 0
Mentalist cost 0
Artificer cost 0
Animist cost 0
Total cost 5

Description
This minor, baic spell toatally removes a very mild sickness (qv) from the target.
In addition, this spell will move the severity level of a Moderate or Mild sickness (qv)
down one class immediately
Lastly, this spell provides a +10% bonus to avoiding any sickness for 24 hours.

Spell Name Cure Minor Sickness
Major Sphere Restorative
Spell Source
Initiative 15
Range touch
Duration inst
Save none
Save effect none
Spell Success 0
Area of effect target
Counter death

Spirit cost 6
Earth cost 0
Water cost 0
Fire cost 0
Air cost 0
Life cost 0
Death cost 0
Law cost 0
Chaos cost 0
Restorative cost 4
Necromantic cost 0
Mentalist cost 0
Artificer cost 0
Animist cost 0
Total cost 10

Description
This minor, baic spell toatally removes a very mild sickness or Mild(qv) from the
target.
In addition, this spell will move the severity level of a Serious or Moderate (qv)
down one class immediately
Lastly, this spell provides a +10% bonus to avoiding any sickness for 48 hours.


Spell Name Cure Moderate Sickness
Major Sphere Restorative
Spell Source
Initiative 25
Range 5 feet
Duration inst
Save none
Save effect none
Spell Success 10
Area of effect target
Counter dath

Spirit cost 11
Earth cost 0
Water cost 0
Fire cost 0
Air cost 0
Life cost 1
Death cost 0
Law cost 0
Chaos cost 0
Restorative cost 7
Necromantic cost 0
Mentalist cost 0
Artificer cost 0
Animist cost 0
Total cost 19

Description
This minor, baic spell toatally removes a very mild sickness ,Mild, or Moderate
sickness(qv) from the target.
In addition, this spell will move the severity level of a Serious or Very Serious
Sickness (qv) down one class immediately
Lastly, this spell provides a +10% bonus to avoiding any sickness for 1 hawaak.


Spell Name Cure Serious Sickness
Major Sphere Restorative
Spell Source
Initiative 30
Range 10'
Duration inst
Save none
Save effect none
Spell Success 0
Area of effect target
Counter death

Spirit cost 19
Earth cost 0
Water cost 0
Fire cost 0
Air cost 0
Life cost 2
Death cost 0
Law cost 0
Chaos cost 0
Restorative cost 11
Necromantic cost 0
Mentalist cost 0
Artificer cost 0
Animist cost 0
Total cost 32

Description
This powerful spell toatally removes a very mild sickness ,Mild, or Moderate, or
Serious sickness(qv) from the target.
In addition, this spell will move the severity level of a Very Serious Sickness (qv)
down one class immediately
Lastly, this spell provides a +20% bonus to avoiding any sickness for 1 hawaak.


Spell Name Full Healing
Major Sphere Restorative
Spell Source
Initiative 11
Range touch
Duration perm
Save none
Save effect none
Spell Success -11
Area of effect target
Counter necromantic

Spirit cost 41
Earth cost 0
Water cost 0
Fire cost 0
Air cost 0
Life cost 5
Death cost 0
Law cost 0
Chaos cost 0
Restorative cost 24
Necromantic cost 0
Mentalist cost 0
Artificer cost 0
Animist cost 0
Total cost 70
Description

This spell heals any damage a target has suffered, from any past wounds. As long as
the target is still tecnically alive, it will bring them back to their full hit point value.
This can be done up to 4 times a day. Note that this does not cure poisons, etc, but it does include disease up to very Serious. It also reduces the CC on any sickness rolls by 20% for 1 hawaak aftre being cast.

[LordVreeg]

Now that was a session last night.

Igbarian session, 2/29 (Tokush the 29th), last night, full attendance (7 players and a spouse), with dinner consisting of "Chicken 40 cloves of garlic", 4 cheeses, 10 loaves of bread to sop up the gravy, mixed greens salad, and cranberry walnut bread. Drank Giacomo Feniccio Cannubi Barolo 04, Silverado Reserve 02 Cab, Sterling 05 cab, Chappelet06 cab (Joe's Volvo, we call it), an 06 Aglianioco, a Rhone, and a Shiraz.
The New Legion finished splitting treasure shares, with each share coming to over 33k Electrum Goodwives (and remember, despite the huge discrepancy between the rich and all else, a wealthy, middle upper class Merchant does well to bring in 3k-5k goodwives in a year, and an unskilled workman generally gets paid a goodwife a day). Many of them owed from earlier treasure picks, but still, a huge sum. They decided on how much time they will spend in Igbar working on skill kits (The Guildschool mechanic for studying and learning skills), which was decided to be 2 hawaak.
Ebenezer went to the Alternative school and met with Samria, the Maester, and promptly blew another social CC, despite tithing 3k goodwives. She's still mad at Cyrial dying, not too mention her husband still looking for thier missing daughter. Priestess Igli bought more scrolls of healing immediately, Paulina the Mysteriarch picked up the claws George had commisioned before he perished, Squire Grobach was officially titled Sirrah Grobach, moving into the lowest titled eschelon, and Cesuat checked costing on some spells with the Church of Belial the True and Clear. A few other things got done, but we roleplayed all of that which took a while.

Quote of the early night, "There is no non-martial character in Guildschool, Asshole!"

The group still has many loose ends to tie up while working on their new studies and requisitioning for their longer journeys soon to come. First on the docket was the promise to the new Master Librarian of the Steel Libram, to finish checking/clearing on the sub catacombs found beneath the hidden stair in the private study.
They get there half past the fourth hour, and are let through immediately by everyone (since they were just there in force the day before. The meet with the new Head Librarian, then go back down the hidden stair behind the bookcase.
Amidst all the first tombs and catacombs, The faced one loan skeletal Legionaire (I rolled on a 7% in all four burial areas, one had one), that was of course, demolished out of hand.
The level below did contain some doors they had bypassed the last time, and they found a laboratory/workspace in one.
Due probably to the skeletal legionaire incident, they were very casual when a thick humanoid in bits and pieces of armor started shambling towards them in the workroom. After it knocked an arrow out of the air with it's axe, they started to notice.
This was a Flesh Construct,
Human sized, slowed, immune to mind affecting magic, 30% MR, AV35, PR75(at+10% void-DR, so 115 vs normal weaps, etc) 10% parry, 6% reave arrmor, 60HP, Axe (20+2d8)/d5+10, sf7), multi attack 25% ).
, which was slow, outnumbered, and REALLY hard to damage, as all constructs are. It took 39 seconds of combat with 10 on one odds to destroy it...It destroyed Sirrah Grobach's and Cesuat's armor, and kept the healers and casters totally busy trying to keep up with the damage (Ebeneezer was at -5 again, Cesuat was at 4, Grobach at 6) and buffing weapons to hurt the damn thing.
We ended at just after midnight with the end of that fight, one that would have been a lot more meaningful if they had tried it the same time they were looking for the holder of the second Anginarian Ring, but during a minor clean up, it was terrifying, but not so bad. The Flesh construct was worth 8900 exp total, in case anyone was wondering, with 400 being the smallest share, and three characters getting in the mid 1k for the combat.
Great night.

[LordVreeg]

Choosing a Guild or school.
Almost all beginning characters try to qualify for one major faction to belong to, and a minor one. This is why each guild has a chance to join, with an attribute modifier. It is not ensured, in most games. Gm’s will allow the Player to roll for membership in major guilds until they succeed, then the same for minor guilds. This means a player who fails to join a guild as a major can try to join it as a minor, as well.

A beginning character can usually use their secondary school for up to 4 skills, the rest come from the Major school. Some GMs use 2 or 3, while GMs who are allowing their PCs to create characters with more experience may allow 4-6. Note that the minor school does not signify less membership, but a school that less time in total has been spent learning from. It could mean that the character grew up at the first school, and recently joined the minor school, or the minor school can be one that the player first studied at.

The point of choosing a guild is two-fold. The first is creating the character story and background, and the second is to gain access to skills.
Also understand that in terms of the classical Durkheimian divisions, Sacred and Profane, God, Guild, and Country are pretty much the ordinators of the sacred in Celtricia.

A character's guild(s) should be chosen with care. Almost all guilds have skills they are good at and a few they are great at. Many small, specialized guilds have a few great skills and many bad ones, while larger, more mainstream guilds are normally 'pretty good' at a great many things.

All characters do start with +200 exp in Guild Lore of their main guild. There are also many bonuses from the starting acquisition chart.

Make sure that when choosing a guild that it is not too limited for future prospects. There must be room for improvment. Also, make sure that the guild is not opposed to the guilds of future friends. This is in line with the old school gaming ideas of alignments; make sure your character will be able to play with the group in question.



Starting EXP guidelines
Guildschool offers tremendous flexibility in the type of campaign or game a GM wants to run. Both in terms of starting a game or adding a player into an existing game. And obviously, this holds true for creation.

A GM should look at 2 things when deciding how close to the normal model to cleave. The aggregate amount of experience they want to start a character with, and if they want to set up any restrictions.

A traditional GS game starts PC's with 5000 real EXP +any gotten from social charts. No less than 5% of the total real exp amount can be put into a skill[2], so no more than 20 skills can be chosen in the beginning (and no one should every do that anyways.) Also, a beginning character may only choose commonality 1 (basic) skills, not sub skills and dropdowns. Those are advanced, 'graduate' level skills.

This is based on a normal commoner having 3k-5k total experience, with maybe 1-4k in artisan skills. Obviously, an expert/mastercrafter in the potter's Guild probably has more like 6-8k exp, with perhaps 4-6k IN THEIR AREA OF SPECIALIZATION (making them probably a 8th-11th level potter/glazer/kilnworker/artist). This is a big departure from most games, where adventurers are a different breed than the rest of the world.

A GM has to think of starting exp as how much time and exposure the character has had put into their skills. A young character might have less, an older character, more.

Now, in an old Miston Game, Brian wanted to push the system a bit and create a real commoner. So we decided that since he was young, he'd have only 4k starting exp, no magic skills, no more than level 1 in any combat skill, and no esoterics. Basically, he ended up creating Drono Biddlebee the hobyt Commoner, a simple peasant of the Turniper's Commune (which is was and is a playable school). We let him do L2 HP (I think it was 10 he ended up with), L1 basic Spear (he used a pitchfork, literally), l1 Bow, l1 basic defence. The rest (about 2200exp) went into Farming, Cooking (he was hired by the Miston group as a porter and cook), basic Outdoor (tracking was useful), etc.

We also had Cassius, an escaped Omwo~ slave from the Argussian Empire, only 29 years old (very young for Omwo~). Similarly, he was allowed 3700 starting EXP, no magic, and very basic weapon trainging, but allowed l2 HP as he had been toughened up by the slave life. He asked if he could take basic ettiquite, saying he had served in a wealthy house, I allowed him a will save +20%, which he succeeded in, so I gave it to him. But almost all the skills were menial and artisan, though I will say he played that basic ettequite to the hilt...

Characters that come into a group later can be given similar bonuses to starting exp, to account for the group going out and finding a peer or at least someone more useful to them.



Common Mistakes

The first mistake beginning players make in guildschool is spreading their experience too thinly. They see the ability to do almost anything and confuse it with the fact that they need some directino at first. Take magic. To be a decent (not good, but decent) beginning practicioner, a beginning character might want to spend a few levels in sprit spell points, as well as 2-3 other areas. For a beginning character, after EXP mods, this can be a thousand exp spent.

This holds true for most areas of expertise. Make sure your character is going to be al least good at any one area before worrying about any other skills. A level or 2 does not make you good at something. 2 levels of Hit Points, for example, average 8 HP. That is not enough for a starting front rank character, let alone the levels needed in the basic weapon and Basic defence.

Going back to spells again, it is even harder being a flexible spell caster at low levels. There are 13 different basic spell skills in Guildschool. So not only do you have to decide if you want to be a caster, you have to choose a focus. More on that later.



Guildschool characters are supposed to be recently graduated apprentices, maybe talented, maybe exceptional, but still, just starting out in the world. They are not superhuman, nor will they ever be. Character growth is not just the improvement of the skills, but the acquisition of subskills and of new skills. It is widening the base of the foundation, building new wings, as well as building upwards. Knowing how subskills function is critical for seeing the long view of character creation. Base skills may allow for a number of subskills, but the rate of growth is slower, and the sub skills all have more advanced skills that are only applicable by learning the sub skills.



Many GMs also ruke that only commonality one (basic) skills can be chosen during creation. This is very common and actually makes sense, so ask your GM if there is a commonality 2 skill that you feel makes sense. Don't forget that a dropdown skill must always be a level below the parent skill.



Give yourself a few levels in HP no matter what, no matter how crappy your health is. This is another common mistake, equating Hit Points in Guildschool to other games. Though protection soaks up some damage, weapons and spells also have a capacity for more damage, thanks to the dividing die.

[LordVreeg]

The Bright Lands
The basic info and history of a nation of the Cradle Area of Celtricia. Sorry it is only a link, but It looks better here.

[LordVreeg]

EXP mods and attribute base numbers for skills


Attrib EXP modifiers and base amounts in skills

At the heart of the Guildschool system is the idea of an EXP modifier. In Guildschool, we keep experience and levels in every skill, with the raw amount earned multiplied by the EXP modifier. Higher EXP modifiers mean faster skill learning.



In the skills chart, there is something called Attrib mod, and it will look like 'IN10-.02'. This means in addition to whatever base EXP mod the character has gotten from their guild in a skill, they get an additional .02 for every point of intellignce over 10, and a subtraction of the same amount for every point under that. Some Attrib Modifiers use multiple attributes. Remember, this amount is what you add to the EXPmod of the school/guild you've chosen.


The total attribute modifier is also used as the base amount that starts in a skill. You multiply the base number on the skills sheet by the total attrib mod to get that. But this only takes place if it is a positive total, as we have decided to double penalize (base amount and total EXPmod) characters really is unmotivating. "You're weak as heck...you have a -2% to hit from attributes for your dagger skill, on the off-chance you ever manage to break a level and gain any points in it".

So in the above example, if a person had a 16 intelligence, they'd have a +.12, and if the Base for this skill was 20, youd do 20*.12 for a base bonus of +2.4 to the skill amount. There is an exception, HP has a base of 2+ any attrib bonus.

This amount derived from the base is a bonus to the actual skill.

This base amount is only available to a character if they have the parent skill, or for skills that are level one commonality. Thus, this Base amount becomes the attribute bonus for using any commonality 1 skill without levels in it.


Let's take an example here. Joe Paisan is an orcash warrior of the Scarlet Pilums of Igbar, and also a wederlouse member of the Church of Irony and Black Humor. ST15/IN12/WI15/CD11/HE15/CH11/AP10 6100rawEXP. He's a seargant in the pilums, and has made some good moves, as well as been part of a few punative expeditions against the Frenel Tribes East of Igtiche. The problem is, he's supposed to go to a dance given by the Homintworth family in the honor of the Scarlet Pilums, and he has no idea what to wear (let alone how to act). He asks the GM what he knows of the latest fashions. The GM asks what skills he is using, and he asks to use basic social. The GM looks it up, and based on the subs and what it does, it really does not suit the issue (basic etiquette would have done it). So the only thing he can think about may be basic clothier, since it has Fashion as a sub.

Basic Clothier 0.3 Wi9-.02/Cd 11-.01 70 2-12

Joe has no experience in this, he is just hoping to get a little attrib bonus out of it. His attrib EXPMOD is .12 for WI, and 0 for CD, *70 for the attrib base of +8% for his wisdom. The GM rules that this is pretty easy, and he gains another +20%, so he has a 28% to know what clothes would be applicable for the dance. he rolls a 62%, and realizes he is still drawing a blank. If he does not find another skill option as time runs down, he's going to embaress himself.

Now, Joe gets a little clever here. he's got level 1 basic social,

Basic social 0.5 WI10-.004/CH11-.02/AP13-.001 30 2-5

Which gives him an attrib EXPMOD of (WI.016, CH0, AP-.003)+.013. His guild EXPmod is .50, so his total EXPMOD is .513. He has 240 exp in the skills, so his adjusted EXP is 123, level 1. He rolled a 4 for his skill for the level he has, and his Attrib Base is (.013*30)=.39, so he gets no attrib bonus. His total skill is 4%

Now, one of the dropdowns for Basic Social is Contact, with a full dropdown, so he has a 4% dropdown.

The stats for Contact are

Contact 0.6 WI13-.01/CH 12-.04 35 2-8

so since he has Level one contact, he can use the attrib base for conatct. However, his attrib EXPMOD is (WI.02+CH-.04) -.02, so he gets no attribute bonus. He asks the GM if he can use the 4% dropdown to see if he knows any clothiers of fashionistas to help him. The GM adjuducates a +20% bonus (Igbar is a city, after all), and so he has a 24% chance. He rolls a 77% (probably on Isobot), and looks like he's going to make a fool out of himself.



Cauis Rastelius, and Omwo~ priest of Irony and Black Humor (ST10/IN15/WI16/CD11/HE14/CH16/AP15 6400rawEXP) sees Joe in a quandry. Cauis has 470 raw exp in basic social.

Basic Social 0.5 WI10-.004/CH11-.02/AP13-.001 30 2-5

His attribEXPMOD is (WI.024+CH.06+AP.002) of.086, and he gets his basic soc from the same guild, .5, so his total EXPMOD is .586. 470 raw exp*.586=275 modified EXP, second level. He rolled 4 and 3, for 7% in the skill. Moreover, his attrib mod is 30*.086=2.58(rounded to 3, barely), so he has 10% in basic soc.

Again, Cauis is pretty new, so he has not gotten Contact as a skill, but he, too, can use the attrib mod since he has Basic Soc, which is the parent skill.

Contact 0.6 WI13-.01/CH 12-.04 35 2-8

So his attrib EXPMOD is (WI.03+CH.16) .19*35=6.65, rounded to 7, so he has 10% from the dropdown in Basic Social + the 7% from the Attrib Base in Contact, for 17% in contact skill. The GM allows the same bonus of+20, and he has a 37%. Isobot is merciful, rolling a 11%, so Cauis knows of a clothier in the Unicorn Vex district.

[LordVreeg]

Guildschool celebrates a milestone!!!
AS of the latest updates, the game has passed the 600 spell mark. Yes, 600 individual setting specific, rule specific spells that define how the world works in Celtricia and why magic replaced technology.
Spell List