Adventure Hooks, Red Herrings & the Information Mesh
by Sean Meaney from Threshold Magazine issue 14ADVENTURE HOOKS, RED HERRINGS & THE INFORMATION MESH
RUMORS are
employed in adventures pretty much all the time. Players asking
around the village about the nearby Dungeons, Castle, or Temple is a
regular aspect of the game as is the movement of rumors across the
larger campaign setting.
TABLE
1: RUMORS IN THE VILLAGE OF VERGE
2d6 Rumour
2 A Thief was
found nailed to a Tree.
3 Breyark! is a goblin greeting.
4
There is a magic wand lost in the ruins.
5 There is a Statue with
ruby eyes.
6 A wizard lives in the caves.
7 There have been
murders in the Capital.
8 Farmer Tambo saw a Dragon.
9 There's
a giant stone head in the woods.
10 The House across the market is
haunted.
11 The village is built on a Dungeon.
12 The Lady of
Verge is a witch.
The
problem is that not every rumour is true. But why is a rumor true or
false. It has to do with not only the intent of the rumor teller, it
has to do with the movement of information.
Facts, rumours,
and lies are all the same thing: Information. it is the degree of
accuracy that separates truth from lie. How does the village of Verge
know anything of murders in far off Specularum (Mirros)? Tanis the
paper merchant has driven his cart of blank (or bleached) scroll
parchment in from Specularum. He also brings with him a tale of an
apparent tidal wave of murders. Specularum is a big, crowded place
filled with desperate people prepared to kill to survive. The
likelihood that the rumor is true is going to be based on the generic
nature of the information. Murders happen over a period of time in
the big city therefore 'there have been murders in the capital'.
Specific knowledge of a particular murder is going to require
accuracy of information to which the merchant may or may not have
access. How does he know that Davinos was murdered in the street? Is
he keeping tabs on murders that may have been committed by the Veiled
Society? Is he a member? Is he associated with a rival faction? Has
he lazily concluded that one particular murder must represent an
occurrence of numerous such murders? The decay of information
accuracy is often the result of laziness in the storyteller to impart
all the facts or correct assumptions. Thomic the gnome overhears a
conversation and imparts a variation on the rumor simply because he
fills in the gaps with his own creativity - and 'murders in the
capital' becomes a madman on a killing spree. Ultimately it is the
charisma of the information source that varies the accuracy of the
information.
Basically information accuracy is
determined by the distance of the source and the population of the
source so is determined by this
formula:
Accuracy%=0.24*((Population^10.87)/(Distance^0.4))
VERGE
as we know is a village fourteen 8-mile hexes from Specularum. As it
sits on the road between Rifflian and Threshold and is Three road
hexes from Threshold and four road hexes from Rifflian. There are
certainly other places but these two Towns are of immediate
interest.
According to Table 2: Populations in Karameikos we
have the following relevant populations adjacent to Verge:
1.
Threshold (5,000): 24 miles
2. Rifflian (1,700): 32 Miles
So
sitting in the Tavern in Verge we can now look at Verge's
relationship with various information sources to generate a
consistent list of
rumors.
Accuracy%=0.24*((Population^0.87)/(Distance^0.4))
We
apply this to the various sources supplying the village of
Verge:
Threshold%=0.24*((5000^0.87)/(24^0.4))
Rifflian%=0.24*((1700^0.87)/32^0.4))
These
provide us with the following information Accuracies:
So
we get one rumor from Threshold that is one hundred percent accurate
and one that is eleven percent accurate. we also get one rumor from
Rifflian that is thirty eight percent accurate.
First
off...some colour coding for our rumor table:
Blue: 100%
Accurate
Green: more than 50% Accurate
Red: less than 50%
Accurate
Purple: less than 10% Accurate
TABLE 4: RUMORS
IN THE VILLAGE OF VERGE
2d6 Rumors doing the rounds in Verge
2
A man was found nailed to a tree near Threshold.
3 A giant stone
head was discovered in the woods near Threshold (it is a rounded
boulder sticking out of the dirt).
4 The Lady of Rifflian is
looking for adventurers to catch a dragon (she is interested in being
a patron to adventurers).
5 A Farmer saw a Dragon near
Threshold.
6 A magic wand was lost in ruins near Threshold.
7
Breyark! is a goblin greeting (Its goblin).
8 There is a statue
with ruby eyes above the bar in a Tavern in Rifflian.
9 A wizard
lives in the caves.
10 There have been murders in the Capital.
11
The abandoned house across the market is haunted.
12 The village
of Verge is built on a Dungeon.
As you
can see we have eight remaining slots that will likely fill with
rumors from further afield. So let's look at:
3. Kelvin (20,000):
72 Miles
4. Highforge (7,500): 56 miles via Threshold
Because
Highforge is not connected by road it sends overland via Threshold
We
apply this to these sources supplying the village of
Verge:
Kelvin%=0.24*((20000^0.87)/(72^0.4))
Highforge%=0.24*((7500^0.87)/56^0.4))
These
provide us with the following information Accuracies:
So we see
Kelvin provides Verge with three rumors (two of which are a hundred
percent accurate and one which is thirty nine percent accurate).
Highforge is a provider of two rumors (one at one hundred percent
accuracy and one that is twelve percent accurate.
TABLE
6: RUMORS AVAILABLE IN VERGE MK3
2d6 Rumors doing the rounds in
Verge
2 A man was found nailed to a Tree near Threshold.
3 A
giant stone head was discovered in the woods near Threshold (it is a
rounded boulder sticking out of the dirt).
4 The Lady of Rifflian
is looking for Adventurers to catch a dragon (She is interested in
being a patron to adventurers).
5 A magic wand was lost in ruins
near Kelvin.
6 The City of Kelvin is built on an ancient
Dungeon.
7 Drogo the Gnome saw a Red Dragon near Highforge.
8
There is a Statue with ruby eyes above the bar in a Tavern in Kelvin
(Its eyes are red glass and it's under the bar).
9 Breyark! is a
goblin greeting (not particularly).
10 A wizard lives in the
caves.
11 There have been murders in the Capital.
12 The
abandoned house across the market is haunted.
As you can see
we have three remaining slots that will likely fill with rumors from
further afield. So let's look at:
5. Penhaligon (3,750): 128
Miles
6. Specularum (50,000): 112 Miles
7. Rugalov (650): 224
miles
8. Luln (5,000): 200 miles
9. Fort Doom (10,000): 208
miles
10. Vorloi (7,500): 192 miles
11. Marilenev (900): 120
miles
12. Sulescu (950): 160 miles
13. Dmitrov (6,500): 184
miles
14. Vandevicsny (100): 184 miles
We apply this to these
sources supplying the village of
Verge:
Penhaligon%=0.24*((3,750^0.87)/(128^0.4))
Specularum%=0.24*((50,000^0.87)/(112^0.4))
Rugalov%=0.24*((650^0.87)/(224^0.4))
Luln%=0.24*((5,000^0.87)/(200^0.4))
Fort
Doom%=0.24*((10,000^0.87)/(208^0.4))
Marilenev%=0.24*((900^0.87)/(120^0.4))
Sulescu%=0.24*((950^0.87)/(160^0.4))
Vorloi%=0.24*((7500^0.87)/(192^0.4))
Dmitrov%=(0.24*((6500^0.87)/(184^0.4)))
Vandevicsny%=(0.24*((100^0.87)/(184^0.4)))
These
provide us with the following information Accuracies:
That
means Specularum provides us with four good rumors and a low accuracy
rumor. The remaining communities provide us with seven moor rumors of
poor accuracy.
So now we have twenty-two rumor slots. This is good for a
20+ Slot Rumor chart.
TABLE
9: RUMORS IN THE VILLAGE OF VERGE
3d8 Rumors doing the rounds in
Verge
3 A man was found nailed to a Tree near Threshold.
4 A
giant stone head was discovered in the woods near Threshold (it's a
rounded boulder sticking out of the dirt).
5 The Lady of Rifflian
is looking for Adventurers to catch a dragon (She is interested in
being a patron to adventurers).
6 A magic wand was lost in ruins
near Kelvin.
7 The town of Kelvin is built on a Dungeon.
8
Drogo the gnome saw a Dragon near Highforge.
9 There is a Statue
with ruby eyes above the bar in a Tavern in Kelvin (Its eyes are red
glass and it is under the bar).
10 Breyark! is a goblin greeting
(Highforge Dwarves made that rumor up for a laugh).
11 A Serial
Killer has been stalking women at night in the streets of
Specularum.
12 Duchess Olivia's Favourite colour is purple.
13
A Serial Arsonist has been setting fire to homes in the Nest.
14 A
Ylari murdered a member of the King's Guard in Specularum.
15 The
old boarded up house overlooking the Great Market in Specularum is
haunted (Its an observation post used by the Secret Police and they
arrest intruders).
16 A Wizard lives in the caves in the Wulfwold
hills east of Penhaligon (Its a Kobold).
17 The Lord of Sulescu is
afflicted with Vampirism ( The Lord of Rugalov fell ill a month back
and has been anemic).
18 The town of Luln is filled with
Traladaran Rebels (there are a few who want to topple Baron
Blackeagle)
19 Bargle the Wizard is hiding out in Fort Doom (He is
Magist to Baron Blackeagle).
20 The kingdom is preparing for war.
Baron Vorloi is building warships (new ones were needed).
21
Traladaran Rebels are growing wolfsbane to poison Specularum's water
(Lady Marilenev's gardener was exposed to Wolfsbane while pulling
weeds almost a month ago and died horribly).
22 Vampire Lord
Sulescu is enslaving the peasants (This Nosferatu is happy to pay
well for the labour of his farmers).
23 A ship has wrecked on the
beach off Dmitrov (an old warship has been beached for salvage).
24
Bargle the Wizard was seen summoning flying demons to attack Luln (an
old crypt was opened a few weeks back for repair in Vandevicsny
releasing bats).
RUMORS FLY
There is of course a real
distance at which information accuracy drops below a hundred
percent.
So let's build a different set of data based on a
variation of our formula, this one looking for
distance:
Distance=(0.4root((Population^0.87)/(Accuracy%/0.24)))
So
for each community we now look for distance at 100%, 50%, and 10%.
This provides us with something we can then
map.
Community
Distance=(0.4root((Population^0.87)/(100/0.24)))
Distance=(0.4root((Population^0.87)/(50/0.24)))
Distance=(0.4root((Population^0.87)/(10/0.24)))
MAP 1:
INFORMATION DISTANCE IN THE GRAND DUCHY OF KARAMEIKOS
http://pandius.com/DingosMap.png
http://pandius.com/information_range-karameikos.jpg
WHAT
IS HAPPENING IN KARAMEIKOS?
Given a hex is basically four miles in
radius rumors struggle to exit communities like Sulescu, Marilenev,
Rugalov, Verge, Rifflian without being greatly reduced in accuracy.
In Vandevicsny Rumor Accuracy is below ten percent before it even
leaves the periphery of the village.
1This symbol stands for Exponent: you can find algebra calculators online such as this one: https://www.mathpapa.com/algebra-calculator.html