Money & Equipment in Fellhold

I don't know about you, but I find coming up with equipment lists a huge pain in the ass. Coming up with starting equipment packages? Even harder. So why don't I just use one of the perfectly serviceable equipment lists already out there? Because I definitely buy into the thought that equipment lists are a great way to convey implicit setting and approaches to the game. So I bit the bullet and cranked the below out. It could definitely use some work, and the equipment packs owe a great deal to Brendan's excellent OD&D ones. 

Any and all thoughts on how to spice this up are welcome, but I'm especially looking to make an evocative random item table so that everybody gets at least one interesting but not-obviously-useful piece of kit.

Coins of Fellhold

Fellhold has three kinds of coins, issued by the Soul Banks based on the Soul Standard (theoretically, you can take your coins into a bank and demand the current market rate for bottled souls in exchange for your cash, but why would you want to?)

Copper Pennings: The common coin used in most business in Fellhold - a triangle about an inch on a side with a hole in the middle. One copper penning equals one experience point. (CP)

Silver Skillings: 100 Copper Pennings make up one Silver Skilling, so they are used for settling contracts and loans, day to day business between merchants, and the like. A thin, rectangular piece of silver, both sides show fine old-dwarven knotwork.  (SP)

Gold Marks: Worth 100 Silver Skillings, Marks are rarely seen outside of large business deals or the hoards of the wealthy. These fat gold hexagons have a raised outer lip and show a leering devil face on one side and the mark of the bank that stamped it on the other.

Starting Cash & Gear

Player characters begin with 3d6x10 CP, or else can roll for a starting equipment pack by class. Either of these can be supplemented by loans as seen shown below. All characters begin with a backpack, blanket, a waterskin, three helpings of pack food, one torch, and a tinder box.

Taking Out Loans

During character creation, PCs may take out one or more loans to secure additional gear. To do so, create a random specialist NPC - this is the PCs creditor. The PC receives a loan of 3d6x10 copper pieces to be used however they see fit. Assign the PC a d4 Loan Usage die. For every week that goes by that the PC does not pay their loan, roll the die. On a maximum result, step the die up one step. The PC can move the Loan Die down one step by paying the original loan amount. If it every reaches a d10, their creditor has lost patience and sends out goons to collect.

Sellers

If you wish to make finding the right place to buy goods as much a part of your game as where to fence adventuring loot, you may create a seller using the Merchant Table in the Specialist NPCs section for each category of gear below. Adjust prices accordingly. The first seller generated carries the entire category of gear. If a player wants to buy something at character generation, they must use the first seller generated - but if players are unhappy with this particular seller, they may search out others by using urbancrawl actions during play. Every new seller has a 50% chance of carrying each item when visited (this can change on future visits, or items can be special ordered for a fee). Every new seller should be added to the game master’s list of NPCs and placed in a neighborhood.

Equipment Packs 

To speed up character creation, players can elect to roll for a starting equipment pack rather than “shopping” with starting money. This method is especially recommended for new players and when adding a new character to an existing game. Specific items can be substituted with the Game Master’s permission. Players can also step down one or more steps and take 10 CP per step down. All characters begin with a backpack, blanket, a waterskin, three helpings of pack food, one torch, and a tinder box. To generate an equipment pack, roll 3d6 and look in the column for your class. 

Roll	Fiend	Fighter	Ghost Wrangler	Thief	Wizard	Witch
3	Homeless,	Homeless, Knife, Hammer, Iron Spikes, Lard	Homeless, Knife, Beer (1 qt), Candle, Bell, Ball Bearings	Homeless, Blackjack, Rope (50’), Grappling Hook	Homeless, Knife, Pipe, Seaweed, Bell	Homeless, Knife, Cigar, Cat
4	Poor,	Poor, Knife, Cigarettes	Poor, Knife, Beer (1 Qt), Candle, Bell	Poor, Knife, Blackjack, Mirror, Chalk, Dice, Cards	Poor, Knife, Crow	Poor, Knife, Chicken
5	Poor,	Poor, Knife, Caltrops, Shovel	Poor, Knife, Beer (1 Qt), Candle, Bell, Ball Bearings	Poor, Knife, Black Jack, Lard, Crowbar	Poor, Knife, Pipe, Seaweed, Candle, Chalk, 2 CP	Poor, Knife, Cigar, Cat
6	Comfortable, Knife	Poor, Hand Axe, Dice, Chalk, Mirror, Pipe, Playing Cards	Poor, Knife, Beer (1 Qt), Candle, Bell, Disguise Kit	Poor, Knife, Rope, Grappling Hook, Bell	Poor, Knife, Pipe, Seaweed, Crow, Candle, Chalk, 2 CP	Poor, Knife, Cooking Kit, Chicken, Chalk, Playing Cards, Candle, 1 CP
7	Comfortable, Knife, Crow	Poor, Tomahawk, Knife, Hammer, Iron Spikes, Oil Flask	Poor, Knife, Tomahawk, Beer (1 Qt), Candle, Bell, Ball Bearings	Poor, Knife, Throwing Knives, Ladder	Poor, Knife, Club, Pipe, Seaweed, Crow, Candle, Chalk, 2 CP	Poor, Knife, Cat, Chicken, Acid
8	Comfortable, Sword	Poor, Spear, Knife, Sledgehammer	Poor, Knife, Tomahawk, Beer (1 Qt), Candle, Bell, Disguise Kit	Poor, Knife, Ball Bearings, Caltrops, Sack, Lard, Candle, Chalk, Playing Cards, Dice	Poor, Knife, Club, Pipe, Seaweed, Crow, Coffee, Candle, Chalk, 2 CP	Poor, Knife, Cigar, Cat, Chicken, Acid
9	Comfortable, Sword, Crow	Poor, Sword, Tomahawk, Hammer, Iron Spikes, Bucket	Poor, Sword, Tomahawk, Beer (1 Qt), Candle, Bell, Coffee	Poor, Knife, Brass Knuckles, Hand Axe, Caltrops, Crowbar	Poor, Knife, Club, Pipe, Seaweed, Galdrabok (extra), Candle, Chalk, 2 CP	Poor, Knife, Blackjack, Disguise Kit, Acid, Cooking Kit
10	Comfortable, Knife, Pack Goat	Poor, Sword, Tomahawk, Sledgehammer, Crowbar, Cigarettes	Poor, Sword, Tomahawk, Beer (1 Qt), Candle, Bell, Coffee, Ball Bearings	Poor, Knife, Throwing Knives, Rope (50’), Grappling Hook, Ball Bearings, Dice, Chalk, Playing Cards, Candle	Comfortable, Knife, Club, Pipe, Seaweed, Crow, Candle, Chalk, 2 CP	Comfortable, Knife, Cat, Cooking Kit
11	Comfortable, Knife, Pack Goat, Sack	Poor, Warhammer, Knife, Pick Axe, Bucket, Coffee, Cigarettes	Poor, Sword, Tomahawk, Beer (1 Qt), Candle, Bell, Coffee, Disguise Kit	Poor, Bow, Knife, Arrows, Caltrops, Rope (50’), Grappling Hook, Ladder	Comfortable, Knife, Club, Pipe, Seaweed, Coffee, Crow, Candle, Chalk, 2 CP	Comfortable, Knife, Cooking Kit, Chicken, Acid, Lard
12	Comfortable, Knife, Pack Crab	Poor, Hand Axe, Shield, 2x Oil Flasks, Cigarettes	Poor, Sword, Tomahawk, Beer (1 Qt), Candle, Bell, Coffee, Disguise Kit, Ball Bearings	Poor, Sword, Knife, Throwing Knives, Disguise Kit, Dice, Cards, Chalk, Mirror, 5 CP	Comfortable, Knife, Club, Pipe, Seaweed, Coffee, Crow, Candle, Chalk, 2 CP	Comfortable, Knife, Cooking Kit, Chicken, Disguise Kit, Cigar, Lard
13	Comfortable, Tomahawk, Pack Crab	Poor, Sword, Shield, Bow, Arrows, Oil Flask	Poor, Sword, Tomahawk, Beer (1 Qt), Candle, Bell, Coffee, Ball Bearings, Dog	Poor, Bow, Sword, Knife, Arrows, Rope (50’), Grappling Hook, Crowbar	Comfortable, Knife, Club, Pipe, Seaweed, Galdrabok (extra), Candle, Chalk, 2 CP	Comfortable, Knife, Cooking Kit, Disguise Kit, Chicken, Cat, Cigar, Lard
14	Comfortable, Sword, Pack Crab	Poor, Spear, Shield, Throwing Knives	Poor, Sword, Tomahawk, Beer (1 Qt), Candle, Bell, Coffee, Dog, Disguise Kit	Poor, Knife, Blasting Stick, Fuse, Ladder, Rope (50’), Bell	Comfortable, Knife, Club, Pipe, Seaweed, Galdrabok (extra), Crow, Candle, Chalk, 2 CP	Comfortable, Light Armor, Knife, Lard
15	Comfortable, Light Armor, Tomahawk, 5 CP	Poor, Light Armor, War Shovel, Oil Flask	Poor, Light Armor, Sword, Tomahawk, Beer (1 Qt), Candle	Poor, Light Armor, Bow, Arrows, Knife, Sack	Comfortable, Light Armor, Knife, Pipe, Seaweed	Comfortable, Light Armor, Knife, Cooking Kit
16	Comfortable, Light Armor, Sword, 5 CP	Poor, Light Armor, Bow, Arrows, Knife, Caltrops, Cigarettes	Poor, Light Armor, Sword, Tomahawk, Beer (1 Qt), Candle, Ball Bearings	Poor, Light Armor, Sword, Knife, Tomahawk, Dice, Cards, Mirror, Chalk	Comfortable, Light Armor, Knife, Pipe, Seaweed, Crow	Comfortable, Light Armor, Knife, Cooking Kit, Chicken
17	Comfortable, Light Armor, Sword, Knife, 5 CP	Poor, Light Armor, Spear, Throwing Knives, Lard	Poor, Light Armor, Sword, Tomahawk, Beer (1 Qt), Candle, Disguise Kit	Poor, Light Armor, Sword, Bow, Knife, Arrows, Disguise Kit	Comfortable, Light Armor, Knife, Pipe, Seaweed, Crow, Candle, Chalk, 2 CP	Comfortable, Light Armor, Knife, Cooking Kit, Chicken, Cat
18	Comfortable, Light Armor, Knife, Pack Goat, 5 CP	Comfortable, Light Armor, Sword, Knife, Hammer, Iron Spikes	Comfortable, Light Armor, Sword, Tomahawk, Beer (1 Qt), Candle	Comfortable, Light Armor, Bow, Arrows, Knife, Lantern, Oil Flask, Rope (50’)	Comfortable, Light Armor, Knife, Pipe, Seaweed, Crow, Coffee, Candle, Chalk, 2 CP	Comfortable, Light Armor, Knife, Cooking Kit, Chicken, Cat, Cigar

Equipment List

The lists below give a good flavor of what adventurous types might be most interested in buying in Fellhold, but just about anything can be had in the vast city. Talk to the Game Master about anything you’d like to buy that you don’t see below. All characters begin with a backpack, blanket, a waterskin, three helpings of pack food, one torch, and a tinder box.

Lifestyle

Homeless (0) Free

Poor (d4) 20 CP

Comfortable (d6) 50 CP

Luxurious (d8) 1000 CP

Weapons

Axe, Hand (Cleave) 30 CP

Axe, Lumberjack (Heavy) 40 CP

Axe, Tomahawk (Ranged, Light) 20 CP

Blackjack (Close, Light, Knockout) 5 CP

Blunderbuss (Firearm, Spread) 200 CP

Bow (Ranged) 30 CP

Brass Knuckles (Close, Knockout) 20 CP

Club (Knockout) 10 CP

Knife/Dagger (Close) 10 CP

Musket (Ranged, Firearm) 240 CP

Pistol (Ranged, Reactive, Firearm) 160 CP

Spear (Reach) 40 CP

Sword (Smooth) 30 CP

Throwing Knives/Stars (Close, Ranged, Light) 30 CP

War Shovel (Reach, Heavy) 50 CP

Warcrow (Crush, Cleave) 60 CP

Warhammer (Crush) 40 CP

Armor

Light (AC 7) 75 CP

Medium (AC 5) 500 CP

Heavy (AC 3) 1500 CP

Shield (-1 AC, Sunder) 50 CP

Gear

Acid (vial) 20 CP

Arrows (per usage die) 5 CP

Ball Bearings 10 CP

Barrel 20 CP

Bell 5 CP

Blanket 2 CP

Blasting Stick 50 CP

Block and Tackle 10 CP

Bucket 5 CP

Caltrops 10 CP

Camp Blanket 5 CP

Candle 2 CP

Cards, Playing 1 CP

Chain, 10’ 5 CP

Chalk 1 CP

Cooking Kit 15 CP

Crowbar 10 CP

Dice 1 CP

Disguise Kit 20 CP

Fuse (1 usage die) 30 CP

Galdrabok 30 CP

Grappling Hook 10 CP

Hammer 10 CP

Iron Spikes 5 CP

Ladder, 10’ 10 CP

Lantern 20 CP

Mirror 2 CP

Oil Flask 5 CP

Pack 30 CP

Pickaxe 10 CP

Pipe 5 CP

Pole, 10’ 2 CP

Rope, 50’ 15 CP

Sack 10 CP

Shot & Powder (1 usage die) 10 CP

Shovel 10 CP

Sledgehammer 10 CP

Thieve’s Tools 30 CP

Tinder Box 5 CP

Torch 5 CP

Water Skin, quart 2 CP

Wheelbarrow 40 CP

Food, Drink, and Drugs

Beer, pint 3 CP

Lard, quart 5 CP

Pack Food, Meal 15 CP

Roasted Coffee Beans 10 CP

Seaweed Cigar 10 CP

Seaweed Cigarettes (per usage die) 10 CP

Seaweed, Loose (per usage die) 10 CP

Whiskey, quart 40 CP

Critters

Cat 10 CP

Chicken 10 CP

Crab, Pack 60 CP

Crow 10 CP

Dog 30 CP

Goat, Pack 40 CP

Pig 30 CP 

Restaurant and Coffee House Generators

[UPDATE 1/6/21: I no longer support spending money on products that benefit Zak S, or giving him positive attention and connection. The short version is that I find credible claims that he has engaged in unacceptable behavior and not made up for it. For more detail, see here for the core of the accusations. To get Zak's side of things, he maintains this separate blog from his main one to post updates on the legal status of these complaints. 

Please consider these claims and make your own decision on their validity, and the implications thereof, before either supporting or shunning Zak.]

So, the DIY scene has produced tons of great bar/pub and inn generators, and Yoon-Suin's got Tea Houses, but I'm more of a coffee guy myself, and as mentioned in my previous post about carousing, I loves me some good food, so I wanted to come up with some generators for other types of social establishments.

In Vornheim, Zak gives the excellent advice of always having four bars/taverns/drinking establishments ready to go for a session, because those are the sorts of places PCs are likely to visit and that NPCs are likely to be found. I wanted to branch out and create some places that have different feels. Bars and taverns are where you go to meet new people, inns are places you can stay if you don't have an apartment, restaurants a little more "fluffy" for when you go carousing, but still have some adventure hooks, and coffee houses are where you go to learn stuff.

The idea is that any of these can just be a name and some feature that makes it noteworthy, but if the players take an interest in any of them, they can slot right into the overall approach for creating intrigue and adventure hooks. The "Known For" column is mostly just there to make it memorable and may or may not have any game effect (like an "appearance" column in an NPC generator), whereas the "Spice" column is meant to be more directly gameable (some source of conflict or desires that PCs can get mixed up in). As with previous Fellhold generator, the hassled ref can proceed left to right and only use the columns they need.

Without further ado, I present the Restaurant and Coffee House Generators I've prepared for Fellhold.

Coffee House Generator

Coffee Houses are a major part of Fellhold social life, serving as the main meeting place of intellectuals, radicals, and socialites alike. While various varieties of regular coffee are the main beverage served, some houses specialize in more powerful brews. 

Roll	Name Part 1	Name Part 2	Known For	Spice
1	Roasted	Bean	Comfortable and plentiful seating	Secretly the headquarters for a random conspiracy
2	Silver	Spoon	Quiet and respectful patrons	The up and coming leadership of the district’s controlling faction hang out here
3	Good	Wife	Loud and occasionally heated discussions	Stocks an impressive library, for a coffee house (generate a library)
4	Wrecked	Wig	Meeting place for radicals	Owner is looking to introduce some more extreme versions of coffee, needs help procuring it
5	Falling	Feather	Meeting place for influential patrons	Locus for a powerful demon
6	Sweet	Cream	Meeting place for a particular sort of sage	Owner is in a squabble with their powerful and dangerous suppliers
7	Bitter	Cup	Meeting place for players of a popular board game	Sits on a powerful ley line - magic is more intense when cast here
8	Emerald	Mug	Especially potent coffee	Has a deal with one of the Witch Kings to supply their household with coffee on a regular basis
9	Cracked	Head	Really terrible coffee, but great prices	Has an unusually useful bulletin board - 1d3 district rumors available every week
10	Drab	City	Has a lovely bakery	The art on the walls is actually quite good and probably worth more than the prices next to them
11	Rolling	Stone	Scenic views	There’s a secret room in the back where they serve the good stuff
12	Fiery	Mountain	Friendly and attractive staff	Owner is blackmailing a wealthy customer based on some secrets overheard or illicit trysts had in the coffee house
13	Bewitched	Brew	Rude and disdainful (but attractive) staff	Owner is planning to burn the place down and collect the insurance money
14	Naked	Man	Also has a full bar	One of the employees is a spy for a rival faction of the district’s controlling faction
15	Local	Pour	Quirky and eclectic decoration	Something has gone wrong with one of the coffee varieties served here, and it is slowly driving customers mad
16	Blue	Skull	Where all the cool people go	Hosts weekly meetings of a tedious but powerful social organization
17	Crooked	Shadow	Working class customers	By long custom, considered neutral ground by all factions
18	Coffee	Hound	Exotic brews	Owner is a powerful witch
19	Black	Hand	Ingredients come from some remarkable source	Owner wants to get out of the business and sell the place, looking for a buyer
20	Broken	Pot	Students go there to study	Is secretly a lair

Restaurant Generator

The people of Fellhold enjoy a variety of dining options and regularly patronize a large number of restaurants. Each race is known for their own ethnic foods, but most people enjoy most other types of food.

Roll	Name Part 1	Name Part 2	Type of Food	Known For	Spice
1	(Owner's Name)'s	Table	Ratmen	Their famous head chef	Their star dish is made of people
2	Dynamite	Pig	Crabmen	Amazingly Delicious Food	A major faction official eats here regularly, and a rival faction is trying to poison them - by subtly poisoning all of the food
3	Wooden	Bowl	Half-Dwarf	Huge portions	They actually do put an addictive chemical in the food to make you crave it fortnightly
4	Copper	Plate	Witch Kingdom	Rare speciality	Losing money, the owner is desperate for a way to save it
5	Empty	Kitchen	Fellhold Fusion	Impeccable service	Owner requires a rare ingredient for a special festival meal - it can only be found in one of the more dangerous ruined districts
6	Full	Fork	Seafood	Requires reservations months in advance	Hired to cater a major event for the district’s controlling faction, need extra help, willing to pay pretty well
7	Butcher's	Block	Cured Meats	Hole in the wall - a classic	Excellent take out service - you can get high quality rations from them for a reasonable price
8	Lumberjack's	Diner	Meat Pies	Cheap and fast service	A family member of the owner has gone missing - they suspect their biggest rival is behind it
9	Brick	Oven	Noodles	Favorite restaurant of an important patron	Owner is losing business to a rival - they want someone to do something about it
10	Chef's	Knife	Sweet Pies	Long wait times	Owner has a crazy idea to open another location with the same menu and same name but totally different staff. They think they could repeat it multiple times.
11	Tricky	Cookery	Cakes	Romantic ambience	Terms of very specific and very strange loan used to found the business are coming do - owner doesn’t know how to meet them
12	Greasy	Pan	Soups	Working class joint	A troll has taken up residence in one of the booths and won’t stop ordering (and eating) food - everyone is terrified to bring it the check or tell it to leave
13	Tasty	Skillet	Flapjacks	There are several locations around the city	Location is locus of an up and coming demon - it is doing everything it can to enhance the restaurant’s popularity to boost its power
14	Burned	Hand	Stir Fry	Higher class version of usually cheap food	A witch has taken work as a cook there, and they are mixing subtle herbs into the meals which have the effect of Charm Person if enough meals are eaten there
15	Sweet	Spoon	Dumplings	Lower end version of usually fancy food	Haunted by the founder, grandparent of current owner. Not dangerous, but terribly annoying, owner would like it put to rest.
16	Salty	Lad	Roasted Meats	Just opened, everybody wants to check it out	People keep dying in the restaurant - owner swears its not the food and wants someone to investigate
17	Saucy	Lass	Burgers	Has some kind of obnoxious theme	Cook staff is made up entirely of zombie slaves - the witch that controls them is jockeying for a bigger cut
18	Fat	Cook	Sandwiches	Terrible, rude service	Unknown to the owner, staff are selling drugs to customers
19	Boiled	Egg	All Things Egg	Food is awful, but trendy for some reason	Chef has heard rumors of ancient, delicious recipe and will pay well for someone that can recover it from the depths of the Royal Library
20	Secret	Flame	Steak	It’s a “secret” - someone has to tell you about it	Is secretly a lair

Fine Dining Carousing Table

One of the things I enjoy the most about living in a big city, and look forward to the most when visiting another city, is the food. Honestly, I'd say most of my enjoyment of a vacation comes down to how good the food I get to eat on it is. What's the point of going somewhere beautiful or culturally important if you're eating bland crap while you're there?

So for me, an important aspect of getting Fellhold to feel like a city is to make food matter. When it comes to dungeon crawling or traditional exploration, I like approaches like Gus's on the HMS Apollyon or Arnold's where you link eating rations to recovery of HP or exhaustion - it makes intuitive sense, and it ties food into something that players already deeply care about, and does so in a way that meshes with the core rhythm of the game (exploration rounds, fights, et cetera).

Where I see a bit of a gap in these excellent rules, though, is in linking food with the experience of living in a place (Gus has some mention of food in his living cost rules here which I had totally forgotten about when I wrote my own lifestyle rules). I tried to work in some mention of food in those lifestyle rules, but it didn't provide much flavor (pun definitely intended). And then I had a wonderful realization: carousing tables.

See, I had already come up with the idea of having several different carousing tables for players to choose from, with different costs and effects.  As I started building them out, I realized they are a great way to convey "fluff" about the city without boring exposition or description. And I decided that going out and eating well ought to be one of the ways you can carouse. So I present to you the Fine Dining carousing table.

(Rules note: it works like standard carousing rules - players commit to carouse before they roll the cost, they make some kind of test to see if they have to roll on the mishap table, and they gain XP equal to the cost regardless. The mishap table is full of wacky shenanigans and adventure hooks.)

Fine Dining

Seeking out the best food and drink the city has to offer and enjoying it immensely. Risks primarily include stumbling into unwanted situations, eating something questionable, or offending influential cooks.

Cost: D4 x 100 Silver Skillings

Test: Constitution Check

 

Roll	Mishap
1	Man, ratmen really do deserve their reputation as the finest cooks. Your meal was perfectly cooked, delicately seasoned, and the portions were just right. On the way to the bathroom, though, you accidentally looked into the kitchen. The owners don’t want word getting out the secret ingredient is human children, and they’re after you.
2	Really, the pork chop was a bit dry, and you didn’t come here for dry pork chops, so you sent it back. Now one of the city’s most prominent chefs has sworn a blood feud with you.
3	After the pre-dinner cocktail, the bottle of wine with the meal (excellent, really), and the chef’s recommended aperitif, the suggestion to head to a bar sounds great. Roll on the drinking mishaps table.
4	People have been telling you to try half dwarf food for ages, and man are you glad you did, it was spicy and delicious. But you’re not so happy the next day, or the day after. -1 to all rolls due to gastro-intenstinal difficulties for two days.
5	Your first foray into crabmen food was a great success! Beautifully plated, and despite your initial skepticism, the raw, aged meat was quite flavorful, and their noodles are to die for. But apparently it didn’t sit so well with you. -1 to all rolls for two days from food poisoning.
6	While eating at the nicest Ratmen restaurant in the city, you overhear two prominent members of a major faction discussing their plans over dinner, and they notice you noticing. You’re not sure that people have been following you since, but you definitely think so.
7	Tieflings don’t really have their own food culture, but damn they are good at fusion. Unfortunately, they must literally do something magical, as you now have some minor mutation.
8	This quaint little lumberjack restaurant is so authentic. So authentic, in fact, that a fight breaks out in the middle of the dining room! Roll on the violence mishaps table.
9	Those were the best pancakes you’ve ever had in your life! When you excitedly bring your friends back to check it out, you find nobody there and the place is all smashed up.
10	No, no, it can’t be! Your favorite restaurant, it’s closed! The owner and cook just couldn’t afford the rent payments any more, and he doesn’t think he can start over somewhere without a loan.
11	You unwisely decided to take on the monster melt - three feet and four pounds of meat, cheese, and bread, with all the fixins. The good news is, your next meal is free, because you finished. The bad news is that can’t fit into any of your clothes comfortably for a week. -1 to any dexterity related tasks due to lingering discomfort.
12	In order to get a table at that secret pop-up restaurant, you had to promise a major favor to someone shady. You owe a job to a random NPC. Oh, and the food was alright, but the privilege of telling everyone that couldn’t get in how great it was was definitely worth it.
13	Turns out you’re terribly allergic to something that was in that meal. Your max HP is reduced by 1 for a week as you recover.
14	You send your compliments to the chef, and when they come out to personally thank you, well, your mutual passion for food turns into plain old mutual passion. Roll on the Sex mishaps table, but you have a new contact that is totally into you.
15	On a whim, you try a new place, and it is absolutely amazing. Your new favorite restaurant. Ask the referee to place it in one of the districts as a place of interest and detail the owner/cook as an NPC.
16	You overhear some mighty interesting things at that street food cart you love so much. Roll a rumor from the city-wide rumor table.
17	A casual conversation over dinner turns into a disagreement, which turns into a fierce debate, and you just know you’re right, but you need proof. Roll on the Study mishaps table.
18	Ugh, that was disgusting, how can these people eat this? Randomly determine one of the races of Fellhold - you can’t stomach their food, and you’ll even have trouble keeping it down to stave off starvation.
19	Your palate has become too refined and jaded, and plain food just won’t do it for you anymore. Receive half the benefit from normal rations, or spend 1.5 times as much for fancy rations that meet your standards. This effect is cumulative if rolled again.
20	What the hell is going on in the back room? Turns out this noodle shop is a front for a random conspiracy.

Conspiracy Generator for Fellhold

I was pretty skeptical of myself when I set out to write this section. Initially, I just planned on including some guidance that basically said "go read the section of Night's Black Agents about conspiracies and make something up for your city. But with all of the other generators I've been writing, it just seemed to go against the ethos I've been following of "make tools that people can use or ignore as they like".

Initially, I was at a bit of a loss on how conspiracies fit into my conception of Fellhold: it's a pretty anarchic place with no real government and where fairly awful people and things openly do their business - so why would a group with a crackpot idea be a conspiracy and not just a faction? But then I realized there's always somebody who would find secrecy useful, and that spurred me on to think of a number of different reasons the conspiracy might want to stay secret.

So I ended up with a few tables I'm pretty happy with. I think that many of the results are easily adaptable outside of Fellhold, and if nothing else the column headers provide a pretty good blue print for what you need to define for a conspiracy. And the name generator is gleefully abstract and obtuse, so I think it should work in just about any setting.

Conspiracies

With all the demons, undead, ratmen, and factional conniving going on, Fellhold has several conspiracies. A conspiracy is any group of people (and/or monsters) pursuing its goals in secret. Where the power structure, overall goals, and membership in factions is generally open knowledge, conspiracies are purposely hidden. They may be entirely undertaken by members of a faction, such as pursuing that faction’s secret goals or plotting a coup, or they may be unrelated to the normal factional power structure, such as a secret cult to the dead gods.

Players cannot choose to target conspiracies with the investigate urbancrawl action until they have some way of knowing that the conspiracy exists. Once they have encountered NPCs or clues that suggest the existence of some kind of conspiracy, they can begin to investigate it. Ask players the methods they are using and the kind of information they’re seeking, but investigating conspiracies will usually reveal either someone connected to a known conspirator (use the rules for contacts to create, with any tweaks to fit the conspiracy), the structure of the conspiracy (e.g. “Well, if this guy is an assassin, he has to have someone paying him, and there’d usually be a go-between as well”), or clues to its general purpose or aim. 

Note also that conspiracies can hire PCs just as readily as any other NPC or organization, so the “short term plots” column of the table below can double as an additional job generator.

With all of the other levels of intrigue going on in Fellhold (districts, factions, et cetera), it is recommended that you begin with somewhere between zero and two conspiracies.

Generating a Conspiracy

While conspiracies provide an excellent opportunity for a truly customized piece of the city that receives loving and detailed attention from the referee, sometimes we do not have that luxury. As such, the below tables and guidance are provided for generating a conspiracy. Even more so than the NPC, location, and district tables, you are encouraged to use this section as a starting point and source of inspiration, rather than “the whole answer”. The results in the table are necessarily open-ended and flexible so that they can fit a wide variety of combinations and tie into other material you have generated elsewhere, such as factions, major NPCs, and districts.

Conspiracy Traits

Use the following table to generate the basic traits for your conspiracy. Most of the columns may be rolled multiple times for additional complexity if desired.

Roll	Type/ Leader	Reason for Secrecy	Long Term Goal	Short Term Plot	Size	Resources
1	Within a single faction	Threatens a powerful faction’s leadership	Destroy one of the major factions	Steal an important book from a faction library	Tiny	Tiny
2	Multiple factions	Threatens the very system of factions	Take over or replace one of the major factions	Kidnap a prominent patron	Tiny	Tiny
3	Demon	Purpose abhorred even by Fellholders	The personal political power of their leader	Assassinate a faction leader	Small	Poor
4	Witch	Threatens the Soul Economy	Complete and utter re-organization of society	Steal a valuable shipment from a merchant	Small	Poor
5	Lich	Could expose a weakness of powerful leaders	The revival of the dead gods	Collect a large number of children	Small	Poor
6	Mummy	Involves cooperation from unexpected sources	The elevation of their leader to godhood	Blow up a well-known building or landmark	Middling	Average
7	Half Dwarf	Leader acting contrary to the general goals of their group	The elimination of all demons	Recruit new members in positions of influence	Middling	Average
8	Ratman	Methods are antithetical to the type/leader’s norm	To find somewhere to live besides Fellhold	Blackmail a powerful wizard	Middling	Average
9	Crabman	Declared enemies of the “state” by one of the Witch Kings	To take control of all of Fellhold	Rob a soul bank	Middling	Average
10	Human	Don’t want their opponents to know the truth about their resources	The political and social supremacy of the leader’s type	Steal a powerful bound demon from a faction	Large	Plentiful
11	Tiefling	Their members don’t know the true purpose of their activities	The elimination of one of the races	Collect money through a front organization	Large	Plentiful
12	Troll	Surprise is crucial to the success of their long term goals	Amassing ridiculously huge amounts of wealth	Establish a base of operations in a hostile district	Large	Plentiful
13	Merchant	Their leadership is unnecessarily paranoid	Binding all demons to their will	Wreak havoc in a random district - loot, kill, and burn	Large	Plentiful
14	Patron	A magically binding oath to secrecy that may or may not be needed anymore	Establishing a new legitimate major faction	Secure the unwitting support of a person or group opposed to their aims	Large	Plentiful
15	Sage	Operate deep within hostile territory/ institutions	Restore the glory of the old Witch Kingdom	A false flag operation to discredit their foes	Huge	Extensive
16	Fence	Believe themselves the legitimate remnant of an ancient institution or group no longer recognized	Establish a real government with actual laws for all of Fellhold	Convince the world that they are not real or have been eliminated	Huge	Extensive
17	Criminal	Methods are abhorrent even to Fellholders	The destruction of all Undead	Hold a faction leader’s child for ransom	Huge	Extensive
18	Beggars	Everyone involved just thinks its cooler to be a secret society	The resurrection of the true Dwarven Empire	Disrupt the leadership of a major faction	Huge	Extensive
19	Wizard	Inflated sense of significance and how much people would care about their purpose & methods	The comfort and safety of their leader	Bankrupt a powerful merchant	Sprawling	Vast
20	Artist	Leader actually pursuing multiple ends, doesn’t want different groups to catch on to the others	To build a monument that will last for all time	Feed the poor and indoctrinatethem	Sprawling	Vast

District  & Faction Relationships

As with NPCs and Factions, conspiracies should be placed somewhere on the map. While it is possible that they will have multiple bases, at a minimum their leader should have a specific place. The placement of these bases will both depend on and help to clarify the nature of the conspiracy. Somewhere between D3 and D6 bases are recommended, as these locations provide another possible avenue for discovery by players in addition to rumors and contacts. Treat them as places of interest for the districts that contain them, and they may be discovered in the same way as other places of interest.

Depending on the results of the above table, various Faction relationships will be important to identify as well. Some conspiracies operate entirely within the bounds of one faction, acting against its “legitimate” interests, while others are faction agnostic and will take members from any faction. Additionally, many results in the above table point towards factions, and these will need to be determined. As with districts, these may be obvious from other traits, or they may help to clarify the nature of the conspiracy if randomly generated.

Conspiracy Structure

Every conspiracy has a structure of control and secrecy. It may be organized into cells where only one member knows and is known by the next level up, or it may be a very traditional hierarchical pyramid. Where relationship maps are recommended for NPCs in general, for a conspiracy they are essential. You do not have to generate the NPCs for the entire conspiracy immediately, but you should at least know how many leaders there are, what the lines of reporting to them are, and who supplies money or weapons to the front line agents of the conspiracy. In play, players might be able to figure out the structure before they identify individuals, which will help direct them in where to investigate more closely.

For further help with the structure side of things, I encourage you to check out Kenneth Hite’s excellent treatment of conspiracies in Night’s Black Agents and especially the “conspyramid” therein. Also helpful are the series of posts on Node Based Adventure Design on the Alexandrian blog, as well as real world information on social network analysis.

Conspiracy Rumor Tables

Rumor tables provide the chance for player characters to be randomly exposed to the potential existence of conspiracies. They should be contradictory and have more misinformation than most rumor tables, but should have enough nuggets of truth that players can begin to investigate. Unlike rumors about a dungeon, where the information is primarily a resource to help in making more informed decisions, for a conspiracy, investigating the truth or falsity of the rumors is the adventure, so it’s okay to have wackier rumors, so long as they do not point the players towards totally useless avenues of investigation.

Since conspiracy rumors are less likely to come up than others and their primary purpose is to get players onto the scent, shorter tables than other types of rumors are probably sufficient. The sample conspiracies provided have d8 rumors each, for example.

Below is provided a “fill in the blank” table of rumors that can be used with the table of characteristics above as a starting point. It will not produce especially interesting rumors on its own, but should do in a pinch and can serve as a starting point for crafting more specific rumors. It is meant to provide a mix of true and mistaken information, so where it notes “random”, roll again on the conspiracy traits table. If it does not say “random”, use the information you generated for the conspiracy. You may decide the truth or falsity of any rumors so generated.

Generic Conspiracy Rumor Table

Roll	Rumor
1	They’re pursuing (Long Term Goal) in (random district)
2	Someone quit when they found out about (short term plot)
3	Suspected members have been seen coming and going in (base district)
4	They’re supported by (random faction)
5	They’re going to try (random short term plot)
6	They say they’re about (real long term goal), but they’re really after (random long term goal)
7	(Important NPC or Leader) has been seen associating with them
8	(Type) is pursuing (random long term goal) because of (reason for secrecy)

Conspiracy Name

After you have generated the details and relationships for the conspiracy, you will need a suitably grandiose or radical name. If at a loss, the following should be generic enough to apply to almost any sort of conspiracy, but more specific and descriptive names may be more fun if you can think of them, such as “The Esoteric Order for the Restoration of Dwarven Greatness” or some such.

For the table below, start with “The”, and if desired, insert some sort of organizational term (“order of”, “band”, “guild”, and so forth) where it fits, and elaborate with any further words that describe the conspiracy (or don’t).

Roll	Adjective	Noun
1	Jade	Dagger
2	Emerald	Hand
3	Resplendent	Hunters
4	Esoteric	Band
5	Secret	Pearl
6	Hidden	Egg
7	Golden	Swine
8	Silver	Friends
9	Iron	Needle
10	Bronze	Shield
11	Honorable	Helm
12	Master's	Arm
13	Great	Necklace
14	Mighty	Flame
15	Blackened	Corpse
16	Purple	Tomb
17	Blue	Tower
18	Filthy	Hall
19	Resolute	Vengeance
20	Swift	Deed