Balazar: Provisions and Trade Supply

An important facet of the Lewis & Clark expedition was management of provisions. Related to that is the expedition's stock of trade goods. I'd like the upcoming wilderness campaign to pay a little attention to those concerns as well. (Hmm, I'm tired of saying "wilderness campaign". Let's just call it the Balazar campaign for now, until a better name is thought of)

I precisely mean a little attention. I don't want it to be a bookkeeping chore for myself or the players. Luckily, I found an old blog post at Tales of the Rambling Bumblers that outlines a simple system for tracking provisions.

Based on that post, here is my first draft of the provisions system that the Balazar campaign will use:

The expedition's Provisions Supply (primarily food) can be in one of four states: Very High, High, Low, or Out.

The expedition starts with Very High provision. Each adventuring day, a Provisions Roll is made to determine if the Provisions Supply is reduced to the next lower state on the scale. I'm thinking something like a 10% chance each day, but it might need some tweaking. Maybe traveling through fertile or barren terrain will affect this percentage.

It is assumed that the expedition is always casually foraging for food as they travel, maybe even bagging some small game along the trail. A failed Provisions Roll abstractly means that, for whatever reason or another, not enough food was foraged and some provisions needed to be consumed. Or, a failed roll could mean that some disaster struck the expedition: maybe some natives stole a barrel of salt pork, a sack of flour fell into the river, etc.

There are two ways to increase the Provisions Supply status: hunting and trading. (Well, I suppose you could steal too, but we'll leave that as a special case to be roleplayed).

Hunting generally requires the use of bows and spears, but maybe traps can be effective too. Hunting has a base success rate of 50% (to be tweaked). Factors that affect success are skill of hunter and abundance of quarry. A drawback of hunting is that it requires a full day without travel, with accompanying random encounter and weather rolls. On the other hand, it also means that the area is more thoroughly scouted and searched.

Trading is only possible when a trading partner is encountered. This is most commonly going to be at natives' villages and forts, but occasionally could be a random encounter along the trail. In order to trade, the expedition must have Trading Supply. This too is tracked on a four state scale, same as Provisions. The expedition starts with a Very High status in Trade Supply.

"Why, yes, these blue beads are very rare and very expensive."

Typically, the trinkets and manufactured goods that serve as trade goods are worth very much to poor natives, so it is easy to trade a few small things for a large amount of provisions. When the expedition trades, the Provisions Supply automatically goes up a level, but there is a 10% chance that the Trade Supplies status goes down a level.

It is difficult to raise the Trade Supply level, since the expedition is far away from the cities of the Lunar Empire. One of the few ways to raise Trade Supply while in the wilderness is to find treasure. Any other increase in Trade Supply is likely to require roleplaying a specific plan or encounter.

The Trade Supply is also used as gifts to natives for diplomatic purposes, with a 10% chance of Trade Supply level reduction per diplomatic maneuver. Like with Provisions, a reduction of Trade can indicate a simple reduction of supply, or it sometimes it can mean theft or disaster has occurred.

Do you have any suggestions for this system?

Chillin' with Mr. Baggins of Bag-End, Under-Hill

The last few weeks I've debated on which version of the Basic D&D rules (or retro-clones) to use for the game with my wife. The half dozen or so versions are 99% compatible and a module written for one version is effortlessly adapted to another. It makes little difference which I choose, but a choice must be made, if for no other reason than the consistency and familiarity of using the same rulebook for each play session.

Last night my wife surprised me again with another impromptu request to play a game. I'll write a session report another day (she wants me to take pix of the Legos again), but the notable thing was that I simply grabbed the nearest Basic D&D rulebook and, by the end of the session, the "which version?" debate was resolved.


That version is commonly called"Holmes" Basic, after its editor, Dr. J. Eric Holmes. It's the first Basic version of D&D produced, circa 1977, weighs in at a whopping 48 pages and takes PCs from level 1 to 3. Perhaps the biggest difference between it and later versions of Basic D&D is that its bonuses and penalties from ability scores generally max out at +1 and -1. Furthermore, Strength and Wisdom have no mechanical effect on play, other than as Prime Requisites for Fighters and Clerics, respectively.

I am intrigued by the idea of ability scores having minimal direct mechanical impact. I'll give it a shot, but, on the other hand, would prefer that each ability score have at least SOME explicit relevance. Time for some house rules.

Ability Score Bonuses and Penalties (house rules in bold)

Strength: 13+ gives +1 bonus to melee hit roll, 8- gives -1 penalty to melee hit roll

Wisdom: 13+ gives +1 on all saving throws, 8- gives -1 penalty

Intelligence: +1 language for each point over 10

Constitution: hit point bonus or penalty each level

Dexterity: 13+ gives +1 bonus to ranged hit roll, 8- gives -1 penalty to ranged hit roll

Charisma: 13+ gives +1 reaction bonus, 13+ gives 5% xp bonus

The xp bonus for high Charisma is an idea I first saw in Swords & Wizardry. I like it because it reinforces the Fame and Fortune model of advancement. A couple other house rules for this campaign:

Human Magic-users and Clerics have "open casting". This means they don't need to memorize spells, but can cast anything in their spellbook, as limited by the character's level. I like this rule to help low level spellcasters have more options and be more involved. Some of the utility-ish spells seem to never see action, but could be very helpful in a pinch.

No Thief class. All the other classes are free (and encouraged) to attempt thief-like actions, so eliminating the Thief class isn't a great loss. If a player wants definitive sneakiness...choose the Hobbit class. When properly enticed, the little folk are known to take on titles such as "First-class Burglar", "Burglar-Expert", "The Chosen and Selected Burglar", "Thief in the Shadows", "Expert Treasure-Hunter", and even "Mr. Lucky Number".