Question for GMs. What do you think about this...?

[Supplement Four]

I'm still setting up my game, and I'm thinking about some details. Sometimes, the details are what makes the game believeable, drawing the players into the world, capturing their imaginations.



My first question is about clothing and possessions. How many changes of clothing do you think the average Cimmerian villager has (players are starting out as boys of age 14 or so).

I know this will vary depending on the wealth of the clan, but I'm curious what other GMs think. Should I allow the players to have one set of clothes? Two or Three?

We're going to keep track of details like this in my game. I'm trying to immerse my players in the atmosphere of the world. And, at least at the beginning, the action will be set around mundane stuff--fighing bears and wolves and other Cimmerian clans. I'll head into High Adventure territory after I've established a firm baseline for the campaign.

So...number of clothes. Maybe a tunic or two? A fauld, a loin cloth, and one set of breeches? One cloak. One set of sandals, and a pair of winter boots?

Thoughts?







My second question maybe should go in a different thread, but I'll try it here.

I'm thinking about Survival. Instead of just saying that the characters can use the skill to live off the land, I want to bring some depth to it by having my players experience some of the details.

I like the description of hunting a deer (or was it an elk?) at the beginning of the Legions of the Dead tale. I'm going to use that in the game. Cutting a pole, field dressing the kill, washing the blood away in the stream, then wrapping the good meat in its own hide, around the pole, to carry back to the village. Good stuff, and much better to play that out one time than to just say, "OK, you found some animals while hunting and have enough food to feed everyone for a day or two".

I want the players to feel what its like to hunt.

And, I want to plant some ideas that will bring home, in a similar fashion, what its like to live off the land using the Survival skill.

So, what types of things should I dramatize? Eating a certain root? Boling it? Maybe some plants? Building a shelter against the elements? Making a fire without having flint? How to properly eat a rabbit/field rat raw without getting sick.

Water probably won't be a problem in Cimmeria. They can melt snow, and I bet when its warmer, that streams abound in that land. Plus, it rains a lot.

But, I'm interested in what kinds of survival skills the PCs will learn. How to make traps, for animals and enemies. Making weapons when you don't have any. Etc.

Thoughts?

 

[DooMJake]

Well question 1 is answered in the "Cimmeria" Book. It has a typical "A Cimmerier owns this stuff" list somewhere (Don't have the book here right now).

Question 2 is answered in the "Hyborias Fiercest" Book.

 

[Supplement Four]

Well question 1 is answered in the "Cimmeria" Book. It has a typical "A Cimmerier owns this stuff" list somewhere (Don't have the book here right now).

Question 2 is answered in the "Hyborias Fiercest" Book.

Knew that about Q1. Didn't know that about Q2. But, I was looking for further input besides what's there.

 

[djd]

I think people in the sort of primative societies we're talking about here would tend only to have the clothes they stood up in. It's not as if they're going to be big on furniture to store spare clothes and in a damp environment they're likely to start to rot quickly.

 

[Supplement Four]

It's not as if they're going to be big on furniture to store spare clothes and in a damp environment they're likely to start to rot quickly.

Interesting point. Makes it easy on the GM for starting equipment, too.

They've probably got at least two sets, I would think, or a set that can be taken down to serve in the summer or built up to serve in the winter.

Plus, the PCs will be young boys at the start. They're growing rapidly. I don't see thier parents wasting a lot of good fur on multiple sets when the boys will outgrow them in a year.

 

[djd]

Remember that they're likely to be using the pelts / skins from the animals they're eatting - so raw materials are not going to be in short supply. Woven clothes are likely to be made within the family - if you look at most dark age societies - most of the women did weaving (evidence of loom weights and other tools associated with wool working are common in Ango Saxon contexts). Things that require specialist workers - like good boots are likely to be purchased through trade with more advanced societies or from specialists in large tribal power centres. I think for the most part, the average guy in the field would wear each set of clothes til they fell apart and then a new set made up when required.

 

[Malcadon]

That reminds me of time I set up a Gamma World campaign with a tribe of young warriors having to do the whole "Right of Passage" scenario (it is a good way to brake in new characters, besides that "Sleepers form the Past" shtick). I used an old Star Frontiers module called SFAD0: Crash on Volturnus, for ideas on how to handle this Right of Passage.

Much of this scenario is about a group of teenagers being thrown out into the dangerous wilderness to prove that they can survive, so they can be tribal warriors. They are drugged in the middle of the night, tied, thrown in the middle of a desert, and they have to make do with what they have to fight a creature who's name translates to "Quick Death".

So a major consideration was what they really needed to survive a wildly mutated landscape. I was thinking about giving them a stone spear, knife (made from the bladed antenna of a Blade Beetle), leather shield, a simple loincloth, and some tribal decorations. Then I thought about throwing them into woven baskets, which are carried by adults with 10' long poles. As soon as the party make it to their destination, the adults wake them up, dropped their knives on them, and tells them that if they dont find a way out quickly, Quickdeaths are going to eat them even quicker! All the players know, is that Quickdeaths are like large mutant tigers, with long poisonous tentacles, and they a horribly farsighted (they cant see well up-close). To really re-enforcer the fact they have to survive with little or nothing, I also told them they have to do all this in the buff (naked)!

The players had to roll-up another group of characters (well, more like a simple rename of the dead PCs) before they figured-out they had to mount their knives on the poles to keep out of the range of the nasty tentacles, and to use the rope and straw to make straw-dummies, to throw-off their poor vision. I'm such a hard-ass, but this game requires making the most with little, and a lot of unorthodox thinking! :wink:

 

[tarkhan bey]

Turnips should be a major root vegetable for Cimmerians. Known colloquially as 'neeps'. Unfortunately as potatoes are not yet available,'neeps and tatties' are not yet appropriate.
A Baldric like character(from Blackadder) should be provided to facilitate tasty turnip recipes.
Also, Porridge made from wild oats and salted, not honey. :x