Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Prospecting for Metals

Access to rare metals could make or break the fortunes of a civilization. When PCs wish to secure a stronghold, it is natural they should seek out these resources. Propecting on their own holdings may reveal hidden sources of stability and wealth.

Prospecting requires a successful 5th level complexity one skill challenge. (The skill challenge is a 4e mechanic but can be adapted to any AD&D edition with the use of nonweapon proficiencies or skills.)

Prospecting for Metals Skill Challenge (5th Level)
Prospecting is time consuming, back breaking work with little chance of overnight success. Long hours are spent in cold mountain streams and dismal bogs sifting for rare materials.

Complexity:
1 (4 successes before 3 failures)
Primary Skill:
Dungeoneering - Moderate 5th level DC (15)
Secondary Skills:
History (1 use) - gives +2 bonus, Knowledge of past assay attempts.
Perception (1 use) - gives +2 bonus, A close eye is kept out for tell tale signs.
Endurance (1 use) - gives +2 bonus, Extra hours of back breaking labor.
All Moderate 5th level DC (15)
Time Required:
1 month
Area Covered:
1 five mile hex
Success:
One roll on the METAL PROSPECTING CHART.
Failure:
No results.
Reward:
200 XP

METAL PROSPECTING CHART (d100)
% chance / metal / frequency
01-94 Nothing of value in this area.
95-99 Iron 5% of Crust
00 Roll on RARE METALS CHART

RARE METALS CHART (d100)

% chance / metal / frequency
01-50 Zinc 75 parts per million
51-91 Copper 60 ppm
92-97 Lead 10 ppm
98 Tin 2 ppm
99 Arsenic 2 ppm
00 Roll for VERY RARE METALS CHART

VERY RARE METALS CHART (d100)
% chance / metal / frequency
01-57 Antimony 0.2 ppm
58-78 Silver 0.08 ppm
79-97 Mercury 0.07 ppm
98 Platinum 0.004 ppm
99 Gold 0.003 ppm
00 Roll for FANTASIC METALS CHART

FANTASIC METALS CHART DM's Pick
metal / suggested effect
Fey Iron (Radiant)
Shadow Iron (Necrotic)
Star Iron (Psychic)
Orichalcum (Force)
Mithril (lighter)
Adamantium (stronger)
Uxoricore (Fire)
Uru (Thunder)
Black Orichalcum (Psychic, Force)
Etc...

Prospecting is a time consuming undertaking and the appropriate random encounter rolls should be made.

Once a metal is discovered, it must be extracted which I'll detail in a future post. Placer mining was the most common method but shaft mining is also a possibility, especially in Dwarven operations.

I leave it to the DM to determine the details of any fantastic metal discovered but the rewards for successful extraction should be significant.

These charts should be taken with a grain of salt. For example, historically lead was collected at several times the quanity of copper, despite being more rare. This probably was because lead was in some way easier to extract than copper. Also, lead was often found with other metals such as copper, zinc and silver but this chart only produces a single metal on a successful role.

For more detailed information on various metals one might encounter in a D&D game, check out the recent post on The Tao of D&D about mining and metals.

8 comments:

  1. You could set % for each metal and roll separately for each. Then a territory might have none, one or several metals.

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  2. @theorder

    I thought about it but for simplicity's sake and to avoid burdening game play with a series of d1000 and d10000 rolls I chose a single, exploding roll. Other than iron, the metals listed above are pretty rare. Even on a successful skill challenge, the players are probably going to wind up empty handed so I'd rather have them rip that band aid off quick. This is just per 5 mile hex so missing out on an extra metal or two isn't a big deal. A 25 mile hex has even more chances at potential mines and a province of several 25 mile hexes has even more.

    Balancing easy game play verses a higher fidelity to realism has been the trickiest part of this endeavor. It's a fine line.

    Thanks for your comment!

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  3. I'm probably being overly nitpicking but, at least in my Shadowrun book (I don't have any D&D book that talks about it) Orichalcum is an alloy. Is this included in the prospecting tables because: A. It's not in this setting, B. All the metals needed to create it are there, or C. The area is naturally high in magic and the elements combined naturally?

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  4. My source for orichalcum is from Plato who described it as a metal orginating from Atlantis. Later, the Romans believed it was an alloy due to a mistranslation from Greek to Latin and thereafter all and any comers debated its "real" composition. Which is all fairly moot as it's a mythical substance and it can therefor be whatever you'd like it to be in your game.

    As for its properities, I use the Judges' Guild Wilderlands stats which I don't have handy to quote from right now. Easy to enchant as I recall and I added that it's particularly useful in creating items with a force effect keyword. (I cribbed that from the world of Indiana Jones, where the Atlanteans used it as an energy source.) I do remember that the especially rare black orichalcum was a sentient and protean metal than could take the shape desired by its wielder assuming the metal could be bested in a battle of egos. It's probably useful in creating constructs as well. The largest blob of black orichalcum is a primortal in my campaign world and is worshipped as a living god by a clan of dwarves.

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  5. Sounds similar as far as properties. :D I wonder if Vesna's Sword was made of Black Orichalcum?

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  6. As far as I know, Bob Bledsaw of Judges' Guild made up black orichalcum himself as I've never seen it referenced anywhere else. I'm sure he took the idea of it's sentient from similar existing rules in D&D. It's been ages since I've looked at Shadowrun book and I don't recall any of the bits about fantastic materials from there. Maybe they got it from Bledsaw?

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  7. Maybe. I'll post a more detailed description of what Orichalcum does once I've looked it up. I don't think I've seen Black Orichalcum anywhere either.

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  8. "Orichalcum is a magical alloy of copper, gold, silver, and mercury, a metallurgical nightmare that cannot even exist without magic. It is a rich yellow-orange color, and legend has it that it was discovered in Atlantis.

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