Character Generation - Regional Benefits

garyh · Aug 15, 2008

covaithe has started a good character generation guide. It reminded me, however, that we need to work on the regional benefits.

Currently, Graf has added some benefits to the wiki here.

These are the regions with benefits currently posted:
Daunton
Bacarte
Valley of Bone
Kingdom of Jade

Of Graf's, I like Daunton and Bacarte. I'm not sure about the Valley of Bone's divination ability, as I think it's too open to DM interpretation and player abuse The VoB nature bonus is fine. The Kingdom of Jade's diplomacy bonus works, but I don't know what the "corrupting touch of the shadow" is supposed to be.

Other regions needed are:
Imperium
Empire of Hraka
Allaria

Suggestions from me:

Imperium - +1 to arcana, ???

Empire of Hraka - +1 to intimidate, ???

Allaria - +1 to history, ???

Looking at the FRPG preview, though, I think this may actually be too conservative. The FR regions tend towards the following types of benefits:

- Additional language (sometimes specified, sometimes a choice), +2 to a skill and that skill is a class skill
- resist 2 to three elements (3 at 11th and 5 at 21st)
- reroll a certain skill check, take second roll, and a language
- reroll a certain skill check, take second roll, and +1 to initiative

I think we should try to stick pretty close to that level of benefit.

garyh · Aug 15, 2008

The Fey Island also needs to be assigned benefits. Can't forget the fey! Maybe an arcana bonus?

Graf · Aug 16, 2008

I sei actually want to make the imperium diplomacy and the jade kingdom insight.

The corrupting touch of shadow is actually a combat related power... So its supposed to be rarer.

They are deliberately low powered; I wanted to sketch a concept without scaring people who might be uncomfortable with higher powered abilities.

garyh · Aug 16, 2008

I could see going lower-powered if we really want to make that move. I just looked at the FR examples for inspiration and was surprised to see them more powerful than our draft ideas. I don't see the FR power level as being "too much," and it also gives a little more room to work with in creating a variety of powers.

covaithe · Aug 16, 2008

garyh said:
Of Graf's, I like Daunton and Bacarte. I'm not sure about the Valley of Bone's divination ability, as I think it's too open to DM interpretation and player abuse The VoB nature bonus is fine. The Kingdom of Jade's diplomacy bonus works, but I don't know what the "corrupting touch of the shadow" is supposed to be.

This is pretty much exactly what I thought when reading through the current list.

Graf · Aug 17, 2008

garyh said:
I could see going lower-powered if we really want to make that move. I just looked at the FR examples for inspiration and was surprised to see them more powerful than our draft ideas. I don't see the FR power level as being "too much," and it also gives a little more room to work with in creating a variety of powers.

Well the key issue is this:

In fr everyone gets one regional benefit...
in L4W that won't be the case necessarily.

I mean... Some people will be from Bacarte, etc. But some won't.
some people may try to create a region or what have you but I think we'll
probably have to be strict about it. Otherwise we'll find ourselves in a pickle.

People will create characters qho aren't from the near isles or the defined far lands and I don't want them to feel like they're being severily penalized.

That's why I made them the way they are; little impact on combat mostly flavor oriented.

garyh · Aug 17, 2008

Good point, Graf. We don't want to disadvantage folks who create PC's from less-defined areas of our setting (compared to FR where NOTHING is "less-defined"

).

covaithe · Aug 17, 2008

Endurance might also be good for V of B. And in place of the divination power, which still raises red flags for me, perhaps something to do with undead? Tying into the whole "rubbing shoulders with skeletons" theme, which I find interesting.

garyh · Aug 17, 2008

covaithe said:
Endurance might also be good for V of B. And in place of the divination power, which still raises red flags for me, perhaps something to do with undead? Tying into the whole "rubbing shoulders with skeletons" theme, which I find interesting.

+4 to religion checks to identify undead?

covaithe · Aug 17, 2008

garyh said:
+4 to religion checks to identify undead?

Hmm.... possibly. Had a look again at all the current regional benefit suggestions, thinking about balance. I'm not terribly great at analyzing balance issues, but here are some thoughts. First a point: monster knowledge checks are a combat power: a flat DC 25 to identify a monster's resistances and vulnerabilities is check that could significantly alter the outcome of a fight. So, they need to be balanced as such.

Daunton's in-the-city ability is overpowered. The +2 to all monster knowledge checks is already arguably one of the best bonuses on the table; allowing characters to effectively "take 22" on knowledge checks in the city is IMO broken.

Bacarte is a bit underpowered. +1 to perception is fine, but +4 streetwise that's only active within Bacarte is a bit weak, I think. Maybe a flat +1 perception and +1 streetwise?

Valley of bone. +1 to endurance or intimidate or... well, anything, really, is fine as one benefit. +4 to undead monster knowledge checks, well... maybe. It's a big bonus, but it's situational. On the other hand, there are lots of undead, and they're popular opponents. On the other hand, it fits really well with the flavor of the region. I could be talked into it.

If we want to make this easy to balance, we should make it flat: +1 to a skill, and +4 to another skill situationally. But that's kind of boring.