Discussion - LEW 4th Edition

[Creamsteak]

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L4W CHARACTER RECORDS
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CHARACTER GENERATION
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STEP ONE
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STEP TWO
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STEP THREE
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CHARACTERS BY LEVEL
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1ST LEVEL CHARACTERS
Character Name a ( [character race] [class][level]/[class][level] )
Character Name b ( [character race] [class][level]/[class][level] )
Character Name c ( [character race] [class][level]/[class][level] )

2ND LEVEL CHARACTERS
Character Name a ( [character race] [class][level]/[class][level] )
Character Name b ( [character race] [class][level]/[class][level] )
Character Name c ( [character race] [class][level]/[class][level] )

3RD LEVEL CHARACTERS
Character Name a ( [character race] [class][level]/[class][level] )
Character Name b ( [character race] [class][level]/[class][level] )
Character Name c ( [character race] [class][level]/[class][level] )

 

[Wik]

I like that, but I like the idea of a master "PC" section, regardless of level, like we already have.

Also, I'd somehow like to see PC death happen more in L4W. But I can understand why it doesn't pop up very often.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I like that, but I like the idea of a master "PC" section, regardless of level, like we already have.

Also, I'd somehow like to see PC death happen more in L4W. But I can understand why it doesn't pop up very often.

Are you kidding? I don't know what games you're playing. I haven't run one yet in LEW that didn't kill at least one PC except the game where Logicsfate dropped and we wound up with only 1 PC left.

Lessee--

Ashin's Commission killed Almayce (it's hard not to kill Almayce).

The Crux of the Matter killed Ashnar and Hogarth. It may kill more before it is through.

IA/BotES killed Rillian, I think Anton, and they're still fighting the thing that did that with little progress, so it might kill more. Certainly two characters more are on the ground bleeding to death.

ATfL--Vanitri survived, and he was the only character at the end.

 

[Creamsteak]

I guess you have to be pretty careful what DMs you trust your characters with around here.

Personally I think having the list broken down into categories of some kind (likely either by level or by class) makes things a million times more readable for a major list. Having just the raw alphabetic list (and not having a database to back it up) makes it fairly difficult to search.

 

[Bront]

IA/BotES killed Rillian, I think Anton, and they're still fighting the thing that did that with little progress, so it might kill more. Certainly two characters more are on the ground bleeding to death.

That adventure suffers from a specific problem of needing different PCs than it involves, as well as a group of PCs that couldn't get along (to the point that I thought about leaving the game several times, and only failed to due to an RP commitment and complete and utter lack of monitary reward, putting my character at 4th or 5th level with 1st level gold). We've also lost way too many players from the game itself.

Honestly, that adventure has suffered more from player attrition than any other PbP game I've ever played in.

 

[Bront]

I like that, but I like the idea of a master "PC" section, regardless of level, like we already have.

Also, I'd somehow like to see PC death happen more in L4W. But I can understand why it doesn't pop up very often.

I'm not a big fan of PC death being common. Particularly when dealing with groups and people you're not familiar with.

In a living campaign, it's also rough, as you loose a lot through player death, and it's even more stinging in PbP format, where advancement is slow.

 

[Creamsteak]

Bront, are you easily reachable for discussion in some kind of medium other than posting/private-messages? I'd like to talk a bit regarding setting up somewhat of a battleplan regarding building the Living PbP 4E game.

 

[Bront]

Bront, are you easily reachable for discussion in some kind of medium other than posting/private-messages? I'd like to talk a bit regarding setting up somewhat of a battleplan regarding building the Living PbP 4E game.

Not generaly unfortunately. You can drop me an e-mail and try that, but my e-mail access isn't great on some days.

I used to be able to chat on CM, but I can't anymore.

 

[Creamsteak]

Alright, I'll just keep chugging along with my current stuff till it's somewhat presentable then. No chance you have access to a microphone and ventrillo either?

 

[Creamsteak]

As an aside, I also was thinking about something earlier today that I couldn't post because my internet went out.

Intro
Ok, I have an interesting schematic idea to propose (once again). The explanation isn't well formed, but when you put it all together it should make sense (I'm not taking the time to break this down into a standardized explanation).

L4W - Core
When 4e is released, we will use the core pantheon and all of the core rules as-is. The setting for this game will be specific to the 4th edition Living Enworld game. This particular setting will not take rules-based content proposals. We make this game easy to pick up and play for anyone, and maintain consistency of mechanics (like all characters start at 1st level).

I believe that there is going to be a pre-built small town detailed in the DMG. Most people seem to think this is going to be Hommlet. I say we run with it. This is our "starting location", and because everyone with the core books will have access to it, were "ready to go" on running it. We need not take any other setting content from there (Hommlet is pretty modular, and need not be in Greyhawk).

This baseline introduces a significant advantage for new players: They can enter into the game easily. Higher level characters will likely move on into more relevant setting cities created for the setting and such, but anyone brand-new to things can know a lot about where they start and what they are able to do without any confusion.

For now, I'll call this [L4W - Core].

L4W - Settings

Now, going along the lines of the "1 setting per year" idea wizards is running with, we will add 1 major campaign setting each year that is much more like Living Eberron or the current incarnation of LEW. In my example this first one is pretty easy to predict:

[L4W - Forgotten Realms]

Obviously this branch would have it's own set of rules, and could start to accept content and rules proposals. Obviously, a year later, we would see:

[L4W - Eberron]

And so-on.

Now, this also adds yet ANOTHER level of complexity to the set of tiers of content we have. New players can always join in the Core game with little to no confusion, following the rules as they can read them in their books. Then we have the more advanced setting based games. But not only that, every year a "new" setting based game gets added, so players can get in on the ground floor. One thing this helps with is it will space out "generations" of characters. A new player 2 years from now might be a bit behind if they were to join the FR game, but since Eberron just came out they can be one of the first player's to cut their teeth and potentially be one of the movers and shakers in the living game down the line.

We never close a setting obviously. They live as long as they have active players. So if you like FR you can always join the FR game. If you like Eberron, you can always slide into the Eberron game. If your new to PbP, join the Core game.