2018/03/25

UVG: The Caravan Sheet

The UVG (my patreon) has grown a lot over the weeks and I got some friendly editing input from Skerples, and from that I realized I needed to restructure the introduction, so that the UVG makes sense to somebody approaching it without prior knowledge. And make a table of contents.
I've been doing that.

I've also been using a dagger axe to carve kobolds into kibble.


I have also been working on a very early design goal: creating a mid-level pointcrawl caravan game for the UVG. A traveling precursor to the fortress/stronghold game that D&D assumes (assumed) at level 9.

I've finally done most of that, revising and clarifying the rules, but especially, making a caravan sheet to track animals, helpers, supplies, inventory, trade goods, time, speed, and group finances.

It seems simple, but that and the actual map of the pointcrawl forced me to revisit so much of the setting, that the work just ballooned to take weeks of my time. It was fun, but also frustrating (I have piles of discarded maps and caravan sheets now).


Quick Breakdown of the Moving Pieces

The caravan is like a group character for the players, or perhaps a joint mobile base of operations.

Helpers are a bit like special abilities for the caravan, except squishy and prone to dying. Transport covers porters, animals, and wagons, it’s required for moving heavy things (like food and water) long distances.

Time is a key factor for making a journey into the steppe feel big, and inventory is simplified to focus on supplies and trade goods. Take note that I refer to the coinage simply as cash. Assume that 1 cash = 1 gold piece or 1 silver piece, whichever is the base unit in your game. Supplies are a mashup of water, food, and other essentials to keep humans going in the steppe.

I also propose the sack as a unit of stuff for D&D approximately equal to all the equipment an adventurer with 10 Strength can carry. Or 2500 cash in D&D 5E.

Does all this sound fun? Do you want to support my art and gaming? You can.

It's the WTF patreon.
Yes. A Patreon.