Land Events

[Marc]

I was looking at the Land Events table( p. 112 in Weapons & Equipment ), and it doesn't really make sense to me.

There's a 10% chance of something good happening, 40% chance of nothing interesting, and 50% chance of something bad happening.  That's all fine.  My question is regarding the modifiers to the roll, specifically the +5% for each additional hide.  The text says:

Quote

For each hide of land owned over the first,
add +5 to the roll. The more land one holds, the greater
the chance something is going to occur on one’s holdings

And it makes sense that the more land you have, the more likely something unusual will happen.  However, that is not the effect of the modifier.  In the table, 11-50 is "Calm: No major events. No effect".  And 1-10 is something good.  So, if you have 2 hides, NOTHING good will ever happen.  In fact the ONLY event that is more likely with this modifier is a Chaos incursion, since that happens on a 100+. So, a noble, with 5 hides of land( say, the Thane of Apple lane ), has a 21% chance of a Chaos incursion every year! That seems a bit unreasonable to me.  I'm thinking that I'm going to make it 2 rolls, one to see if there is an event, and a separate roll to see what the event is.

Looking at it some more, I'm sure someone will point out that each L in extra tithes to the Earth temple, or local spirits, gets you a -1 to the roll.  Which is true.  It doesn't change the issue which is that having more land really means a greater chance of something really bad happening, not a greater chance of something happening
 

Edited December 21, 2021 by Marc

[David Scott]

52 minutes ago, Marc said:

I was looking at the Land Events table( p. 112 in Weapons & Equipment ), and it doesn't really make sense to me.

There's a 10% chance of something good happening, 40% chance of nothing interesting, and 50% chance of something bad happening.  That's all fine. 

That's only if the GM rolls, if they pick an event, 11–50 Calm: No major events. No effect. There's no issue.

If the GM wants more detail roll randomly and in secret. It's a huge story hook generator. 

52 minutes ago, Marc said:

My question is regarding the modifiers to the roll, specifically the +5% for each additional hide.  The text says:

And it makes sense that the more land you have, the more likely something unusual will happen.  However, that is not the effect of the modifier.  In the table, 11-50 is "Calm: No major events. No effect".  And 1-10 is something good.  So, if you have 2 hides, NOTHING good will ever happen.  In fact the ONLY event that is more likely with this modifier is a Chaos incursion, since that happens on a 100+. So, a noble, with 5 hides of land( say, the Thane of Apple lane ), has a 21% chance of a Chaos incursion every year! That seems a bit unreasonable to me.  I'm thinking that I'm going to make it 2 rolls, one to see if there is an event, and a separate roll to see what the event is.

A chaos incursion could be built into any event. I aways have a chaos incursion once in a while, be it Dragon snails, broos or an evil cultist. Remember, Chaos Ground isn't that far from Apple lane.

[Alex]

2 hours ago, Marc said:

Looking at it some more, I'm sure someone will point out that each L in extra tithes to the Earth temple, or local spirits, gets you a -1 to the roll.  Which is true.  It doesn't change the issue which is that having more land really means a greater chance of something really bad happening, not a greater chance of something happening

My hot take on this is that one possible "fix", if you want to be slightly fiddlier in order to avoid what you describe, would be to treat it as a "50% base chance of nothing bad happening", then modify as suggested.  Then treat a "special" on that roll as "something good happens", and a miss as "something bad does happen".

Crits and fumbles I leave entirely to your discretion!

[Akhôrahil]

2 hours ago, Marc said:

So, a noble, with 5 hides of land( say, the Thane of Apple lane ), has a 21% chance of a Chaos incursion every year! That seems a bit unreasonable to me. 

21 Hides means the Chaos incursions happen yearly.

Edited December 21, 2021 by Akhôrahil

[Alex]

1 hour ago, Akhôrahil said:

21 Hides means the Chaos incursions happen yearly.

This is why you need to kill the Evil Emperor, any time you meet him on the road.  Even clan- and tribal-level Orlanthi thanes and nobles are likely already riddled with Chaos, think how bad an entire empire would be!

Edited December 21, 2021 by Alex
typo

[Darius West]

12 hours ago, Marc said:

I was looking at the Land Events table( p. 112 in Weapons & Equipment ), and it doesn't really make sense to me.

There's a 10% chance of something good happening, 40% chance of nothing interesting, and 50% chance of something bad happening.  That's all fine.  My question is regarding the modifiers to the roll, specifically the +5% for each additional hide.  The text says:

And it makes sense that the more land you have, the more likely something unusual will happen.  However, that is not the effect of the modifier.  In the table, 11-50 is "Calm: No major events. No effect".  And 1-10 is something good.  So, if you have 2 hides, NOTHING good will ever happen.  In fact the ONLY event that is more likely with this modifier is a Chaos incursion, since that happens on a 100+. So, a noble, with 5 hides of land( say, the Thane of Apple lane ), has a 21% chance of a Chaos incursion every year! That seems a bit unreasonable to me.  I'm thinking that I'm going to make it 2 rolls, one to see if there is an event, and a separate roll to see what the event is.

Looking at it some more, I'm sure someone will point out that each L in extra tithes to the Earth temple, or local spirits, gets you a -1 to the roll.  Which is true.  It doesn't change the issue which is that having more land really means a greater chance of something really bad happening, not a greater chance of something happening
 

This sounds a bit like a classic example of Murphy's Rules in an RPG.  I would suggest rolling separately for each Hide instead.  Players like rolling dice I find.