Great video, looking forward to more…glad I found your channel and thank you for taking to create this!
@wizardgoesboom2 күн бұрын
@@bobkarstenson1792 thank you for watching!
@anarionelendili8961Күн бұрын
One (big) criticism I have about the Keep is the scale. Granted, this was back in the Olden Days, and for a 90s computer TSR game, it would be quite sufficient. However, what I like to do is to add an actual village below the Keep, which is where the regular people live. Indeed, I would move the customer-oriented businesses (Inn, Tavern, Provisioner, Trader, Guild House) here as well, while keeping the Loan Bank and the Jeweler up in the Keep, for security for their more valuable goods, as well as the Armorer, who has steady business with the soldiers. The village might have a ditch and a wooden palisade around it, well enough to discourage small raiding bands, and to delay any serious attacker long enough for the villagers to flee behind the stronger walls of the Keep. Obviously, with so many buildings removed from the Outer Bailey, I would have more space there. Space enough for the villagers. I would also be inclined to make the Inner Bailey smaller, and move at least the Warehouse and the Chapel to the Inner Bailey, too. Thus the emptier area in the Outer Bailey would be the evac zone for the villagers, as well as the training yard for the soldiers during peace, rather than having a lot of empty space in the Inner Bailey.
@wizardgoesboom23 сағат бұрын
@@anarionelendili8961 I completely agree. The keep itself is not very realistic but the intent was to create a safe haven for adventurers. If anything, the Village of Hommlet had it right as far as realism. I will do a video on that next time or after.
@anarionelendili896123 сағат бұрын
@wizardgoesboom Yep. One comment that I have heard and like is combining the Keep and Hommlet as the village next to it although I wonder if the presence of so many soldiers right next to it will spoil some adventure hooks of Hommlet. But definitely worthy of being used as an inspiration.
@anarionelendili89616 сағат бұрын
@@wizardgoesboom If I wanted to tie it all together, maybe it could go something like this... 1. There be gold in them thar hills: the origins of the Caves of Chaos as a mining operation. (Need not be gold, but given how inflated the amount of gold is in a typical D&D campaign, it might as well be.) 2. The miners need food. The nearest area that is arable enough and offers enough pasturage for livestock is around where the Keep will be; in particular that bend in the river floods every spring, bringing fresh silt to fertilize the land. So a farming village crops up, to supply the mines with a more local food source. 3. A castle is built on that very defensible hill. It might be a modest at first, but with the money rolling in, it gets upgraded. Which helps to explain why it is now somewhat overbuilt: perhaps it was a local noble's vanity project (ex adventurer/war hero with money to burn?). 4. The mines start running empty. Combined with encroaching, hostile humanoids, the mines are abandoned. However, the villagers are less eager to abandon their fields and homes, since wherever would they go? And it is not THAT bad yet... Still, whether an old village was abandoned and a new built closer to the castle, or if the village always was there and now just gets extra fortifications, who knows. 5. There is still that road that goes somewhere as well. There could be trade caravans still going back and forth, further explaining the presence of the keep and the village. As well as providing storyhooks.
@wizardgoesboomСағат бұрын
@ I really like the mine idea. Provides an excellent hook for the adventurers to be there
@anarionelendili896121 минут бұрын
@@wizardgoesboom Well the idea was that the mines have been abandoned due to running empty of gold. If they were still producing, I doubt they would be abandoned. Anyway, this explains why there are those mainly separate caves in there, as the miners followed various veins of gold in. But it would also explain the presence of a castle and a village, holdovers from when the mine was active. Add the road still bringing merchant caravans back and forth, and you have a good excuse to have a castle and a village there, combined with more services than the village itself would require, to cater to the merchant caravans. Also, it acts as an easy source of new PCs as well as adventure hooks.
@anarionelendili896122 сағат бұрын
Oh, another suggestion to people playing the Keep or starting their campaign there... Start the PCs dirt-poor. Fighters get Leather armor, shield, spear, dagger. Thieves don't get any armor to start with. This will add some gear evolution in early game already, rather than starting out with the best non-magical gear money can buy. Granted, this will make those first few combats more dangerous, but it can even be a bonus, if the players want more of a gauntlet for the first couple of sessions. Alternatively, the GM might be a bit more generous with the attributes, making sure that the PCs are fit to be Heroes. And of course, the GM can tweak the numbers of the opponents, something that they should do anyway based on the group size. Two ways to prolong this phase a bit more is to divorce the XP from the Gold (I'll comment more on this in the other video which addresses this), and increasing the price of weapons. Swords and higher quality armor ought to be more expensive than a week in an inn. Doubling the price of melee weapons across the board and then doubling swords again (i.e. quadrupling the original price) would help, as would doubling the price of chainmail (to 80gp) and quadrupling the plate mail (to 240 gp). Now there are some clear advancement steps built-in even at the start of the first level grind.
@jasonjacobson11572 күн бұрын
25th subscriber reporting in!
@wizardgoesboomКүн бұрын
@@jasonjacobson1157 thank you so much! Are there any topics you would like to see a future video on?
@jasonjacobson1157Күн бұрын
@wizardgoesboom I'd say just do what interests you. Looks like we like the same stuff.