Hello, and welcome to this game, entitled AT 9TH LEVEL YOU GET A FREEHOLD.

When I was in 6th grade, a new friend had a copy of the 1e D&D players handbook. Yep, the classic one.

So I was looking through it, and I saw that it said, for Fighter:

When a fighter attains 9th level (Lord), he or she may opt to establish a freehold. This is done by building some type of castle and clearing the area in a radius of 20 to 50 miles around the stronghold, making it free from a11 sorts of hostile creatures. Whenever such a freehold is established and cleared, the fighter will:
1. Automatically attract a body of men-at-arms led by an above-average fighter. These men will serve as mercenaries so long as the fighter maintains his or her freehold and pays the men at-arms; and
2. Collect a monthly revenue of 7 silver pieces for each and every inhabitant of the freehold due to trade, tariffs, and taxes.

And every class had something like that. You last long enough, level up enough, you get a castle and followers or whatever.

Okay, neat, I said. Clearly (I said), we're going to be focusing on these heroes having a whole career, and making the whole region where they live a safer and better place, as they get more and more influence over their part of the world. Makes sense, I thought.

And yet, it turned out that D&D always just... seemed to be some people fighting monsters or whatever, and getting insane amounts of money and loot and just... saving it for a retirement that never changed.

So this game is more about that original concept I picked up on from 1e.



STEP ONE:

Create a character: give your character a name, and a species and/or heritage (by "heritage" I mean that they could be an elf, but adopted and raised by dwarves or something), and a class. The species and heritage don't matter to the game as far as the mechanics go. The class affects things somewhat, but I'll explain how farther down below, because it'll make more sense that way.

Anyway, then distribute these numbers:

7 8 9 10 11 12

Amongst these stats:

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHR

Those numbers may seem low compared to what you're used to, but they'll go up more soon.

Okay, done that? Now, pick three stats-- any three you want-- and give yourself three THINGS.

What sort of things, you ask? Things like this:

Weapons/armor STR
Mercenaries STR
Steed DEX
Companions DEX
Buildings CON
Treasure CON
Magic items INT
Businesses INT
Holy relics WIS
Family (Spouse or kid) WIS
Alliances CH
Feat that gets you fame CHR


I think I can best explain this with a sample character.

Let's take Istvan Vanoson, human paladin.
STR 10
DEX 8
CON 9
INT 7
WIS 12
CHR 11

Istvan's player pick INT, DEX, and STR as the starting THINGS stats, to boost the two lowest and raise one of the higher ones a little higher. So the relevant THINGS are:

Weapons/armor STR
Mercenaries STR
Steed DEX
Companions DEX
Magic items INT
Businesses INT

Istvan's player gives Istvan:
--A magic sword (weapon, STR)
--A smart warhorse named Sunlight (steed, DEX)
--Ownership of a blacksmith's shop in town (Istvan isn't the blacksmith, the blacksmith just works for Istvan.) (business, INT)

So Istvan's raises each of those three stats by 1, and his new revised stats are:
STR 11
DEX 9
CON 9
INT 8
WIS 12
CHR 11

Okay, Istvan is Level 1, so it's time to go on a Level 1 mission.

STEP TWO: MISSION

There are 4 ways you can play this game:
--Solo
--Solo except for a GM
--You and one or more other players
--You and one or more other players and a GM.

Continuing with our sample character, Istvan the paladin, we'll imagine that Istvan's player is solo, except for a GM.

The GM tells Istvan's player that his first official mission is to go clear out a cave near a road at a spot where people have been disappearing lately, so there's probably a monster or bandits or cultists in the cave or something.

So we roll 1D8 on the mission table:

1 Your HIGHEST stat (if a tie, you pick which)
2 STR
3 DEX
4 CON
5 INT
6 WIS
7 CHR
8 Your LOWEST stat (if a tie, you pick which)

BUT WAIT! There's a modifier you can make to that roll!

This is still a role-playing game (somewhat)! If you role-play a scene first, you get to lower your roll result on a roll by a point!

Since Istvan's player has a GM, they role-play a scene where a rich merchant asks Istvan to go and investigate the cave (the merchant lost a delivery from the next town over, and he's afraid something terrible happened to the rider, since there've been two other disappearances that seem to have happened near that cave).

So once that scene is over, Istvan rolls 1d8: 5. But 4, because the roll was lowered one. Well, that's better for Istvan, because his CON is better than his INT. The point was just to make sure it wasn't an 8.

So, Istvan must roll 1d20 next, and for the best results, he needs to roll his CON (9) or lower.

Still, the odds are against him, so he's going to role-play another scene... The GM describes what happens when Istvan gets to the cave... there's a fresh trail of blood leading from the road to the cave... When he gets near the cave... two giant beetles come out-- insects as big as wolves!

Istvan rolls 1d20: 13! He gets to subtract 1 because of the role-playing, but that's still just 12!

Istvan rolls on the next table (role-play before this one not allowed!):

1d20 failure table:
1: You get away with it anyway! You survive and succeed and get a new THING!
2-10: You survive and succeed and get a new THING, but you also attract the attention of an ENEMY!
11-15: You survive and succeed and get a new THING, but you attract the attention of an ENEMY, and you lose one old THING!
16-18: You survive and succeed and get a new THING, but you attract the attention of an ENEMY, and you lose two old THINGS!
19: You survive and succeed and get a new THING, but you attract the attention of an ENEMY, and you lose THREE old THINGS!
20: Roll again, but add 1 point to your roll this time! If you get 20 (or higher) the second time, you DIE!


You get a new THING every time you finish a mission and live, whether you make your roll or not (as long as you don't die).


Istvan gets: a 5! He gets a new THING, but he also gets an ENEMY!

NEW ENEMY TABLE (1d12, no role-play beforehand allowed):
1 Dragon STR
2 Giant STR
3 Guild DEX
4 Church DEX
5 Cult CON
6 Undead CON
7 Wizard INT
8 Government INT
9 Diety WIS
10 Self WIS
11 Rival CHR
12 Rival nation CHR

Istvan's roll: 12! Spies from a nearby nation, the country of Sefonia, hear that Istvan is an up-and-coming hero, and they start working against him...

But Istvan does get one new THING!

This time the table is randomized 1d20 (no role-play beforehand allowed):
1 Weapons/armor STR
2 Mercenaries STR
3 Steed DEX
4 Companions DEX
5 Buildings CON
6 Treasure CON
7 Magic items INT
8 Businesses INT
9 Holy relics WIS
10 Family (Spouse or kid) WIS
11 Alliances CH
12 Feat that gets you fame CHR
13-20: You pick!

Istvan rolls: 7. He gets a magic item.

Istvan decides that Istvan gets a magic cloak that makes him smarter (since his intelligence stat is going up anyway)...

Istvan's stats going into LEVEL 2:
STR 11
DEX 9
CON 9
INT 9
WIS 12
CHR 11

You get the idea.

Let's look at Istvan's Level Two experience, though:

Now that Istvan has an Enemy, his new Mission Table looks like this:


--Mission Table If You Have Any Enemies 1d12:
1 Your HIGHEST stat (if a tie, you pick which)
2 STR
3 DEX
4 CON
5 INT
6 WIS
7 CHR
8 Your LOWEST stat (if a tie, you pick which)
9-12 Roll again (and lose any Role-Play modifier) until you get below 9. You'll have to deal with an ENEMY.


Istvan rolls 11, then 3: Dex, Enemy.

Istvan must roll 9 or lower... and going up against an ENEMY means there's a penalty of 1 extra point!

Result-- 9! Role-play lowers it to 8... Enemy penalty raises it back to 9-- but that's good enough!!


Istvan rolls on the MISSION SUCCESS TABLE:
1: You survive and succeed and get TWO NEW THINGS! If you had an ENEMY, they are permanently defeated, and you get ONE !
2-4: You survive and succeed and get TWO NEW THINGS! If you had an ENEMY, they are defeated!
5-9: You survive and succeed and get a new THING! If you had an ENEMY, they are defeated!
10-20: You survive and succeed and get a new THING!

Result: 7.

[6 blank lines suppressed]

One more thing, though-- let's see what it looks like when Istvan gets to roll on the Mission Success Table:

1d20:
1: You survive and succeed and get a new THING!
2-10: You survive and succeed and get a new THING, but you also attract the attention of an ENEMY!
11-15: You survive and succeed and get a new THING, but you attract the attention of an ENEMY, and you lose one old THING!
16-18: You survive and succeed and get a new THING, but you attract the attention of an ENEMY, and you lose two old THINGS!
19: You survive and succeed and get a new THING, but you attract the attention of an ENEMY, and you lose THREE old THINGS!
20: Roll again, but add 1 point to your roll this time! If you get 20 (or higher) the second time, you DIE!





Weapons/armor STR
Mercenaries STR
Steed DEX
Companions DEX
Buildings CON
Treasure CON
Magic items INT
Businesses INT
Holy items WIS
Family (Spouse or kid) WIS
Alliances CH
Feat that gets you fame CHR


Fail a roll and you lose something... to an old or new ENEMY

Dragon STR
Giant STR
Guild DEX
Church DEX
Cult CON
Undead CON
Wizard INT
Government INT
Diety WIS
Self WIS
Rival CHR
Rival nation CHR


Role Play to boost or protect
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:43, Thu 23 Mar 2023.