proposal: higher level additional characters

renau1g · Aug 25, 2010

I like the 3rd character idea as well.

Dekana · Aug 25, 2010

I don't like the third character idea. It encourages not making third characters at all.

Say I have a 4th level character and a 2nd level character. If I make a third character, it will either be level 3 or level 1, depending on how this proposal is worded. From there on, I have to level up three characters as normal. Alternatively, I could bring my existing two characters to a higher level (say 7th and 5th), and I get more bang for my buck when I make the third.

evilbob · Aug 25, 2010

Well I dislike the 3rd character idea.

In all seriousness, I'm not sure what it gains. Someone doesn't necessarily prove their site-loyalty or time-worthiness just because they have multiple characters running. It just means they have lots of time on their hands.

(ooo, burn!)

Is the feeling that anyone with a 3rd level character could start a level 2 the problem? Or are you worried about someone with a level 8 character? Or are you just worried about a lot of 2nd characters suddenly bumping up?

I'm curious if we might want to run a poll of who is actually still around and doing stuff on the site these days; I wonder how many characters this would actually affect?

Otakkun · Aug 25, 2010

evilbob said:
The only potential I see for abuse is through our retirement rules, as you can sack one character to boost another. However, I am all for changing them around as well. I think LEB's rules on retirement are more simple and direct; I'd suggest adopting them. Maybe I'll just go ahead and make another couple of proposals...

You can?

Could you wait then until I:
a) Make anotother level 1 character
b) Level it to 2
c) Kill him to boost Shrakk?

Seriously?

TwoHeadsBarking · Aug 25, 2010

renau1g said:
Me too... maybe I'll cash in all my DM credits on Kane or Murphy and then be the first to paragon...

Haha, I almost have as many DM credits as you. Once Haruka levels a bit we can be paragon buddies.

Dekana said:
I don't like the third character idea. It encourages not making third characters at all.

Say I have a 4th level character and a 2nd level character. If I make a third character, it will either be level 3 or level 1, depending on how this proposal is worded. From there on, I have to level up three characters as normal. Alternatively, I could bring my existing two characters to a higher level (say 7th and 5th), and I get more bang for my buck when I make the third.

And not including the "third character only" restriction discourages making a second character.

Say I only have one character who's at level 6. If this system passes, should I create a second character immediately? Why? He'd only be at level 5. If I wait, I could make the new character level 6. Or I could wait longer, and make him level 7. The same argument applies for both the second character and the third.

Anyway, here's my reservation: someone with one high level character could just immediately create two more not-quite-as-high level characters. And I'm not really sure if this is abuse. I mean, say ren takes Murphy up to paragon, retires his other two characters, and then creates two more paragon characters. Great. Good for him. But nobody else is at paragon yet. He'll need to wait for three to four more people to show up before he can do anything with his characters. So the only person who really suffers from that is ren.

Oh, and I guess my second issue is that this would require us to scrap the most recent addition to the retirement rules, and we would need a new way of telling if someone is worthy of a third character. The third character only restriction would remove the latter.

LadyLaw · Aug 26, 2010

Although I'm not really opposed to this idea, I did think of something to be food for thought when considering this proposal.

One of the things about new characters mostly beginning at level 1 is that there's always someone for the limited number of new players to play with. If people are often replacing characters with those of higher level, it may become difficult to integrate new players when they arrive.

BenBrown · Aug 26, 2010

LadyLaw beat me to it. If we allow veteran players to start new characters at advanced level, that could create a situation where new people can't break in at all, because there never are enough new players around at once. We lose even veteran players often enough that we'd potentially run ourselves out of business.

evilbob · Aug 26, 2010

I actually mentioned that in the OP: and my response is still the same. I think we have enough new blood coming in consistently that that's not an issue. (And technically, it's not like you can't make a new character a lower level than highest level - 1. You can still choose to have a 2nd character that's level 1 - no problem.)

I still don't understand the 3rd character idea. Yes, it would make new rules for making third characters necessary. However, the other points seem just as valid against 3rd as 2nd, so why bother? To me, waiting until you have a third character just makes me want to make a 2nd wasted character so I can get the third character that I want.

Also, any arguments that people will voluntarily make characters that are lonely don't make as much sense in my opinion. I mean, why do that when you could make a character a few levels lower and have friends? But that aside, I think once we have more people with more higher level characters, the level range will be diverse enough to accommodate the discrepancies.

BenBrown · Aug 26, 2010

evilbob said:
(And technically, it's not like you can't make a new character a lower level than highest level - 1. You can still choose to have a 2nd character that's level 1 - no problem.)

Technically? No. However I like getting to the goodies as much as anyone else. I lament the funereal pace of advancement around here, especially when a game stalls due to the DM getting distracted by life, but I darned well know that if you give people the option of having higher level characters, most of them will darned well take it.

Ending up with a core of players with multiple advanced level characters and having them increasingly disconnected from the new folks is probably inevitable, but I'd like to delay it if possible.