Question time!
Love the game, just need some help working through some things.
1.) What’s a sentinel? A Hound PC has them marked down as a friend and I’m trying to figure out who they are. Are they associated with The Inspectors?
2.) War?! Okay if the Lampblacks start the game at Tier 2 (weak) and they get in a war with the players. They drop down to Tier 1(weak)? If the players are going to hit the hold of an enemy gang, they first have to do an investigation to figure out how they’re vulnerable right? Is grinding a gang down really how its suppose to go? I think my Bazso Baz is running around with a gang of 5 now…
3.) Any thoughts on gangs merging? What kind of rep boost would that be? or is it just Turf?
4.) Do all scores payout? The PC are hawkers, and some of their scores have been mostly territory control and fending off warring factions. Do they still get pay out for those, even though no product is being moved or anything was stolen? What about when they are just fending off an attack? Is that even a score do they get downtime actions after that?
Devil’s bargains can make a lot of different fronts to fend off, pretty quickly! I’m having fun with the game and appreciate any help.
1. When I run it at cons, the Sentinels have ranged from a group of vigilantes to the Lord Governor’s personal guard.
2. That’s basically how it went in my home game, though the PCs weren’t the ones doing the grinding. The Dolls inadvertently gave the Sashes a head start, and both the Sashes and the Lampblacks worked on wearing each other down every time my group hit a downtime, so by the end of it, there were only a handful of Lampblacks left when the group decided to go after Baszo himself. And speaking of which…
3. The Dolls made a deal with Baszo’s 2nd in command that once Baszo himself was eliminated, the remaining Lampblacks (of which there were only about 5 or so) would join them as a Cohort. They earned a Rep boost for killing Baszo, but he was down to Tier 1 by that point.
4. Let the fiction guide you. Always ask, “Where would the money be coming from?”
1. Ask your hound player what a sentinel is. It’s his friend after all, he should know. A lot of fiction in Duskwall is intentionally vague, you and your players are the experts on what is true.
2. There appear to be three questions here, I’ll answer them in order. Yes. Maybe. Yes if you think that’s interesting, no if you don’t.
3. If they’re NPC gangs, then it’s all just fiction. If it’s the PCs and an NPC faction I’d decide what resources the NPC’s have ahead of time and make it clear to the PCs what is to be gained. The merger itself would probably require at least one score of some kind (social perhaps), and they would get whatever rewards I laid out. Just like a regular score, it would be some combo of rep, coin and turf.
4. Not all scores pay out coin, but all scores should have a goal. The goal may be coin, rep, turf, information, removal of a threat, physical objects, or any combination thereof. The goal should be clear at the outset, and if successful the crew should get what they earn. I think that fending off a large attack is probably a score, with the goal being removal of a threat, but other rewards could still be earned. I would give the players downtime after the attack.
Just to verify on your question 2), are the Lampblacks at Tier 1 with Weak hold because of other things that have happened, or just because of being at War? Going to war should cost a gang one HOLD, not one TIER, though it may knock them down a tier. Going to war should drop you from Tier 2(weak) to Tier 1(strong).
EDIT: My apologies! After looking over the rules again it seems I’m in the wrong. Right at the top of page 14 I see you’re entirely correct, when a faction loses weak hold it drops a tier and stays weak.