The Maiden Saga: Role Playing Game Read online

  Ordinary Lock

  10 + the Craft value of the people in question (e.g. 3 for Makeans)

  Dwarven Lock

  25

  Silver slave leash

  10

  Capture Net

  30

  Welded steel chains

  100

  Keep Gates

  100 (10 from inside)

  City Gates

  150 (20 from inside)

  You do not refresh your Game Points until you have won free and/or can get a good night’s sleep. Inanimate objects do not refresh at all, so you may take several nights to chew through your capture net, but only if circumstances permit. (See Example 3)

  The Dash for Freedom

  If, for whatever reason, a PC simply wants to get away, fast, 1 Glory Point will buy a chance at a dash for freedom. This is represented by a single roll of the six dice, with the outcome dependent on how many sixes you score. Any PC with more than 10 Game Points in either Dexterity or Intelligence can build sixes.

  0 sixes – not only do you fail to break free, but you rouse the guard, suffering whatever they, if they are PCs, or the GM deem appropriate.

  1 six

  You fail to break free.

  2 sixes

  You break free but rouse the guard, who you must face unarmed and naked.

  3 sixes

  You have break free and escape, unarmed and naked.

  A quadruple

  You break free and rouse the guard but manage to snatch a weapon of your choice (subject to the GMs decision on what is available) with which to fight.

  A quintuple

  You break free and escape with your weapons and clothes but no money.

  A sextuple

  You break free and escape with your weapons, clothes, a riding beast if available and five times the sum you were carrying when you were captured.

  Note that this is an individual efforts. If you wish to free fellow captives you must revert to the normal escape rules.

  Group Escape

  If a group is escaping together PCs can operate singly or together according to normal rules.

  Both PCs and NPCs are entitled to one search roll each per obstacle encountered.

  When overcoming obstacles common sense applies. For example, if a group encounters a locked door it is reasonable to have the individual with the best chances of success attempt to open it, but if they come up against a wall each must scale it individually.

  Failure

  If you fail to escape you are either maladroit dolt or have been properly secured and will remain so, although you may well have an opportunity to talk your way out of the situation using whatever skills are available to you. Should that fail you are trapped until an action of the GM or other players causes a change in circumstances. NPCs receive the same chances when captured as do PCs.

  Breaking, Entering, Robbery & Looting

  “She moved to the light well, peering up, then sniffing. Iriel caught the tang of perfume immediately as her eyes settled on another colonnade two stories up. Above was the roof, edged by pillars, with plants hanging down into the light well. Aeisla nodded and pulled herself out of the window. Iriel followed, stretching up to one ledge, the next and hauling herself between two pillars and into a warm, perfumed darkness, from which a voice spoke as light flooded over them from every side.

  ‘Welcome, as expected, although I confess not by the light well window, nor two of you.’” Princess

  In may occasionally prove necessary, or desirable, to break into somewhere rather than out. If so, the same rules apply as for escape when dealing with inanimate objects, although you have hopefully had the sense to acquire necessary items in advance.

  As is generally the case wherever the human condition finds expression, the more valuable an object, the better it will be guarded. However, things are not always as they seem. Should you intend to steal an Aprinian artillery piece you can expect to encounter alert guards, high fences, massive iron doors and thick concrete walls, all of which suggest that they very definitely do not want you to take it away. On the other hand, should you attempt access to a maiden’s tower in Mund you may well find that a clever and daring suitor can reach the top with no great difficulty, and that while she will undoubtedly attempt to stab you, the fine armour that marks your rank will offer adequate protection. If you lack rank, you get what you deserve.

  Theft

  If you wish to steal something there has to be a good chance of it actually being there, and a fair chance that it won’t. You also need to be inside, so you will need to overcome one or more obstacles before you begin to search. Once you are in you are entitled to make a search roll every time you encounter an obstacle, as with escape except that you should have your equipment with you already, as follows -

  0 sixes

  You rouse the house, meet a guard, trip over the pet troll or some similar disaster.

  1 six

  You find nothing remotely useful.

  2 sixes

  You find some loot of the GMs choice, worth a few Silvers.

  3 sixes

  You find some loot of the GMs choice, worth at least fifty Gold.

  A quadruple

  You find loot worth one-hundred Gold and can choose one item within reason.

  A quintuple

  You find loot worth one-thousand Gold and choose any five items within reason.

  A sextuple

  You find a magnificent treasure, easily transported and of incalculable value.

  You may be looking for a specific item rather than simply intent on looting the place. If so, tell the GM what it is and they will judge how likely it is to be there on a scale of one to five where one means very likely and lots of them, like loaves in a bakery, to five, which means would be more like the proverbial needle in a haystack, or a single vial of goblin musk in a large castle. The GM has the right to dismiss attempts as ridiculous, so if you want to steal a fully equipped Vendjomois war elephant from a small shed somewhere on the tundra of northern Kora, forget it.

  Results are as follows –

  0 doubles

  You find nothing.

  1 double

  You succeed on level 1.

  1 triple

  You succeed on level 2.

  1 quadruple

  You succeed on level 3.

  1 quintuple

  You succeed on level 4.

  1 sextuple

  You succeed on level 5.

  You can look for more than one object at a time, and you can also loot as you go along, so if you throw a triple six you have found any level 2 object you’re after, plus fifty Golds worth of random loot.

  Spoils

  If you an opponent helpless, you can take whatever they have on them, which should really go without saying.

  Guards

  Guards can be bribed, seduced or persuaded that you are in fact there to inspect the drains, but they h
ave a job to do and specialist rules apply.

  If you lose a conflict with a guard they will invariably attempt to capture you.

  If a guard throws a triple at any stage of a conflict they will call their superior officer.

  A superior officer is always supported by at least two grunts.

  If the ranking officer throws a triple they will immediately attempt capture.

  If either you of a guard throws a quadruple you move immediately to combat.

  You have the option of combat at any time, but the noise of combat will attract the full potential complement of your opponents.

  Assassination only works on lone guards.

  Treachery and Loyalty

  If the guards are of your people but have been hired to protect a different people, they will switch sides on the throw of any triple at any point during any conflict.

  When the GM is deciding on guards, or if a PC wishes to hire guards, the background of the game needs to be taken into consideration. For example, the Makeans are inherently untrustworthy. In game terms this is expressed as the difference between the people’s native Greed and their Pride plus the result of the roll of three dice. The values are –

  Greed

  Pride

  =

  Greed

  Aeg

  5

  6

  =

  -1

  Mund

  1

  8

  =

  -7

  Hai

  3

  4

  =

  -1

  Ythan

  7

  3

  =

  4

  Makea

  8

  2

  =

  6

  Oretes

  2

  5

  =

  -3

  Vendjome

  6

  1

  =

  5

  Aprina

  4

  7

  =

  -3

  Now add the total from the roll of three dice. If the result exceeds 10 the guards prove treacherous, if less than 10 they are loyal*. If the result equals 10, roll again.

  Guards will not turn on their own people, but otherwise the GM can make this roll at any time they consider it appropriate but only once for any given group of guards. If even one guard leaves or another arrives, a second roll can be made. If the guards are mixed between different peoples each reacts according to their national trait.

  The exception to this rule is if the goods to be guarded are slaves, in which case Mund will turn on you immediately, Aeg will turn on you at the first convenient opportunity and Aprinians will give you a long and tedious lecture on your moral delinquency.

  PCs may turn on each other if they feel it is justified by the part.

  * You are invited to admire the exquisite logic of this math.

  Money

  “’As to mercenaries, we are currently receiving one gold Imperial of Vendjome per week. Should you be able to better this offer, there will be no difficulty.’

  ‘Indeed we can,’ Elethrine replied pulling her red gold ring free, ‘we estimate that this finely engraved band of red gold should be more than adequate payment.’

  The Stipulator’s eyebrows rose before he turned Elethrine a most undwarven look of incredulity.

  ‘For five men? For three months? Why, there is less gold than in a single Imperial.’

  ‘It is a work of art,’ Elethrine explained, ‘and cost twenty gold Thalars, which, from what you say, are perhaps twice the size of an Imperial and we feel worth perhaps twelve times as much.’

  ‘You gave perhaps forty weights of gold for one weight in a different shape?’ he asked in disbelief. ‘I have always thought humans lacked sense, but this is ludicrous. Let us weigh your gold and we will come to a sensible price.’

  Reluctantly Elethrine and Talithea removed their rings and placed them on a small scale that stood by the clerk. In total they weighed as much as five Imperials.

  ‘There we are, a simple, honest and indisputable measure,’ the Stipulator declared. ‘The gold entitles you to one hand for a week at Vendjomois wages.’” Maiden

  In the books, each people have their own currency, while the cost of objects and services varies from place to place. For example, we know that in Mund, which is fairly rich in gold but has medieval technology, a band of red gold costs twenty Thalars, a Thalar being a large gold coin. Mund is lush, with plenty of good grazing, and one Thalar will buy a dozen goats. In Vendjome gold is even more plentiful and mercenaries are paid one Imperial per day. The weight of gold in an Imperial is much the same as in a ring and about half that of a Thalar, and yet in the barren uplands of the Glissades an Imperial will purchase a single goat. Even allowing for the price the Mund set on artistry this represents a huge disparity.

  For this reason traders have adopted the Dwarven system when dealing with other peoples. This is eminently practical and will serve for the game. The values of metals are judged according to a scale that takes into account both their practicality and their rarity. Vendjome is the largest, most populous nation and the centre of trade, which has led the Dwarves to asses one gold Imperial as one weight of gold.

  The basic unit is a “Weight”, a small coin which can be copper, bronze, nickel or any similar alloy. An unskilled labourer would expect to earn about three weights a day. Staying at an inn or passage on a ship costs around ten weights per day. Ten weights make a weight of silver, a “Silver”, and ten weights of silver make a weight of gold, a “Gold”.

  At the start of the game your PC has the same number of Golds as their total Game Points in Wealth. You can keep as much as you like, but it is probably wise to exchange some for kit, while if your PC is a person of consequence they will require retainers (see below). This is only possible before the game starts.

  Incurable accountants may wish to consider the expenditure of every copper weight, but for general purposes it is assumed that PCs can get by on a day to day basis unless the GM decides that circumstances dictate otherwise. For example, if a PC has just escaped from captivity they would be expected to justify how they pay for their next meal.

  If you want to make a major purchase you need to justify having enough cash, and so you should keep a tally of how much money you have as you go along. Prices are never fixed, while whoever you encounter, be it an Aeg blacksmith or a Vendjomois slave and beast merchant, will be out to maximise their profit. Most of time the trader will be an NPC, in which case it falls to the GM to demand a high price, but not a ridiculously high price. The PC can accept this, which is considered an act of largesse and gains 1 Glory Point, or can walk away, or can make a counter offer of no less than one tenth the amount. They then begin to bargain.

  Bargaining is a conflict in Guile, in which the more practical peoples are at a disadvantage. The trader always rolls first, in response to the offer. With each six you throw, your opponent not only loses a Game Point but must give way by 5% of the gap b
etween the demand and the offer. When the offer equals or exceeds the demand a bargain has been struck, unless either person runs out of Game Points in Guile first, in which case they must pay whatever price is being demanded or offered by their opponent at that stage. (See example 4.)

  The usual rules for loosing your cool apply, in which case you are simply arguing rather than trying to strike a bargain. If combat ensues the winner may take the object in question as well as anything else to hand, but should bear in mind that murdering shopkeepers and plundering their stock tends to raise eyebrows among the civic authorities. You may choose to back out of a bargaining session at any stage, but your Game Points in Guile do not refresh until you have had a night’s sleep.

  If the trader is a PC they may make whatever demand they consider appropriate, but the potential buyer is always entitled to walk away, in which case the trader may wish to make a new, less extortionate, offer, or not according to circumstances. For example, if you are trying to buy a sword in the market at Oretes and your fellow PC, a merchant, demands ten thousand weights of gold you need merely make an appropriate gesture and move on to another stall or shop. On the other hand, if you are being pursued through the wilds, unarmed, and chance upon the same sword merchant you will probably be happy to bargain.