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omorkaToday's installment is going to be short, as I'm freaking exhausted and still have laundry to do.
Yet another GURPS Jorune installment:
Once again, this is liberally adapted from Skyrealms of Jorune 3rd ed.
Different realms on Jorune issue their own currency. However, the various realms under the Council of Ardoth have more or less standardized theirs together, and Jasp's is similar in the value of the coinage if not its appearance. Although there was a brief period when metal coinage was circulated in Burdoth, for the most part metals on Jorune are too scarce and too useful to be tied up in mediums of exchange. Prior to the issuance of metal coin, most transactions were technically bartered, but there was a generally agreed-upon system using quartz gems as semi-standardized values. Currently, the system in use is based on this old system, but each crystal has been drilled with a laser micro-drill in a pattern of holes that verifies that it has been inspected and issued by the offices of the Dharsage. (Jasp's and Thantier's crystal coinage lacks the precision of the drill pattern, usually bearing an etched image instead; theirs are far easier to counterfeit.)
The levels of coinage are:
Bit - 1/100 of a gemlink - a chip of quartz with a single drill hole Gemule - 1/10 of a gemlink - a hexagonal slice of clear quartz with three evenly spaced holes Gemlink - the "unit" of currency; the GURPS $ is one gemlink in this world - a clear quartz double-terminated crystal with three intersecting drill holes at each end Gem - 10 gemlinks - a double-terminated crystal of smoky quartz with three intersecting drill holes at one end Gemcluster - 100 gemlinks - a double-terminated crystal of amethyst with a single drill hole at one ends and a pair of intersecting drill holes at the other end Gemstar - 1000 gemlinks - a cabochon of star amethyst, with six drill holes between the "spokes"
All of these are commonly strung like beads on strong thread through the drill holes and worn as bracelets by those who need to make change.
A cheap meal - say, a wedge of geep's-milk cheese, two barley flatbreads, and a small bowl of mashed durlig root - costs about 3 gemlinks (or $3 in the GURPS notation; remember that the marking is merely whatever unit of currency is the common unit, not a literal dollar). For the most part, the equipment costs for anything appropriate to TL 3 and not made of metal is available for the prices marked in the Basic Set: Characters book. Anything normally made of bronze, copper, tin, or silver is 1.5 x the listed price. Anything normally made of iron, steel, or (not that this comes up often) gold is 2 x the listed price; steel of "fine" or "very fine" quality takes a multiplier of 3 x list price - and figure the list price using the normal rules for higher-quality weapons!
Note that most armor available will be hardened leather; breastplates and hauberks of lamellar hardened leather are common among mercenaries, bodyguards, and warriors who value stealth and agility. Plate armor, when available at all, is almost always bronze; scale armor and studded leather also usually use bronze as the metal. The techniques to make mail armor are available, but the time and metal it takes to make are both quite expensive. The members of the military elite who are not issued Earth-Tec armor usually get a bronze, or very rarely plate steel, set of armor very similar to the lorica segmentata (Roman banded armor). What regular heavy infantry or long-time militia members will be familiar with is a bronze breastplate, with a studded leather skirt protecting the groin and sleeves and leggings of leather; a wealthier one would add bronze greaves and armbands. Good soldiers who do not need stealth (and, if you're all armored up, it's probably not possible to be all that stealthy) are expected to shine their armor frequently; the dust, wind, moisture, and natural salts of Jorune cause unmaintained armor to dull and then corrode quickly. A shield, usually wooden, is of course always a good investment.
If a PC has a riding skill, it will almost certainly be for one of the following mounts:
Bochigon - $15,000 - tack and saddle $200 (+$100 per extra rider after the lead)
Horse - $6,000 - tack and saddle $100
Lothern - $7,500 - tack and saddle $120 (+$80 per extra rider after the lead)
Talmaron - $12,000 - tack and saddle $250
Thombo - $500 - Tack and saddle $60
As is probably obvious from the prices, the thombo is the most common and usually the most readily available. Thombos can be ridden or hitched to wagons; they are about 8' long from the nose to the end of their thick, blunt tails. Their back legs are long and powerful, while their front legs are shorter, and they can stand on four legs or two with equal ease. They move at a loping gait; they use all four feet in their power gait, as when pulling a plow or a durlig harness, but at higher speeds, their front limbs never hit the ground. Their front limbs are semi-prehensile; a thombo can pick up an object, although it has no fine manipulation skills. They have very small eyes, which can detect motion but little else; however, they have effective Tra-Vision and can sometimes detect isho-using creatures before they are visible. Their ears are small and close to the head; they have large nostrils and excellent senses of smell. They are somewhat skittish, especially around loud noises or lots of motion, and thus are not suitable as combat mounts.
Talmaron are eyeless winged creatures the size of a pony; they navigate by Tra-Vision and can gain altitude by riding upwelling isho currents. They have birdlike legs, a brush-like tail, a deep, muscular chest, a camel-like neck, and a wedge-shaped head with large ears and a pair of fleshy antennae; their hides are leathery, in shades of grey and tan, and covered with sparse, coarse black hair. They are reluctant to charge or attack another arial opponent, but are adept at swooping over a target to drop rocks, flaming oil, or other bombardments at an enemy on the ground.
Bochigon are very large mounts; a rider in the saddle is a full four meters above the ground, and a single bochigon can carry up to six sentients and their gear, although only one at a time can actually guide the beast. They have tree-trunk-like legs with one large toe and two smaller ones, supporting a long, muscular body shaped something like a camel's but covered in a rhinoceros-like hide. Their necks hang low from their massive shoulders, and their heads have short snouts, a short, blunt horn on the nose, tusks, and a bony frill protecting the joint of the skull and neck. Bochigon can be temperamental; if they decide they don't like a rider, they may try to trample him or her. However, with a rider they like, they are exceptional combat beasts; they are very hard to spook, almost never rear or buck, and have been known to protect a rider if he falls. They are smarter than most other mounts, and will not overwork themselves; rousing a resting bochigon is a difficult and dangerous proposition.
Lothern are smaller than the bochigon but still very large; a single lothern can carry up to three people plus all their gear, or pull a wagon carrying up to six. A lothern is about 12' from nose to rump, with another five feet of tail behind that; they have a large hump at the shoulders, followed by a sway, followed by another hump above the hips. A rider seated on the first hump will have his or her head about 12' off the ground; those seated in the middle back will have a vantage point about 9' up. (Most single-rider saddles put the rider on the shoulder hump, as it's difficult to see over it otherwise.) Their skin is pebbly, almost scaly, and usually in shades of brown and green, although rare blue and white specimens are bred for show. Their heads are cow-like except for the 8" tusks jutting from their mouths and their much shorter horns. They are not very good combat mounts, but neither will they panic if attacked; they usually crouch in place with their heads tucked low until the combat is over. In fact, they are generally docile; they seem to enjoy being climbed on by children. They do panic at the sight, sound, or smell of scragger, thrashing and rolling; the only way to prevent this is to blindfold the lothern if there are scragger about. A blindfolded lothern will freeze in place; if it cannot see, it will not move.
Horses on Jorune are much like horses on Earth, but the differing survival rates for the different types of horses have left only the sorts used as light warhorses and (much rarer) a few racehorses. The warhorses are the best choices for individual combat mounts, permitting the use of the lance. Horses are difficult and expensive to feed - a horse subsisting only on native Jorune grasses will not only grow weak and sickly, as a human living on native plants and animals will; the horse will die without other nutrients. Worse, they will not eat gerrig at all and turn their noses up at every part of the durlig except the blossom-shoots, which are only available in late summer. Usually grass and hay are supplemented with codditch and barley, and durlig blossoms when available.
Yet another GURPS Jorune installment:
Once again, this is liberally adapted from Skyrealms of Jorune 3rd ed.
Different realms on Jorune issue their own currency. However, the various realms under the Council of Ardoth have more or less standardized theirs together, and Jasp's is similar in the value of the coinage if not its appearance. Although there was a brief period when metal coinage was circulated in Burdoth, for the most part metals on Jorune are too scarce and too useful to be tied up in mediums of exchange. Prior to the issuance of metal coin, most transactions were technically bartered, but there was a generally agreed-upon system using quartz gems as semi-standardized values. Currently, the system in use is based on this old system, but each crystal has been drilled with a laser micro-drill in a pattern of holes that verifies that it has been inspected and issued by the offices of the Dharsage. (Jasp's and Thantier's crystal coinage lacks the precision of the drill pattern, usually bearing an etched image instead; theirs are far easier to counterfeit.)
The levels of coinage are:
All of these are commonly strung like beads on strong thread through the drill holes and worn as bracelets by those who need to make change.
A cheap meal - say, a wedge of geep's-milk cheese, two barley flatbreads, and a small bowl of mashed durlig root - costs about 3 gemlinks (or $3 in the GURPS notation; remember that the marking is merely whatever unit of currency is the common unit, not a literal dollar). For the most part, the equipment costs for anything appropriate to TL 3 and not made of metal is available for the prices marked in the Basic Set: Characters book. Anything normally made of bronze, copper, tin, or silver is 1.5 x the listed price. Anything normally made of iron, steel, or (not that this comes up often) gold is 2 x the listed price; steel of "fine" or "very fine" quality takes a multiplier of 3 x list price - and figure the list price using the normal rules for higher-quality weapons!
Note that most armor available will be hardened leather; breastplates and hauberks of lamellar hardened leather are common among mercenaries, bodyguards, and warriors who value stealth and agility. Plate armor, when available at all, is almost always bronze; scale armor and studded leather also usually use bronze as the metal. The techniques to make mail armor are available, but the time and metal it takes to make are both quite expensive. The members of the military elite who are not issued Earth-Tec armor usually get a bronze, or very rarely plate steel, set of armor very similar to the lorica segmentata (Roman banded armor). What regular heavy infantry or long-time militia members will be familiar with is a bronze breastplate, with a studded leather skirt protecting the groin and sleeves and leggings of leather; a wealthier one would add bronze greaves and armbands. Good soldiers who do not need stealth (and, if you're all armored up, it's probably not possible to be all that stealthy) are expected to shine their armor frequently; the dust, wind, moisture, and natural salts of Jorune cause unmaintained armor to dull and then corrode quickly. A shield, usually wooden, is of course always a good investment.
If a PC has a riding skill, it will almost certainly be for one of the following mounts:
Bochigon - $15,000 - tack and saddle $200 (+$100 per extra rider after the lead)
Horse - $6,000 - tack and saddle $100
Lothern - $7,500 - tack and saddle $120 (+$80 per extra rider after the lead)
Talmaron - $12,000 - tack and saddle $250
Thombo - $500 - Tack and saddle $60
As is probably obvious from the prices, the thombo is the most common and usually the most readily available. Thombos can be ridden or hitched to wagons; they are about 8' long from the nose to the end of their thick, blunt tails. Their back legs are long and powerful, while their front legs are shorter, and they can stand on four legs or two with equal ease. They move at a loping gait; they use all four feet in their power gait, as when pulling a plow or a durlig harness, but at higher speeds, their front limbs never hit the ground. Their front limbs are semi-prehensile; a thombo can pick up an object, although it has no fine manipulation skills. They have very small eyes, which can detect motion but little else; however, they have effective Tra-Vision and can sometimes detect isho-using creatures before they are visible. Their ears are small and close to the head; they have large nostrils and excellent senses of smell. They are somewhat skittish, especially around loud noises or lots of motion, and thus are not suitable as combat mounts.
Talmaron are eyeless winged creatures the size of a pony; they navigate by Tra-Vision and can gain altitude by riding upwelling isho currents. They have birdlike legs, a brush-like tail, a deep, muscular chest, a camel-like neck, and a wedge-shaped head with large ears and a pair of fleshy antennae; their hides are leathery, in shades of grey and tan, and covered with sparse, coarse black hair. They are reluctant to charge or attack another arial opponent, but are adept at swooping over a target to drop rocks, flaming oil, or other bombardments at an enemy on the ground.
Bochigon are very large mounts; a rider in the saddle is a full four meters above the ground, and a single bochigon can carry up to six sentients and their gear, although only one at a time can actually guide the beast. They have tree-trunk-like legs with one large toe and two smaller ones, supporting a long, muscular body shaped something like a camel's but covered in a rhinoceros-like hide. Their necks hang low from their massive shoulders, and their heads have short snouts, a short, blunt horn on the nose, tusks, and a bony frill protecting the joint of the skull and neck. Bochigon can be temperamental; if they decide they don't like a rider, they may try to trample him or her. However, with a rider they like, they are exceptional combat beasts; they are very hard to spook, almost never rear or buck, and have been known to protect a rider if he falls. They are smarter than most other mounts, and will not overwork themselves; rousing a resting bochigon is a difficult and dangerous proposition.
Lothern are smaller than the bochigon but still very large; a single lothern can carry up to three people plus all their gear, or pull a wagon carrying up to six. A lothern is about 12' from nose to rump, with another five feet of tail behind that; they have a large hump at the shoulders, followed by a sway, followed by another hump above the hips. A rider seated on the first hump will have his or her head about 12' off the ground; those seated in the middle back will have a vantage point about 9' up. (Most single-rider saddles put the rider on the shoulder hump, as it's difficult to see over it otherwise.) Their skin is pebbly, almost scaly, and usually in shades of brown and green, although rare blue and white specimens are bred for show. Their heads are cow-like except for the 8" tusks jutting from their mouths and their much shorter horns. They are not very good combat mounts, but neither will they panic if attacked; they usually crouch in place with their heads tucked low until the combat is over. In fact, they are generally docile; they seem to enjoy being climbed on by children. They do panic at the sight, sound, or smell of scragger, thrashing and rolling; the only way to prevent this is to blindfold the lothern if there are scragger about. A blindfolded lothern will freeze in place; if it cannot see, it will not move.
Horses on Jorune are much like horses on Earth, but the differing survival rates for the different types of horses have left only the sorts used as light warhorses and (much rarer) a few racehorses. The warhorses are the best choices for individual combat mounts, permitting the use of the lance. Horses are difficult and expensive to feed - a horse subsisting only on native Jorune grasses will not only grow weak and sickly, as a human living on native plants and animals will; the horse will die without other nutrients. Worse, they will not eat gerrig at all and turn their noses up at every part of the durlig except the blossom-shoots, which are only available in late summer. Usually grass and hay are supplemented with codditch and barley, and durlig blossoms when available.
