# Open Table #000


## Info

**Game**: [The Vanilla Game](https://vanillagame.carrd.co) (TVG)

**VTT**: https://new.tableplop.com/join/large-owl-bandit-handling (Invite link - you only need to click this once)

**Open Table**: You can join whichever sessions you want. You're not obligated to join every session to keep playing. Each session will be self-contained, although the fictional world is persistent and affected by your actions. Sessions take place in sequential chronological order in the fictional timeline.

**Hex-crawl**: The majority of our sessions will take the form of a *hex-crawl*, a style of player-directed sandbox game where the party decides what they want to accomplish each session. You'll have an incomplete map of an area of mostly wilderness divided into hexes. Using the rules for traveling, you can explore the wilderness, moving from hex to hex, encountering people, monsters, dungeons, treasures, and all sorts of other crazy bullshit along the way.

## Ground Rules

- No slurs or any other extremely out of pocket stuff. Try to be cool and nice.
- Don't get stuck on game rules. We can adjudicate things in a way that seems fair in the moment, and then determine the "correct" ruling after the session. Although, if I am ruling something totaly wrong according to the system rules, please tell me. I need all the help I can get.
- If anything in a session makes you uncomfortable, you are free to step away, ask us to take a break, message me directly on Discord, or whatever else you think would be helpful.
- Try your best to stay engaged in the session. Respect the other players' time.
- Roleplay! It's more fun for you and the other players if you commit to being your character. You, the player, are the one solving the problems presented by the world, but that should be expressed through your character and the world's fiction.

## Character creation

You can either roll a character by hand following the instructions in the TVG rules, or you can use the [character generator](https://perchance.org/vanilla-character).

The generator starts you off with four random items that I'll call *trinkets* in addition to the basic gear that the rules grant you. Even if you roll your character by hand, you can generate another character and give yourself that character's trinkets. Trinkets don't take up a gear slot.

You may spend your starting gold on any equipment in TVG or DDO (see below).

Consider rolling multiple characters in case your first one dies.

## Gear rules

Use the [Delving Deeper](https://ddo.immersiveink.com/#equipment) (DDO) equipment list for things not listed in TVG, except where an item would be at odds with TVG's rules, e.g., you don't need a backpack since you have gear slots. Mundane gear can be purchased for the GP costs listed in DDO, but will take up a slot. Only mundane gear pulled out of a gear bubble doesn't take up a slot.

## Rations rules

From DDO's equipment rules:

**Rations, iron, week** - 15 gp
**Rations, week** - 7 gp

**Rations will feed one person for one week**. Iron rations are preserved and will keep even in poor environs (including dungeons) where standard rations would spoil.

**Rations can't be pulled out of a gear bubble**.

**Each new day, if you did not consume one day's worth of rations the previous day, you lose one inventory slot**. Consuming a day's worth of rations recovers all lost slots.

## Hex-crawl rules

Copied directly from the hex-crawl we're running and [here](https://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2021/11/blog-hex-crawls-simple-guide.html).

**Swamp Movement**: Each hex on the maps is six miles across. The chance of an encounter per day is the standard 3-in-6 for swamp terrain. This place is particularly convoluted and miasmic even by the standards of a swamp – a party with boats can travel one hex per
day. Assume that boats may enter all hexes on the maps, as everywhere is waterlogged to varying degrees. A party without a full complement of boats is in serious trouble – Fever Swamp’s terrain is unsuited for travel on foot.

**Supplies**: Assume one ration per day of travel, and separate water rations where needed. Hunting and foraging may be a way to find food on the way. For a simple system, roll 1d6, with a +1 for skilled outdoorsmen and +2 for rangers and druids, and -1 for food-sparse regions like high mountains. Food will be found on rolls of 5+. Can only hunt on a day with no encounter.

**Weather**: Weather is randomly generated every day.

**How to hexcrawl**: The GM describes what the party can see in each direction. The party tells the GM which direction they want to move. The party moves, and the process repeats. Keep in mind there is a chance of getting stuck and a chance of getting lost every time you move.

**Speed**: The party can cover one hex per day if the hexes are unfamiliar, or two per day if both hexes have been travelled through.

## Boat rules

**Assume that boats may enter all hexes on the maps**, as everywhere is waterlogged to varying degrees.

**Rivers are wider watercourses on the maps**. All swamp boats can traverse these without difficulty.

**Streams are smaller watercourses on the maps**. Larger boats like Keelboats can easily get stuck here.

**Routes into hexes without rivers or streams are navigable but extremely congested**. Even Pirogues might get stuck here, and it is easy to get lost.

**Freeing a stuck boat requires tools, planning and most importantly time**. Consider up to half a day’s delay and an extra encounter check.

Boats have both Ship Hit Points (SHP) and a Sink Die. These are tracked separately. If either is reduced to 0 the boat has sunk. A makeshift raft has 1 or 2 SHP depending on materials, a crafted canoe has 3, a lifeboat has 4 and a large riverboat, the largest vessel usable in the Swamp, has 6.

SHP simply reflects the structural integrity of a vessel, with one point of SHP being equivalent to 6 HP. An attack must deal 6 or more damage to cause 1 SHP in damage and a roll of the Sink Die.

SHP is used to determine the Sink Die of the ship. Whenever the ship takes damage, roll the Sink Die. On a 1, the Sink Die moves down a size e.g. rolling a 1 on 1d10 causes the die to become 1d8, and so on. If a character forgoes their turn to bail out water, they may roll the Sink Die. If they roll the maximum result on the current Sink Die, it moves up a size, to a maximum of the original Sink Die. You receive +1 to this roll for every 2 people bailing water. When a 1d4 Sink Die rolls a 1 it means the ship is sinking and cannot be recovered, it will sink below the water in a number of rounds equal to its starting SHP.

The most common types of boats in the swamp:




## Disease and infection Rules

Each day spent in the swamp, Save vs Poison at ST + 9. On failure, the character contracts a Disease of Fever Swamp. Saves to recover from diseases are made daily.

Whenever a wound is exposed to the water, Save vs Poison. On failure, it becomes infected. The character cannot heal until they make a successful Save vs Poison – they may try this once per day.

## Advice

- Combat encounters will not be balanced. Stack the odds in your favor or run away.
- Avoid coming up with too much backstory for your character before playing. You'll figure it out as you go.
- Magic is dangerous and hard to control. A 1st-level magic user has to roll 1d20 under ST and above their own AC to cast a spell as intended during combat. Even if the magic user is unarmored, they still have to roll a 6 or below. Failing to control a spell costs HP and will trigger a miscast effect - magic users need to decide whether the cost is worth it.
- When hexcrawling you may get lost. When you declare your intention to move in a certain direction, there is a chance you will actually move in some other direction. Keep this in mind, especially when mapping.