Proposal: Adjustments to Time Experience

renau1g

First Post
Can't remember, but I know it was decided on somewhere. Would this change, if approved, apply toward the next adventure, encounter, month, or other.

We also have not yet addressed the issue of the full month vs. daily accrual of time xp.

The daily/monthly accrual is part of Tenchuu's proposal, which I voted yes to daily accrual.

re: changes - they'd take effect after the proposal passes. IMO right away, so however the DM chooses to do it, wait until month is over or encounter is over, but only months going forward will be affected as otherwise it provides an advantage for those who are in an adventure that hasn't been awarded xp in a while.

Just to make sure all the other judges see it:

[MENTION=46559]covaithe[/MENTION] ; [MENTION=6078]garyh[/MENTION] ; [MENTION=57255]Lord Sessadore[/MENTION] ; [MENTION=41601]ScorpiusRisk[/MENTION]; [MENTION=82251]TwoHeadsBarking[/MENTION]
 

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covaithe

Explorer
Thanks for the poke, r1.

I'm all for part 2, if that's how people want to do it. I some some DMs already award time xp on a daily basis during adventures, and I've had no problems approving it, so it's kind of a no-brainer for a YES on that part.

As for part 1, the doubling (or tripling, or quadrupling!!) time XP... Meh. I recognize the problem all too well. Players stuck in slow games feeling like they get left behind, players in games RP-heavy games falling behind combat focused games. But I'm not convinced this is the best solution available.

RP heavy games are easily fixed: just award more xp! If you're a DM, and your players spend a month on a couple of combat encounters, then a month of solid roleplaying, you should feel absolutely free -- encouraged, even -- to award them as much xp for the RP month as for the combat month. Or more; to my mind, a month of good, solid RP is an outstanding achievement in a PbP game, and worthy of extra reward.

Slow games are a harder problem. It's a community problem, not a game mechanics problem, and I my instincts lead me to doubt that there is an easy mechanical solution. At the launch of L4W, with 1x time xp and 1x encounter xp, we found that half or more of the xp players were earning was time xp. That kind of sucked, I thought; I for one wanted to advance by killing monsters, completing quests, and roleplaying, not just by serving time. I thought that PCs that overcame more challenges and more difficult challenges, that completed more quests, should advance faster than PCs that were less active. I still kind of think that... but I also find myself growing more sympathetic to players stuck in slow games. (Like mine: sorry, Mikara!)

I don't really feel like doubling time xp is a solution for the problem that there are a bunch of slow games. I'm not going to vote no yet, but I'm not going to vote yes, either.
 


Tenchuu

First Post
I would argue that increasing time experence 2x has the additional benefits which may be more palatable:

It should encourage new players to stick it out. I think we'd all agree that character advancement is slow. A little bump wouldn't hurt (I fail to see a negative impact), and it could, in theory, help a new player who is struggling with the slow place stay interested.

It should encourage new DMs. I'm going with the assumption that we could use some more DMs. If that's a true assumption, increasing the reward for being a DM should bring more DMs / help sustain current DMs.

[sblock=How to Implement the 2x proposal]The fairest way to me would be immediately award all time experience, by day, on the 1x scale. All future time XP is awarded on the 2x scale.

Since DM credits are not awarded immediately as actual experience, but rather saved, it's not as simple. I would propose no additional change, and therefore all existing credits are now worth double, as opposed to trying to convert them. DMs deserve a bonus; people DMing a long time deserve a big bonus. I have a feeling those like R1 with tons of credits will never use them all anyway, so no worries there.
[/sblock]
 

renau1g

First Post
re: my DM credits... yeah I figure I'll still have a whole bunch long after 4e is over, but I love to DM what can I say? People have such creative PC's I really like interacting with them and since I can only have 3 PC's DM'ing is the best way to do it.
 


renau1g

First Post
Well, I guess if all the other judges voted no on it within the waiting period it wouldn't pass but I think it's pretty non-controversial so I wouldn't expect that.
 

Velmont

First Post
My 2 copper:

I know we are all eager to play higher level character as soon as possible, but when leveling happen to frequently, I find out some fun is taken out of the game.

So my first instinct would be more in favor of Ozymandias79 vote.
 

DMDanW

First Post
Another 2 coppers..

I'm with Velmont on this one. For me playing the game is a journey that I like to enjoy, and not something that must be suffered through only to reach a destination (in this case paragon levels).

Now this is just a thought, but has anyone thought of looking at this from a different angle? Perhaps a change can be made to allow a players 3rd characters to be created at paragon level with the use of a number of DM credits or something like that. It would give the incentive to have a 3rd character and for people ot DM to get those no more valuable DM credits.

I'm not sure something like that would work, but I'm just throwing it out there and who knows, maybe it will trigger a better idea.
 

LadyLaw

First Post
Now this is just a thought, but has anyone thought of looking at this from a different angle? Perhaps a change can be made to allow a players 3rd characters to be created at paragon level with the use of a number of DM credits or something like that. It would give the incentive to have a 3rd character and for people ot DM to get those no more valuable DM credits.

I can't say I like this idea. It's nice to encourage people to DM, but I think the DM credits are reward enough, especially if this proposal passes and they end up doubled with the time exp.

The idea of saying that DMs can get special paragon level 3rd characters just seems elitist to me, and more likely to create resentment than encouragement. Not everyone has the time to DM, no matter how tempting you make it.
 

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