Detail Discussion

stonegod said:

Which exludes the Wayfinder's guild, the Morgrave Expedition's Society, etc., etc. There are plenty of guild options, but I think the two above (w/ *maybe* the Expedition society and articles in the Chronicle would be sufficient).

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Articles in a paper would be relatively cool as well

I'll admit that articles in a paper would definitely be cool, but we need a place for adventurers to hang out and chat outside of games. Both LEW and LS have some sort of waiting room and while it does serve as a place to recruit from it also serves as something to do in between adventures. Unless we are not concerned with that side of things, I'd think we need to have some type of meeting place (whether it be an inn or a guild or something else).

- Different point buy builds - personally Im against it as I was in LEW. Stats puts people on the same playing field from the beginning. With races and classes and other options supposedly balanced, a dm does not have to take into account different stats as well when creating balaced encounters. There are so many variables that reducing one seems like a good idea to me.

- Elan - I wouldn't bother restricting # of Elan (or any other race), I think LEW has proven that rare races will just naturally stay rare. Restricting background so that they all fit into Eberron the same way is good though.

- Craft Points/Time Units - I'm going to have to read more on the Time Units thing. As a new participant in LG I do like the idea.

- Elan - I wouldn't bother restricting # of Elan (or any other race), I think LEW has proven that rare races will just naturally stay rare. Restricting background so that they all fit into Eberron the same way is good though.

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At one point in LEW it seemed that we had more Orcs than Elves, Gnomes, or Halflings, though Elans specifically weren't *too* common for a Living Eberron game (we have like 4 or 5, which would be fine if we had as many players as LEW). I would make it more of a 'Judge disrection' common sense thing. We don't make any hard fast rules, but we mention that they are supposed to be rare, and if there wind up being significantly too many, we ask the latecomer to try another concept for now and maybe come back with an elan second character later on when they won't be the 12th Elan out of 20 characters or something.

he other option for gathering players are Adventurers Guilds. There are two mentioned in Sharn which could give an interesting starting point rather than just a stereotypical tavern.

The Clifftop Adventurers Guild (in Upper Dura) and the Deathsgate Explorers Club (of Middle Tavick's Landing). Each one has a specific atmosphere and attitude that goes with it, which could give options for players to choose from at the beginning.

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We definitely should not pick just one guild, and of course having multiple guilds means more of a split among characters between adventures, which may not be as advantageous while we're just starting out. What might be cool is to have a single bulletin board and announcement place for adventures (perhaps a Morgave U common area) and then several guilds and taverns nearby to RP in smaller groups. Perhaps even some elite ones that players could gain access to through favour of certain groups...

And speaking of favour of certain groups--after reading the Affiliation rules from PHBII, I think it would be really cool if we created some Affiliations for major Eberron groups. If we had some relatively simple + or - actions that apply throughout adventures, players could keep track of their affiliation scores with different organisations and watch them progress along with their characters

And we should discuss the thing about the planes--the more I think about it, the more I'm positive that we really need to have them standardised. While it may prevent the GM from running a "Daanvi just became coterminous for a century" adventure, we actually would have major problems if we allowed that anyway:

"Hey, we just finished an adventure where Daanvi just became coterminous." "Really? Doesn't that last for a century? It's not coterminous now." "Oh yeah. That's weird."

Rystil Arden said:

And speaking of favour of certain groups--after reading the Affiliation rules from PHBII, I think it would be really cool if we created some Affiliations for major Eberron groups. If we had some relatively simple + or - actions that apply throughout adventures, players could keep track of their affiliation scores with different organisations and watch them progress along with their characters

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This would be even better if you made sure to institute a way for the various Executive Powers to come into play, although I'm not sure how that would work.

I can live with the idea of judge regulated rarity, though you'd have to spell that out in the beginning so that there are no hard feelings if a judge does have to put the kaibosh on a character concept. Or perhaps have a list of rare races and a status of open or closed. That way if you've got enough Elan for the moment you can close that race until things balance out again. It'd require more effort on part of the character judge but might be nicer than turning a concept away.

I like the idea of multiple guilds for RP, newspaper/bulletin board for recruiting. Just wanted to make sure that both things were provided for. In LEW and LS they are one and the same, but dont have to be.

Hmm, I liked the idea of affiliations from the Eberron books (most notably Explorer's HB and 5 Nations) and think it could definitely work. DMs and judges would have to be aware of it so that they could help coordinate the scoring. Then PCs can call on favors when necessary. It'd be a good motivator/award for adventures too.

With regards to the planes, how do you plan on doing it though? With LG you have 52 time units to play with over a real time calendar year. Then adventures cost 1 or 2 points, crafting costs a few too. Fitting planar conjunctions into that would be okay, but how would you do it?

I can live with the idea of judge regulated rarity, though you'd have to spell that out in the beginning so that there are no hard feelings if a judge does have to put the kaibosh on a character concept. Or perhaps have a list of rare races and a status of open or closed. That way if you've got enough Elan for the moment you can close that race until things balance out again. It'd require more effort on part of the character judge but might be nicer than turning a concept away.

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That could work. And in all likelihood, we won't ever have to close any race, but you never know, right?

I like the idea of multiple guilds for RP, newspaper/bulletin board for recruiting. Just wanted to make sure that both things were provided for. In LEW and LS they are one and the same, but dont have to be.

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Exactly. I agree.

Hmm, I liked the idea of affiliations from the Eberron books (most notably Explorer's HB and 5 Nations) and think it could definitely work. DMs and judges would have to be aware of it so that they could help coordinate the scoring. Then PCs can call on favors when necessary. It'd be a good motivator/award for adventures too.

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This would be even better if you made sure to institute a way for the various Executive Powers to come into play, although I'm not sure how that would work.

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I agree with both of these--in theory LEW allows PCs to get involved in politics and guild ownership, but we haven't seen it yet. If we have Affiliations that spell out minor authority powers, I bet we can start seeing this relatively sooner in LE, which could be a lot of fun! Also, with Affiliations to Dragonmark Houses, we could make sure those silly waste of time feats have the correct RP effects.

With regards to the planes, how do you plan on doing it though? With LG you have 52 time units to play with over a real time calendar year. Then adventures cost 1 or 2 points, crafting costs a few too. Fitting planar conjunctions into that would be okay, but how would you do it?

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My idea was to use that calendar thingy the stonegod found, starting at a date we decide upon and advancing maybe 10 days each RL day with respect to the planes, with the exception that any remote or coterminous period extends one RL week. Craft points would come back more slowly though. I'd like to see how quickly LG gives them back for reference.

Manzanita said:

Thanks for the goblinoind info

While you are are the mark, Bront, I'd like to add a little more before the issue is closed. Per our experience in LEW, parties are rarely all the same level, and the idea that everyone needs to start out at the same power level isn't necessarily all that relevant. Having played in more than one persistant world, I'll add, having an inn where players are recruited tends to yeild more varied parties of different levels, while having a recruitment thread where DM select their paries from an OOC perspective yeilds more balanced parties. Not that one is better.

In any case, all PLAYERs should have the same opportunities, but not all characters, necessarily. Having different starting point buys gives players the opportunity to create a wider variety of characters. Power gamers will take advantage of any system, but I see this more as a opportunity for variety. Didn't you guys do something similar with Living Supers? That's where I got the idea. Perhaps having a lower spread would still be interesting. Say a 28 point buy, a 32, and a 35. Whatever, that's my 2 cents.

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Power levels work differently in Living Supers, and a PL 8 character could eventualy become a PL10.

My two cents:

1) Tavern seems fine. It works well for LEW, why change a winning solution.

2) The list seems fine. I would tell not too much, as it is not everyone who can have access to all the books. We want people to be able to play and do what they want, but we don't want them to find in a disadvantage because they can't have half of them.

5) 30 or 32 point buy and 3/2/1 seems good to me. I've always prefered low level starting, but it's true always playing a first level character can be a bit dull.

7) DM credits is good. I've never liked the craft point, without hating it either. Craft point or time units seems both fine to me.

Here is a link to the LG site - http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/welcome
The file you want is the LG Standards on the right - http://www.wizards.com/rpga/downloads/LGCS_596.zip

Looking over it 1 TU = 5 days. So when crafting you have to spend at least 1 TU when crafting (no fractions allowed). The stuff on creating magic items is on page 54. You get 52 TUs at the beginning of each calendar year I think it is.

Cost of living is also taken into account. Every TU spent = 12 gp spent on cost of living.

I'll have to read up on Affiliations in the PHB2, but there are some good ones already created for Eberron in the books mentioned.

- DM Credits - are a good thing (TM)
- Point Buy - I like odd point buy, so 33 or 31. I'm coming around on the 3/2/1 idea.

Hmmmm...so that means that each RL day gives *less* than one crafting day, since there are 52 weeks in the year, so 7 days per Time Unit would make RL == in game. I'm not convinced that this is fast enough. When I say Affiliations in the PHBII, I don't mean I plan on importing the ones that are actually in the PHBII instead of the organisations in Eberron--what I mean is to do a PHBII style write-up of Affiliations with special benefits and so-forth. Is that what is already done?