The Twice-baked Honey Cake conundrum

[Indur Dawndeath]

Not quite sure if I follow you on the market pool part.

I am quite new to TOR, to RPGs in general for that matter, and I have not read anything mentioning a marketing pool or what so ever. Is this something from a supplement or might this be a AiME thing?

It is from rules from the Lake Town supplement.

Yep! The Lake-town Sourcebook introduces the new undertaking Go to the Market-pool which allows heroes to spend 2 Treasure to acquire one of a selection of items that gives them a + 1 bonus to all rolls made using a corresponding skill. I am not sure, though, that this mechanic should be allowed to acquire Twice-baked Honey Cakes, except perhaps as a one-time purchase applicable only to one Adventure phase.

In addition, the sourcebook provides guidance for using coinage in TOR with a price list for some items that might be purchased in Lake-town. 2 Treasure = 2 gold pieces = 40 silver pennies.

I mentioned the Market Pool because there we have a mechanic to buy travel supplies that will grant a +1 bonus to Travel.
If used in Beorns land, it could be called something else, but the benefit should remain the same for a permanent bonus of +1 until another rank in Travel is gained.
If the bonus is only during the next adventure, I would grant +2 or even +4 to Travel in a specific region.

[Corvo]

I would go for a simpler, less granular solution
During this travel you eat those wonderful cakes made by Beorn: everybody takes one bonus dice for the travel.

[Otaku-sempai]

I mentioned the Market Pool because there we have a mechanic to buy travel supplies that will grant a +1 bonus to Travel.
If used in Beorns land, it could be called something else, but the benefit should remain the same for a permanent bonus of +1 until another rank in Travel is gained.
If the bonus is only during the next adventure, I would grant +2 or even +4 to Travel in a specific region.

Those are ideas, but I didn't want to potentially devalue the Cultural Virtue for the Honey Cakes.

[Geomtje]

I mentioned the Market Pool because there we have a mechanic to buy travel supplies that will grant a +1 bonus to Travel.
If used in Beorns land, it could be called something else, but the benefit should remain the same for a permanent bonus of +1 until another rank in Travel is gained.
If the bonus is only during the next adventure, I would grant +2 or even +4 to Travel in a specific region.

Those are ideas, but I didn't want to potentially devalue the Cultural Virtue for the Honey Cakes.

Fair point! The Virtue should still be desireable enough for a player to get. So I would personally say that any non-virtue twice baked honey cakes should be less effective or very expensieve. If the PC are actually able to find a Beorning (or maybe only Beorn) and beeing able to be compelling/convincing enough to receive it.

If you want your PCs to be able to get the twice baked honey cakes without the Virtue that is.

[Glorelendil]

Fair point! The Virtue should still be desireable enough for a player to get. So I would personally say that any non-virtue twice baked honey cake’s should be less effective or very expensieve. If the PC are actually able to find a Beorning (or maybe only Beorn) and beeing able to be compelling/convincing enough to receive it.

If you want your PCs to be able to get the twice baked honey cakes without the Virtue that is.

And that's the question: why do you (or would you) want to make them available?

[Falenthal]

Can't your characters just get "honey sandwiches" from the beornings?
Why do they HAVE to get Twice-baked HCs?
They don't all have mithril coats, or Nogrod-forged swords, right?

When they use their Bonus dice from the Preliminary rolls for Travels, then they can say "Beorn gave us some juicy bread with honey. Not the TBHC, but close to it."

I don't know why it is so important that a secret receipe is sold and gifted all over Wilderland.
What about Cram? In fact, I think Cram is widely sold to anyone willing to pay for it, and also has similar travelling benefits. Give them Cram instead of THBC and you are good to go.

[Rich H]

Can't your characters just get "honey sandwiches" from the beornings?
Why do they HAVE to get Twice-baked HCs?
They don't all have mithril coats, or Nogrod-forged swords, right?

I know these are somewhat rhetorical but its that age-old issue that players see something 'mundane' in a game and something that is a perishable/easy-to-produce item and just think it should be easily and readily available. Its a state of mind within some players; similar to those that have problems with a weapon being enhanced without any significant change to it or worse the quality being 'transferred' to another weapon or even worse the quality not being available to another character if they borrow/use the weapon. Some of us just don't get the idea of narrative importance within game mechanics so see everything as we would in the real world and forget we are playing a game often citing what the realistic option would be as justification to alter or challenge the rules.

Let the PCs buy or trade TBHC's. They'll be tasty and lovely but will give no in-game bonuses. Beorn and his folk keep the 'good stuff' for themselves and Beornings only share them on adventures with their Fellowship; everyone else can go whistle. You could go for even more magical reasoning as to why those sold carry no benefits either, but I wouldn't explain those to players, I'd let them try to figure it out when they don't get what they want out of them - which could lead to some interesting in-and-out-of-game discussions about greed, duty, offerings, empowerment through friendship, etc.

[Falenthal]

Let the PCs buy or trade TBHC's. They'll be tasty and lovely but will give no in-game bonuses. Beorn and his folk keep the 'good stuff' for themselves...

That's what italians do with their good red wine when they try to sell you Lambrusco (which no italian would ever drink)!

[Geomtje]

Thanks for your input everybody! I was hesitant to make TBHC available to my PCs, afraid for it losing its value. So I am glad that you guys are on the same wave length and that it isn’t just me.

Thanks as well for the tips regarding other possibilities instead of TBHC, it really helped me to get a better perspective on the matter!

[Glorelendil]

When they use their Bonus dice from the Preliminary rolls for Travels, then they can say "Beorn gave us some juicy bread with honey. Not the TBHC, but close to it."

Perfect.

That’s always my answer to “how do I Sneak Attack?” You spend your bonus dice and describe it as a backstab.