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CarriageQuest

Combining glean information, carriage rides, shopping lists, and urban mapgen

The Hackmaster PHB has an option where a player character starts only with their money, and has to roleplay buying their equipment. I've written a method to combine "spending the grubstake" with exploring a large city via free public carriage stops. The GM generates parts of the city as a player character asks passengers where to buy stuff. Stops and routes are discovered on the ride, and shops the character needs are generated by the GM near the stops. The player characters' destinations are influenced by their honor and glean information skill. I designed this for buying basic items in a campaign where gunpowder, monsters, spells, and magic items exist but aren't in shops. I had Svohmani or Bet Kalamar in mind as possible backdrops.

As the players ride on carriages, random walk-on NPC passengers also share the carriage with them. Every NPC knows where one item is sold. A PC in the party can ask an NPC passenger where to buy any item in the PHB. The NPC tells them how many stops away, the stop name, and the type of store it's in. The GM puts the destination and its intermediate stops on a map, then saves the map as a neighborhood for the campaign. The same NPC's can be encountered in the future if the players like them.

Additional random shops get added ("announced by the driver") at carriage stops as players ride around town.

Carriage passengers could also be used for finding hirelings, inns, temples, dungeon entrances, and adventure sponsors. The information/mapgen system can be worked into non-shopping adventures and minigames.

The neighborhood details created by the carriage quest can be squeezed into a partially explored/written city.

General descriptions of random landmarks and buildings are on another page.

Public carriages

All public carriages are 4-wheeled and 6-horsed. Each can fit 8 armored humans plus the 2 drivers. All carriage rides are free. Carriage drivers are issued staves for security. Drivers who are "bad mofos" might convert their staves to spears. Carriages arrive at their stops within d10p game-time minutes of waiting.

The basic play-loop

The very first stop

The players characters are outside in the street. They are all good friends or mutually-trusting colleagues. The GM creates the first stop marker on this spot, and also rolls up a random shop. When the characters are finished at the first stop, a carriage will arrive d10p minutes later.

Boarding and riding

1: Boarding

Players are informed of the drivers' appearances.

Players board the carriage.

Players are informed of any additional NPC passengers.

2: Query

Each player decides their sought-after item.

Any player character can ask an NPC passenger where an item is. Each NPC only knows one place guaranteed to sell a queried item.

The PC makes a glean information roll (detailed below) to determine the number of stops from their present location.

The PC rolls 3d6+their honor to determine the type of store that is selling their sought-after item.

The GM records the destination and the route to it on the in-progress map. Every stop is marked by a pillory, guardhouse, or other building. Below is a table of 20 kinds of stops. The specific identifying name generally has to be GM-improvised.

3: Next-stop generation

The driver announces the next stop.

The driver names a randomly-added businesses at the next stop, which the players have the option of shopping at if they disembark.

4: Movement

The carriage moves, and is in-transit for d10p minutes.

NPC's outside carry about their business.

5: Arrival

The carriage arrives at its next stop.

NPC Passengers may board or leave. There may be a driver change.

The player characters stay on or get off.

A party stays in phases 3-5, possibly changing stops, or circling around, or going back and forth, until they have shopped enough. They can ask new NPC's about where to buy goods, which creates the place on the map to buy it. The trip keeps creating new stops and random buildings around new and existing stops.

Carriage stops' names

Justice stops can be named after types of criminals (Brigand's Gibbet). Stops can be named after any random animal, historic figure, monster, or job (Seer's Arch).

e.g.: The GM puts a stop on the city map and rolls a 12, making it a fountain. The GM decides to name it "Bluffer's Fountain" after an obscure historic figure. The GM writes the name down so it doesn't get reused for some other fountain.

When a character asks a passenger where their sought-after item is sold, the player rolls [3d6p+their character's honor] to find out what the business is.

The player then rolls d100 and adds their character's Glean Information skill.

For a newbie character in a brand-new campaign, any mundane item priced in the HM5 PHB, discovered through generated carriage passengers, is guaranteed to truly exist and be for sale, available to the character. The item may be shoddy, or unaffordable, but it will be real and up for sale. Armor will need fitted (which takes 1-3 days for humans iirc). Players can seek more items or ask new passengers where else to buy the item they want, if they want to. Again, each NPC passenger will only know a single ware's location, but it always be the one a PC asks for.

Drivers add a random store to every stop they take a PC party. The GM rolls d100. One column is for "zoned" cities where residential, administrative, and industrial buildings are in different neighborhoods. The other is zoneless. The GM picks which city layout they like better.

Random-add businesses notes

• "Special" results may be inapplicable. They may be non-existent (a harbor in a mountain city), or a unique building which was rolled already. If you land on a non-applicable special result, add 10.
• Religious buildings on carriage stops will have a denomination appropriate to the city. If there is a huge degree of religious freedom, you can just pick one you like or use the city feature page.

Other passengers

To save time you can make a group of NPC's with all the same characteristics.

Suggested route names

Route names based on building types.

Here are some suggested names if you've already used all the obvious ones you can think of.

University

Any tavern or food, stationers, university

Friars'

temples

Burghers'

(city buildings, intelligence-skill services)

Homebuilders'

Tinkers, locksmiths, framers, carpenters

Herders'

Dogs, herd animals, farming implements

Merchants'

Wainwrights, moneychangers

Dancers', Harpers', Pianists'

Instruments, taverns, brewers

Archers'

Bowyers, fletchers, wood-turners, food preserving & preparation

Advocates', scribes', clerks'

Stationers, chests, locksmiths, lawyers, papermakers, translators

Caretakers'

Graveyards, roadworking tools, bricklayers, masons

Vittles

Butchers, soapmaker, greengrocers, granary, potters

Woodsmans'

Gate, lumberyard, woodburners, soapmaker, civil smithy

Skippers'

Any wholesaler, any bulk trader, harbor

Universal/catchall names

Seers, fools, beasts

You can also derive special routes like a carriage that goes to every city gate.

Abridged Example

Stop 0: Wigeon's Barbican

A PC party of Amos the fighter, Betsy the mage, Charo the cleric, and Darryl the thief are at a carriage stop called Wigeon's Barbican (a real barbican in the middle of the city). The random buildings at Wigeon's Barbican are houses and a moneylender.

The party boards a public carriage that pulled up to the barbican. An NPC half-elf in a burlap robe with a rope belt gets on too. His name is Quoper. Two other monkish NPC's get on, named Roopy and Sobous.

• Amos decides he wants to buy chainmail first.
• Betsy wants a scroll case.
• Charo also wants chainmail as soon as possible.
• Darryl wants clubs first.

Amos decides to let Charo ask about chainmail since her honor is higher, which may lead to a better shop.

Betsy (9 honor) asks Quoper where to get a scroll case.

• Betsy's 3d6p+9 roll is 18 (wholesaler), and her Glean-info roll is 70 (d4p+d4p = 2 stops).
• The GM sketches the path on a map, and names Betsy's stop with a d20 roll + a random descriptive word: Mordant Lamppost.

Charo (whose honor is 12) asks Roopy where they can get chainmail.

• Charo's 3d6p+12 roll is 30 (Armorers' Guild) and her Glean-info roll is 108 (next stop).
• The GM names the stop that has the armorers' guild: Smelter's Gallows

Darryl (honor 7) asks Sobous where the merry band can buy some clubs.

• Darryl's 3d6p+7 roll is 20 (General Store named Bolrus's Hardware). Darryl's Glean-info roll is 71 (d4p = 2 stops along current route).
• The hardware store is by a Dunking-Stool called Bastard's Dunk.

Because the current route includes a barbican, armorers, and a moneylender, the GM decides to call the carriage's route "The Earl's Route". The armorers'-warehouse route the GM calls "The Clerks' Route".

The GM rolls the random-added place at the next stop (coincidentally a noble's manor) and names it. The driver informs the passengers that the next stop, Smelter's Gallows, is also close to the home of Earl Hulmar.

The party's plan is to get off at the next stop, buy chainmail, then take another carriage to Mordant Lamppost for a scroll case. Last they'll go to Bastard's Dunk to buy clubs from Bolrus . They hope to get some shopping done along the way by coincidence.

Stop 1: Smelter's Gallows

The carriage stops at the gallows. The party says bye to the monks, and buys chainmail from the armor guild. The fitting takes 10 minutes (0 seconds real life) and the suits will be ready tomorrow. They then wait by the gallows 5 in-game minutes (0 seconds real life), and board the carriage going to Mordant Lamppost.

Two NPC farriers are already aboard, taking the carriage somewhere. For this short example, the party doesn't ask for more places to go.

The driver informs the party of the random-added store at Mordant Lamppost: A wooden furniture maker. The GM puts it on the map. The carriage gets to Mordant Lamppost in 16 minutes.

Stop 2: Mordant Lamppost

The PC's get out at the lantern post and walk 5 blocks away to a warehouse storing hundreds of satchels. There is no shopfront. A stevedore is bribed to sell them a scrollcase on the sly.

The party waits 18 minutes for the next carriage heading to Bastard's Dunk. They board and four elves in splintmail are also taking the carriage (they're guards going across town).

The driver informs the passengers of a random store at Smelter's Gallows: horse dealers named The Rosy Buckaroos.

The carriage arrives at to Smelter's Gallows, everyone stays on. The driver tells them a randomly-rolled business at Bastard's Dunk: glassblowers named The Sublime Associates.

Stop 3: Bastard's Dunk

The party gets off at Bastard's Dunk, and buys some clubs out of Bolrus's Barrel of Bludgeons.

Map from four characters buying three things

(Made with Dia)

Long example

4-person level 1 party

Streamlining tips

Don't split the party up.

Have each player make their whole shopping list and write down the prices for each item.

Have each player do their own (honest) math for payment and making change.

Suggested EP Rewards

Meeting shopkeepers is a good path to get hired to solve problems, which is a way for a party to get EP. Shopkeepers can have simple problems like

• organized monsters
• bandits
• workers nabbed by slavers
• business partners munched by goblins
• being a wererat

The party could start an adventure as shop security, big game hunters, or collectors of monster bounties. Another thing could be two shopkeepers who despise each other; the PC's could pick a side or try getting them to cooperate. Merchants can be a brokers who introduce adventure sponsors. A rare random passenger could also need an adventuring party for something.

The GMG describes story rewards as "pieces of candy", and "not $20 bills". EP is typically rewarded for overcoming life-or-death stuff, or doing something the GM didn't expect. Roleplaying is already a way for PC's acquire and maintain honor. If they also get EP they're getting 2 things for the price of 1.

Although it is dicky and counterproductive, you can technically let the party earn EP before they're fully equipped:

• Beggars, hookers, and kids try to mug party members or snatch their things.
• Loose dogs fight them.
• Drunks tackle a party member or assault them with knives.
• Slavers threaten to kidnap the party (starting as a bluff to browbeat them).
• Hobgoblin soldiers, regardless of record, discipline or duty, pursue any party member who looks elfy, for immediate butchery.

These brawls are all with people who "belong" in a city which gives them a bit of legitimacy. NPC guards and cleric retinues should try to break up such brawls within 8-15 seconds so you don't kill a noob party with them.

Ferries

Cities built around rivers and lakes can have ferries. Each ferry can either take people back and forth across water, or to any stop contiguous to water. Ferry stops can be at bridges or boardwalks. Boardwalks could have communities and secret doors under them. Ferries could go to islets. An islet can have a fortress, a nice park with desserts, or ruins full of skeletons.

Barony Route Variant

Player characters could take a rural carriage that goes village to village. Villages should get more random-shops per stop (at least one per character) and have some non-randomized necessities close by. The trips also take d10p hours rather than minutes.

Private Carriages

There is vehicle and pedestrian traffic that shares the poorly-planned roads with public carriages. Guild Lorries cart big groups of people off to mines, ranches, orchards, and mills. Random rich people drive aggressively all over town.

Urban dungeons

If the GM has a dungeon prepared, they have the option of placing an entrance to it at a carriage stop. The dungeon could be hidden in a graveyard, abandoned church, sewer grate, etc. The dungeon could be under a shed or lived-in house.

Adventure seeds

Assailed by low-honor craftsmen

Unscrupulous carpenters steal carriages to turn into desks and cabinets. Beggars steal carriages to sleep in. Multiple horses' legs are being broken by shoddy roadwork. The roadwork is bad because monsters and evil men are tunnelling around under the city. The masons' guild is being blamed.

Accident-prone carriage

Actuaries from the drivers' guild have tracked down an accident-prone pair of drivers. One driver is a normal competent driver. The other is a faker that cannot actually handle horses. The faker will go to drastic lengths to maintain the lie that they are competent. The good driver is unaware of the fakery. Both drivers think they get into the "normal" amount of accidents. The party is paid to observe them for a day.

Something weird out the window

From their public carriage seats, the party sees an elephantine spider dragging a lanky butler down a web-filled alley. The butler's escort of halberdiers have succumbed to venom.

Dungeon as carriage stop

One carriage stop has a good view of a vast chasm. Nothing is known to emerge and hunt, the inhabitants only kill people who go in. There are ancient furnished rooms and laboratories within the chasm, as well as gold and poorly-understood magic relics.