General Discussion

I have no problem following that rule, but it almost seems backwards! The retired character should get rewarded while the dead guy gets the penalty of the reset to the beginning of that level.

FrancisJohn said:

I have no problem following that rule, but it almost seems backwards! The retired character should get rewarded while the dead guy gets the penalty of the reset to the beginning of that level.

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The general idea as I recall it was to discourage a lot of quick build-and-retire strategies by making the 'sweet spot' of keeping what you'd earned a little harder to hit. Retirement became (appropriately enough) something you planned for rather than decided on the fly.

People who lost characters (and thus had, ostensibly, been playing with what they'd built) we wanted to give a bit more continuity for circumstances beyond their control.

That makes more sense. Thanks for explaining, jkason.

Not that I will, but I can have dumb Siddhartha make poor decisions that leads to his untimely death. Character suicide if you will. Definitely cheats the system.

I know my meager opinion is low on the totem pole, but perhaps both character ends should be the same? Both ways you keep what you have, or both reset?

FrancisJohn said:

Not that I will, but I can have dumb Siddhartha make poor decisions that leads to his untimely death. Character suicide if you will. Definitely cheats the system.

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I think you're probably overvaluing that as an option, for several reasons:

1) It's difficult to make decisions that guarantee your own character's death without also putting your party in jeopardy, especially since a good party will do its best to try to keep you alive even if you're doing boneheaded things. Any player who regularly does that kind of thing is likely to find him or herself ostracized by other players, because suicidal characters are a bad party investment, and in a Living World, running into players who remember is more likely than if you're bouncing about more random game threads.

2) Letting a "replacing the dead" character into a running adventure is pretty much up to GM discretion. The nature of many adventures makes it difficult, and, again, if the GM recognizes what you're doing, he or she has no real motivation to reward you by letting your new character jump on the train.

3) Even if the players or GM don't notice, if the judges saw a regular pattern of joining a party, jumping on your sword, then popping back in with a new character build, it's likely they'd be inclined to intervene.

4) Partly for the reasons above, it's only a really useful strategy in a pretty specific circumstance, mostly the final encounter of an adventure. Prior to that, you're still earning / have the potential to earn the XP you want. Since you've no guarantee you can keep on as a replacement with the current GM (or that the players are going to be keen to push for same if you just spent a combat sabotaging them), suiciding early isn't the best ROI; you may wind up stuck in the Dunn Wright for who knows how long with your "cheated" XP but earning nothing when you could have been racking up regular XP by playing it straight.

Even in the last encounter, you're largely guessing what the GM has planned. Monsters may be worth more than you think, and / or the "last fight" might be staggered such that you don't realize there's reinforcements yet to come. Given that the last encounter is usually the hardest, you're also far more likely to be screwing your fellow party members by hoisting yourself on your own pittard for the XP bump.

Is it possible? Yes. I'm not sure how likely it is, though.

I know my meager opinion is low on the totem pole, but perhaps both character ends should be the same? Both ways you keep what you have, or both reset?

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It's sometimes a speed bump, but I really don't have a problem with a system that favors riding things out to hot swapping, myself. One of the key components of a Living World is continuity, after all, so a slight benefit to someone who sticks it out doesn't seem especially unfair to me. Others' mileage may, of course, vary.

Leaving your party in a lurch would be absolutely criminal!

I didn't mean as mid-adventure replacement, I meant for the next new one. I didn't even know that was an option.

I would hope judges and DM's would intervene on suspected negative behavior.

Thanks for the discussion!

I am guessing it might be quite some time for Kepli, Erin, and Trixie to go adventuring?

Be interesting if it was all females!

FrancisJohn said:

I am guessing it might be quite some time for Kepli, Erin, and Trixie to go adventuring?

Be interesting if it was all females!

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True femme fatlæ?

To those who would use it, Invisible Castle is back up!

OK, so it seems that Mowgli's new game will be starting soon. As such, I need some shopping advice.

I have 66K floating in Aradra's pockets, and I'm not entierly sure what to spend it on at this point. I have thought about buying that Manual of Quickness in Action +1 (27,500 gp), but that still leaves me with about 39K to spend. With Aradra's bow as awesome as it is I don't need to update it, and this being the 2nd character ever I've gotten to 14, I'm a little lost as to what would be a good buy.