Rules Cyclopedia Hacks & House Rules: Page 109, Character Saving Throws

Rules Cyclopedia Hacks & House Rules: Page 109, Character Saving Throws

I've been toying with coupling each Saving Throw to an Ability Score, either to incorporate the Ability Score modifier as a bonus/penalty to each Save, or as shorthand for replacing Saving Throws entirely with a Standard Ability check (à la 5e in a roundabout fashion). On this dog-geared page we also have the advancement tables, an infrequent but still rebarbatively necessary reference. Table Look ups like these are a favored enemy of mine.

Conventionally in BECMI, only Wisdom Modifiers influence Saving Throws in BECMI, and even then, only sometimes with Spells.

Here's my tinkering take:

Ability	Saving Throw	Rationale
Strength	Paralysis/Petrification	Gritting of teeth and thrashing as chalky gray stone creeps up your ankles or against the numbness of clammy Ghoul-touch. This is physical willpower.
Dexterity	Wands/Rays	Nothing surprising here. Simple dodging really
Constitution	Poison/Disease	Also pretty paradigmatic, health and haleness and the Immune system
Intelligence	Spells/Control	Interpreted in this case as one's mastery over their perceived “reality,” familiarity with the nature of magical effects, with a smidgen of mental willpower
Wisdom	Dragon Breath/Area Attack	Intuitively knowing that standing specifically there is a bad idea, and unconsciously avoiding to do so.
Charisma	Death Ray/Level Drain	One's sense of self, force of personality, and accumulated experiences

I like to embrace the disassociated nature of Saving Throws and how the results end up informing the game fiction. You'll notice that naturally, since the standard Saves amount to five and Scores are six, I've had to add one. I'm a sucker for symmetry. I decided to split Poison/Death to give Charisma some more oomph, since Retainer Loyalty and Reaction Rolls don't always seem to carry the impact they deserve with players.

I've also placed Saving Throws versus Spells under the purview of Intelligence, for as a Prime Requisite for Magic-Users, I think it's more useful there to support Spell Dueling and niche protection for the Class as the go to troubleshooters of all things Magical.

While I can recite the Class Saving Throws for first level by heart (along with THAC0 catechisms up to Name, oh the useless knowledge one retains), the tables all follow mathematically frustrating different progressions, necessitating a leveling libram-lookup that I'd like to eliminate on principal.

The methods I'm meddling with don't quite work as nicely as I'd like, because they seem to have the potential to decouple the Saving Throw progression from character advancement, but I must admit that a part of me likes the idea of the types of challenges that trigger a Saving Throw having a consistent degree of danger.

I smell some options.

The Perceived “Problem:” A table look up requirement is present to adjust Saving Throws when Character Leveling takes place. Ability Checks serving as understudies for Saving Throws seems to solve this on the surface, but then improvement becomes handcuffed to Ability Score inflation instead of character advancement. No thank you. What else can it be bound to instead?

Option One:

Perhaps allowing the player to pick one category to improve each level would solve this. I like the granularity of this degree of advancement and the emphasis on Player Decision, as it can telegraph to the DM what the Player is “frightened of.” Scrumptious.

The Player's overall odds of success on a given save will likely suffer unless there's some standardization at the starting line for the progression. Maybe establishing all initial saves at 15 to flatten the field a bit would work. This would introduce a little more survivability at lower levels, without diluting the gravity of Saving Throws too much in the long run. This starts unyoking Saving Throws from Classes though, which can damage niches quite a bit.

Example One:

Haglef the Mantled is a Fighter at level one. Before Ability Score Modifiers are applied, all Saves are set to 15. His Ability Scores are as follows (I'm using BECMI Bonus progression, naturally):

Ability Scores			Saving Throw	Need/Exceed
STR	16	+2	Paralysis/Petrification	13
DEX	10	-	Wands/Rays	15
CON	18	+3	Poison/Disease	12
INT	11	-	Spells/Control	15
WIS	4	-2	Dragon Breath/Area Attack	17
CHA	17	+2	Death Ray/Level Drain	13

What a guy! After Modifiers, his initial chances are in the above table.

At Level 2, the Player thinks back to a nasty Fireball trap that singed him severely, and he wisely starts shoring up his abiogenetic deficiency in Saving Throws versus Dragon Breath/Area Attack. With this option, the decision of which Saving Throw to improve can either be informed by Play, or out of desire to optimize and increase a character's odds of survivability. With 36^th levels of improvement and draconically even dispersion, the final base saves for all categories would be 9 before Ability Score modification. Still not overwhelmingly outstanding odds, but Player Survivability remains a matter of personal preference. This keeps things scary.

Option Two:

As above, but if we were to increase improvement selections to two (either applied holistically to a single save or split) this has the interesting aside of setting evenly distributed Base Saves to 3 at level 36, which is closer to the 2 specified in the tables for the non-Demihuman Classes.

Option Three:

To address the damage to Class niche, we could always try grafting on some Class Based cruft onto Option One and see if it takes. The easy way: each Class also improves a certain Save when a Level is gained. To keep it simple, start with their Prime Requisite save and work your way down the listed Ability Score order before repeating .

The standard Saving Throw progressions already seem to enforce a degree of niche protection: Favored by the Gods, a Cleric is more likely to withstand the searing blast of Dragonfire, the lithe Thief deftly dodges the Transmogrifying Ray, the Magic User crushes the hurled eldritch orb to dust in his hands, etc.

Since the Prime Requisite Ability Score under this new alignment is somewhat tied to a Class' Saving Throw Competency, it could help enforce this aptitude in Characters with Above Average Primes, even if we eliminate the fiddly progressions and stick with 15 as a base save.

Example: Here are Haglef the Mantled's saves (after applying his somewhat striking Ability Score Modifiers) at each level, up to Name, with changes emphasized. Class based Changes are in bold red while Player Choices are in bold blue.

Saving Throw	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Paralysis/Petrification	13	12	12	12	12	12	12	11	11
Wands/Rays	15	15	14	14	14	13	13	13	13
Poison/Disease	12	12	12	11	11	11	11	10	10
Spells/Control	15	15	15	14	13	13	12	12	12
Dragon Breath/Area Attack	17	16	15	15	14	13	13	13	13
Death Ray/Level Drain	13	13	13	13	13	13	12	12	12

Here Haglef uses his level-based choices to shore up deficiencies (whether perceived or encountered through play is unimportant), while a steady level-and-class based improvement takes place alongside these decisions.

Another Example: Trebego the Yellow is a Thief, and sadly he was born under a significantly less fortunate sign than Haglef. Here are his Ability Scores, Modifiers, and initial saves, followed by an example progression table. At least he's blessed with the speedy Level Advancement of the Thief Class.

Ability Scores			Saving Throws	Need/Exceed
STR	7	+1	Paralysis/Petrification	16
DEX	12	-	Wands/Rays	15
CON	13	+1	Poison/Disease	14
INT	7	-1	Spells/Control	16
WIS	7	-1	Dragon Breath/Area Attack	16
CHA	9	-	Death Ray/Level Drain	15

Saving Throw	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Paralysis/Petrification	16	16	15	15	15	15	14	13	13
Wands/Rays	15	14	14	14	14	14	14	13	13
Poison/Disease	14	13	12	12	12	12	12	12	11
Spells/Control	16	16	16	15	14	14	14	14	13
Dragon Breath/Area Attack	16	16	16	15	14	14	13	13	13
Death Ray/Level Drain	15	15	15	15	15	13*	13	13	13

*A nasty encounter with some Wights at Level 5 convinces Trebego to “double-dip” during Level 6 advancement. I don't really foresee this being a big issue though, because the choice is always a trade off.

Tertiary Example: Let's look at a Player who chooses to optimize heavily on a single save: Euphranor the Mysterious, a Magic-User with the admirable goal of supreme mastery over the arcane arts.

Ability Scores			Saving Throws	Need/Exceed
STR	9	-	Paralysis/Petrification	15
DEX	16	+2	Wands/Rays	13
CON	14	+1	Poison/Disease	14
INT	14	+1	Spells/Control	14
WIS	11	-	Dragon Breath/Area Attack	15
CHA	16	+2	Death Ray/Level Drain	13

Saving Throw	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Paralysis/Petrification	15	15	15	15	14	14	14	14	14
Wands/Rays	13	13	13	13	13	12	12	12	12
Poison/Disease	14	14	14	14	14	14	13	13	13
Spells/Control	14	12*	11	10	9	8	7	5*	4
Dragon Breath/Area Attack	15	15	14	14	14	14	14	14	13
Death Ray/Level Drain	13	13	13	12	12	12	12	12	12

* With a double-dip right out of the gate, it's obvious that Euphranor fancies herself the finest spell duelist in the land, and she also chooses to double down at level 8. By the time she's Name Level (Necromanceress, Necromantrix? Reminds me of a future post on Level Titles, I do miss those) she's a staggering force to be reckoned with by enemy Spell Casters. But this is not without cost, as her intense focus on improving this resistance has semi-stunted her other Saves, only her Ability Score bonuses keep her somewhat competitively arrayed.

NB: With transcendent Ability Scores and consistent choices like this, a Player could theoretically take the Save tied to their Prime Requisite down to the minimum of 2 by Name Level. I don't find this too alarming, but some might. Here a Player has decided, at the cost of other attractive choices, to virtually neutralize a single type of commonly encountered threat. Good for them. This is character customization.

With Ability Score inflation virtually nonexistent in BECMI, I see this as a way to surmount some of the challenges of an unimpressive 3d6 in order that typically grow old over time. I liken it to the choice of Armor type and Weapon outlay in a way.

I do see typical Play as an active, informing force and powerful prophylaxis for stymieing such a strategy, however, and I think it has a strong likelihood of exacerbating the difficulties associated with this degree of focus.

Euphranor would regale you with hows and whys, if she wasn't so laconically lichened and lithic, languishing agape among the grazing Gorgons that guard Bargle's gatehouse.

Improvement is still subject to the slower “ladling” with this method when compared to the interval based competency injection of the standard progression, but it does eliminate the frightful table look up: A Class' Saving Throw Improvement progression is right there on the Character Sheet, in the order in which Ability Scores are placed, always starting with the Class' Prime. Leveling introduces a difficult Player Choice with potentially long reaching consequences, which is always nice.

Option Three:

Start applying the Class bonus at Level One. I think this might match the math for the level 36^th hypotheticals listed above a bit better, but I don't want to rework the example tables just yet.

Option Four:

This is where we inevitably start to stray from Hacks & House Rulings and into System Revision. Let's let failed or successful saves dictate routes for improvement (use it or lose it, similar to the BRP Skill Improvement methodology). No look ups required, just mark all save attempts.

Example: Good ol' Trebego the Yellow (Thief, first level) is thinking of changing his sobriquet to “the Unlucky” as his first foray into the Ruins of Acorn Manor is less than encouraging. While probing a tiny alcove with a gloveless hand, his finger is bitten soundly by a Tremor Rat, necessitating a save versus Disease, which he fails, contracting a bad case of the Twitch. But his cautious nature was still bacon-saving when dealing with the Giant Reticulated Puffball fungi that flourishes in the Wine Cellar. He made his Save versus the Spores (Area Attack), while his Party decided rather unsportingly to end their adventuring career right then and there in order to audition for new, if frightfully dull, vocations as fungal fertilizer.

Thankfully, fencing the family silver that he filched from the pantry grants him enough filthy lucre to petition a local Lama for a Cure Disease spell (and it's enough to gain a level!) Christened a Cutpurse (Level 2) by the local Guild, he can now improve two saves: Poison/Disease and Dragon Breath/Area Attack.

Here, we still only allow up to two improvements per level, but it's almost tempting to not limit the number of improvements at all. In this case, I would probably single out only failures to drive improvement, not successes.

This could have the side effect of moving Player Decisions, and therefore Character Action toward more risky and proactive danger-seeking directions. With Trebego's Player deciding to intentionally seek out a Poisonsmith to try building up an immunity to Black Dougal's Bane the “hard way,” everyone wins, or at least, everyone get's the opportunity to roll up new characters with frequency.

Option Five:

We could even try decouple Saves from Leveling entirely, and Improve Saves as failures or successes occur during Play. The choice of which is dependent on taste. It has always been my personal preference to hand out consolation prizes on failures, and let survival be it's own reward.

This seems a bit terrifying and terribly unpredictable though, as the frequency of triggers for Saving Throws varies wildly based on play style, and without save difficulty being moderated and bound to threats encountered (something that's done consistently in systems like 3^rd Edition), it seems that the threat of Save situations is much more likely to lose it's delicious menace much more quickly than what would be categorized as “normal” for Classic and other Old School iterations. It is a variation that seems eminently compatible with heroic one-shots or shorter campaigns though.

Is a single group of tables really onerous enough to merit this much meandering? I think so, but obviously the options presented here won't be to everyone's taste. Hopefully there's a ore-bearing idea or two in this seam somewhere for someone.

The Elf

Rules Cyclopedia: Page 25, The Elf Class

Here's an alternative implementation of the Elf Class that shifts the focus from the traditional D&D Elf to something a little stranger and unpredictable. I've had this in my house rules for a while now, but was recently reminded of it by noisms' excellent recent posts about his Faerie Knights. Let me know what you think or how you would hack it.

Prime Requisite: Charisma

Hit Dice: d6

Armor Training: +2 (Medium Armor)

Class Abilities:

Tied To The Seasons:

Elfs are mystically tied to the seasons by a magical grove that is planted on their “birth” in the Unseen Lands from which they hail. 

It is said that when an Elf laughs, wind rustles the branches and leaves of their grove, whilst tears shed by an Elf (often when regarding a thing of beauty, or in mirth or joy) provide rain. Sadness and brooding can produce violent storms. It is night in the grove when an Elf sleeps, and day when awake.

BECMI Rules: an Elf's grove is initially equivalent to 1 hex of untamed wilderness in the Unseen Lands, with a potential to increase in size (by an adjacent hex per level) as the Elf gains experience levels.

Domain level play for Elfs typically takes place primarily in the Unseen Lands, but this is fraught with peril, as conquering a hex typically involves politically embarrassing, winning archery contests, haggling and barter, or sometimes outright slaying another, adjacent Elf as real estate is at a premium.

Level-draining attacks raze a hex worth of wilderness grove, one hex per level lost.

Notably, an Elf's physical appearance and personality will also take on vastly different aspects in relation to their current season.

These quirks may have given rise to the tendency for Humans to try to classify a particular Elf into the more familiar sub-types (High Elfs, Wood Elfs, Dark Elfs).

At the start of play, an Elf can choose or roll on the following table to determine the current season in their grove, and gains the appropriate boons and immunities.

Roll or Choose	Season	Boon	Elf Type	Immunity
1	Spring	Low-Light Vision	“High Elf”	Charm Person
2	Summer	Exceptional Hearing	“Wood Elf”	Sleep
3	Autumn	Detect Secret Doors	“City Elf”	Protection from Evil
4	Winter	Darkvision	“Dark Elf”	Ghoul Paralysis

Here all the “traditional” Elf abilities are preserved, but are not all present in a given Elf simultaneously.

Spring/High Elfs:

Elfs in the season of Spring are at their tallest (often exceeding six feet) and most beautiful to humans. They possess a difficult to quantify savoir-faire, and are said to appear noble or comport themselves with an intrinsically regal bearing that is slightly unsettling and sinister (they possess large, unblinking eyes). Lighter hair colors and eye pigmentation predominate. “High Elfs” tend to be predisposed to political intrigue, courtly behavior, and arrogance. They are the self-styled “Lords” and “Ladies” of the courts and ruling classes of the Unseen Lands, where they favor high places like mountain tops, on which they build impressive castles to exact fealty from Elfs of other Seasons.

I always think of Mucha's Seasons when it comes to these Elfs.

Summer/Wood Elfs:

Summer Elfs shrink several inches from their height in Spring, and tend to broaden and become more sinewy in shape. Their skin darkens significantly and often takes a cast of olive green or loamy brown. Hair and eyes also seem to favor darker shades with tints of the forest, which possesses a powerful draw for Elfs in this Season. Their ears enlarge significantly. Xenophobic, insular, and bellicose personality traits tend to dominate the colloquially termed “Wood Elfs.”

Yes, you guessed it. They look like these guys.

Autumn/City Elfs:

Unfettered by the Superstition that limits them in other Seasons, Elfs in the Autumnal are most at home among other races and civilization in general. Often exceptionally daring and sociable, they work extremely well with others. Hair and pigmentation lighten from their Summer forms, and can even take on a seasonal cast featuring vibrant oranges, fiery reds, and even shades of purplish brown. They are slightly taller than their previous forms and seem preternaturally predisposed to haggling, good-natured trickery, and merry-making.

Have to fit these Elfs in here somewhere. Yes, Autumn Elfs can grow beards.

Winter/Dark Elfs:

When winter arrives at an Elf's grove, their hair becomes bone white or sometimes fall out completely. They are the shortest, rarely approaching five feet tall. Their skin is often eerily pale, with the occasional bluish, almost bruise-like cast. Their fingernails grow sharp and harden into small talons, and they become virtually nocturnal due to a sensitivity to sunlight brought on by their pallor and sensitive vision (their grove is sunlit when they sleep). They are rapacious, carnivorous, and untrustworthy, with an affinity for wolves and other creatures of the night.

Something akin to this, only slightly less “Undead-y.” Slightly. Or if you prefer, go with Shadow Elves.

An Elf may voluntarily shift the season of their grove in the Unseen Lands (moving to the next season in order) at any time, but this is a painful and grotesque transformation that is gruesome to behold when done without the proper attunement ritual (this typically involves fasting for a full day and night, on a full or new moon, or a pilgrimage to their grove in the Unseen Lands).

Rules: An Elf takes 2d6 damage when changing seasons without the ritual. The process takes a number of rounds equal to the highest roll of these two dice. The process can be hastened to a single round at the cost of an additional die of damage.
Entrances to the unseen lands are found in hexes with the usual chance to find hidden/concealed doors (1 in 6). These chances increase by 1 for Wood Elfs in a Forest Hex, City Elfs in a Settlement, Dark Elfs Underground (natural caverns only, or maybe in Swamps), and High Elfs in the Mountains. Chances also increase if the prevailing season is present in the Seen Lands (A snow covered forest in winter, lends a 2 in 6 chance to locate an entrance to a “Dark Elf” for example. While a City hex in the Fall has a 3 in 6 chance of yielding an entrance to the Unseen Lands for a “City Elf”).

Elfs only age (a single year) when shifting from Winter to Spring, lending credence to the oft-held superstitions concerning their immortality. Age to an Elf is a mostly voluntary process, and this seasons their outlook on life with a bit of hedonism and contempt for the more mortal races. They will often spend decades in a given Season, associating with only others of the same. Due to the marked change in appearance, it is quite possible to meet the same Elf twice over the course of your lifetime, and not recognize them.

Rules: Elfs subjected to aging attacks are actually affected normally, but attacks of this nature will also cause the Elf to suddenly shift to the next Season, taking the associated damage. An Elf's natural lifespan is roughly equivalent to that of the human stock from which they are all derived, when they are stolen as human children/babies by a pair of Elfs wishing to breed.

Elfs of venerable age inevitably become exceptionally cautious of changing seasons and will go to extreme lengths to maintain their current forms, for it is rumored that an Elf that reaches the end of his or her lifespan forgets much of this life, becomes quite diminutive in height, broadens significantly, and wizens, becoming a Dwarf. Dwarfs are naturally bitter when confronted by these reminders of their formerly beautiful and graceful states. Elfs, are often disgusted when confronted with their mortality in physical form, which partially justifies the traditional animosity between the two races.

Rules: An Elf that reaches it's Level Limit, instead of retiring from play can choose to begin advancement as a Level 1 Dwarf with the ability to forge Fey Metal and Elf Gold. An upcoming entry on Dwarfs will expound upon this process.

Elf Gold:

Elfs begin play with 2d6 pieces of Elf Gold. These coins appear to be made of purest gold but inevitably turn into gorse blossoms, leaves, acorns, or small gingerbread cakes an hour after being spent outside of the Unseen Lands (subject to Season). The Elf's name appears on the coin in Elfish, along with their stylized profile on one face, and a significant event in the Elf's life on the other.

Elfs use this Gold as currency in the Unseen Lands, and often trade it for things considered strange/unseemly from the real world (feudal serfs from the Seen Lands, songs, sweets, baby teeth, etc). The value of these commodities tends to vary greatly by Season, but an Elf can always acquire more Elf Gold from their brethren in the Unseen Lands by trade or performing services.

Additional Languages:

Elfs possess the ability to Speak (not necessarily write) the following languages in addition to Elf and the nearest local Human dialect: one Seasonal language and the language of one animal species native to their current region and season.

Season	Language
Spring	Treant
Summer	Pixie
Autumn	Hobgoblin
Winter	Gnoll

Animal Language (Choose or Roll)
1	Avian (all manner of birds)	6	Canine (dogs, wolves, foxes)
2	Rodents (rats, beavers, rabbits, etc.)	7	Feline (lions, tigers, domestic cats)
3	Serpentine (all manner of snakes)	8	Bovine (cattle, antelope, deer)
4	Saurian (all legged reptiles)	9	Equine (horses, mules, unicorns)
5	Ursine (bears, wolverines, badgers)	10	Aquatic (bony fishes)

Vulnerabilities:

Superstition:

During all seasons save Autumn, Elfs are affected by the Cleric or Magic-User spell Protection from Evil as if they were an Enchanted Creature, regardless of the Elf's actual alignment or intentions.

Cold Iron is Poisonous:

This prevents them from utilizing man-made worked armor and weapons. Instead, Elfs use a legendary alloy colloquially called “Fey Metal” which possesses many of the same properties of high quality steel, but without harming the Elf. Fey Metal can only be forged in the Unseen Lands, by ancient Elfs or more commonly, Dwarfs of exceptional skill. Price is in Elf Gold or feudal services to an Elf Lord or Lady, whose intrigues and machinations often spill out onto the Seen Lands.

Elfs take 1 point of damage per turn of prolonged contact with worked iron and it's derivatives. Attacks with weapons do normal damage. Although this damage cannot reduce an Elf below 1 hit point, the damage cannot be conventionally healed without a week-long sabbatical to their grove in the Unseen Lands.

Sweet Tooth:

Sugar is a mild intoxicant to Elfs, much like alcohol to Humans. It can also be highly addictive.

Elfs must make a saving throw versus Poison each time they consume sugar or food/beverages containing sugar. Failure indicates that they start to suffer the effects of inebriation (a cumulative -1 penalty per item consumed). Once they have partaken, it is often difficult to refuse additional helpings (easily implemented with a Wisdom check). 

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Some notes for conversion to 5e:

Although this may work better for Race as Class systems, here are some rough notes for implementation in Fifth Edition.

Tied To The Seasons:

You may determine that each season comes with some associated Ability Score bonuses/penalties, or perhaps different sets of Skill Proficiencies. I haven't thought too much about that, as it seems like it would engender too much bookkeeping or the need for four separate character sheets! Level drain razes 1 mile of their grove per point of damage.

Entrances to the Unseen Lands:

As above, but Elfs instead gain Advantage on Perception (for City Elfs) or Nature rolls to locate the entrance in favorable conditions.

Aging Attacks:

In 5e, I'd potentially allow the player to choose to age the years or shift seasons.

Superstition:

As above but for Protection from Evil and Good. Optionally, Elfs can be rebuked through Clerical Turning in all seasons but Autumn.

Cold Iron is Poisonous:

Elfs have gain the Poisoned Condition after wielding or wearing items made of worked iron or it's derivatives. To remove this condition, they must purify themselves in their grove within the Unseen Lands (a long rest in their grove should be sufficient).

Sweet Tooth:

CON check, DC 10 + 2 per serving. First failure results in the Poisoned Condition (alleviated by a long rest, short rest gives a Save). Must make a WIS check (same DC) after each serving to refrain from continuing to partake. Three successive failures result in the Elf passing out, and waking with a “hangover” and the Poisoned condition. Alternatively, just use the Exhaustion table.

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Still to do: Finish up the Seasonal Elf Spell Lists for BECMI. I really like the idea of each Season coming with a corresponding Spell List, and I'll be mining the Druid Spell list, GAZ 5: The Elves of Alfheim, and GAZ: 13 The Shadow Elves for ideas.

Hazardous Hacking

I'm really enjoying Brendan's Hazard System for procedural timekeeping.  My brain is already brimming with potential hacks. I hope that this kind of tinkering/spitballing is okay.

The first: To address the “Reasonable Resolution” clause for Dungeon Turns and Resource Depletion and Fatigue, I'm thinking about reading the initial Dungeon Hazard Die as a d3 (so that it will result in only Encounter/Percept/Locality results) and overloading this roll to generate the number of subsequent Dungeon Turns that need to elapse before the die is read as a d6.

I think this kind of roll dependent escalation could add a neat wrinkle to the system, without too much overhead. Naturally, the mutable duration of the “turns” might still need to be taken into account fictionally, but I rather like the idea of more challenging/dangerous results becoming more likely over time. Looking at the Wilderness Turn, the same principle could be easily applied (closer to a Haven, it's harder to get lost, for example).

I don't know if the principle of “something needs to happen each turn” is sacrosanct in this system, but I think I'd almost prefer it. The only place where this can potentially occur seems to be the Haven Hazard Die results (“Ignore results of 4-6”) and this seems fine (an “uneventful” visit to Town after Adventuring is probably welcome), but I'd be just as likely to pad the table with “good things” and shift the existing Haven Hazard Results down (to allow for the above-mentioned escalation). I'm a sucker for system symmetry :) and this might help model how PC's that frequent the same Haven become a little more embroiled in the local events.

Something akin to this:

1. Generate/Disseminate New Rumor
2. Haven Event*
3. Clue about next Haven Event*
4. Complication
5. Clue about next complication
6. Abatement of haven condition

*Haven Event is a placeholder name for something akin to a Complication, but my line of thinking involves results that are potentially more beneficial/less ominous. Need a better name/antonym for this and probably some of the results, but here's the start of a d20 table:

Haven Event

1. Holiday/Festival
2. Localized Celebration (Dedication/Wedding/etc)
3. Election/Visit from important Personage
4. Fellow Traveler (Elaborate Existing Rumor?)
5. Discounts/Sale on standard equipment (Ye Olde Bloodbath & Beyond)
6. Resource Windfall (Harvest/Abundance of Export Item/etc)
7. New Fad, Fashion, Local Custom*
8. New Construction (Temple, Tavern, Fortifications, etc)*
9. Arrival of a Trade Caravan (Exotic Goods?)
10. Establish a potential new NPC Contact*

Starred results could potentially persist, as conditions.

Now I'm thinking of some kind of Hazard System Worksheet/Aid for keeping track of Haven Escalation, Conditions and "Events" individually.