Permanent possessions and wealth in Donjon

[DrAwkward]

I'm not quite sure if I've got this straight, so bear with me.  I just got Donjon, and was reading through the section on wealth and items, and found two things that were confusing.  First, there's the section on permanent possessions.  You get one weapon, one piece of armour, and one other item, until you get the ability to carry more at higher levels.  My first question is therefore: do you automatically get that one weapon, armour, and item, or do you need to buy them?  What happens if your character only fights with a specific weapon, like the example ability "swing elvish sword" from the weapons & armour section, and you muck up your wealth test to buy that weapon?  Does the character grudgingly make a wealth test for a generic short sword to fill in until he can get a weapon that lets him use his ability?  Or is there some rule I'm missing that says that if you have an ability contingent on having a kind of item, you get a better chance at that item when you start out at level 1?

Secondly, there's the related issue of the example character Fiera, who has flaming breath.  The GM makes her buy a weapon with a damage rating of 3 to stand in for having her breath do damage.  Now, that's supposed to take the place of the regular "you get one weapon," right?  She can't also keep a longsword from adventure to adventure, unless she gives up the firey breath.  If she decides that she wants to pick up and keep a magical dagger, she has to give up her main ability, at least until she gains an extra possession slot.  However, it seems that she would be better served by a magic item that improves the firey breath of dragon-like creatures, and that's what she would be looking to find as treasure instead of magic swords and stuff.

Further, if she somehow mucks up her wealth tests when she first buys her gear in town, she might end up without a weapon, but she could still use her breath to set things on fire until she managed to get her "special food" somehow.  Is that right?  It seems as though since she has a starting Wealth of 3 dice, and a Sociality of 1 die, she'd be rolling a maximum of 4 dice when buying her flaming breath.  And if the merchant markup is 3, as is standard, then the GM is rolling 6 dice, and so she's more likely than not to fail the wealth roll, and not to be able to get her flaming breath when she starts play.  Is that the intention?

Also, is there some general rule that if an ability does damage (like this flaming breath or the "hands of flame" example from the Abilities section), you need to buy it as though it were a weapon?  That would make sense from the above example, but I don't see it spelled out anywhere.

Thanks a lot for the great game.  I hope I can sort all of this out, so's I can get to playin'.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Dr. Awkward,

Almost all of your assumptions are correct.

You do have to pay for/acquire starting equipment. Yep, you might not get what you want at first. Donjon characters start poor and hungry. In my experience, they don't stay that way too long. (An "elvish sword" shouldn't cost more than a normal sword, though, unless I don't remember something.)

As for the general rule about abilities and secret damage and weapons, there's not one. That's an example on an on-the-fly GM ruling. I'd stick with it: if a player is trying to sneak more damage into an ability that also increases chance to hit, make them pay for it.

[DrAwkward]

That's great.  Thanks for the prompt response.  I plan to inflict the mushroom king on my gaming group before too long.  I'm sure they'll love this game.

[DrAwkward]

One more question, so I figured I'd post it in the same thread here.  What is a town's hospitality rating good for?  I came up with two uses for it myself: first, players could make spending tests versus the town's hospitality if they want to "use the facilities," that is, if they want to stay in an inn, buy a horse, hire a page, rent a canary, etc.  Anything not covered by provisions or arms/armour.  Second, it's a mnemonic device to remember what the general state of the tourist industry in town is like.

Of course, the short descriptions of the sample towns in the rules are more useful for the second idea, and if the characters have to use wealth to spend the night in an inn, they'll probably take to sleeping on the streets very quickly to preserve their precious wealth dice, no matter how cheap the inn is.

I've tried to comb through and discover some rule of hospitality, but I can't find one.  Can you fill me in?

[Clinton R. Nixon]

One more question, so I figured I'd post it in the same thread here.  What is a town's hospitality rating good for?  I came up with two uses for it myself: first, players could make spending tests versus the town's hospitality if they want to "use the facilities," that is, if they want to stay in an inn, buy a horse, hire a page, rent a canary, etc.  Anything not covered by provisions or arms/armour.  Second, it's a mnemonic device to remember what the general state of the tourist industry in town is like.

Of course, the short descriptions of the sample towns in the rules are more useful for the second idea, and if the characters have to use wealth to spend the night in an inn, they'll probably take to sleeping on the streets very quickly to preserve their precious wealth dice, no matter how cheap the inn is.

I've tried to comb through and discover some rule of hospitality, but I can't find one.  Can you fill me in?

You've actually got it down pat. Remember, Donjon is a homage to some old school playing.

Why did you spend 3gp a night for an inn room in red box D&D? I did it too, and I don't know why. It's there for useless expenses. In addition, I have seen some groups actually play In Town more than the rules stated. If you wanted to do that, spending money at an inn, on food, or whatever could be a big help.