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Sunday, February 15, 2026

B/X - Carousing For Your Campaign

The B/X Carousing Procedure


FRONT (3x5) — B/X CAROUSING (HOUSE PROCEDURE)


1) SPEND (gold is gone):

   Light:    50 gp × level

   Standard: 100 gp × level

   Hard:     200 gp × level


2) INTENT (matters on high rolls):

   Rumors / Contacts / Heat Dump / Blow Off Steam


3) ROLL:

   2d6 + CHA


4) BAND:

   2–5  TROUBLE

   6–8  MIXED

   9–11 GOOD

   12+  GREAT


5) BASE RUMORS (always, by spend):

   Light 1 / Standard 2 / Hard 3


TROUBLE (2–5): +Roll 1 Trouble

   Heat Dump: reroll Trouble once (must take new)

   Steam: roll 2 Troubles, take worse


MIXED (6–8): choose 1

   Complication OR Owed Favor OR Contact-with-a-Want


GOOD (9–11): add by Intent

   Rumors: +1 rumor OR upgrade 1 to STRONG

   Contacts: +1 Contact

   Heat Dump: reduce Heat 1 step

   Steam: small boon


GREAT (12+): add by Intent

   Rumors: +2 rumors OR (1 STRONG +1)

   Contacts: Strong Contact + boon

   Heat Dump: reduce Heat 1 step + safe contact

   Steam: bigger boon


OPTIONAL XP:

   XP = 10% of gold spent (cap 200 × level)

BACK (3x5) — QUICK TABLES


RUMORS (d12)

1 Odd coins buyer       2 Paying for fresh graves       3 Missing guide/map

4 Watch attention        5 Noble servant hiring           6 Shrine lit at night

7 Rival crew hurt         8 Healer wiped out                 9 Road “curse”

10 Locked cellar         11 Torchlight in tower            12 Bounty on the impossible


TROUBLE (d12)

1 Brawl enemy                                               2 Pickpocket (lose +10% spend)

3 Public scene (-1 reactions 1 week)            4 Owed favor (fixer)

5 Property damage (+50 gp×lvl or feud)     6 Bad bet promise

7 Offended faction                                         8 Watch questions

9 Duel challenge                                            10 Hangover day (lose morning)

11 Tagalong NPC                                          12 Marked by rivals


1 comment:

  1. Erik: Hello from Nebraska! Another great video. Y'know, it's hard to keep coming up with new ways to say, "Great video!"

    Under Base Rumors, you say: Light 1 / Standard 2 / Hard 3

    But under "Good" and "Great" you say: upgrade 1 to STRONG or some such.

    Should "Hard" in the first instance be changed to "Strong"? I didn't catch this in the video.

    I need to go back over both your blogposts and your B/X Series and your DM's Toolbox playlists and take notes. Then I'll format them in MSWord so that I can either print them out as a half-sheet booklet or onto index cards. There is good D&D advice all over the internet, but almost nowhere else is it condensed down enough to be practical just prior to or at the table. Keep up the good work.

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