perrinmiller
Adventurer
By an large, I do not disagree with the what is being said either. I think DC did not even need to mention TBX awards and ask them to be removed from character sheets. It was not the intent of policy that was in question, perhaps. Just the wording of things.
Asking a DM to calculate TBX/TBG after every encounter is not necessary. It will be calculated and double-check to determine when a character ACTUALLY levels up because the rates change. This is a meticulous bookkeeping issue and will be done and Judge approved.
The only reason we are debating this at all is because players are wanting to use it mid-adventure (leveling up or spending it). So perhaps the focus was not originally in that direction, but that is where the controversy lies.
As a DM I plan and adjust things mid-adventure, so nit-picking about the effects of 1-2 characters on the APL is not an issue of discussion for me personally. Also, I whole heartily understand the issue of leveling up without getting shopping done to get appropriate gear. I am not complaining about Mowgli's game, the adventure is what it is, and it was not designed to have characters jumping from 1st level to 4th in the original source material.
That issue is something the Judge and DM should discuss and work out during the approval process. What most of you all do not know, is that DC and I discussed his adventure off-line quite a bit, after the participating players were known. Pretty much all of them need roughly the same ballpark XP to reach their next level. The flow and encounters are set up for no one advancing, thus the need to calculate and apply TBX/TBG before the end is not really necessary.
Theoretically, leveling up 1-2 characters might not make a difference mechanically to APL vs. CR, but it can alter an encounter's true challenge. This is the art of encounter design. Too easy and it is not much fun, too hard it is not much fun. Believe it or not, 1-2 characters leveling can alter that.
However, I have a BIG problem when people start throwing out words like "should" when telling DMs what to do in their own games.
DMing is hard work and takes significant effort, particularly compared to most players that post one sentence IC half the time. Anything you do that discourages them or turns them off is like shooting yourself in the foot. You want someone to do more work, then you better phrase it better and be nicer in your asking. Upset them in the least (take note, SK ) and all you do is encourage them to not bother posting that day or deciding to not run another one. Frankly, I think this is something that some of the players in DC's game might want to consider. You want DMs to develop and get better, you gotta NURTURE them, not argue and try to dictate to them.
Asking a DM to calculate TBX/TBG after every encounter is not necessary. It will be calculated and double-check to determine when a character ACTUALLY levels up because the rates change. This is a meticulous bookkeeping issue and will be done and Judge approved.
The only reason we are debating this at all is because players are wanting to use it mid-adventure (leveling up or spending it). So perhaps the focus was not originally in that direction, but that is where the controversy lies.
As a DM I plan and adjust things mid-adventure, so nit-picking about the effects of 1-2 characters on the APL is not an issue of discussion for me personally. Also, I whole heartily understand the issue of leveling up without getting shopping done to get appropriate gear. I am not complaining about Mowgli's game, the adventure is what it is, and it was not designed to have characters jumping from 1st level to 4th in the original source material.
That issue is something the Judge and DM should discuss and work out during the approval process. What most of you all do not know, is that DC and I discussed his adventure off-line quite a bit, after the participating players were known. Pretty much all of them need roughly the same ballpark XP to reach their next level. The flow and encounters are set up for no one advancing, thus the need to calculate and apply TBX/TBG before the end is not really necessary.
Theoretically, leveling up 1-2 characters might not make a difference mechanically to APL vs. CR, but it can alter an encounter's true challenge. This is the art of encounter design. Too easy and it is not much fun, too hard it is not much fun. Believe it or not, 1-2 characters leveling can alter that.
However, I have a BIG problem when people start throwing out words like "should" when telling DMs what to do in their own games.
DMing is hard work and takes significant effort, particularly compared to most players that post one sentence IC half the time. Anything you do that discourages them or turns them off is like shooting yourself in the foot. You want someone to do more work, then you better phrase it better and be nicer in your asking. Upset them in the least (take note, SK ) and all you do is encourage them to not bother posting that day or deciding to not run another one. Frankly, I think this is something that some of the players in DC's game might want to consider. You want DMs to develop and get better, you gotta NURTURE them, not argue and try to dictate to them.