It’s Dangerous to Go Alone! Take This

Originally published at: https://www.torchbearerrpg.com/?p=748

Loot by Rebekah Bennington

Hello friends! Happy Torchbearer Thursday.

It’s been a busy few weeks but I think we’re now back on track. Today, I want to take a look at a some near gear that might help your adventurers survive the dangerous world of Torchbearer. Take a look!

Item Cost Inventory Availability
Armor
Arming Jacket Ob 3 Worn/torso 1 Bustling Metropolis
Reinforced Helmet Ob 3 Worn/head 1 and Neck 1 Bustling Metropolis
Clothing
Boots Ob 2 Worn/feet Busy Crossroads
Thick Leather Gloves Ob 2 Hands/worn 2 or Pack 1 Busy Crossroads
Container
Bandolier Ob 2 Worn/torso 1 Busy Crossroads
Cask Ob 2 Hands/carried 2 or Pack 4 Busy Crossroads
Equipment
Refined Oil Ob 4 Pack 1 or Hand/carried 1 Bustling Metropolis
Tallow Ob 1 Pack 1 All Settlements
Food
Sack of Beans Ob 2 Pack 2 All Settlements
Wheel of Cheese Ob 3 Pack 3 All Settlements

Descriptions

Arming Jacket

A quilted linen or wool jacket. Worn under chain (+1 torso slot) or under plate (no additional inventory), an arming jacket acts as leather armor once the chain or plate is damaged.

Reinforced Helmet

A stout helmet with an aventail to protect the neck and throat. Can sustain two hits before becoming damaged.

Boots

+1D for travel in rain or rough roads.

Thick Leather Gloves

+1D to resist heat or injury from work or +1D equipment for Laborer. Factor for all fine motor actions like spell casting, shooting, carving, etc.

Bandolier

Holds three slots for pack 1 items (not in bundles: no rations, torches, candles, coins, gems, etc.)

Cask

A cask holds 4 draughts for water, ale or wine.

Refined Oil

Lanterns use refined oil as fuel. Cost and inventory represents two flasks of refined oil. A flask of refined oil will fuel a lantern for four turns.

Tallow

A pound of tallow grease (beef fat) that can be used as supplies for Alchemy, Survival and other tests requiring grease or an accelerant.

Sack of Beans

A sack of dried beans. Provides supplies for 2d6 Cook tests. Cannot be eaten without cooking. Comes in a small sack.

Wheel of Cheese

2D6 Preserved Rations or six uses of supplies for cooking.

6 Likes

Are the towns in the availability column a hierarchy or must you actually visit a busy crossroads specifically for that piece?

1 Like

Good question! It’s a hierarchy (from most restricted availability to greatest availability):

Wizard’s Tower/Religious Bastion
Bustling Metropolis
Busy Crossroads
Remote Village
All Settlements

3 Likes

When do you roll the portions for a wheel of cheese?

I would roll the first time you use it.

1 Like

Reinforced helmet works twice automatically (no roll) then is broken or lost?

Does “two hits” mean two hit points from a single action, or must it be one hit point from two different actions?

Correct. One hit point from two different actions.

1 Like

By the way, these are great! Thanks!

1 Like

When you fail a test and have to chase it through the dungeon. :laughing:

2 Likes

I created boots as footwear with this benefit:
Boots provide protection against a "lost/damaged shoes" result or twist. Another lost/damage result or twist will affect them.

Also: new skill!

Tailor/Cobbler

Tailors create cloaks, gloves, hats and raiment out of fabric. Cobblers create boots and shoes. They may mend damaged goods at -1 ob. Glovers and Hatters gain +1D to create gloves and hats, respectively, but suffer a factor when creating other cloth garments.

Suggested Help for Tailor: Peasant
Suggested Help for Cobbler: Leatherworker
Beginner’s Luck for Tailor: Will

Tailor Factors
Garments: Cloaks, Hats, Gloves, Raiment, Finery (Finery includes one free refinement)
Refinements: Add +1 to the ob per refinement. Examples include: bejeweled, fine detailing, embroidery, exotic fabric, fur-lined. The garment’s cash value/cost and difficulty increased by +1 per refinement.

Cobbler Factors
Footwear: Sandals*, Shoes or slippers, Boots

*Treat sandals as shoes that cannot be mended if damaged. Footwear may possess refinements.

2 Likes

To be honest I would rather use those factors to supplement existing-but-just-barely skills like Peasant, Weaver, and Tanner.

The first two skills already involve clothing and could really use some loving. The latter skill is NPC-only so it might provide supplies or help for the others.

What is the purpose of a Bandolier? It costs one more than a Satchel but holds less? Is it resistant against twists for equipment loss?

Unrelated, should the Cloak be changed to require either a Neck or Torso slot?

If you wore two satchels, I’d ding you for the backpack penalty (factor to all fighter and dungeoneer tests). If you wore at satchel and a bandolier, I wouldn’t.

No change to the cloak. It takes a torso slot.

4 Likes

Bandolier: everything is right there at the ready, no need to dig through your bags.

Kest, Peasant is incredibly useful! We use it all the time—mending, animal handling, cleaning…

As for Tanner, I got you covered:

Tanner

Tanners use salt, smoke, offal, dung, urine and chemicals to turn animal hides into useable material for leatherworkers, armorers and other crafters. The curing stage is lengthy and malodorous and may only be done in Town. Tanners can also create rawhide (uncured animal hides) or buckskin (soft, cured animal hides). Tanned skins can be used to make leather-bound books, vellum scrolls, leather or hide armor, boots and shoes and many other useful products. Tanners are also able create glue from remnants of the tanning process. Tanners can use chemicals from Alchemists and fresh skins from Hunters and Trappers as supplies.

Suggested Help for Tanner: Laborer
Beginner’s Luck for Tanner: Will

Tanner Factors
Quality: Rawhide, Buckskin, Exotic (reptile, ostrich, stingray) or Mighty (ob equal to the beast’s Might +1 per armor or weapon benefit)
Quantity: The ob is determined by the slots required to wear an object. For example leather armor takes up 1 torso slot, so tanning enough rawhide for a suit of leather armor is ob 2 (1 for the material + 1 for the quantity).

Leatherworker

Leatherworkers cut, carve and shape treated leather to create armor, clothing, straps and belts, waterskins, shoes and boots and binding for spellbooks. Leatherworks use leather from Tanners and tools from Smiths as supplies.

Suggested Help for Leatherworker: Armorer
Beginner’s Luck for Leatherworker: Will

Leatherworker Factors
Scrolls and books: Scroll case, Traveling Spellbook or Journal, Spellbook or Tome
Containers: Belts and pouches, waterskins and satchels, backpacks
Clothing: Hats, Gloves, Shoes, Boots
Armor: Bracers, Helms, Leather armor, Barding (dogs), Barding (horses)
Equipage: Tack (Bridles and reins), Saddles

Leather helmets provide 1 point of armor on a roll of 4-6 on 1d6, then become broken. Anyone who can wear a hat may wear a leather helmet. Boots provide protection against a "lost/damaged shoes" result or twist once before becoming lost or damaged on subsequent twists.

2 Likes

Yeah, I feel like making up new skills devalues both the existing skills that aren’t used much and classes that do invest in them, so would rather beef up the ones already in the book.

Tanner and Leatherworker and Cobbler in addition to Armorer, Peasant, and Weaver seems like skill bloat. How many leather skills do we really need?

I removed things like Hide Armor and switched Bracers from armor to clothing for the same reason in my campaign. Neither as published integrate well with the rest of the content. This blog update doesn’t share that issue, it’s clear that two new armors are simply variants of the existing helmet and leather armor so there’s no problem.

Anyone who can wear a hat may wear a leather helmet.

This would contradict which classes can wear helmets?

Bandolier: everything is right there at the ready, no need to dig through your bags.

How would ‘digging through your bags’ come up during play?

I think there are interesting questions here. How many skills? How narrowly scoped?

I like the layers of crafter skills. It brings home for me how much adventurers rely on communities of craft to survive.

I don’t think the original skill list was ever presented as the “List of all skills”. Its always been just those skills that adventurers will most need to survive. Adventurers can still mend stuff in the field, but crafting from raw materials is a whole other thing. It adds depth to the world, recognises the work required to become specialist, and that it takes a village to X.

This maybe at odds with the jack-of-all-trades approach for of adventurers, but that’s the point. I can see it would be annoying if you have adventurers who want to hunt, skin and craft their own exquisite finery for the baron’s ball, but I feel that strengthens the game rather than weakens it.

It’s a bit like starting a fire in bad conditions. A simple task made difficult when you’re confronting a monster, hanging off a cliff face, drowning, etc.

Here’s how you might roll these into existing skills, where the npc skills are included just so apprentices or the like can provide support for your adventurers.

Armorer

Armorers craft armor and weapons for adventurers, knights and soldiers. Armorers use supplies from laborers, smiths, tanners, and weavers.

Suggested Help: Laborer, Smith, Tanner
Beginner’s Luck: Health

Crafting Weapons and Armor

Melee: dagger and handaxe; mace and battleaxe; flail; sword, rapier, and warhammer.
Reach: darts and spear; lance; halberd and polearm; twohanded sword.
Missile: sling; bow; crossbow.
Armor and Shields: buckler, shield, or leather; helmet; armet* or chainmail; platemail.
Gear: tack and horseshoes; saddles; barding for dogs; barding for horses

Repairing Armor

Mending: helmet; armet or chainmail; platemail.

Weaver

A weaver can create blankets, baskets, cloaks, clothing, cordage, sheets, sacks, and tapestries. Weavers use materials from hunters or peasants and dyes from scavengers or alchemists.

Suggested Help: Laborer, Peasant, Tanner
Beginner’s Luck: Will

Crafting Clothing and Gear

Clothing: clothes, hats, scarves, or shoes; boots, bracers, cloaks, gambeson**, or gloves; finery
Gear: belts, baskets, pouches, small sacks, or tack; blankets, bedding, quivers, satchels, waterskins, and whips; backpacks, large sacks, nets, ropes, or tents; sails or tapestries
Style: ornamental; fashionable; stunning

Repairing Clothing

See Peasant.

* Reinforced Helmet
** Arming Jacket

I’m not sure how you intended to count cooking supplies after PCs use some of it as rations. I’m thinking of saying it counts # supplies up to half the remaining rations, rounded up.

Or did you intend they had to choose on first cut whether its rations or supplies?