(Judge) Judges gather here, please...

[GnomeWorks]

1) Any use for a judges only forum? (this ties in with the other subforums we would want ) Would likely require an User Group, accessible by invitation (by Creamsteak, and maybe one or two other judges when he's unavailable).

This could possibly be a useful idea. I don't think we judges are doing anything we want to hide from the rest of LEW just yet, so I don't see a real need for this. While it could be useful to have a place to congregate, a (judge) thread works just fine, IMO.

2) A judges request thread - some adventures have gone a long way without judges. This might help in getting judges. Should possibly be restricted to one post per DM. Could be merged with the Tracking thread

Definitely a good idea.

3) An Absence thread - Similar idea as above, if you're going to be absent, post about it here, or edit your existing post. Might help with who's around and who's not. Again, should possibly restricted to one post per poster; Might be crowding the top too much. <This one's pretty much obsolete now, since Brother Shatterstone started one in Talking the Talk>

As you mentioned, this is made obsolete by BS's thread in TtT. However, mentioning that thread somewhere in the guide to LEW wouldn't be a bad idea.

4) Assuming she survives the final battle of Bluerun, Sparky's character Rainca will likely be travelling with the "whoresons", a group of bandits-want-to-turn-mercenaries. This could become a loose group of ongoing adventures in a single thread. There might be some things about that we would want to consider with such threads, such as when to apply time XP, who can join or leave at any time (interfaces?). <well, she did survive...>

Maybe at the beginning of such a thread, mention that the interfaces will be indicated as such when they show up, and when an interface show up, award XP to all those who were participating thus far?

6) Character jobs; Something I've cooked up, but want to run by the other judges first:
A) Money - Should be given out per real-world month while not adventuring. The amount should IMHO be based on two weeks worth of work.
B) XP - I'm not 100% on this, but I think a reduced rate for characters on a job would OK - say 25 XP per month.
A potential wording template and example:
NAME
Description
Requirements:
gp/Month:
Special:

You have to make this worth a character's time. Reducing the XP gained per month is fine, but this should be a somewhat viable option, if we want to put some emphasis on it.

My recommendation would be - permanent bonuses to the main skill used by the job. This wouldn't need to be a big bonus, but just something palpable... working all the time on a job would definitely make you better at it, even if you're not adventuring (ie, not putting ranks into it). Maybe a +1 bonus to the skill every month worked?

 

[nimisgod]

I've lost track of the password as well.

I've sent you an email with it. I think I put in the right addy.

 

[Knight Otu]

This could possibly be a useful idea. I don't think we judges are doing anything we want to hide from the rest of LEW just yet, so I don't see a real need for this.

Well, there have been one or two discussions better suited to privacy...

You have to make this worth a character's time. Reducing the XP gained per month is fine, but this should be a somewhat viable option, if we want to put some emphasis on it.

Well, that's why I originally sent out that mail, after all. I'm not sure if a skill bonus is the way to go, though. Some other ideas (for Craftsmen, at least) might be allowing item templates a la Arcana Unearthed, reduced Craft Point costs, more Craft points, or more money than I said.
And obviously, Craftsman would not be the best paid or most prestigious job. There'd also be jobs like Orussus Council Member, and the like.

 

[GnomeWorks]

Well, there have been one or two discussions better suited to privacy...

I suppose there have been...

Also, another thing that may prove useful as a private judges subforum would be NPCs, perhaps? That way, we know what they are, and can hand out the stats for them to DMs as necessary.

Well, that's why I originally sent out that mail, after all. I'm not sure if a skill bonus is the way to go, though. Some other ideas (for Craftsmen, at least) might be allowing item templates a la Arcana Unearthed, reduced Craft Point costs, more Craft points, or more money than I said. And obviously, Craftsman would not be the best paid or most prestigious job. There'd also be jobs like Orussus Council Member, and the like.

Given your last point, I don't think increasing the money they gain is a good idea... there needs to be something better, of course.

However, those other ideas... I don't know. Maybe we could write out the jobs like PrCs, but with minimum skill ranks instead of levels to gain abilities? That way there's no BAB or save increase, but there are ability increases, which encourages players to pursue them, but they don't detract from levelling.

 

[nimisgod]

Not trying to overwhelm the Judges with a wave of issues but two very important issues require resolution:

What do we do with dead PCs?

How do we deal with retiring PCs?

 

[Creamsteak]

I say we archive both, and both no-longer count towards the character limit so long as there is no plan to go back to them. And if that's your decision, you shouldn't be able to go back to them.

That pretty much covers retirement.

Death, however, is another question. In one of my backstory write-ups, I stated that you could be revived by the priests in the temples nearest the tower of positive energy, but I don't know how exactly to implement that. Perhaps that's just a place where the high level priests might be found. On the other hand, it could also be a "magical" resurrection site that has no gold cost (however you still lose a level). If people don't mind that option (it's a bit lax, but I see no problem given the type of game this is).

If we go with that, the remaining problem is how long the character is out of commission while the body is transported there and back, possibly even by an adventure. Also, the city would definitely need a name at that point.

 

[Knight Otu]

Does the plan to allow players who retire a high-level character to create a new high-level character (but lower than the retired one) still stand?

 

[Creamsteak]

I'd like to do that, but I havn't come up with a good implementation of that. Got any ideas?

 

[Knight Otu]

Not quite. A basic idea would be that the character sheet remains intact in the character thread, but with a note "Character Retired at level x, replaced with Character[link] at level y".

Say, Level -2? We're getting into the realms where some characters would be able to "profit" from that.

Edit: Whoa, sorry about that black text instead of auto-colored text.

 

[Creamsteak]

I'm cool with level -2. Standard starting wealth for a character of that level?