Video Games as a JRPG Accessory

So I've been working on a Parody Setting for JRPG World in which much real world technology is replaced by magical equivalents. I had several footnotes to the effect that data storage doesn't work the same way as in the real world so I had to equivocate storage according to the duration of audiovisual material (which can also be compared to pages of Lorem Ipsum) as if it were a magical effect. So I went and ran some numbers about how many hours of main quest, how many of side quest, typical map sizes and so forth.

Once I sorted that out I made it randomizable on a dice roll. the maximum possible results on my randomization match pretty well with the largest games in the real world right now. It just so happens that the Tier of Magical Effect that a video game would be equivalent to means that at the top end they are 5,000 GP accessory equivalent items. In JRPG World. 5,000 GP is equivalent to 50 MetaUSD (which is to say in game currency purchased as a joke on microtransactions is 50 bucks per 5000 GP).

Video games are a little bit more expensive than that now, but it does surprise me to be within about 20% for some base games these days. On a table that I'd already written. Using nothing more than the equivalent magical duration.

Crystal Gashes Campaign Setting: The Dragonhead Continent

 

Upscaling d20 bullet damage

In a previous post tied bullet damage to the diameter of a round multiplied by the ratio of length to caliber in millimeters. This works fine for bullets which rarely go over 1 inch in diameter, and rarely have a ratio greater than 10:1 (which would max out at 10d12). I randomly mentioned this blog, and that got me pondering how the math would work out. Having looked into NATO Fox Calls for fighter planes, I came to realize that a large amount of weapon specs are available for US Munitions on wikipedia. I'm sure missiles are a bit more complicated than what is presented here, but I thought it would be worth the thought exercise. That being said, one note to mention is that in the previous post, the maximum size was d12 for 1". Most missiles are going to be more than one inch, and the inches should probably be multiplied separately from the ratio, but it seems easier to add the inches to the length ratio and multiply by that number. Both methods are shown here so anyone who wants to use them can use either method

Missile                     Dimensions (ratio) Damage

AIM-7 Sparrow (Fox-1)       ~8x144" (~x18)     d12x26  or d12x144

AIM-9 Sidewinder (Fox-2)    ~5x119" (~x24)     d12x29  or d12x120

AIM-120 AMRAAM (Fox-3)      ~7x144" (~x21)     d12x27  or d12x147

AIM-54 Phoenix (Fox-3)      ~15x154" (~x10)    d12x25  or d12x150

AGM-114 Hellfire (Fox-2)    ~7x64" (~x9)       d12x16  or d12x63

RPG-7 Round (~75x950mm*)    ~3x37" (~x13)      d12x16  or d12x39

AT-4 Round (~84x245mm*)     ~3x9" (~x3)        d12x6   or d12x9

Minuteman ICBM (~5.5x60 ft) ~5x60' (x11)       d12x785 or d12x46,800

Percentile Damage

You may have noticed that multiplying caliber and length separately produces damage in excess of 100 in all cases. It may be helpful to roll fewer dice and get bigger damage values. In that case, round the maximum damage to 100 points in whichever direction makes the most sense, and use that number of d100s. The following is the result of that.

Missile                     Damage Maximums    Percentile Roll

AIM-7 Sparrow (Fox-1)       1728               18d%

AIM-9 Sidewinder (Fox-2)    1440               14d% 

AIM-120 AMRAAM (Fox-3)      1764               18d%

AIM-54 Phoenix (Fox-3)      1800               18d%

AGM-114 Hellfire (Fox-2)    756                8d%

RPG-7 Round (~75x950mm*)    468                4d%

AT-4 Round (~84x245mm*)     108                1d%

Minuteman ICBM (~5.5x60 ft) 561,600            d%x5616**

"" with MIRV                ""                 use d30 for 3 shots,

                                               d20 for 5 shots,

                                               d12 for 8 shots,

                                               d10 for 10 shots,

                                               d8 for 12 shots,

                                               d6 for 16 shots,

                                               and d4 for 25 shots

I'M BACK! (with) Pathfinder Remaster Musings on Vehicles

 So according to the Pathfinder Remaster, 

Vehicles have size traits, but they don’t occupy the same spaces that most creatures use. Instead, each vehicle has specific dimensions provided in its stat block.

Most vehicles are Large or larger, and many vehicles are made for the purpose of carrying cargo. Unless stated otherwise, the amount of cargo a vehicle can carry depends on its size, terrain, and propulsion. A draft horse or similar creature can usually pull around 100 Bulk of goods consistently throughout the day, so pulled vehicles can typically hold 100 Bulk per Large creature pulling. Water vehicles, such as ships, have limits that are more based on volume than weight; a ship can hold upwards of 1,000 Bulk. Flying vehicles can typically hold only 1/10 the Bulk of a water vehicle and still remain airborne. The GM might rule that unique or unusual vehicles can hold different amounts of Bulk.

This presents a problem in that vehicles don't usually have large creatures pulling, pushing, rowing or otherwise moving them. This can still be used as a guideline. So for example, a Carriage is 10x10x7 and a Cart is 5x10x4, one is pulled by 1 Large creature the other by 2, so 100 and 200 bulk. These numbers are applied to either (2x2x1.5)=6 five foot cubes or (1x2x.8)=1.6 five foot cubes, though you can also just take the dimensions and divide by 125. Given that, values of 30 to 50 Bulk per 5 foot cube.

What actually is Bulk?

The book says 10 lbs but it also says a medium creature is 6 bulk, which suggests more like 20 to 30 lbs (20 would make medium creatures 120 lbs, and 30 would make them 180). It also says a large creature is 12 Bulk. (which is anywhere from the canon 120 to my recalulated 360). To be clear, bulk should be a range based on a nebulous combination of length and weight, not just one particular weight or one particular length.

My initial "gut reaction" of 25 bulk per 5 foot square is reasonable when taken in consideration for the fact that vehicles' own Bulk isn't considered for its weight limit, but I'm inclined to consider the following

1. (50xCubes)-(Bulk of Creature listed in Player Core p. 269) Bulk for the same size creature (500 to 1500 lbs per cube)
2. 25 to 30 bulk per cube ignoring the "Bulk of a Creature" appropriate to a vehicle of the creature size (250-900 lbs per cube)
3. Water vehicles basing their cargo on volume rather than weight still hold 10x the volume of land vehicles calculated this way (e.g. one of the above calculations).

By the rule quoted above Flying vehicles at 1/10th the capacity of a ship (or equal in capacity to a Land Vehicle) can remain airborne. I don't have a particularly strong opinion on the validity of that assessment.

Musings on Firearms in d20

A long time ago, way back before there were two kinds of Dungeons and Dragons, in an era where the first kind had only three editions, there was a modern version, with guns. It was sort of ok for generic purposes, but they ended up having to put out further supplements on additional firearms, both fact and fiction. That's all well and good, but ya know... it's probably out of print or something, and also you might not want to encourage piracy even if there aren't going to be particularly strong consequences for it. With that in mind, I came up with my own system for gun damage.

Damage Dice

Guns (and everything) deal(s) damage based on F=MV, but we don't need to complicate this. We can replace F with Damage, M with the size of the bullet, and V with a typical load of propellant. We don't have to even do it directly, we can just sort of provide a logical basis.

In this case, the M of the bullet is tied to its caliber, we'll assume that the following is true:

Caliber     mm           Dice
up to.25    up to 6mm    d4s
.26-.40     7-10mm       d6s
.41-.55     11-14mm      d8s
.56-.75     15-19mm      d10s
.76-1"      20-25.4mm    d12s

The V of the bullet is tied to its case length inasmuch as the case length defines what safe amounts of powder can be used to fire projectiles from it (actually thickness and material is more important than actual length, but it's a close enough abstraction for our purposes). To determine the number of dice, use (Case Length/Caliber in mm, rounding to the nearest whole ratio e.g. 9x19 Parabellum is 2d6 with 19 being 2.1x the length of its 9mm caliber. AK rounds (7.62x39) deal 5d6, and 5.56 NATO rounds deal 8d4. A .50 BMG being 12.7x99 makes it 8d8.  Likewise, a slug in 12 gauge is typically 18.5x70mm, which amounts to a ratio of 3.75, or 4d10.

Shotgun Shells

Instead of going into excruciating detail about how many different levels of buckshot and birdshot there are, we can just assume that buckshot or fléchettes reduces dice size by 1, but adds a 2 dice (6d8 instead of 4d10 for 12 gauge) birdshot reduces dice size by 2, but adds 3 dice (7d6 instead of 4d10 for 12 gauge), and Frangible reduces dice size by 3, but adds 4 dice (8d4 instead of 4d10 for 12 gauge).

Oh and one final thought: That original document may have propagated a myth that shotguns fire in a cone. They sort of do, but even at 150 feet you're only going to get about a 3" spread or so.

Weapon Actions

We will categorize weapon actions more broadly here for the sake of game rules--and because if we didn't a character with an M-16 can easily fire off their entire magazine in under a full round.

Single Shot

Covers breach action shotguns, flare guns, bolt action rifles, and single action revolvers.

• Each attack with this requires a single action (in PF2e) to bring a new round into battery

Semi-auto

Covers magazine fed auto-loader pistols, double action revolvers, lever action rifles, and pump action shotguns. 

• You can fire off as many shots as you can pull the trigger. It's a two action activity to multiply damage by 1d3, and a three action activity to multiply damage by 1d6. This costs 3 and 6 ammo respectively

Full-auto

Covers anything where one press of the trigger equals multiple bullets, including modified trigger assemblies that fire a second round when the trigger is released.

• With selector fire you may treat the weapon as a semi-auto
• If it's full auto only--or you've selected burst or full auto--you can still limit your trigger pulls to multiply damage by 1d6 with a single action activity (costing 6 ammo)
• You can multiply damage by 2d6 as a 3 action activity.(costing 12 ammo)

B-Roll Call!

I have released a new game about making B movies! It was originally inspired by one called It Came From the Late, Late, Late Show, but somewhat considerably expands on it, adds rules to things that were discussed in vague terms, and completely reworks most of the base architecture of that game. it can be found here!

Dragging a body in d20

Never thought I'd do a rule for d20, but Pathfinder 2 has taken an identity stance I can respect so I'm willing to look into it a little deeper. So I'm reading the bulk section of Pathfinder Second Edition, and I noticed:

1000 coins is 1 bulk and 1 bulk is 5-10 lbs. This was confusing to me because of previous editions being 50 coins per pound, a bulk should be 20 pounds. Also with a medium sized creature being 6 bulk, that's only 60 lbs. at 10 per bulk. I noticed that making Medium Creatures bulk 8-10 keeping small creatures at 2-3, and having 1 bulk correspond to 20 lbs fixes all of these issues for medium and small creatures. Likewise, a large creature could be 12-15 Bulk (240-300 lbs), a huge creature 25-30 bulk, and so on. This does not obey the square cube law but it fits closer to what actual d20 creatures seem to want to weigh, so it works.

Also, side note: There is some text about how an object's bulk is somewhat affected by its awkwardness more than its actual weight, and generally I'm willing to concede the point that a longsword is only a couple pounds, and other such concessions and not change how the rule works overall unless something glaringly annoying comes up. 

Damage is a Fickle Bitch

The chief complaint I get from my players about DW is that players roll 10 or 12, and get a damage roll of 1 (or sometimes 2-3 if they took the extra d6) and that damage tends to gets soaked by armor. On Reddit someone even told me that late game DW tends to turn into a bit of a survival horror. I haven't tested late game myself, but I can tell you how incredibly frustrating it is that people who are supposed to be capable combatants but roll a series of very low damage rolls can't always take it on the chin like a champ. It is with that in mind, that I randomly thought about making damage less fickle :

Typically a character's base dice will be a d6, d8, or a d10 (with one notable instance of a d12). In order to make damage less fickle, assume one of the following

• Subtract 4 from everyone's dice type, and add the remainder to a d4. For example, a d10 would be 1d4+6, and a d6 would be a d4+2
• Subtract 6 from everyone's dice type and add the remainder to a d6. For example, a d10 would be 1d6+4, and a d6 would stay a d6.

Whichever option above is chosen, only modify the base dice. Additional dice granted for any reason remain unchanged.

On Killing (Not by David Grossman)

In Dungeon World, the price of a typical murder is apparently 5 coins, and the price of a higher profile assassination is 120 coins. This seems awfully low. Given the price of "A Hearty Meal for 1" of 1 coin, I evaluated a coin to be roughly equivalent to 5 USD (given that McDonalds had as of the time writing this a 2/$4 deal where you could get two double cheeseburgers). This means a murder is 25 bucks and a higher profile assassination is 600. This is fitting with the standard DW status quo that prices are low, but also suggests that life is cheap. It also doesn't account for the mark's threat level. These factors should be considered when evaluating the price of an assassination:

• The number of moves a target has that can be harmful to the assailant.
• The maximum damage a target can bring to bear. This doesn't refer to the damage the target itself can deal, if it can order others to fight for it.
• The HP of the target. or the highest HP of  its body guards. (3 minimum)
• The Armor of the target or the highest among its body guards

For example, a Noble doesn't have any listed attacks, or HP, but they can issue orders and offer rewards to anyone beneath them (2 moves). Often, this is a Knight. which can bring to bear 10 damage, has 12 HP, and 4 armor. Therefore a Noble would be worth 2*10*12*4=960 coins. A King who has  A Whole Damn Army would use 2*19*30*4 would be worth 4560. A mere bandit has 3 threatening moves, can do 6 damage, and has 3 HP, which is 3*6*3  or 54 coins.

If you don't like these you can round to the first significant figure to get a price in tens, hundreds, or thousands. The above prices would become 1000, 5000, or 50. For the purposes of abstract coins, a significant figure 50 to 100 coins is A Chest of Riches, anything over 3 such Chests is a Giant Sack of Loot. 3 of those is "A Small Hoard" which increases the Resource statistic that armies use.

P.S.- It is noteworthy that just because you want someone killed, doesn't mean you're going to get it done by hiring some rando off the street. If you pay 120 coins to them (or 5, or 50, or 1000, or 5000, etc), they might go kill your guy, or they might pocket the money, go brag, and end up on a pike outside the city walls. 

Optional Spell Points variant

The default rule of Dungeon World is that Wizards can just cast a certain number of spell levels (Level+1) Clerics can Commune for the same number of spells, and everyone else in Core operates under the assumptions of any spells they chose for Multiclass Moves. It is with that in mind that I give you

Empowered Spellcasting

Replaces Commune or Prepare Spells

Instead of having to pray for spells or prepare spells, now you do that with Spell Points. You are not shoehorned into a restriction of which spells you can cast on any particular day, merely how many spell points you have. There are a few options here depending on what your GM wants to use

Eqivalent Spell Power

You get Level+1 Spell Points that you can spend as desired.

Attribute Based

You get Level+(Casting Attribute), where Casting Attribute for Clerics and Disciple (Class Warfare) based casters is +Wis, Casting Attribute for Wizards and appropriate Magician (Class Warfare) based casters is +Int, and Casting Attribute for Bards and other Magician (Class Warfare) casters is +Cha.

High Power

You get Level*Casting Attribute Spell Points.

Risks

As per normal spellcasting, there are risks associated with the amount of energy you spent to cast the spell. In this system it works differently. A badly cast spell generates a number of risk equal to its level. So a 3rd level miscast spell generates 3 points worth of effects

Variable

• Forget the Spell: Doesn't happen. You know the spells you know and that's it. You merely lose additional spell points, reducing risk by a point per Risk reduced.
• Let's Make a Deal: You are contacted by a powerful, potentially corrupting, entity. This removes all Risk Points your last failure or 7-9 generated.

1 point

• Unwanted Attention: A single Horde tagged creature appropriate to the spell or the area arrives. before your next turn.
• -1 to Cast: This lasts a number of your turns equal to the spell's Level

2 Points

• Unwanted Attention: A single Group tagged creature appropriate to the spell or the area arrives.before your next turn.
• Valuables are Damaged: When you roll Treasure, reduce the number of rolls you make by -1, or assume the value or amount of goods in a roll with a value or amount is halved.

3 Points

• Unwanted Attention: A single Solitary tagged creature appropriate to the spell or the area arrives before your next turn
• Environmental Effects: Everyone should Defy Danger for the remainder of Combat before they can make Hack and Slash attempts. If damage is to be had, the amount is either the Caster's Base Damage (possibly with added moves) or the Spell Damage, whichever is better. 

4+

Mix and Match: Choose effects from lower point value entries in combination with each other.

Backwards Compatibility

Some of the Risks are appropriate choices for 7-9 or 6- in games that don't otherwise use the rule.

Hits like a truck driver

You ever wonder about that expression? Now you know. Anywho, this is a random joke monster I thought up. It might see use in the more tech savvy areas of my campaign, but not likely.

Generating a random dungeon in DW with Tarot

This reddit post suggests you can draw tarot cards to make a dungeon, but doesn't provide much in the way of guidelines to finish it off. In Dungeon World, it could be fair to assume the same thing about dungeons that you do about treasure. That they are related to the damage dice of the enemy. Damage dice in dungeon world are very small. I don't recall seeing anything bigger than (b[2d12+9] damage, which I duplicated on the Dungeon World Codex). The average dungeon befitting a boss monster with just such damage would be 6.5+9 or 15.5. Call it 16 since it's the better of two rolls. Another example, the bandit king (b[2d10]), would be probably about a 6 room dungeon. You can toy with it too. Goblins might not have half the damage roll in dungeon rooms, and a Noble who has a Knight probably has twice the Knight's damage roll of rooms in his castle.

Gashes: An Alternate take on HP

From a redditor: 

I’m not about this stressing over games business. I think it’s completely valid to just wing it. [...]
Let’s say my immolator gets a 6. I don’t mark health points, I just tell him you’ve got a decent cut on your leg. My thing is to just make it believable. So you can’t take a ton of gashes and just be ok, but other than that, health is totally in the fiction.

So I know people like and take comfort in knowing their HP, and I told them so, but I had another redditor bring up Defy Danger. On the G+ community, there are a lot of people who don't like Deal Damage As Established as a move. And of course, this player doesn't really like HP. This got me thinking about medical states (good, fair, serious, critical, dead)

When you have have not been injured, you are in Good Condition +(CON-gashes)

If you suffer up to +CON gashes, you are in Fair condition (-1)

If you suffer up to twice +CON gashes, you are in Serious condition (-2)

Anything more is Critical condition (-3)

Endure Punishment

When you take a hit or worsen an injury through vigorous activity, roll +Condition. *On a 10+, you're fine and can continue. *On 7-9 take 1 more gash. On 6- you're out. What this means depends mostly on your Condition. At Fair you are merely unconscious. At Serious or worse, take your Last Breath.

Armor
Keep rolling damage normally. Use the damage value to find out if damage exceeds armor. If it does, a gash is scored. If it doesn't, nothing happens.

Getting Bogged Down
Wounds in real life don't really get reflected in games that have HP. If you would like for wounds to have impact, if you are Fair or worse, add +Condition to any +STR, DEX, CON or WIS rolls.

Monster Gashes
A monster can take 1 gash per 8 HP rounding down (so the Apocalypse Dragon {26 HP} can take 3 gashes if you can find a way to gash it).
A monster can deal 1 gash for every 8 average damage it can do rounded up. Add a gash for using b[2d6] or higher.

Recovery
Healing Magic
Whenever someone casts a Cure spell or uses a move like Lay On Hands, each d8 they heal counts as one condition state (e.g. healing from Critical to Serious, Serious to Fair, or Fair to Good)

Recover Move
Normally this heals you in full, but this change itself is evocative of a far grittier game, and as a result, you can say that each day using the Recover move only heals one condition state.

Drunken Debauchery, Stealing from Conan

The Drinking Contest introduces gobs of opportunity to get smashing drunk, and a rules-y way to handle it. This expands further on the drinking contests, and the aftermath. It goes beyond the Carouse move, but can often accompany it. I introduce to you (this rule is meant to be used with Abstract Coins): 

Drunken Debauchery

When you spent a night on the town, and got too smashed to remember, roll 2d6+ the number of drinks you had (if this is unclear, add your Constitution score). This isn't really hit or miss, consult the following table:

2: Behold My Grace! You boasted of your adroitness! Roll 1d6: 1–2 = Balancing on a Ledge/Beam/Rope; 3 = Bull-Leaping; 4 = Dancing; 5 = Five-Finger Fillet; 6 = Juggling Random Items.
3: Behold My Might! You boasted of your strength! Roll 1d6: 1–2 = Arm Wrestling; 3–4= Wrestling Match; 5 = Keg Tossing; 6 = Lifting Heavy Objects.
4: Behold My Stamina! You boasted of your constitution! Roll 1d6: 1–3 = Drinking Contest; 4–5 = Eating Contest; 6 = Long Distance Running / Swimming Challenge.
5: Big Business! You invested another 1 point of Wealth in a merchant’s caravan / ship venture! GM secretly rolls 1d6: 1–2 = It’s a con; 3–4 = It’s legitimate, and in 2d6 months you’ll have doubled your investment (if you’re still alive and around!); 5–6 = It’s legitimate, but the caravan / ship didn’t survive.
6: Brotherly Love! You woke up next to one of the other players’ characters (referee determines randomly)!
7: Brrr . . . Chilly! Someone stole your coat / clothes while you were intoxicated!
8: Dangerous Liaison! You bedded the son / daughter / husband / wife / temple virgin of someone who can make your life in this area very difficult! Roll 1d6: 1 = Local Crime Lord; 2 = Local Militia Commander; 3 = Local Sorcerer; 4 = Local Temple Leader; 5–6 = Important Local Leader / Noble.
9: Drunken Brawl! You started a drunken brawl! You must spend Wealth on damages and fines to avoid incarceration, or flee and be declared outlaw. Roll Wealth. If you don’t have enough wealth to pay the fine and do not flee, you will be incarcerated and your belongings will be confiscated and sold.
10: Fire! You accidentally started a fire in the inn / den of ill repute you were carousing in! You must spend an additional 1d20 × 10 gold pieces on damages and fines to avoid incarceration, or flee and be declared outlaw! Roll Wealth as #9.
11: Gambling! You gambled away your money on a game Defy Danger with +WIS (at -1 if you took a Debility for the drinking contest) vs. Wealth dropping to 0. Unlike normal Defy Danger moves, on a 12+ with this one, you gain +1 to your wealth level (if possible). Roll 1d6: 1 = Dice Game; 2 = Card Game; 3 = Cock Fight; 4 = Dog Fight; 5 = Arm / Wrestling Match; 6 = Pit Fight.
12: Go Directly to Jail! You woke up in jail charged with a crime! Roll 1d6: 1–2 = Drunken Disorderly; 3 = Lewd Conduct; 4 = Vandalism; 5 = Theft; 6 = Murder. You decide if your character did it or not. An escape may be necessary . . .
13: Have at You! You incurred someone’s anger (or were angered yourself) and have agreed to a duel, physical or sorcerous!
14: How’d I Get Here? You woke up in a strange place with no idea how you’d got there! Roll 1d6: 1 = Aboard a ship (maybe heading out to sea!); 2 = In a tree or on a roof; 3 = In the back of a wagon (maybe travelling somewhere!); 4 = In the nearest stable / animal pen; 5 = In the nearest temple; 6 = In the sewer / gutter.
15: How Embarrassing! You made a complete idiot of yourself in public! Locals snigger behind your back and consider you a complete imbecile. Roll 1d6: 1 = You emptied your bladder . . . unexpectedly; 2 = You exposed yourself; 3 = You fell flat on your face unconscious while attempting to seem intimidating / skillful / powerful; 4–5 = You performed the worst drunken song and dance . . . ever; 6 = You soiled yourself.
16: I Hereby Swear! You made a foolish pledge, loudly and in public to do something hazardous. Roll 1d6: 1–2 = Clear Nearest Monster Den / Ruin; 3–4 = Bring Down Local Bandits / Thieves / Thugs; 5–6 = Steal Valuable From Important Local (roll as in Dangerous Liaison! to determine who).
17: Just Married! You woke up to find someone claiming to be your new wife / husband! Roll 1d6: 1–2 = Attractive; 3–4 = Average; 5 = Ugly; 6 = Pass the bucket! GM also secretly rolls 1d6: 1–3 = It’s a con attempt; 4–6 = It’s true.
18: Love Never Dies! You woke up next to a corpse! Roll 1d6: 1–2 = They died of natural causes; 3–4 = They died of drug / alcohol overdose; 5 = You think you accidentally killed them; 6 = You think you murdered them. GM also secretly rolls 1d6: 1–3 = It’s a setup; 4–6 = It’s true.
19: Mooooo! You woke up next to an animal! Roll 1d6: 1 = Chicken; 2 = Cow; 3 = Goat; 4 = Horse / Camel; 5 = Pig; 6 = Sheep.
20: My Land! You gambled / spent your money and acquired the deed to something! Roll 1d6: 1-2 = Disreputable Inn; 3 = Nearest Ruin; 4 = Plot of Wildland; 5–6 = Run-Down Farm; You are eligible for either Householder, Merchant, or Shopkeeper as appropriate once any GM imposed restrictions are met.
21: My Precious! When you were passed out or otherwise engaged, someone stole your single most valuable-looking item! Track ‘em down and make ‘em pay!
22: Ooh, Shiny! You spent your money on a truly gaudy but otherwise unremarkable item. Reduce Wealth by at least 1. Roll 1d6: 1 = Armour; 2 = Garment; 3–4 = Jewellery Piece; 5 = Shield; 6 = Weapon. GM determines the item.
23: Robbed! As 21, but 1 Wealth instead.
24: Tattoo! You spent your money on a fantastic tattoo! Say what, and  roll 1d6: 1–2 = It actually is awesome; 3–4 = It’s fairly good;5 = It has an obvious flaw; 6 = It has an embarrassing flaw.
25: Unexpected Companion! You woke up next to a member of your preferred gender. Determine attractiveness as Just Married! entry.
26: Yer Mother! You seriously insulted someone who can make your life in this area very difficult. Roll to determine who as in Dangerous Liaison! entry.
27: You’re so Generous! You donated your money to a worthy institution. Roll 1d6: 1–2 = Local Poor; 3–4 = Local Temple; 5–6 = Orphanage / Urchins.
28+: Madman! Roll twice and apply both results!

A Change in Bonds

In pbp, DW and other Apocalypse World Engine games tend to die with Bonds. So the idea I randomly had is to reconstruct how Bonds work.

Firstly, there's a bit of inconsistency with the DW Core rule:

Fill in the name of one of your companions in at least one

and Class Warfare, which specifies each Archetype as having a set number of bonds.

Personally I don't really like either rule--because I don't get the logic--and there's that problem about PbP games I mentioned. So I propose the following Caveat:

• Players get bonds equal to Level+CHA (minimum 1) which they can come up with in play. (this becomes part of the Level Up move)
• Other than your Level+CHA you have no restriction on how many bonds you can spend on one subject.
• Players are not initially restricted to bonds specified for their Playbook/Class Warfare build, so long as they write their own build in a way that fits the concept. OF course in order to preserve what I assume DW intended as balance, fitting the concept is subject to the group's collective opinion.
• Players may spend bonds on the world representing events that have happened in game. (that's right, I like the idea of players being more and more connected to the world in a statistical way.)
• If it exceeds +CHA or +1 per 100 coins spent, they can use it in relevant situations.

The reason for explicitly stating you can spend any number of bonds you want on the same subject is because I've never explicitly seen it stated (though rules implied) and I've never played in a group that used more than one bond on an individual. The last bullet point is for situations that come up a lot in my game where the players saved a town from a massive horde, and they get amnesty/favors returned/wenches.

Abstracting Coins

Someone on reddit made me think about not keeping up with specific amounts of coins. They thought of using coins as a sort of +Wealth. The values I thought of for +Wealth were as follows:

+3: A chest of riches

+2: A giant sack of loot

+1: A few coin purses

+0: A small purse

-1: Some dusty old coppers.

You could give them a wt. score equal to their respective score. Then instead of specifying an amount, you can let players lower their +Wealth by one or more to get a bonus to a Carouse, Parley, Recruit, or Supply roll.

For Carouse, sacrifice 1 point to get the full bonus associated with the old level of wealth
For Parley or Supply roll Wealth as noted below
For Recruit you only sacrifice Wealth if their Cost is Money. Otherwise roll Wealth as noted below

If you have them roll +Wealth, use the following results

10+: They get the thing without lowering their wealth or having another incident

7-9: They get the thing but pick one:

• take -1 wealth
• the item is contraband, inferior, or stolen

6-: They get the thing and

• Lose 2 wealth 
• Just kidding, they don't get the thing, but lose -1 wealth anyway (such as by a finder's fee, a local ordinance levying fines against the intended purchase, and so on)
• must do a favor for the seller
• must steal the item

Abstract Warrants
So you've done something against the law, or something that pissed off the powers that be, but might not have been against the actual law... Whenever you have this sort of charges against you if a bounty is to be levied you need to know how many points of wealth you need to even be able to make a roll to pay off any bounty, or fine The list below is a start but is by no means complete:

+0: Minor Assault, Petty theft, Negligence
+1: Battery, Burglary, unarmed Robbery, Swindling
+2: Manslaughter, Impersonating a higher social status, Lewd Behavior
+3: Murder, Theft of extremely valuable property (such as a horse, or the keys and deed to a house), Rape

Weight and Loot

The +Wealth level of  whatever you have for positive values also corresponds to its weight. For the purposes of load, Wealth from 0 to 3 has Load 1 per point, while -1 has Load of .1.

Starting with Abstract Loot
Characters whose playbooks canonically suggest they have any coins (up to about 50 or so) should start with +0.

If they're playing something custom like a Class Warfare build or unofficial playbook that gives them up to 100 coins, they can start with +1 (300=+2, 900=+3). 

Otherwise they will -1

Gaining Abstract Loot

The easiest abstraction of increasing loot would be the rule of threes

Some Dusty old coppers>A handful of dusty old coppers>A lot of dusty old coppers>

A small purse>Two small purses> Three small purses>

A few coin purses>Several coin purses>Many coinpurses>

A giant sack of loot>Two "">Three ""

From a chest of riches, keeping track further seems futile, but it could be fair to say that 3 chests generates "A small hoard". For the purposes of A Whole Damn Army, Resources is increased by 1 point for a small hoard. Beyond that, each additional larger size (Medium, Large, Huge) is an additional Resource point.

Steading Prosperity and Abstract Coins

Dirt: This town won't sell you anything worth more than 5 core coins. (-1)

Poor: One person in the town can sell you something up to 25 core coins. (+0)

Moderate: Less than 10 people can sell you up to 100 core coins worth of stuff. (+1)

Wealthy: Any merchant can sell you up to 100 core coins worth of stuff, one can sell you up to 300 coins worth of stuff. (+2)

Rich: Anything of any value is probably here, but in order to preserve magic items, you may find one specific item in such a place if it has been explicitly mentioned in the fiction. (+3)

Real Estate

A Cottage is 500 coins in the core rules. As per Gaining Abstract Loot, it takes 3 units of a wealth level to move up to the next. As per the starting rules, it takes either A giant sack of loot, + 2 chests of riches, or simply reducing Wealth by 2 points to just buy a cottage. For simplicity, I'll just say how much the party's total wealth needs to be reduced to purchase a particular housing unit

House/Land     Wealth Reduction total         Upkeep

Hovel          A small purse                  N/A

Cottage        2 chests                       a small coinpurse

House          8 chests and a giant sack      a few coinpurses

Mansion        166 chests and 2 giant sacks   1 chest, 2 giant sacks

Keep           250 chests                     2 chests, 2 giant sacks

Castle         833 chests and a giant sack    8 chests, 1 giant sack

Grand Castle   3,334 chests                   33 chests, 1 giant sack

Upkeep

1% upkeep may be difficult to track with this system. so we match 5 coins (the upkeep on a 500 coin cottage) to a small coinpurse. Since that's 1% of 2 chests, we go from there

Haggling

A group of adventurers can pool their resources, and negotiate with Charisma, reducing the price accordingly. The highest charisma score can reduce the cost of the real estate by the Upkeep per point of Charisma, rounded up to the biggest unit (e.g. 8 to 18 small coinpurses for a cottage, 16 to 36 chests for a mansion, 272 to 612 chests for a Grand Castle). It's up to the GM whether this in turn reduces the upkeep based on the haggled price as well. 

A Whole Damn Army Simplified

I have discovered a shortcut for making Group/Horde monsters into A Whole Damn Army of its own

If two questions would grant the same tag don’t worry about it. If you like you can adjust damage or HP by 2 to reflect the tag that would be repeated, but it’s not necessary.

What I'm about to tell you is strictly not RAW... but it is simple. You ready for it? Here Goes:

Take any Core example monster of Horde or Group organization sizes and add 1 instance of Uncanny Endurance (+4 HP) for every multiple of the party's number. So a party of 4-5 members fights a horde of 50 whatever as if it had 10-12 levels of Uncanny Endurance.

If they number more than 50 or so, you should probably also add Huge since a platoon is roughly 4 squads of 10. That and 50 people probably don't fit into a house. This addition is optional though.

For the purposes of Damage From Multiple Creatures, add +1 per Uncanny Endurance (equal to +1 per multiple of the party's population) rather than one per individual monster. If the party has allies that make the ratio smaller, don't increase damage as much as normal (to reflect the fact that some of the damage goes to the players' allies). So for example, in the above 10-12 levels of uncanny endurance, the party would take the full +(levels) of damage if they were the only combatants. If they had 20 allies though, the ratio is 2/5 so players would take +4 damage instead of +12.

Disclaimer

Sorry about this vent post, I don't really expect anything out of it.

I have noticed that some of the DW crowd seems to think I have wrongbadfun with the system. In a way, they're not wrong, but also they're not right. Because DW is what you make it. Quite honestly, sometimes I get an idea or remember something from another game, and I duplicate that thing faithfully from the other game, with the intention of emulating its intent within the other game, even if I have to disregard DW precepts to do it. 

This is my prerogative as the holder of the account(s) where I make the respective post(s). 

This is my prerogative as the person who runs DW games for my friends and acquaintances on chat servers, forums, and so on. When you run a game for me, you choose what goes into it, and I work collectively with the group to decide (or to use a more apt phrase, "find out") what comes out of it.

Just because you can do something a certain way, doesn't mean I want to as well, and if I don't, no amount of explanation on your part will change that.

This applies to any monster, item, rule, or hack I make with the system.

This applies to the terminology I choose to convey the idea.

This applies to the system itself as stated by the owners who made it.

I can take advice, but be warned, some of it will go unheeded, and I'm not required to explain why.

A Whole Damn Army: Taxation and Upkeep

So I saw the following in Dungeon World

A hovel

20 coins

A cottage

500 coins

A house

2,500 coins

A mansion

50,000 coins

A keep

75,000 coins

A castle

250,000 coins

A grand castle

1,000,000 coins

A month’s upkeep

1% of the cost

Given how much I've written about A Whole Damn Army there's probably enough there to make some assumptions about what kind of fees are charged by legitimate road authorities, and The King's Tax Collectors. A good baseline is that the highest ranking feudal figure in the settlement's home determines the monthly tax based on a value roughly twice the amount of a month's upkeep (so a city supporting "A Grand Castle" has up to 20,000 coins in its coffers.) 

Resources

This article suggests that a "An orc warchief’s tribute” is reasonably 1 point of Resources." and that each extra point of resources is an order of magnitude (roughly a factor of 10). That means the Grand Castle settlement is worth ~3 Resource, the Keep or Castle settlements are worth 2, and the Mansion at 1000 coins is worth 1 Resource.

Taxation and Population

If we assume the majority of a population lives in cottages, and half of the upkeep is taxation, that amounts to a tax of 3 coins per person.  This means "A Grand Castle" needs a supporting population around 7,000 (6,666 to be more specific), a Castle needs around 900 (call it a thousand), a Keep needs 250, and a mansion 200. So...

A Village is less than 200 people

A Town could reasonably be 200-500

A Keep is probably 500-1000

A City is 1-10,000, with the largest medieval city ever being no more than a million or so (It would take less than 50,000 to make "A dragon's mound of coins")

The Messy Tag and You

The rules for the Messy tag, wherever it occurs usually involves something like “it deals damage in a messy way”. Sometimes additional details are included like “it leaves a mess behind—cosmetic property damage, blood and gore, or other bodily produce, or some other kind of mess as appropriate.” There’s a story about the 16 HP dragon from Dungeon Worlds on the internet that suggests the Messy tag could mean dismemberment. Nevertheless, Dungeon Worlds doesn’t make it exceptionally easy to point out what dismemberment actually is or does. The short answer is "Did it happen? Yes. Then it happened." However, that’s massively unsatisfying.

Conditions are Temporary, Semi-Permanent, or Permanent effects that are derived from the unfolding fiction. When you get a Compromise or Failure, the GM may impose a Condition on you as a result of the fictional consequences of your action, or being a victim of the Messy tag, or a specific monster move.

Temporary Conditions usually end after a short period—within a few seconds, minutes or possibly an hour. Typically, Temporary conditions are inflicted by a move that requires the player to Avoid Danger or take the condition. An example would be throwing sand in someone’s eyes.

• Blinded – You have lost your ability to see properly, possibly as a result of severe trauma. Take -2 ongoing to any actions where sight is a major factor (but doesn’t render the action impossible) until your blindness is treated, or until your normal vision returns.
• Deafened – You have lost your ability to hear properly, possibly due to extremely loud noises or severe physical trauma. Take -2 ongoing to any actions where sound or vocalization is a major factor until your deafness is treated or hearing returns to normal on its own.
• Surprised – You cannot act until GM takes a turn with any adversaries.
• Terrorized – If you fail to Defy Danger vs. the Terrifying Monster Tag, you take -2 ongoing to actions other than fleeing, cowering or Defy Danger until you succeed at Defy. 
• Knocked Out – If you have been hit by a blackjack or other incapacitating move, but have more than 0 HP, you may be knocked out (depends on Defy Danger with +CON). It takes ~10-Cool minutes of rest to recover Bruises.

Semi-Permanent Conditions could take several hours or possibly even several days to alleviate. In some instances, they may be temporarily treated or removed altogether with the use of medicine and drugs, however. Such a massive concussion from a Compromise that caused temporary blindness

• Broken Limb – you take -2 to any tasks with the associated limb until it is set and placed in a cast, splint, or sling. After you've been in a cast for a week, roll +CON. On any hit, you take -1 on those same tasks. After the second week, roll +CON again, healing fully on any hit.
• Exhausted – You are physically spent and your stamina can carry you no further. Get -2 to any actions where physical exertion is a factor until you regain your stamina through the Recover move.
• Hobbled – Your movement and foot speed has been compromised and you can no longer run, possibly due to severe trauma. Get -2 to any actions where balance and speed are a factor until you take a Recover action.
• Sick – You are ill. You get -2 to all actions until you Recover.
• Starving – You are hungry and thirsty. You get -2 to all actions until your hunger is slaked and your thirst quenched. The rule of 3s states you get 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water, or 3 minutes without air.

Permanent Conditions usually don’t go away, although some might be treated with surgery, and anything can be treated with Big Magic if it’s in the game.

• Lost a Limb – If you fail to Avoid Danger vs. the Messy tag, you lost… something. Could be a limb, eye, equipment, etc. If you do lose a bit of yourself, surgery can restore severed fingers, or broken/crushed bones, or give you a prosthetic. You need magic to restore lost arms to function. You take -2 ongoing on related tasks until you get a prosthetic or the Repair spell. Prosthetics come with their own strengths and weaknesses though (might do a post on those, not sure yet).
• Lost an Eye – When you lose an eye, you’re temporarily blinded from the shock of the thing, and have virtually zero depth perception when you recover. This gives you -2 ongoing on any ranged attack you make. Perhaps even -1 ongoing on a semi-permanent basis until you’ve had time to grow accustomed to the change in perception. In any case, the loss of an eye requires either magic or high tech to restore function, or an eyepatch or prosthetic eye to restore aesthetic.