Wik
First Post
Bront said:He actualy said shortly after the final book, not before
It's an important difference, and one I fully support.
With the PHB, you can build a very vague basis. The DMG can help you design the initial starting area (an important but medium sized trade city is a good start, much like Orussus). And once the Monster Manual is out, you can flesh out some finishing touches and start her up.
A good reason to wait that long is to allow PHB circulation. Especialy if there's a delay in getting them out (like the Mutants and Masterminds 2.0 books, which sold out so fast many weren't able to get them till 4 months later). With WotC, it's less likely to happen, but I know I might not get a book myself the first week it's out.
Ha. I meant to actually say "after". Read it right, wrote it wrong. Not a big deal.
What I *would* like to see, within a month of the final book being released, is a more or less usable world, with the mechanics loosely in place.
ON THE CORE CITY & SOME META ASPECTS:
Y'know, I don't like the idea of teleportation gates, for the reasons RA described - they kill travel adventures. And thus get rid of GM control. (I know, I mentioned them, but I was just giving out some ideas).
I know I said I wanted a mechanic for getting the travel out of the game, but that being said, I'd like there to be a way to keep travel in if the GM wants it there. As a loose example, my Eidolon adventure would not work if Sharn was a place with a lot of teleportation gates - the PCs could travel to their destination, and then set up an ambush ahead of the guys they're chasing. And where's the fun in that?
I have some thoughts on how to fix this aspect of the game, below. For now, though, I think the main city should have the following aspects:
1) Political Intrigue situation (perhaps it's the capital, or it's the head of "Free Cities")
2) Docks, as well as a hub for land-based caravans (for travel adventures)
3) Thieves' Guild (perhaps as a local source of baddies)
4) A few organizations that PCs can belong to (more on that later)
5) A bazaar (again, more on this)
ON TRAVEL (META)
I think Creamsteak has a good idea, with limiting the RDI to RP, and allowing GMs to rectruit for adventures OUTSIDE of the RDI. I think that can help to get rid of unnecessary travel.
A GM who *wants* to have travel in his game can recruit PCs inside the RDI (or equivalent). That GM who just wants to run DOOMGATES OF DOOM can instead just say in an OOC thread "Hey, I'm running this module" and when he gets his group, start them off in the town of Doomsguarde, and run the adventure proper (as opposed to right now, where he'd have to move the PCs from Orussus to Doomsguarde, which could literally take MONTHS of real time play... Galwynn's current adventure pretty much dissolved before we ever reached the 'dungeon', for example).
Now, I like the idea of multiple RDIs, but I think we should cap it at two, and only introduce one to begin with. Each one would be in a different city, so as the campaign progressed, we could showcase more of it.
However, with adventures beginning outside of hte core city, the core city becomes far less "Core". Which, I think, would be a good thing.
ORGANIZATIONS
There should be organizations in the world that PCs can belong to. Guilds and the like, that may or may not have special benefits to offer to PCs. I'm not saying we write up huge lists of houserules to simulate this, or even crazy feats (although feats may be a good idea, and LEW already has a few that are similar).
The main idea here would be to ground PCs into the game world, and to also use these organizations as a way to get PCs into adventures. While we could make them class specific (so there'd be a bardic college, a wizardly school, and a warrior school, to use 3E classes as an example), I think it'd be neater to have each school represent a broad category of classes, and make them each interesting enough that choosing a school would be a tough choice for every character.
So the school of exploration would offer a bunch of discounts on adventuring gear, and would interest rangers and other woodsy characters. It also has maps and other sources of information that could come in handy.
Meanwhile, the Order of Light could offer free healing, and other nice happy benefits (such as having low-level knights help you out at times).
If I'm a LG Warrior, I could be torn between either choice, and I think that makes for more interesting play.
NON-GAME THREADS
So, right now, we have a few "shop" threads, and the RDI thread. I think we should have a few more OOC threads:
1) The Bazaar. Essentially, this would be where PCs sell their wares. However, instead of long threads, it would all be updated on the first page, with individual PCs mentioning their purchases and sales. A judge would in charge of monitoring this. I think this would encourage inter-PC sales and bargaining.
2) RDI Threads - in multiple cities (two at any one time). I think having one thread set in the main city, and another rotating from city to city could be kind of neat.
3) The Arena - I like the idea of a PvP arena, but it's too early to discuss right now. Just mentioning it right now.
4) The Library - This is an idea that I think could help keep the game running smoothly. Essentially, every player would have one thread, where they could record what they've encountered in the world. As gameplay progressed, all those little details could come up, and become clearer. Whether or not these details are actually true remains to be seen, but it could easily be good reading.
OTHER META STUFF
Just some rough ideas:
1) I like Creamsteak's Character's Subforum; it definately seems like a good idea. However, I'd say that each PLAYER has his one thread, and then we have a stickied index at the top. But it's a beautiful way to keep things running smoothly.
2) To encourage GM's running adventures - we could simply limit maximum number of PCs you can run, based on the number of adventures you're running, although that's a bit draconian. Still, it seems to me that if you play 3 PCs, you should be "giving something back" to the community.
We could also up the relative power of GM credits, which I think wouldn't hurt too much.
3) I wholly agree that all PCs should start at 1st level.
4) One thing I think might help newbies and GMs alike is to have a "Player's Guide" PDF or something. Basically, a dummy's intro to the world - detailing the religions in brief, main areas, and whatnot. Keep it under six or seven pages, and provide a map.
Then, each year or so, we could release an "update" that provided any "open" areas that GMs have added to the world, as well as progress the date of our campaign world by one year (and provide a "recent events" section in the update). I think that'd be really cool, and help with campaign continuity.