Morien
08-15-2014, 09:26 AM
Hi all. Thijs and I have been hammering away at revising the Childbirth tables especially in view of the murderously high mortality of women in labor. You can see the discussion and maths on the probabilities and the expected number of children & woman's expected lifespan here:
http://nocturnal-media.com/forum/index.php?topic=2416.0
(EDIT: Correct link here:
http://nocturnalmediaforum.com/iecarus/forum/showthread.php?2143-Childbirth-and-Women-s-survival&p=18147&viewfull=1#post18147 )
Below is the end result that we are starting to find a consensus on, although we still might come up with new ideas for the Blessed Birth event (more of that later). You may note that there are two rolls now, one for conception and the other for the actual childbirth:
Conception Table (-1 / year past 30, -10 if childbirth last year, Note: NO grade of maintenance modifiers!)
1d20: 8+ Baby carried to term, go to Childbirth.
d20 Childbirth (First child +1)
1* Blessed birth: no survival rolls needed, this healthy child will reach adulthood for sure.
2* Sickly child**
3-17 Healthy child**
18 Twins, d20: 1-7 = boy/girl, 8-10 = 2 non-identical girls, 11-13 = 2 non-identical boys, 14-16 = identical girls, 17-19 = identical boys, 20 = Triplets
19 Questionable Parentage (the wife may have been unfaithful)
20-21 Tragedy, roll 1d6: 1-2 = mother dies, 3 = mother and child die, 4 = Changeling, 5-6 = Barren Marriage. (GMs' Note: Good opportunity to quest for faerie blessings/deals, miracle cures and so forth.)
* = Unmodified roll of 1 or 2. Do not add first child modifier.
** = If the unmodified roll is (age-30) or less, the result is a Sickly child (except 1 is still a Blessed Birth).
The ages of women & number of children resulting from these tables are in:
http://nocturnal-media.com/forum/index.php?topic=2416.msg18554#msg18554
(also see the link in the preceding post to that one, which links to the NPC survival rolls used to constrain the misc death numbers)
(EDIT: Correct link here:
http://nocturnalmediaforum.com/iecarus/forum/showthread.php?2143-Childbirth-and-Women-s-survival&p=18147&viewfull=1#post18147 )
Now in this thread I was hoping to talk mainly about other outcomes for the 'Blessed Birth' -events. Thijs and I have already been bouncing some ideas off one another in that previously mentioned thread on Play Aids.
Some of Thijs' suggestions:
Know what.. shall we make it a different thread.. 'Blessed Birth'
I can image that fae or christians will bless a child and it could gain benefits.. [who does not know the story of the girl and her 3 good fairies and their blessing]
Hence this table might be rolled on after some good RPGing..
Default Blessed Birth is 'survive to adulthood' (a better blessing does not exist in this harsh world).
If we want to add other options in skills or attributes. Lets then (out of metagaming) add bonusses to skills and attributes players tend not to pick themselves. This will stimulate those underappreciates skills/attributes..
1 Dexterous (+3 DEX)
2 Beautiful (+4 APP)
3 Commoner-friend (Folk Lore 10)
4 Marsh-friend (Boating 10)
5 Bird-friend (Falconry 10)
6 Elf-Friend (Faerie Lore 10)
But this could be expanded to a nice D20 table as well of course :)
Anyone else ideas?
My comment to that and my suggested list:
While I can appreciate the metagaming intention, their hook potential is much worse, IMHO. In my list, I had hounds, horses, birds and elves (fae), all of which could also be easily weaved into the narrative. Such as strange dogs wagging their tails like meeting an old friend when the hound-friend comes close. Which might make a normally Suspicious Lord to decide to trust this guy since 'Dux's instincts are never wrong'. Horse-friend always being able to find a remount in the battlefield (assuming he has time) since the horses like to be near him. Bird-friend trying to tame a griffon. :P
1 Healthy (+2 CON, survives to adulthood)
2 Beautiful (+4 APP)
3 Hound-friend (Hunting 10)
4 Horse-friend (Horsemanship 15)
5 Bird-friend (Falconry 10)
6 Elf-Friend (Faerie Lore 10)
The 1 = Healthy -result was before we opted to have that 'Survives to Adulthood' as the default for Blessed Birth. I'd have no problems changing it to DEX+2.
So assuming I got Thijs' intention right, this would now actually be divorced from random rolling and would instead be a result of an RP event? Meeting with Faeries or Christian Saints and getting blessed by them? 'May your child grow up to be the friend of all the birds of the sky.' or some such?
http://nocturnal-media.com/forum/index.php?topic=2416.0
(EDIT: Correct link here:
http://nocturnalmediaforum.com/iecarus/forum/showthread.php?2143-Childbirth-and-Women-s-survival&p=18147&viewfull=1#post18147 )
Below is the end result that we are starting to find a consensus on, although we still might come up with new ideas for the Blessed Birth event (more of that later). You may note that there are two rolls now, one for conception and the other for the actual childbirth:
Conception Table (-1 / year past 30, -10 if childbirth last year, Note: NO grade of maintenance modifiers!)
1d20: 8+ Baby carried to term, go to Childbirth.
d20 Childbirth (First child +1)
1* Blessed birth: no survival rolls needed, this healthy child will reach adulthood for sure.
2* Sickly child**
3-17 Healthy child**
18 Twins, d20: 1-7 = boy/girl, 8-10 = 2 non-identical girls, 11-13 = 2 non-identical boys, 14-16 = identical girls, 17-19 = identical boys, 20 = Triplets
19 Questionable Parentage (the wife may have been unfaithful)
20-21 Tragedy, roll 1d6: 1-2 = mother dies, 3 = mother and child die, 4 = Changeling, 5-6 = Barren Marriage. (GMs' Note: Good opportunity to quest for faerie blessings/deals, miracle cures and so forth.)
* = Unmodified roll of 1 or 2. Do not add first child modifier.
** = If the unmodified roll is (age-30) or less, the result is a Sickly child (except 1 is still a Blessed Birth).
The ages of women & number of children resulting from these tables are in:
http://nocturnal-media.com/forum/index.php?topic=2416.msg18554#msg18554
(also see the link in the preceding post to that one, which links to the NPC survival rolls used to constrain the misc death numbers)
(EDIT: Correct link here:
http://nocturnalmediaforum.com/iecarus/forum/showthread.php?2143-Childbirth-and-Women-s-survival&p=18147&viewfull=1#post18147 )
Now in this thread I was hoping to talk mainly about other outcomes for the 'Blessed Birth' -events. Thijs and I have already been bouncing some ideas off one another in that previously mentioned thread on Play Aids.
Some of Thijs' suggestions:
Know what.. shall we make it a different thread.. 'Blessed Birth'
I can image that fae or christians will bless a child and it could gain benefits.. [who does not know the story of the girl and her 3 good fairies and their blessing]
Hence this table might be rolled on after some good RPGing..
Default Blessed Birth is 'survive to adulthood' (a better blessing does not exist in this harsh world).
If we want to add other options in skills or attributes. Lets then (out of metagaming) add bonusses to skills and attributes players tend not to pick themselves. This will stimulate those underappreciates skills/attributes..
1 Dexterous (+3 DEX)
2 Beautiful (+4 APP)
3 Commoner-friend (Folk Lore 10)
4 Marsh-friend (Boating 10)
5 Bird-friend (Falconry 10)
6 Elf-Friend (Faerie Lore 10)
But this could be expanded to a nice D20 table as well of course :)
Anyone else ideas?
My comment to that and my suggested list:
While I can appreciate the metagaming intention, their hook potential is much worse, IMHO. In my list, I had hounds, horses, birds and elves (fae), all of which could also be easily weaved into the narrative. Such as strange dogs wagging their tails like meeting an old friend when the hound-friend comes close. Which might make a normally Suspicious Lord to decide to trust this guy since 'Dux's instincts are never wrong'. Horse-friend always being able to find a remount in the battlefield (assuming he has time) since the horses like to be near him. Bird-friend trying to tame a griffon. :P
1 Healthy (+2 CON, survives to adulthood)
2 Beautiful (+4 APP)
3 Hound-friend (Hunting 10)
4 Horse-friend (Horsemanship 15)
5 Bird-friend (Falconry 10)
6 Elf-Friend (Faerie Lore 10)
The 1 = Healthy -result was before we opted to have that 'Survives to Adulthood' as the default for Blessed Birth. I'd have no problems changing it to DEX+2.
So assuming I got Thijs' intention right, this would now actually be divorced from random rolling and would instead be a result of an RP event? Meeting with Faeries or Christian Saints and getting blessed by them? 'May your child grow up to be the friend of all the birds of the sky.' or some such?