Additional Equipment (9e)

Guilds

A guild is a collection of non-player characters (NPCs) who work for, or at the very least with, one or more of the main characters. They could be a merchant guild, a pirate crew, a wizard's college, a secret society, or even a religion.

Any guild may have capabilities based on its size and nature, such as providing lodging for the party in all major cities, or giving access to funds or resources. Quite often the protection or security of a guild may influence the goals of the characters.

Mounts

A mount is a friendly creature of superior size, speed, and stamina to the typical character, such as a horse, a bear, a dinosaur, or a dragon. Mounts can provide bonus traits to characters, allow them to travel for long distances, or at great speed, or perhaps even breath fire or eat minions.

While on a mount, a character has access to all these benefits. However, enemies can attempt to unseat - that is, forcibly dismount - characters who are mounted as a standard action. Being unseated immediately knocks the character prone, and they lose all the benefits of their mount. They do not lose the mount itself, which can flee from battle or rampage by itself, depending on its nature.

Any passengers can also be unseated, but so long as the mount has a rider in control, it will remain under that character's control.

Some characters may be the appropriate size/species/etc. to be ridden as a mount by other characters. If this is the case, then the rider forgoes a move action on their turn, only capable of using standard/minor or minor/minor.

Strongholds

A stronghold is a base of operations, a hideout, or just a safe retreat. It can be a mansion, a castle, an airship, an island, anything large, impressive, or both. Although it may belong to one specific character, the unspoken assumption is that the whole party may use it.

Any stronghold may have functions based on its nature. A mansion, for instance, might contain a sumptuous library that provides a bonus to any character looking to research information. An airship would probably have the ability to traverse the globe and allow the party to get to hard-to-reach locales.

The strongholds functions can be improved or expanded upon as the game progresses.

Vehicles

A vehicle is like a mount in some respects, and some can even be used with mounts, such as horse-drawn carts or chariots. Others may move by their own power, or by wind, or even by magic. They can be improved upon, upgraded, repurposed, and repainted.

Unlike mounts, vehicles are usually large enough to carry passengers easily, sometimes up to a dozen. They may even be large enough to be able to act as scenarios for encounters, allowing characters inside to engage in melee with each other.