Balancing out a campaign

[Empirate]

To me it seems your DM is shooting for a completely different style of play. This is not purely about restrictions; it's about how then heroes of the story ought to feel while living through it.

In your last campaign, all of you could feel like you were close to invincible when faced with 'everyday' challenges - only the really big guns (elemental powers taking over the material plane) actually posed a challenge to you. Basically, you played a game of superheroes (you brought to the table, first Batman, then the Hulk, then... Spawn?).

Your DM is now trying to set up a campaign along the lines of gritty fantasy. Instead of saving the world, you'll begin by finding out who embezzled your home village's tithe - the reeve or the friar? You may fight a rival gang of youths from the neighbouring village in between, and maybe go after a real Orc Warrior who's been sighted hiding in the woods!
You won't need superpowers in this campaign. Sure, after a (long) while, you'll levelup and get renowned hunters of wolves or even bears, and one day, you may even have to face a rampaging Ettin... stuff for songs, to be sure! But don't expect this campaign's pace, theme, and even the outright combat bits, to require high-powered stats.

A DM's job is to make the game balanced, challenging, interesting and thereby ultimately fun to play. Your DM obviously felt out of his depth in the last campaign, and was probably very sorry to see it implode (I know the feeling...). He's trying to exert more control now, to ensure he can do his job. That does not necessarily mean he's only limiting the gaming experience for you. In a way, it may make sure the game's expanded and enriched for all of you - some DMs just aren't cut out for the rocket tag that is high-power play.

Bottom line: I'd wait and try it out. See if maybe the changes make it easier for your DM to provide a good, interesting game to you. Limitating PC power and options isn't necessarily a DM power trip.

(of course, it might be. If that's the case, do everything you can to persuade him otherwise, or drop out. But still, give it a chance and see where this new campaign is going!)

 

[VariSami]

Empirate completely is right when it comes to his motivation for this. It's one of the reasons I like some of the implementations - though they come out as a bit too much in the end. It's definitely not the case that he wants to overpower us for the sake of power. Rather, he seeks to force through his ideals with which his limited player base does not completely agree. This tips the scale of DM-Player-enjoyment away from us, which does not promise a long-lived and healthy campaign since our idea of fun would have been disregarded.

Also, when it is put in the terms of "home town heroes", it will seem balanced. This is not the case, however. While the game will be about daily struggles, we're set to be adventurers at core (scum that can only earn it's placehold in society by doing menial and dangerous tasks) and he's already generating random encounter tables which include any and every thing he can think up for different environments - and they will not be CR-scaled, for the sake of reality. We can realistically come across a Purple Worm on our first trip outside of town and hope that the DM doesn't rule it to be hungry. I believe the trope "Crapsack world" ( Crapsack World - Television Tropes & Idioms ) does justice to what our characters are supposed to feel like. The world can, realistically speaking, randomly maim and kill you at any time with no hope of survival and trying to fight it is a steep upward slope.

What I'm looking for is a way to tone down his ideas a bit to increase player happiness (though I've been speaking for myself, I know the other players as well). The original post was more opposed to some of the things but since I've received such good alternatives, things ought to look a lot better and there will probably be less conflict. I'm just hoping he feels the same way about the possibilities discussed.

P.S. I really like the superhero counterparts of my characters. Though I'd be inclined to say that my tank character was more like Bane in Batman and Robin.

 

[Dandu]

Have you shown your DM this thread?

 

[VariSami]

Have you shown your DM this thread?

Not yet. I started it last night (it was night in Finland). Besides, showing someone how you whine about their choices and interpret them basically as totalitarism might not be the best of ideas. I might do so but first I'll just present the ideas you've given.

 

[Dandu]

You seem to have communicated the problem and your issues with it in a clear manner. I'm sure you could discuss it directly with your DM.

If that fails, then you should by all means roll with it and troll his game in a suitably epic fashion.

 

[VariSami]

You seem to have communicated the problem and your issues with it in a clear manner. I'm sure you could discuss it directly with your DM.

If that fails, then you should by all means roll with it and troll his game in a suitably epic fashion.

Just sent him the ideas presented here and reminded him about player satisfaction. Oh, and I'd never troll: it's bad manners. Especially when it'd basically mean pissing in a cereal bowl from which your friends and you yourself eat. Dissatisfaction can be conveyed better by boycotting (as in, quitting if the game just seems lame) in case everything else fails.

 

[Empirate]

...oh god. Did you really just link me to tvtropes? There goes an hour or more of my life! Oh well, what can you do... <clicks link>

 

[VariSami]

Discussed this with the DM and he agreed that the elite array is a better choice than his original example/plan. It seems that there was something of a mix-up earlier as I am sure he said "1000gc to reach level 2" while the system he'll be using is actually what was described here. Which reminds me: [destination ECL -1] = [current ECL]. This seems quite promising, to be frank.

Then again, now we're armwrestling over how much does it cost to become an entrepreneur and can players be allowed to spend an effort to gain more than 50% of the listed value of goods they find. I'm thinking of making a Dwarven Artificer whose family has lost it's actual status due to financial trouble yet remains exalted in name. (Dwarves will be a magocracy and magic is limited to the highborn.) Since we have so much downtime due to leveling requirements and money plays an important role in advancing, I'm trying to convince him that with a 10-20% guild tax and the need for an initial investment as well as upkeep, merchant characters will not be game breakers.

The problem's quite much solved, though. The last one was simply a remark on how the debates continue. I'm enjoying them, though. Thanks for your effort on this one.

 

[the Jester]

Is he familiar with the E6 variant? It sounds like it might be a lot of what he's after.

 

[Sekhmet]

[MENTION=6698543]VariSami[/MENTION] Throwing in additional costs to selling goods, beginning a business, or upkeeping a business isn't a problem until it becomes impossible to make any money off of it whatsoever.
If the total cost is 99% of your total net gain, it is still worthwhile for the player to start that business. He doesn't have to deal with it, he just hires a business manager and reaps the gold reward every time he makes it back to that city.