3 Very Different Campaigns

[takasi]

I still don't understand the whole vibe. Are you in a college game club, or something? Why are there so many people?

It's the monthly D&D meetup for our area.

 

[smerwin29]

I suppose that to be fair I should also post my character creation guidelines as well since I critiqued the others:

Race: Any CORE + XPH (Elan, Maenad, Xeph only) + Homebrew (4 races, most with mental bonuses/penalties)

Character Gen: 32 point buy.

Books allowed: CORE + {All Complete but CPsi, Dragon Magic, XPH, Draconomicon, MotP (with 3.5 fixes), PHB II, UA, and BoED} Anything within the {} is 99.9% allowed but must be cleared with the DM before assuming it can be taken.

Death Penalty: As RAW, although I like ThirdWizard's system.

Replacement: Just roll up a new character. Wealth from dead character is lost to the party (assumed to be part of the burial ritual or some other ad hoc explanation).

Switching Characters: Never came up in game.

Heh. This is very much like the RPGA system, except for the "must be cleared with the DM" part. Imagine having 10,000 plus people emailing you each time they level up to ask if taking this or that is allowable. What the RPGA's Xen'drik Expeditions campaign expansion slot system does, in a nutshell, is allow people to use non-Core rules elements for there characters on a limited basis. You get an expansion slot at each level, allowing your character access to non-Core (PHB, DMG, MM, ECS) rules elements. This allows people a little more freedom for their character creation and advancement without letting them create the most broken combinations imaginable as more and more books come out as the campaign progresses.

Anyone who has run campaigns knows that allowing unlimited access to everything is asking for trouble. Usually the DM just looks at the rules item a player wants, sees if it could be abused, and makes a judgment right there. With thousands of players using dozens of sources, making those judgments would be a full time job that we don't have the time to make. Hence the expansion slot system is used.

Shawn
Factionmaster - Xen'drik Expeditions

 

[IceFractal]

With the RPGA, I accept the extra rules as a necessary evil for keeping thousands of characters intercompatible. However, for a home game, not my cup of tea. Not only do they add a lot of extra book-keeping, and add a level of formality and restrictions I don't find enjoyable, but they are rather unfair for non-core classes that have their own systems attached.

For instance, a Shadow-Magic user (from ToM) using metashadow feats isn't any more exotic than a regular Wizard using metamagic feats. However, the Shadowmage would have to spend another unlock for every metashadow feat, in addition to the ones they used to unlock the race.

 

[FireLance]

For instance, a Shadow-Magic user (from ToM) using metashadow feats isn't any more exotic than a regular Wizard using metamagic feats. However, the Shadowmage would have to spend another unlock for every metashadow feat, in addition to the ones they used to unlock the race.

I run an expansion slot system similar to the OP's, but characters in my campaigns get 1 expansion slot per character level, and can get an "advance" of 3 slots at character creation to play a non-core race and class, and get a non-core feat.

For shadowcasters, I would not require the expenditure of expansion slots for the bonus metashadow feats they get for acquiring multiple paths as I would consider that to be part of their class abilities. Similarly, I would not require a warmage character to spend expansion slots for non-core spells on his spell list, or on the bonus sudden metamagic feats he gets as class abilities.

 

[FireLance]

Oh, and in defense of expansion slot systems in general, they do help keep characters more on par with each other. This is especially important if you game with a variety of player types, and you want to prevent the characters of players who are good at min-maxing from overshadowing the characters of the more casual players.

 

[smerwin29]

With the RPGA, I accept the extra rules as a necessary evil for keeping thousands of characters intercompatible. However, for a home game, not my cup of tea. Not only do they add a lot of extra book-keeping, and add a level of formality and restrictions I don't find enjoyable, but they are rather unfair for non-core classes that have their own systems attached.

For instance, a Shadow-Magic user (from ToM) using metashadow feats isn't any more exotic than a regular Wizard using metamagic feats. However, the Shadowmage would have to spend another unlock for every metashadow feat, in addition to the ones they used to unlock the race.

This is only true to a point. Rules elements that are in the book where a class first appears are also unlocked to avoid the situation you describe. For example, if you play a warlock you get all the invocations in Complete Arcane, but you still have to unlock invocations appearing in other sources.

Remember too that a player also can use RPGA Player Reward Cards in addition to those expansion slots. Some of the cards open up a great deal more, making the system less restrictive than it might first seem.

I do agree that in a home campaign where there are a limited number of players, I would probably just do the ad hoc approval of non-Core elements, but I can understand how some players' styles would make using an expansion slot system less confrontational. And believe it or not, there are a large number of players who absolutely love the expansion slot system. To them, the creation of a character through such a system is as much a part of the game as the game itself.

Shawn

 

[wildstarsreach]

This is only true to a point. Rules elements that are in the book where a class first appears are also unlocked to avoid the situation you describe. For example, if you play a warlock you get all the invocations in Complete Arcane, but you still have to unlock invocations appearing in other sources.

Remember too that a player also can use RPGA Player Reward Cards in addition to those expansion slots. Some of the cards open up a great deal more, making the system less restrictive than it might first seem.

I do agree that in a home campaign where there are a limited number of players, I would probably just do the ad hoc approval of non-Core elements, but I can understand how some players' styles would make using an expansion slot system less confrontational. And believe it or not, there are a large number of players who absolutely love the expansion slot system. To them, the creation of a character through such a system is as much a part of the game as the game itself.

Shawn

Here's the problem as I see it for the expansion slot of some form. I've played in campaigns it's up to the DM and one player has more favor with the DM and gets what they want while all else being equal, other players do not. By using the expansion slot system, it makes this kind of thing less likely to happen. It won't eliminate it but will produce more fairness.

 

[smerwin29]

Here's the problem as I see it for the expansion slot of some form. I've played in campaigns it's up to the DM and one player has more favor with the DM and gets what they want while all else being equal, other players do not. By using the expansion slot system, it makes this kind of thing less likely to happen. It won't eliminate it but will produce more fairness.

So what you mean is that the expansion slot system can be a good thing, even in a home campaign, because it can eliminate DM favoritism from one player to the next?

 

[Endur]

I think each of these options are fine. My specific comments below.

Character Creation: I like the trade-offs of point buy vs. broken expansions.

Death Penalty: All of the systems you specify work.

Replacement: All of these are fine.

Loot: This gets tricky.

Switching Characters: I prefer to be allowed to switch characters at any time (with the proviso of only one character per player on a specific quest).

 

[Endur]

For what it is worth, here is my system:

Character creation: 25 point buy, Core + one book of player's choice (most expansion books are only broken when combined with other expansion books, I'm fine with any single expansion book combined with the core rules)

Death Penalty: Dead = dead. Unless you are high level, very unlikely to come back as anything other than undead.

Replacement: New PCs come in by taking over a NPC or at 1st level. If you take over an NPC, you'll have appropriate wealth per level.

Loot: Do whatever you want with it.

Switching characters: I'm fine with it.