While working on WotGS stuff, I see from the ToEE PnP module that there are supposed to be 18 badgers in Hommlet. In our ToEE there are 10 (5 inside the castle and 5 outside). Should we add 8 more? (This doesn't affect WotGS at all except superficially.)
Extra BB would be useful if a) PCs get butcher of Hommlet Reputation or b) Hommlet is attacked. Suggestions: a. 2 BB armed with longbows stationed on the roof of the keep during the day. I would likely give these Badgers feats: Far Shot (increases range by 50%), Weapon Focus (Longbow). Issue: If the PCs enter combat with them I don't know if the PCs will be able to end combat by running away. If so, you may not want to do this. b. If PCs have Butcher of Hommlet reputation and are level 4+ let there be additional BB - armed with swords - in the keep protecting Burne and Rufuse and give them feats to match. Weapon Focus: Longsword, Dodge, Combat Reflexes. This would make slaying Burnes and Rufus slightly more difficult. c.If PCs have Butcher of Hommlet Reputation let their be a patrol of 8 badgers led by Renten (if Alive) and Elmo (if Alive) and accompanied by a new Cleric of St. Cuthbert (Level 6) from Verbobonc in Hommlet looking for the PCs. Perhaps this patrol is accompanied by Terjon if he is still alive and waiting for the PCs inside the Inn or inside the Temple of Saint Cuthbert.
There's actually an infinity currently - if you go Butcher of Hommlet, Hommlet becomes a yellow tent area, with rest encounters consisting of a small group of badgers. It's actually a left over from the old Traders mod, and it was supposed to halt after a certain point, except their modded san_dying script isn't in the mod. Burne and Rufus would also eventually spawn in the rest encounters (if they were alive), and after that no more encounters would be had. Anyway, re. those 8 badgers, I don't mind it either way, do as you see fit.
There's already two up there, though I'm not sure what weapons they have. They're really only there for show, as you can only enagage them while on the parapet level map, not the Hommlet exterior map (which means they lose all their elevation and access advantages - shame). I guess I'm not terribly worried about contingencies (for my own purposes at least). If we were to add 8 more, I think we'd just add four to the tower (which would satisfy your comments above) and four to the town, from the get-go and permanently. To be specific, my angle on this is: in WotGS, Hommlet is going to be attacked by a small army of Hextor. The badgers are the nominal town law enforcement, so I need to figure out how to portray them during this crisis (which I already have). 10 is a low number for a police force, so I'm mainly wondering if there should be more, and voila, the module says there's supposed to be more, so ... The badgers aren't going to be doing any fighting during the attack, so their specs are irrelevent for WotGS. The main concern I have with scenarios like this is that they send you down a road you can never come back from, and ToEE doesn't deal with that sort of thing well. e.g. if you get the rep and eventually Terjon comes for you and you kill him, no more Terjon and his plot points for the rest of the game. Plus, by rights this would cause the law to come down on you full force (as opposed to killing random Hommlet village man), so unless we wanted a WTF- no-one-gives-a-damn moment we'd have to script for that contingency, which would lead to other contingencies, and then all of a sudden we've got a modding monstrosity on our hands. I handled this very differently and pragmatically in Verbobonc, the method for which puts a strain on credibility but aids playablility: you get to buy your way out of any murder (except for the big shots). That would never fly in the real world, but if we did this aspect real-world, it would basically shut down your game. Okay. I guess I'm not really worried about that ... it's probably unlikely that anyone would push it so far as to strain credulity anyway (rest in Hommlet so much that you kill 150 badgers, etc.) I think I will put them in then. I did forget the one in the WW though, so I guess we'll add 7. I'm also going to add four clerics of St. Cuthbert to the church. The module doesn't say how many there are, but it does mention them (clerics do this, clerics do that, etc.). There will be two level 1 clerics and two level 2 clerics. I always thought it was weird that the church had only Terjon and Calmert (and Ronald). [edit] So I put 6 more in the tower (2 parapet exterior, 2 main hall, 1 upper hall, 1 lower hall) and one in the Grove.
