(Discussion) General Part VI

[Erekose13]

I agree with KB on this one. I was a little stunned at the discussion of a 5th level character wandering around as an NPC when none of my characters have hit 2nd yet.

As for the Psionics adventure, I would love to start up a psionics character but I think that I am pushing my time a little far as it is. So I will bow out whether you choose to take the pcs in the red dragon or those who spoke up here. Enjoy guys and maybe if psionics becomes more widely available Ill have a chance to play one here in the future.

 

[orsal]

The only reason I dicided to hire a NPC was because I don't yet have the leadership feat so technically I can't have a cohort just yet. Well, also because Robillard was not designed for fighting, he has all of the CHR based skills and avearage physical abilities.

Isn't that why adventurers form groups? You're good at some skills but lack others. Go to the Red Dragon Inn, look for other adventurers who fill in the gaps in your talents, and go off on an adventure together. None of our characters can do everything by themselves.

 

[Kangaxx]

Since Thomas Hobbes says I need to post my PrC here to get it approved, I'm doing so. I've pretty much given up on Living ENworld, but I spent a fair amount of time working on this class so I'd like to see it finished.

Secretseeker of Jareth

While I'm here, I want to say something about why I've given up on Living ENworld. When I first came here about 2 months ago, I read about the idea of everyone being able to make a character, and send them on individual adventures rather than having long campaigns. It sounded like a great idea. So I made a character. And he's been in the tavern for almost 2 months. During that time, I saw one new adventure start, (which he couldn't join because it was for combat oriented characters) although I may have missed a couple since I stopped checking earlier this month. The problem is that for this world to work like it's intended, there needs to be enough adventures starting that everyone actually gets to play. Right now it's more akin to a club for the people that were around when it was getting started, and those few who happen to join when a new adventure starts. Your average new player is just like me- makes a character because it sounds fun, and sends him into the tavern where he will live for all eternity. The people who already playing will be checking back more often, and are conveniently ready for a new adventure when their old dm is ready to start a new one.

There are two things I can think of to help with this problem. First, limit people to a single character. When there's a line going out the door, People shouldn't get two or three spots in it. Second, have standing adventure hooks, so when a party forms up in the tavern, they can go somewhere. This second idea isn't really feasible unless you have dms popping out of the woodwork, but it's what is needed for Living ENworld to live up to its name.

I also want to point out that my PrC's thread was on the front page of this forum for over a month with a query about how to submit the class for approval, and it just now got a response. Now I know why nobody else is making new content.

 

[Knight Otu]

Oh, and creamsteak, considering how crowded the red dragon is, I'd like to recomend recruiting from the preexisting characters - there's been some folks sitting around for (ooc) weeks, I think, and while I won't push for my #3 to be in the group (I'm already playing in two games and running three) I think it would be real nice to the new guys and get them more involved in the setting. IMHO.

A good point. The people in the tavern should likely have the first go at an adventure. But considering that this will be a psionics-related adventure, I'd guess that a number of people will want to stay as far away from it as possible. I took Creamsteak's post more as a "I want to gauge the interest first" than a "The first five to sign up will be in."

 

[orsal]

There are two things I can think of to help with this problem. First, limit people to a single character. When there's a line going out the door, People shouldn't get two or three spots in it. Second, have standing adventure hooks, so when a party forms up in the tavern, they can go somewhere. This second idea isn't really feasible unless you have dms popping out of the woodwork, but it's what is needed for Living ENworld to live up to its name.

That's the key -- right now there's a poor character to DM ratio. We need more DMs; if you want to volunteer to run an adventure, great; if not, best not to fault the rest of us. LEW is only what we (that includes you) put into it.

I should note that this is a rather new phenomenon. Most of the time I've been around, there have been hooks for everyone. When a new adventure comes along, it usually empties the tavern, unless there's someone who for one reason or another chooses not to take the bait. Most players' second and third characters were created at a time when there wasn't a queue waiting for adventures. So I hope you'll reconsider; the imbalance may yet change again, and I think you've got a lot of creativity to offer this game.

Even when not on an adventure, I've had a lot of fun roleplaying interactions in the tavern. That's something you can do, and which will keep you coming back frequently enough to catch any new adventure hook that presents itself.

That said, you do bring up an important point. I've been excited at the rate the character thread has been growing; it means we're recruiting a lot of new players. (I believe the only recently-posted second character was by a player whose first character has left the game.) Unfortunately, we're not currently doing so well at recruiting DMs.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

The problem is that for this world to work like it's intended, there needs to be enough adventures starting that everyone actually gets to play.

The lack of DMs is a definite issue here, and I've tried recruiting on other gaming related boards for same. Have you considered running one yourself? The more people who give it a shot, the better. Don't forget that it doesn't have to be a campaign - I'm planning on running a number of vingettes (short duration adventures with an explicitly limited scope) but there's only so much I can do at once...

There are two things I can think of to help with this problem. First, limit people to a single character. When there's a line going out the door, People shouldn't get two or three spots in it. Second, have standing adventure hooks, so when a party forms up in the tavern, they can go somewhere. This second idea isn't really feasible unless you have dms popping out of the woodwork, but it's what is needed for Living ENworld to live up to its name.

on the second idea, give a couple of examples... Players like to be able to resolve things, and we don't want this to get too diablo/gauntlet with everful crypts of undead to ransack, leave a while and ransack again... Here's my try for what you might be thinking of - Two major trading families/magical players have set up permanent teleport circles in trade cities to facilitate movement of goods. An unfortunate side effect of the constant traffic has been occasional 'weak spots' that develop in areas astraly linked to the 'routes' and the apearance of abominations in these areas. Rather than risk a crusade to destroy their very profitable plan, the houses have set up monitoring of known weak areas and have a standing call for sturdy souls willing to respond to immenent breakthroughs and protect the populace. These jobs are of explicitly short durrations, almost never result in treasure and generally aren't as fullfilling as a standard adventure, but if you itch for combat or want a chance to bond with a potential party, you can give it a shot.

On the first thought, I think most of the doubling up on characters occured when there were enough DMs to go around. While I am a compulsive character creator without any other gaming outlets and therefore can't get behind any ban on multiple characters , good sense indicates that one should wait until the inn is a little emptier before doubling up...

I also want to point out that my PrC's thread was on the front page of this forum for over a month with a query about how to submit the class for approval, and it just now got a response. Now I know why nobody else is making new content.

well, I don't make new content because my attempts have been shot down, one with associated minor nastyness. However, I'm going to propose a somewhat radical metarule for approving new rules more democraticly, with less emphasis on judge approval. Once you feel an idea has been sufficiently bounced around to take a final shape, post it with a poll of three options : "want it allowed", "want it not allowed", and "feel it needs clarification." One week voting period, if it gets at least 10 "allowed" votes and allowed votes are a simple majority, it gets in. If "clarification" votes would have put it over the top, take it back to study and try again in not less than one week. If its a clear "not allowed" majority, pout and move on. I think this would work a lot better than the current method, which, as far as I can tell, involves cluttering up the general discussion thread and hoping that the 50% or less of judges who are able to give it attention right then are the ones who would like it... :\

Or, to sum up more distinctly, yeah LEW is in a rut, lets do something about it.

Kahuna Burger

 

[Pbartender]

The lack of DMs is a definite issue here, and I've tried recruiting on other gaming related boards for same. Have you considered running one yourself? The more people who give it a shot, the better. Don't forget that it doesn't have to be a campaign - I'm planning on running a number of vingettes (short duration adventures with an explicitly limited scope) but there's only so much I can do at once...

Right... This is my plan as a LEW DM also. A series of short, not necessarily inter-connected adventures.

But the other thing that you have to realize is that depending on the pace of the posting, an adventure (even a very short one) takes several months to complete.

I personally, only want to DM one adventure at a time here, since I am also running another PBP (Star Wars Iconics), and running my own table-top campaign, not to mention being a LEW Judge when I notice something to judge (sometimes I do miss things ).

And just for the record there are currently 11(!) active adventures running in Enworld, with nearly 60 adventurers currently at large in those adventures.

However, I'm going to propose a somewhat radical metarule for approving new rules more democraticly, with less emphasis on judge approval. Once you feel an idea has been sufficiently bounced around to take a final shape, post it with a poll of three options : "want it allowed", "want it not allowed", and "feel it needs clarification." One week voting period, if it gets at least 10 "allowed" votes and allowed votes are a simple majority, it gets in. If "clarification" votes would have put it over the top, take it back to study and try again in not less than one week. If its a clear "not allowed" majority, pout and move on. I think this would work a lot better than the current method, which, as far as I can tell, involves cluttering up the general discussion thread and hoping that the 50% or less of judges who are able to give it attention right then are the ones who would like it...

This is not a half bad idea... I've been trying to put together a website with all the original material we're creating here. However, it's nto always easy to tell what is "really" approved. In recent weeks, I've given up spurring the other judges to approve things, since it got to be too much work and worry for me.

At any rate... I'm all for this idea, if the other judges think likewise (and I'll just take silence as a vote of approval this time).

 

[Creamsteak]

Working from my older computer is weird. I feel like I can't "see" everything like I do on my newer computer. I should be installing a DSL line in this house within the month though. That should help me a bit.

I would prefer a PC cohort of course, but are you proposing a PC cohort played by another character (in which case I am hiring) or one that I control (in which case I will make another). The only reason I dicided to hire a NPC was because I don't yet have the leadership feat so technically I can't have a cohort just yet. Well, also because Robillard was not designed for fighting, he has all of the CHR based skills and avearage physical abilities. Unless you are saying I should bend the rules.

You confuse the word PC with player classes I think. Something like that. When I say a PC cohort, I mean find another Player who has a character, and make an agreement with this character to work as your cohort. This would probably be handled in the context of the Red Dragon Inn. This is the only solution that I think makes sense. As you said, you don't have the leadership feat, and the DMG does not deal with hirlings with levels in PC classes. So, it's pretty much either hire another player's character, or nothing. I'd like to avoid actual hirelings and such as much as possible.

By my count, that's four for a psionics game, and I'd like to be number 5.

Since you said nothing on it, I'd assume that the feats and domains from the Divine files would be ok? Doesn't affect my characters, but maybe others would be interested.

I'm willing to accept that since they are in the SRD, they are fine by me... but there are problems with that. First off, some of the abilities listed in the SRD might not have been updated to 3.5, but 3.5 versions exist in books like Complete Divine. Because I havn't scanned D&DG I'm not going to submit that for judge approval until I do scan it over.

Oh, and creamsteak, considering how crowded the red dragon is, I'd like to recomend recruiting from the preexisting characters - there's been some folks sitting around for (ooc) weeks, I think, and while I won't push for my #3 to be in the group (I'm already playing in two games and running three) I think it would be real nice to the new guys and get them more involved in the setting. IMHO.

Makes sense. I'll have to bite the bullet and run a recruitment from there. Actually... if I run the 2nd part of the adventure 1st (which might make more sense actually), then recruiting 10-15 characters from the RDI will make sense. But... thing is, if I do that, some might die if I do that. I'll make a post over there in a second then.

Or I could run part 1 and part 2 seperately... that's what I probably should do.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Originally Posted by KB

whaaa, now I'm being abreviated even in attributions!

Makes sense. I'll have to bite the bullet and run a recruitment from there. Actually... if I run the 2nd part of the adventure 1st (which might make more sense actually), then recruiting 10-15 characters from the RDI will make sense. But... thing is, if I do that, some might die if I do that. I'll make a post over there in a second then.

well, if death is a big worry, maybe I should send kirin along. She has a fully charged wand of CLW and she's not afraid to be used as a walking first aid kit.

Kahuna Burger

 

[Knight Otu]

First off, some of the abilities listed in the SRD might not have been updated to 3.5, but 3.5 versions exist in books like Complete Divine. Because I havn't scanned D&DG I'm not going to submit that for judge approval until I do scan it over.

I think my post included the most important non-updated stuff. It is mostly the Domains and Spells that were not updated, and two feats. The rest seems to be updated. But I'm not a judge, so I'll leave those decisions to you.