Fun At Level One

If you are a player in the Cyfandil campaign setting, please do not read this post. It will spoil some of your fun.

EXACTLY like the actual fantasy Middle Ages. Ex-Act-Ly.

For Session One of the Cyfandil campaign, we will bring all our starting characters to town for a festival. It will be the festival closest to the time of the year in the real world - perhaps May Day or Midsummers Day?

There will be some festival games. Here, the characters can get a boost to their starting stats. I will explain that increasing stats this way is quite unusual and that there will be only a few chances to make such changes as we go forward.

How it works is that each PC who wishes may enter as many of these games as his player wishes him to enter. Each game costs 1 GP to enter. The winner gets 10 GP and a permanent +1 to the relevant stat. 

• Lift Huge Rocks: Str (half day)
• Bible Trivia: Int (half day)
• Scavenger Hunt: Wis (all day)
• Darts Tournament: Dex (half day)
• Bobbing for Apples: Con (half day)
• Talent Show: Cha (this one also takes all day) 

In any case, the total number of entrants will be 10 - we will say there are unnamed NPCs who fill out the slate if there are fewer than 10 PC characters. 

There are two different ways I could adjudicate this. 

First way is: We all make roll-under stat checks. People who make their roll get to go to the next round until there is only one winner.

• This is good because it models high stat = better chance to win without making it autowin. This includes characters with these stats as Prime Requisites.
• If I do it this way, all the NPCs will have 11 in the relevant stat.   

Second way is: We all roll d20 and add the stat modifier. High roll wins. Ties go to a playoff. 

• This is good because it gives people with a crappy stat a better chance to boost it. 

I may do Str Int and Wis the first way and Dex Con and Cha the second way. Just to mix things up.

Then the players can have their characters hire their henchmen or try their luck in the dungeon without help. 

Now I need to find an introductory one-page dungeon to put right underneath town.

EDIT: found it

The Aluvian Calendar

 For the year 998:

Click to embiggen

During the Harvest, everyone in town must help. If a character isn't sick, dead, or aiding the harvest, he will be hanged on October 7th.

During Haven, the weather is too bad to go on adventures in the dungeon or overland, but characters can take care of indoor business.

During Holiday, exertion is strictly prohibited. Daily fines are 10 GP plus 100 GP per character level. 

During Open season, there are no restrictions on character actions.

On Sunday, no business will be done. Characters who are already out of town can keep moving (although they really shouldn't.) Clerics who exert themselves on Sunday will find they have no spells for eight days and nights. 

I rule that Anticlerics can work normally on Sunday. Instead, they are similarly restricted from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. You could do that too, or that might be too complicated for your group.

During War, the characters must be available to the war effort in some capacity. No adventuring or other business takes place. Refusing this duty is desertion, which is, again, a hanging offense.