Powder, Gears, and Blessed Steam - A WHF Engineering Quest

Voting is open
Other than that, stamping out flintlocks and making progress toward Expertise is always good... Does engineering upgrade for the workshop apply to the gunsmithing? I can't quite recall, but I am sure somebody already asked that before.

Yeah, any Engineering based bonuses you acquire from expanding or upgrading the workshop in the direction apply to gunsmithing. Actually, since you've brought it up I realize I need to communicate which projects you have fall under which set of equipment. Let me go add Engineering and Alchemical categories to the projects you can craft to make that clear!

Bullets seems to be beneath the abstraction in this system; they are not accounted for in inventory, or ever mention in-story, or in the combat logs. So that one thing we don't really need to stress about.

What is mentioned, tho, is armor - mook wardens use padded clothing, veterans use chain - so yeah, we'll need to get some. I think we are better off just buying some, as we don't have a skill in metalworking.

Speaking of Not Dying stuff, we prolly could use Road Walkers favour to get more gun training dice; we have somewhat of a surplus. IDK if it is not a "RIGHT NOW" action, but I do wanna get Guns 2-3 in a couple of turns at the latest. This is a dangerous world, and we live in a dangerous part of the town.

Abstraction for forces at large and more 'major' characters like Alric and Margaret is a bit different. Especially for Margaret, you do have a limited supply of shot for Gromdottir but mostly just because you don't have a reasonable supply of gunpowder to back it. Lead shot is really easy and dirt cheap to make after all so its not really something to worry about.

As for how armor works: For more abstracted forces it is a narrative adjustment I make, a critical success scored by a Chaos Warrior against peasants with no armor would kill more than a critical success against soldiers in chainmail and definitely less against Knights in full plate. For characters like Alric and for our main character? It adds additional Wounds that can be taken before they're slain and potentially even will outright add to their combat dice pool if it is good enough.

... I imagine that the scale is on Dwarf Scale, in the sense that "Terrible" quality is still what most humans would expect to get their hands on if they weren't nobility or otherwise wealthy, huh? While "Normal" Quality is generally on the standard of what a Dwarf would consider the minimum acceptable workmanship, is it?
Yeah, pretty much right on point.

Terrible and Normal is pretty standard for the realms of quality human craftsmen switch between with it being rare that they hit uncommon and Rare is pretty much exclusively the realm of master craftsmen when it comes to humans. Anything beyond that typically is going to have been made at the hands of experienced Dawi, Elves, or the longer lived Magisters.
 
[] Plan Making a Workshop a Home
-[] Furnishing Your Workshop, Pt. 1
-[] Making it Livable
-[] Dawi Doctrine?
-[] Something of a Replacement
-[] Some Target Practice
-[] Eureka! x1 (Something of a Replacement)
-[] Calling in Favors x1 (Furnishing Your Workshop, Pt. 1)

I really want to get our Workshop better equipped now that we have a nice chunk of Wealth, I'd like to start working on prosthetic limbs for Alric and the Walkers that were hurt, and getting better at shooting sounds good. We can make some gunpowder next turn maybe. I'm open to replacing the last 2 actions though, it's just the Workshop stuff I'm dead set on.

I like that plan. Then next turn we can get inspiration and look into night markets. Maybe start peddling so we can get our Diplomacy upgraded.
 
[ ] Plan Judicious Spending
-[] Furnishing Your Workshop, Pt. 1 +3 Favors
-[] Making it Livable
-[] Something of a Replacement +2 Inspiration
-[] Arming the Road Walkers x2

Cost:5
Possible Income: 4
8 to 12 wealth for next turn

I do want to keep on arming the road walkers to help them build back up while also giving us a wealth flow and working towards mastery on flintlocks.

@adwarf Soul should have 1 point of experience in it
 
Last edited:
Looking at our sheet, we could get Tracking 1 with a decent roll on a Learning with the Walkers action. Would be good to grab that next turn maybe.
 
Last edited:
I'm thinknig... Engineering Stuff, Comfort, maybe Security given how we're looking at the Witching Night coming on?

Then probably pouring all 'dat Inspiration into a Big Project, like the prosthetics or something.
Throwing that amount of inspiration at a Big Project isn't exactly efficient. We'd need to get another two sucessess in order to make additional progress. At the very least, I'd like to see what dice pool we're working with before spending much inspiration. That way we know what the breakpoints are.
Soap, arming x2, leaves 2 actions.
Maybe dawi doctrine for geheimenacht?
Let's make some gunpowder!
We've got Dawi built locks, solid wooden bars for the doors, and windows far too high to reach for all but the most horribly mutated souls. If all those somehow fail, then we've got Gromsdottir. Between our gun and our skills, we're rolling 9d6 in combat, same as Alric, who is a veteran mercenary, if not more than that. Your average mercenary can't keep fighting after losing an arm without missing a beat.

I almost hope that some mutated soul falls into our crosshairs. It'd make for good training that we wouldn't need to spend an AP on. It's not like we'd be facing a serious horde. This is a city, so there won't be too many souls trapped outside when Moreslieb shines.
 
Botany could be useful considering the amount of magical plants that exist in the world.

Besides that are we able to make our own armor or is purchasing it our only option.
 
We've got Dawi built locks, solid wooden bars for the doors, and windows far too high to reach for all but the most horribly mutated souls. If all those somehow fail, then we've got Gromsdottir. Between our gun and our skills, we're rolling 9d6 in combat, same as Alric, who is a veteran mercenary, if not more than that. Your average mercenary can't keep fighting after losing an arm without missing a beat.

I almost hope that some mutated soul falls into our crosshairs. It'd make for good training that we wouldn't need to spend an AP on. It's not like we'd be facing a serious horde. This is a city, so there won't be too many souls trapped outside when Moreslieb shines.
I'd still like to do a full accounting of the security of our workshop, just so we don't get blindsided by a potential unknown weak point.
 
[] Winter is Coming.
-[] Making it Livable
-[] Dawi Doctrine?
-[] Arming the Road Walkers x2
-[] Oh, the Wonders of Soap

2 actions on making our home more comfy and secure.
2 actions on helping the Road Walkers.
Continue making Soap.
 
I think we might want to hold on the Inspiration dice for a bit, until we decide to craft something significant to achieve something we Really Need Right Now. Currently, it is the only way to get Rare or Uncommon events, for example.

Yeah, engie workshop upgrade is very high priority given that it gives dice on a bunch of important things.

Other than that... Seriously, take a look at Making it Livable action - it is 1 wealth, autosux action that improves Margaret's living condition by *a lot*. She is currently sleeping on straw. What is she, an ascetic monk?
 
Botany could be useful considering the amount of magical plants that exist in the world.

Besides that are we able to make our own armor or is purchasing it our only option.
Looking for a Teacher would lead you towards having options to properly learn Blacksmithing among other things, so if you wanted to make your own that would be one of the places to start.
 
We should also definitely grab a melee combat skill in case we're disarmed or attacked while separated from Gromdottir somehow. I'm thinking Swordsmanship is the better choice, since that likely covers daggers and short swords that we can wield one-handed with Gromdottir if necessary, compared to Spearmanship which i think is just 2-handed weapons 🤔
 
BTW, while I say that maybe we should hold on spending Inspiration like water, Roadwalker Favor is genuinely farmable and applies to lotsathings.

edited bc silly typo
 
[ ] Plan Judicious Spending
-[] Furnishing Your Workshop, Pt. 1 +3 Favors
-[] Making it Livable
-[] Dawi Doctrine? +1 Inspiration
-[] Something of a Replacement +2 Inspiration
-[] Arming the Road Walkers

Cost:6
Possible Income: 2
7 to 9 wealth for next turn

I do want to keep on arming the road walkers to help them build back up while also giving us a wealth flow and working towards mastery on flintlocks.

@adwarf Soul should have 1 point of experience in it
I like this plan, save for a few issues. I already mentioned why I'm not too interested in doing Dawi Doctrine, but I'm really concerned about how many dice you're throwing at Furnishing. Using 3 Favors to potentially save 3 Wealth is not a winning proposition, since the former is harder to get than the latter. Right now, with no Favors used, we have a 69.37% chance of success, which isn't bad. One Favor, which is my preferred amount spent, shoots it up to 80.25%. Two favors pushes it up to 86.84%, and three gets us to 91.22%. I don't think the additional eleven percent chance of success is worth two Favors.

Also, I'd like to echo others concerns about spending Inspiration like water this turn. That stuff is really hard to obtain, and I don't want to waste it, especially since we don't know how much closer it will get us to having four successes instead of just two. Also, @adwarf, how does Inspiration work with actions where we put in multiple AP? Say we spend 2 AP and one Inspiration on Something of a Replacement. Does only one AP worth of dice get the bonus, or do both? If it's the latter, spending that amount of AP when we're only using one AP is really quite wasteful.

Now, we're going to have difficulties doing 2AP of research in a single turn with only 5 AP, but I suspect we may be getting another soon. Going by Mayto's Elf Blacksmith quest, improving our living conditions may increase our AP.
 
[ ] Plan workshop and steam
-[] Furnishing Your Workshop, Pt. 1 +1 Favors
-[] Making it Livable
-[] Dawi Doctrine?
-[] Something of a Replacement +1 Inspiration
-[] Steam Force Application

Steam Force Application is not the easiest project to work on but it is a steam one so if we do not want to face penalties due not working on steam in the future we should work on it every few turns.
 
Mayto's system is very different to this quest, but yes, not living like a beggar is reasonably likely to provide some bonuses. Or at least give +1 inspiration, lol.
 
I like this plan, save for a few issues. I already mentioned why I'm not too interested in doing Dawi Doctrine, but I'm really concerned about how many dice you're throwing at Furnishing. Using 3 Favors to potentially save 3 Wealth is not a winning proposition, since the former is harder to get than the latter. Right now, with no Favors used, we have a 69.37% chance of success, which isn't bad. One Favor, which is my preferred amount spent, shoots it up to 80.25%. Two favors pushes it up to 86.84%, and three gets us to 91.22%. I don't think the additional eleven percent chance of success is worth two Favors.
I am looking to get a crit on that because that might give us better upgrades for the workshop which should make some of our future actions easier. Just for getting it to finish this turn I would have gone for one favor but the chance at a crit seems worth a bit of fishing.

Also, I'd like to echo others concerns about spending Inspiration like water this turn. That stuff is really hard to obtain, and I don't want to waste it, especially since we don't know how much closer it will get us to having four successes instead of just two.
I am spending 2 inspiration on replacement because we need 2 successes for 1 point of progress though if i drop the dawi action for a 2nd arming that would save a point of inspiration
 
Also, @adwarf, how does Inspiration work with actions where we put in multiple AP? Say we spend 2 AP and one Inspiration on Something of a Replacement. Does only one AP worth of dice get the bonus, or do both? If it's the latter, spending that amount of AP when we're only using one AP is really quite wasteful.
Inspiration applies to only one action and one dice pool at a time, so if you spend 2 AP for Replacement and 1 Inspiration it'll only apply to the first pool rolled. Also, if you invest multiple Inspiration in a similar situation to that I'll spread them out evenly (or as evenly as possible) unless told to prioritize one dicepool.
 
@Hunter531 if it isn't too much of a bother, what would be the probability of producing Uncommon+ flintlock with Mastery, Engineering workshop upgrade, and, lets say, 5 inspiration?

13d6 at difficulty 2, I think. Thinking of maybe making a supergun for the next Road Walker field leader, presuming Alaric doesn't decide to become a blind samurai badass.
 
Last edited:
So a blacksmithing teacher is a must have if we want to use the smelter at all and make our things instead of ordering parts.

Would it be cheaper to make our own stuff instead of ordering gun parts?
 
So a blacksmithing teacher is a must have if we want to use the smelter at all and make our things instead of ordering parts.

Would it be cheaper to make our own stuff instead of ordering gun parts?
In the long term almost definitely, it'll just take some AP investment to get the Blacksmithing skill trained up.
 
I'd still like to do a full accounting of the security of our workshop, just so we don't get blindsided by a potential unknown weak point.
The former owner of this place was a Dwarf with reasonable concerns about the safety of him and his property given its proximity to Red Woodsman territory. That's a situation that brings out a Dawn's meticulous side. If there's a flaw in the security, we almost certainly won't be able to find it and definitely won't be able to fix it.
@Hunter531 if it isn't too much of a bother, what would be the probability of producing Uncommon+ flintlock with Mastery, Engineering workshop upgrade, and, lets say, 5 inspiration?

13d6 at difficulty 2, I think. Thinking of maybe making a supergun for the next Road Walker field leader, presuming Alaric doesn't decide to become a blind samurai badass.
No worries. We'd need 6 successes to make an Uncommon+ flintlock, and would have a dice pool of 11d6. Therefore, the odds of us making an Uncommon or better firearm would be 12.21%.
 
[] Plan Prepare... but Keep Our Head Down for the Bad Moon
-[] Better Armed and Armored - (NEW!!)
A few extra weapons and some armor could go a long way to keeping you alive when you end up in another scrap, though hopefully nothing quite on par with the last one. With an entire city to scour for choice there is certainly going to be something worth getting, it is just a question of what it'll cost you.
-[] Lessons with the Road Walkers - (NEW!!) You saw so many skills and such a wealth of knowledge from them during the hunt that could be helpful somewhere through your life or useful simply to the furthering of your inventions. With how close you are perhaps they could be convinced to help you learn some of that?
--[] Swordsmanship
-[] Making it Livable -
Short on money, increasingly obsessed with your work, and with an entire warehouse to call your own you've moved into the place on short notice. It is what someone might call less than comfortable, but far from the worst place you've ever slept. At least it has a roof and four walls. No rats rooting around in the corners either. Still, a bed wouldn't hurt. Or a pot and pan... Maybe a stool too.
-[] Furnishing Your Workshop, Pt. 1 - You've seen some of the greatest personal workshops in the entirety of the Empire born from the minds of Dawi with centuries of experience, Alchemists in their final years, Engineers at the height of their craft, and even the dens of reclusive geniuses that surpassed even yourself. Each and every last one of them was far, far better equipped than this empty space you now find you own. Tables, chairs, tools, glassware, partitioned chambers... So many things need done and so much is beyond your current means. However, some quality furniture and a more expansive set of tools would certainly help move things along.
--[] Use One Favor
-[] Arming the Road Walkers -
Alric, after learning a bit more of what you can do, has requested you help the Road Walkers modernize even more. He laid out an offer to cover the cost of materials and parts if you could handle the assembly. All told it seems a pretty steep investment to make though the man himself simply waves it off every time you bring it up.

Reasoning
  1. We should take this as soon as possible, especially with the Green Moon on the rise, nasty things can happen even in cities with it in the sky and better to have weapons and armor and not need them then to need them and not have them.
  2. Speaking of those weapons and armor, we really should learn how to fight in melee if we have to. The reason I chose a sword is that swords are back up weapons, they are things you can keep with you in city limits and not get a side eye as well as convenient to use. A spear is better as a weapon overall, but it is also more ungainly, socially and practically
  3. Not the most interesting thing granted, but we should really stop living on actual hay... and it does not cost that much
  4. This on the other hand is expensive, but we are an engineer. We need to have a decent grounding in engineering and this is as good a time as any to put the action in since we do not want to do anything big on the month with the Chaos Moon. Since this is such an important purchase I think we can afford to drop a favor on it to make sure it goes thought
  5. We should have at least one wealth generation action per turn if we can help it and in this case we can
 
Last edited:
[] Plan Shop and Shop Skills
-[] Furnishing Your Workshop, Pt. 1
-[] Making it Livable
-[] Dawi Doctrine?
-[] Something of a Replacement
-[] Looking for a Teacher Pt. 1
-[] Eureka! x1 (Something of a Replacement)
-[] Calling in Favors x2 (Furnishing Your Workshop, Pt. 1)(Looking for a Teacher)

Here is a modified plan that includes the teacher and replace our gun skills. We have time to complete the rest.
 
Last edited:
Voting is open
Back
Top