Player-Run Adventurer's Guild V0.6 u/Capsandnumbers

This is a project to allow DMs a fun side system for high-level PCs, without being cumbersome at the table. The central idea is to take variables readily available at the table and use an online calculator to generate a d100 table showing the chance of success for any given NPC adventuring team. The Maths The calculator can be found here: Calculator It works by using the shape of the tanh function to get the boundaries between outputs to squish together as they shift one way or the other, using a variable m determined by the following input variables: Level of the Mission - L M

Average level of the NPC party - L P

Number of people called for by the mission - N M

Number of people in the party - N P

How well the party suits that mission - P P



Reputation of the party in that region - R These are meant to be easily calculable at the table, see the Process section for details. There are also a number of controller variables built in to help a DM easily adjust the odds. These include: Strength Factors (a), change the responsiveness of the system to changes in individual effects, or to changes in m overall

Offsets (m), each outcome boundary is a separate tanh function, varying by offsetting each a given amount. Varying m moves boundaries closer together or further apart

Steepnesses (k), change how slow or fast the function moves with respect to m. Changing these can let one outcome grow faster or slower than the others. When I'm manipulating the controller variables I find it helpful to calibrate using the case where: L P = L M = 5 - You're generally experienced enough

= L = 5 - You're generally experienced enough N P = N M = 5 - You're sending the right number of people

= N = 5 - You're sending the right number of people P P = 4 - Most of the roles asked for are covered

= 4 - Most of the roles asked for are covered R = 0 - The region is neutral towards your party You can also change anything about the plotting that you like. Any changes you make and save (With a Desmos account) are saved separately. Reputation Split your setting into Regions. Each Region has a reputation number to it, starting at 0. As NPCs complete missions, the guild's reputation may improve or deteriorate in the region in which the quest was completed. This affects the odds of success of future missions in the region, as well as how NPCs treat your PCs as they go about their regular adventuring. Reputation Attitude Means Possible Actions 40 ― 50 Helpful Will take risks to help you Protect, back up, heal, aid 10 ― 39 Friendly Wishes you well Chat, advise, offer limited help, advocate -9 ― 9 Indifferent Doesn’t much care Socially expected interaction -39 ― -10 Unfriendly Treats you with suspicion Mislead, gossip, avoid, watch, insult -50 ― -40 Hostile Will take risks to hurt you Attack, interfere, berate, flee Every so often, average out reputation scores between regions where word would spread between them, and where the difference in reputation is over 10 points. The Process For this section we'll be using the following example mission: Find a Kidnapped Construct Level 2 Mission:

1 Fighter, 1 Rogue, 1 Wizard



Critical Success: 1000gp + A magic item from Magic Item Table B + A small catlike construct



Success: 500gp + A magic item from Magic Item Table B



Mixed: 100gp + A magic item from Magic Item Table A



Failure: 100gp expenses



Failure Requiring Intervention: The kidnapper has also kidnapped a party member! All but the results for a Critical Success the players know in advance. More missions can be found here.

Step 1 - The NPCs First, look at the NPCs in your guild and sort them as well as can be into categories. For now I'm using the classic four D&D classes: Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, Cleric

We use levels 1-5 for these purposes. These are separate to PC class levels, but 1 level approximates to about 2 class levels. A class-level 10 NPC gains no experience from working for your guild and may consider leaving. Step 2 - Party Composition Next, decide who will go on this quest. You may select as many as the mission asks for, as well as an extra 1. For example, let's say you send: King, Level 4 Cleric The most experienced of your guild, here to provide leadership to your underleveled team Boots, Level 1 Rogue The least experienced, in need of the training Nails, Level 2 Wizard A solid pick and reliable in these sorts of encounters Copper, Level 2 Rogue Decent in a fight but certainly no warrior

The average level of this team is (4+1+2+2)/4 = 2.25, Jozan's experience makes up for Lidda. The appropriateness of this team is given by matching them to the example composition as ideally as you can. Here we match the wizard and the rogue but not the fighter, so we have P P = 2 for that. This mission is taking place in Tinkertown, and the guild has a Reputation of -3 there due to their previous misadventures in the region. There are no extenuating factors affecting success, so O is set to 0. Step 3 - The Calculation So we have the following input variables: L M = 2

= 2 L P = 2.25

= 2.25 N M = 3

= 3 N P = 4

= 4 P P = 2

= 2 R = -3

O = 0 Plugging these numbers into the calculator and reading off the results gives: Find a Kidnapped Construct d100 Outcome 89-100 Critical Success 39-88 Success 28-38 Mixed Outcome 10-27 Failure 0-9 Failure Requiring Intervention Step 4 - The Roll The players roll when the NPC team returns, which may be functionally immediately, or may depend on the distance the team needs to travel. You might require a mission to take a number of days equal to the mission's level, to represent the difficulty of it. You may choose to show the players how their choices have affected the odds. Step 5 - Experience Now we need to allocate experience! An NPC needs 10 XP to level up. Use the following table to decide how much experience each NPC gets. This is a bit of bookkeeping, you may like to appoint a PC the role of Guildmaster. If an NPC levels up and there are still XP to factor in, the extra XP adds to their newly empty XP bar without recalculating. Experience Character Level XP Gained Outcome Needed Mission Level -3 or less 0 XP Any Outcome Mission Level -2 4 XP Better than Mixed Mission Level -1 3 XP Better than Failure Mission Level 2 XP Better than Fail Req. Int. Mission Level +1 1 XP Any Outcome Mission Level + 2 or more 0 XP Any Outcome This counters powerlevelling newbies by having them tag along on overly hard missions. The maths scales, but is still simple enough to do at the table. So for our example party, let's assume they've had a Mixed Outcome: King gets 0 XP - Nothing he hadn't seen before

Boots gets 3 XP - Well on the way to level 2

Nails gets 2 XP - Less of a learning experience for him

Copper gets 2 XP - As above, all in a day's work It is also at this point that NPCs are paid, if paid per job. Payment There are two ways to pay your NPCs: Payment Method Advantages Disadvantages On Retainer Always available for missions Costs money per day Per Job Only pay for missions they go on May not be available You may choose to make only one of these ways available. You may also introduce Charisma checks to negotiate pay, introduce pay disputes, neglect payment entirely or to only pay NPCs for successful outcomes. See how much control of this your players demand.