Level Up (A5E) So where do ya'll plan to start with LU?

[bert1001 fka bert1000]

Heh, yeah, I guess. Some other comments were otherwise but yeah, I guess I’m an outlier here and don’t understand why.

If the players know that Bob the evil mage is holed up in Luskan with the chalice of ultimate power, nothing that happens along the way to Luskan will be interesting or fun no matter how good your random tables are, or your challenging but simple supply mechanics are. It will just be a pain in the ass between characters and the story.

For some people it's worldbuilding -- you get to experience some additional aspect of the geography/world through the journey. Which they find fun even when on a 'mission'

For some people it's emergent play -- you don't know what you are going to get which can be fun for both the DM (think on your feet for a change even when the rest of the adenture you have more scripted)

For some people I think it's a verisimilitude thing.

If it takes 3 days of overland travel through wild lands with 5th level characters to get to Luskan then given the FR North Coast established fiction, chances are they run into something "Tier" appropriate (For 15th level characters the journey is handwaved or they teleport). The Journey rules just give you an option of how to decide what that is, and the LU characters also have some abilities that plug into this system to allow characters to contribute to this pillar in a character resource way. So even if its a "pain", there are some groups that value this "realism" more.

Overall I think it's a good edition to 5e. As others have said, you don't always have to use it. Personally, I would have liked some form of Extended Skill Check enviromental challenges which I don't see yet from my reading (ala Stalker0's Obsidian or 4e SKill Challanges). It looks like most of the enviromental challenges are suggested individual checks or group checks.

 

[wicked cool]

WotC official? No. Level up official? Yes. But that really only matters if you do organized play, for me anyway.

so this isnt connected to the new rulebooks coming out?

 

[Morrus]

so this isnt connected to the new rulebooks coming out?

These are our new rulebooks coming out from EN Publishing. A new game called Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition. You can find out more information on the Kickstarter page:

Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition

 

[Smackpixi]

For some people it's worldbuilding --
For some people it's emergent play --

I apologize for not including the rest of your post but both of those concepts are reasons I think people would want the exploration pillar to be more than it is currently said to be.

At the end of the day though I think we just have better random population mechanics. And that’s not a bad thing, but alone it’s just meaningless. Ran into some ettercaps, rolled for treasure, +1 sword, roll for story, once attuned they know the sad history of the former owner.

or, after defeating the ettercaps we search the webs and discover the desiccated remains of what was once probably an elf. The gem from what was presumably a necklace remains. If held to a light source it reveals an internal image of three snakes entwined…..ah we’re on the right path.

better random tables do not a mor emmersive journey make. It’s just stuff. Extra stuff in the way. It’s the dm populating that stuff that makes the journey more than a tax. players know a tax when they fight it, looking at you stirges.

 

[Thresherinc]

Fateforge beat Level Up to the punch for me, not going to change an amended 5e for a differently amended 5e, however, I love the changes I’ve read so far and will start a second group session to get this up and running.

A bunch of one offs to get to grips with how it runs then will probably just pick up something I’ve run previously in 5e.