Collection of Records

Dunamin · Feb 6, 2009

The L4W World Records!

I remember discussion of making a collection of records on L4W to put on the Wiki, so I got inspired to brainstorm some possibilities of what that list might include.

This is a rough draft, where the intent is that in most cases you insert “Character Name (Player Name)” and make the whole line a link to the post where the event took place. I figure many of the below options are superfluous but included them on the draft for the time being for completeness sake.

Let me know what you guys think.

Challenge
Most powerful foe you’ve been in combat with, relative to your level?
Most powerful foe your party has defeated, relative to your level?
Most powerful foe you’ve dealt the killing blow, relative to your level?
Most foes your party has defeated in one encounter?
Most foes you’ve personally defeated in one encounter?
Most powerful trap or hazard you’ve deactivated, relative to your level?

Health
Most hit points your abilities have restored in one action? Turn? Round? Encounter?
Most hit points you’ve regained in one action? Turn? Round? Encounter?
Most temporary hit points you’ve had it in effect?
Most times your character has died?

Hits
Most targets you’ve hit in one action? Turn? Round? Encounter?
Most times you’ve been hit in one action? Turn? Round? Encounter?
Most consecutive hits you’ve made?
Most consecutive attacks that targeted you and missed?

Distance
Longest distance you’ve moved in one turn? Jumped?
Highest wall or the like you've climbed?
Longest distance you’ve moved a foe forcefully in one action? Turn?
Longest distance you’ve been moved forcefully in one action? Turn?

Punishment
Most damage you’ve dealt in one action? Turn? Round? Encounter?
Most damage you’ve taken in one action? Turn? Round? Encounter?
Most times you’ve been bloodied in one encounter?
Most times you’ve been knocked unconscious in one encounter?
Most conditions you’ve had in effect simultaneously (PHB p277)?

Miscellaneous
Most immediate actions triggered by the same event?
Longest chain of actions triggering sequentially off each other?
Most targets you’ve simultaneous had marked? Cursed?
Most consecutive skill checks you’ve succeeded at in one skill challenge? Adventure?

Please don’t post any entries here! This is just a discussion of whether the idea is worthwhile, what the format should be like, what records should be considered, etc. If things work out, we’ll put it somewhere on the Wiki so that everybody can enter or edit entries themselves.

Dawn Raven · Feb 6, 2009

I love it! I think we should have it be so only the highest current total gets put in though. Sort of like a badge of honor for characters OOC.

Lord Sessadore · Feb 6, 2009

I think it's a fantastic idea, too. I agree that it should also be the highest record in each case. The OOC records would probably be a good tool to figure out what deeds a particular adventurer becomes known for as their career progresses.

As for your draft options, I think it would be cool to have all of the Action/Round/Encounter options for each of the combat-related ones, just because I'd find it interesting to see if they ended up as different characters, and what kind of characters are prone to each record.

Also, another possibility for the Movement section: Highest wall/cliff scaled.

One more thought: probably a good idea to divide some sections by tier, or even half tier (ie - lower heroic, upper heroic, lower paragon, etc...) Basically I'm thinking that a level 1 character really can't compete with a level 9 character in terms of damage given/taken/healed and all that, even if they manage something impressive for level 1. We'll probably only need that for the Health and Punishment sections, if we keep most of the categories you've put forward.

... I'll stop blabbering now ...

covaithe · Feb 7, 2009

I'm sure we can add more as we go along, for things that happen that people think are notable.

I'm not sure how the "Most powerful X relative to your level" ones will work. Will there be separate categories by level? E.g.

Most powerful single foe defeated by a 1st level party: Fluffy the Dire Poodle, Level 2 Solo Brute, 500 XP

Most powerful encounter defeated by a 1st level party:

10 kegs of dwarven firewhiskey, level 2 trap, 400 xp total
5 friendly barmaids, level 1 controller, 200 xp total
1 jealous husband, level 4 elite brute, 300 xp
10 doorways that won't stop moving, level 1 hazard, 200 xp total

total1100 xp

...
Most powerful single foe defeated by a 3rd level party: Fiendish dire octopus, level 6 solo lurker, 1200 xp

etc.?

Lord Sessadore · Feb 7, 2009

I'm not sure what Dunamin is thinking, but my first thoughts was that it would be more like "Party X defeated a solo brute 3 levels higher than their level". Basically, the actual level of the party and the monster don't matter, just the difference between the two.

I hadn't thought of it in the way you said, Cov, but it's an interesting method. If we were to do full encounters (ie the Most Difficult Encounter or something), I think an XP total would be a better measure than just "an encounter X levels above the party".

covaithe · Feb 7, 2009

Disclaimer: I'm not entirely objective on this, I suppose. Calculated by total XP, the Hoofchew encounter is unlikely to be topped any time soon for a first level party. But calculating by encounter level, which adjusts for party size, it was really only about a level 3 encounter. I guess I should have made it tougher.

dimsdale · Feb 7, 2009

I like the idea as well. Is this something that would be updated throughout adventures or updated at the end of each adventure?

I like after each adventure.

Example:

Here's the final totals for the adventure "Caleb's Cult"
Reward for adventure: 100 each
XP for adventure: 750 each

And congrats to the following for making the vault!

1. Sinbad for his epic leap over....
2. Muratha for her devastating attack on....

covaithe · Feb 7, 2009

I imagine we can update it whenever someone feels like updating it.

Dunamin · Feb 7, 2009

Glad people like it.

The intent was just to put the best score on the list. Dividing into tiers or more might be a good idea at some point, though unless we make records for each level I’m not sure there’s much we can do about higher level PCs dominating most entries.

Lord Sessadore said:
Also, another possibility for the Movement section: Highest wall/cliff scaled.

Good one, I’ll add it.

Lord Sessadore said:
I'm not sure what Dunamin is thinking, but my first thoughts was that it would be more like "Party X defeated a solo brute 3 levels higher than their level". Basically, the actual level of the party and the monster don't matter, just the difference between the two.

That’s precisely what I meant

. Of course, a solo of 3 levels higher > elite of 3 levels higher > standard monster of 3 levels higher.

Lord Sessadore said:
I hadn't thought of it in the way you said, Cov, but it's an interesting method. If we were to do full encounters (ie the Most Difficult Encounter or something), I think an XP total would be a better measure than just "an encounter X levels above the party".

covaithe said:
Disclaimer: I'm not entirely objective on this, I suppose. Calculated by total XP, the Hoofchew encounter is unlikely to be topped any time soon for a first level party. But calculating by encounter level, which adjusts for party size, it was really only about a level 3 encounter. I guess I should have made it tougher.

How about: “Most challenging encounter your group has won (XP of encounter – XP budget of party)”?

covaithe said:
I imagine we can update it whenever someone feels like updating it.

Yup, that’s a nice benefit of keeping it on the Wiki.

Lord Sessadore · Feb 7, 2009

Dunamin said:
The intent was just to put the best score on the list. Dividing into tiers or more might be a good idea at some point, though unless we make records for each level I’m not sure there’s much we can do about higher level PCs dominating most entries.

Yeah ... I'm not sure how we should handle that, or even if we should... :erm:

In any case, it shouldn't be an issue for a while. I don't think level 2's will outstrip level 1's by that large of a margin

Dunamin said:
How about: “Most challenging encounter your group has won (XP of encounter – XP budget of party)”?

Hmmm ... that still gives a big advantage to large or high level groups .... what about this:

(XP of encounter - XP budget of party)/XP budget

Then actual level or party size shouldn't matter, it will just be the percentage above an equal level encounter. For example, the Hoofchew fight: (1298 - 900)/900 = 44%, meaning that the fight was 44% "above our level". That way the actual XP numbers don't matter, only what they mean relative to the party. Thoughts?

Dunamin said:
Yup, that’s a nice benefit of keeping it on the Wiki.

Yeah, I think it'd be better to just update it whenever. The problem with only updating it after an adventure finishes is that it would take a long time to get updated with many significant events. L4W has been running for, what, 6 or 7 months now? And only 2 adventures have finished (in the past 2 weeks, no less), and they were deliberately short.

Of course, that doesn't prevent DMs from declaring the record-breaking achievements their PCs performed during the adventure - I think that's a cool idea.