6. City Actions
When you visit the City, you have some downtime in which to pursue your own interests. You might relax in the hot springs, track down the answers to thorny questions, or feed the poor. These activities are represented by City Actions. During each trip made to the City, each adventurer can perform one City Action.
A list of common City Actions should be provided to the players by the GM. In general, the GM will assemble this list by combining the standard list of actions (found below) with a unique list of actions based on the districts of the City discovered by using the rules in Appendix D: City Creation, see The Districts.
It would be impossible for the list of City Actions to be exhaustive. The City is the largest metropolis in the Wide World and, as such, just about anything is possible. Players, if you have a weird idea, ask your GM if it’s possible. GMs, use your common sense and this list to model new actions for your players.
Note that most every action except for Beg and Busk requires lump sums of cash to initiate.
Banking
Put that money away for a rainy day. Store your extra items and coin in Cult-run banks.
Every City Phase, your total gold investment has a 2% return on investment.
Your gear is safe.
Beg and Busk
Sing for coin in streets and winesinks.
- Draw from the minor arcana deck. You gain gold equal to the numerical value of your draw + Wands attribute.
Build
Invest your money to build something that will last. Something that will calcify and become the bones of the City itself.
Use this action to build statues and fountains, start a tavern, buy a house, or create other permanent structures in the City.
Talk to your GM about what you want. If it’s reasonable, the GM will tell you which artisan can design it for you.
Describe your project in a few words. The price for a building project equals 50 gold per syllable of the building’s description. Examples: buffoonish gargoyle that looks like your rival (550g), statue in a busy square (350g), church bell (100g), extravagant monastery (400g)
Camp Action
Though somewhat smaller in scope than City Actions, any Camp Action (Camp Actions) can be performed as a City Action, e.g., Use a Talent, Use an Item, etc.
Carouse
Spend everything you earned on drinking and whoring.
If you spend 50% of the gold you brought back, you get 1XP.
If you spend 100% of the gold you brought back, you get 2XP.
In addition, the GM draws a major arcana and consults the Hangover table on the next page to see if there are any complications later.
Carousing is an easy, micro-math way to get a meaningful benefit. It emulates genre staples of heroes like Conan or Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser frittering away last adventure’s booty and starting each story dead broke.
Anything in brackets [ ] refers to the top card of the minor arcana discard pile. Sometimes brackets provide numerical values—for example, “[value] in gold coins” provides a number of gold coins equal to the value of the card. Sometimes brackets provide a random result within the table’s entry based on the suit of the card.
| Card | Hangover |
|---|---|
| I | You awaken with a headache and [value] new gold coins in your pocket. |
| II | You awaken in the stocks, having been left there to sober up. A little bruised, but no worse for wear. Your guild has a chance to make fun of you and throw tomatoes before you’re let out. |
| III | A cowbell has been hung around your neck by a steel chain. The chain is too small to remove over your head, and you don’t have the key to the lock. You clang while you walk until you solve this problem. |
| IV | You awaken with a marriage ring on your finger, but no memory of who you married. |
| V | You awaken in a strange room, heavy pounding on the door. The people on the other side are very angrily demanding their money back. |
| VI | You awaken with a marriage ring on a finger. The finger isn’t yours. |
| VII | You awaken next to a [even] High Priest / [odd] High Priestess. They thank you for helping them break their vows, and showing them what it means to be happy. |
| VIII | You are thrown through the window of your usual watering hole. “And stay out!” the proprietor adds. You are banned from your favorite tavern. |
| IX | You awaken with a new tattoo. • The tattoo is on your: [Swords] arm, [Pentacles] leg, [Cups] backside, [Wands] face. • It is: [1–2] horribly offensive, [3–8] cringe and misspelled, [9–King] pretty sweet. |
| X | You awaken in an alley. Hobos around you seem to be wearing your clothes and armor. But you’re wearing theirs, so… even trade? |
| XI | A letter is delivered to your room. It’s from a local aristocrat and they have accepted your invitation to a duel. The duel is in [value] days. |
| XII | You awaken in the muck of a cistern wearing only your smallclothes. All the other items you had on you are missing as well. |
| XIII | You don’t remember exactly what you did, but by the wanted posters lining the streets you can guess it wasn’t good. Choose based on the card’s suit: [Swords] armed robbery, [Pentacles] attempted pick-pocketing, [Cups] lewd acts, [Wands] consorting with dark entities. |
| XIV | You find an invoice in your pouch: “Sold: One (1) soul for one (1) beer.” Your signature and an infernal symbol seal the contract. |
| XV | You awaken to the sounds of sobbing. There seems to be a nobleman hogtied and gagged on your floor. How strange. |
| XVI | Why are you naked and wearing a fake bull’s head? Why does this shop have nothing but broken plates and smashed glass? Why are the shopkeeper and constables so angry and yelling? |
| XVII | Luckily, it only burns when you pass water. |
| XVIII | You back your way out of a blackout wrapped in a warm snuggly robe standing in a candle lit room. It’s nice. “The dark pact is complete,” a deep baritone voice says, “Go forth, my brothers, and see that our lord’s will be done.” ... Wait, what? |
| XIX | Where the hells is your hand? Why can you feel it crawling? |
| XX | You remember agreeing to a dare. It had something to do with a candle and flatulence. • You find that: [Swords] a district is burnt down [Pentacles] two districts are burnt down [Cups] three districts are burnt down [Wands] as Cups, but a fire spirit is still roaming the City, and the sorcerers are pissed. |
| XXI | Did you always have those circular puncture marks on your neck? I’m sure it’ll be fiiiine. |
Commission Craft
Is there something you want that can’t be found in the Omphalic Market? Commission a bespoke version, all shiny and new.
Talk to your GM about what you want. If it’s reasonable, the GM will tell you which merchant can craft it for you.
Describe it in a few words. The price for a commissioned craft is as follows:
1 gold per syllable of the commission if it’s something a farmer might have. Examples: scrimshaw pipe (3g), tricorn hat (3g), pan flute (2g), wooden dentures (4g)
5 gold per syllable of the commission if it’s something an adventurer might have. Examples: helmet with a candle holder (40g), imp trap (10g), silverthread bug net (25g)
10 gold per syllable of the commission if it’s something a noble might have. Examples: mirror masquerade mask (60g), cloth of gold gown (40g), lion-themed parade armor (70g), bespoke clothing (40g)
25 gold per syllable of the commission if it’s something that nobody has—something brand new. Examples: prosthetic leg (100g), manticore saddle (125g), decorative harpy wings (175g)
The fewer details you provide, the more details the GM will supplement. If you have a clear picture in mind, articulate what you want using the name of the item. No fair saying you want a “set of ten-foot mechanical articulate tongs” by just saying “Long tongs.”
“Reasonableness” is up to the GM. We don’t really truck with steampunk machinery or firearms or whatever, but maybe your table is different.
Assuming that the adventurer has an appropriate motif that establishes them as a craftsman, the adventurer can be the one actually making the item. The prices are the same: the gold is spent on renting a workshop and supplying raw materials.
Hold a Funeral
Haul your dead friends out of the Underworld and say some nice words over them.
That player’s new adventurer retains a portion of their previous adventurer’s XP.
Each 1XP reclaimed by the new adventurer costs 100 gold worth of funeral expenses.
Prepare Components
Barter with talismongers, engage in midnight rituals, and venture outside the City to gather herbs in the darkness of the new moon. When you use this action, fill your pack with as many spell components from Appendix A as you wish. Each component takes up one pack slot.
Research
Investigate a topic of your choice by spending money to pay bribes to librarians, buy coffee to stay awake during long reading sessions, and get people drunk enough to talk.
Spend 50 gold to test Cups.
On a success, you can ask the GM one question about any subject.
If you have a great success, you can ask three.
Support
Some actions are one-and-done, e.g., you go gambling and lose your hard-earned coin all in a night. In contrast, Support involves taking one step on a long road. Use this action to represent long-term scheming on large, multistep projects.
Large projects are broken up into several steps. How many steps a project requires is determined by its complexity, as determined by the GM. The more complex a project, the more steps that it takes.
Complexity usually ranges between 2–8. Simple projects might only need two or three steps to complete, whereas complex ones need as many as eight.
You make one step toward project completion by spending money in a way that supports your goals. Players must suggest a way that they would spend their coin to benefit their goals. The GM must agree that this action will move the needle on their long-term project and set an appropriate price.
Once a player has fulfilled a number of steps equal to the project’s complexity, the project is complete.
Train
Seek out an expert and study under them. Talk to the GM about what talent you want to learn. The GM will tell you who is available to train you.
Spend 50 gold per 1XP you want to invest on the new talent.
Prepare as many uses of that talent as you have XP invested.
See Talents for full details about training talents.