Imperial Cultural Gear

The great advantage of an Imperial society is the ability to do things like infrastructure at scale, freeing up citizens of the empire to specialize. But that scale also typically comes with bureaucratic hierarchy, need for communication, and the drafting of residents to help during times of trouble.

Boon Coin. The very definition of a status symbol, a boon coin has no monetary value. Rather,they are minted and issued by a powerful individual or organization as a way of indicating a level of favor or association with the holder. They typically incorporate symbolism or phrases relevant to the issuer as part of their design. These coins are sometimes bought and sold, but doing so often carries social consequences, if not legal ones. They also typically do not convey any formal authority or privileges, but holding the right boon coin can raise the holder’s effective prestige rating by 1 or more points with the right audience, at the Narrator’s discretion.

Fire-Suppressant Bomb. This deliberately fragile clay pot is filled with a dry powder that smothers fires. To use it, you can make a ranged weapon attack with a range of 30 feet. The pot shatters on impact, instantly extinguishing a 5-foot square of non-magical fire. Imperial cities, especially ones relying on flammable building materials like wood, like to keep large stockpiles of these bombs on hand in case of a fire outbreak, allowing citizen volunteers to quickly deal with even large blazes in groups. They are never expensive, but in some cases, they are even provided to building owners and residents for free.

Manual of Imperial Protocol. This “basic” (but still incredibly thick and heavy) guide to imperial etiquette and bureaucracy allows you to spend 1d10 minutes finding and referencing relevant sections to gain an expertise die on Culture checks for the culture it is tied to for the next 10 minutes. At the Narrator’s discretion, this manual may provide its benefits to other skill checks as well. In a pinch it can be used as an improvised weapon, dealing 1d4 points of bludgeoning damage.

Signal Flags. These brightly-colored flags are designed to be seen from a long way off, such as across the water during a naval battle or across the span of a long bridge. They allow the wielders to communicate basic concepts (“danger”, “clear to dock”, “enter battle formation”, and the like) as an action at a range of up to a mile away without the need for hearing or a shared language beyond that of the signals.

The specific signal language being used varies wildly from society to society and may involve different colored flags, angles of presentation and so on. To be effective, the person sending the message with the signal flags must be in bright light and the receiver must be familiar with the specific signal language. If the sender is lightly obscured (such as by bad lighting or battlefield smoke), the receiver must make a Perception check (with the difficulty set by the Narrator) to correctly interpret the message.

Learning a signal flag language requires a week of training and practice. Characters from the Imperial culture with the Sailor or Soldier background know one signal flag language used by their culture. Adventurers of other cultures or backgrounds may also know a signal language at the Narrator’s discretion.