How many characters can people play at campaign launch? PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

[Graf]

Please read the explanations below before voting. Some of the answers may not be what you think they are.

There is also some personal opinions.... which probably isn't very appropriate but... whatever... if I think something is a bad idea I feel like it's better to just say it instead of tiptoeing around it.

The poll is multiple choice, IF YOU DON'T POST OTHERWISE WE WILL ASSUME YOU ARE INDIFFERENT BETWEEN YOUR VOTES.

[d]--[/d]

OOC points are something you get for ooc activity for the benefit of the community (running games, judging whatever). OOC points may be like DM points in LEB but they might also be given out for other things besides (consisten posting as a player, helping judge, or check characters)

An active character is a character who is adventuring. So if I say 1 active character it means "one character going on adventures"

1+1 means one primary character with a second character available under certain conditions (spelled out below)

[d]--[/d]
How many player characters should we have at campaign launch

1 character
... but revisit later (in 3 months when we revisit available races and everything else)
... but you can play another character (1+1) if...you're an active DM

maybe you need to be generating x number of OOC points per period -- we, of course, need to figure out what these points are/do
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... (1+1) if you spend OOC points to activate your second character

ditto on "what are OOC points? thing
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...(1+1) if you've played your primarily character well for some time (3 months?) and...

... if you've posted consistently and regularly in the games you play in. I'm loath to allow someone to make three characters, fill up slots in three games and then wander off/post irregularly. Why waste all those resources on someone who isn't going to be fulfilling the bare minimum.
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...you've played a primarily character up to second level

Basically the same thing as the above (if you've gotten to second level you've probably been playing regularly - otherwise you just get dropped from parties) but this is vastly easier to judge.
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...(1+1) if your second characters is a Core (PhB only) characters

Personally, not a fan of this method. Instead of getting a dwarf and a hobgoblin you'll just get a hobgoblin. The option below is slightly more likely to be an official mechanism that makes the MM options somewhat less common than PHB options.
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...(1+1) if both of your characters are Core (PhB only) characters

I think this is the only way to actually "force people to play PhB" characters.
Personally I don't think that's a useful goal.
In fact, I think it borders on "my fun is good, your fun is badwrongfun"

I think we should just write world that can absorb weirder characters without breaking suspension of disbelief.
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...(1+1) if both of your characters are Core (PhB only) characters

You can have multiple characters but only one active (i.e. adventuring)
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2 characters

In my experience slots in games are significantly more scarce than characters are to play in them. I'm leery of having people with multiple characters at launch, all desperately vying for the same handful of slots and the ensuing hurt feelings and frustration.
Also: Approving lots and lots of characters is a lot of work. I'd rather focus on getting things up and running and add characters if/when we have so many games going on that we're short on players.
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3 characters

Before Halford posted about having three characters I'd never seen it discussed. The original LEW discussion forum was unainmous about starting with 1 PC per player.

I'm gonna say that if we're going to launch with playerbase x3 characters I'm not going to do character judging.
Because the majority of those characters won't ever be played. Why? Because with 3 characters per player it means that even with every game running 6 characters in a party every other player has to be a DM.

Is that going to happen? I'd love to see it. But I'm very doubtful. Most DMs are already running a game. And a lot of games I'm in are running slow because DMs are busy. (I'm neglecting my games to do LEW stuff so I really shouldn't talk but.... anyway, I'm not alone)

Personally I think that we should encourage everyone who wants to play three characters to volunteer to become character judges. Then I can play three characters and not worry about all the character checking, maintaince, etc .
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[stonegod]

1 character
... but you can play another character (1+1) if...
...you've played a primarily character up to second level

Basically the same thing as the above (if you've gotten to second level you've probably been playing regularly - otherwise you just get dropped from parties) but this is vastly easier to judge.

LEB started w/ 1 character at first level and didn't start allowing 2nds until established characters were already second (and a whole bevy of them, not just one). It was also at the point where we had multiple games going on (and several 2nd lvl PCs).

That'd be my vote (no actual poll).

 

[garyh]

I think folks should only have one character at launch, be allowed to have a second character when the first hits 2nd level, and a third character when one of the first two hits 4th level. This lets everyone who's a consistent player have the option to play more characters eventually, and prevents us from starting with 8 players, 30 characters, and not enough games.

 

[covaithe]

Hmm, a few things to say about this.

First, what I think we should do. I think we should start with one character per person, but revisit it fairly quickly thereafter. Much less than three months; possibly as soon as two weeks. Basically, as soon as there are enough adventures going that everyone, or nearly everyone, can find a place in an adventure. I think it's healthy for a living world to have a... backlog, as it were, of characters that aren't currently on adventure. It's much better than having DMs with adventures ready to go who can't find players.

I'm sympathetic to the idea of only allowing a new character to be created once your first one has hit level 2, but I don't think we should do it. I restricted myself that way voluntarily with my characters in LEW, but it meant that I didn't create my third character until I'd been playing for nearly 18 months, and it could easily have been much longer. Let's face it, PbP games can bog down. I really hate the idea of a player making a character, getting stuck in a slow adventure, and then watching adventure after fun adventure pass them by because they aren't allowed to create their second character yet.

One more thing: I'm pretty strongly against the idea of OOC points of any kind. I'm *very* strongly against the idea of having judges waste time deciding who is and who isn't "active" enough in their games.

 

[BigB]

I think one character per person is enough. If and when things settle down judging wise we may add more. Why add more right away if you have to wait months for approval and the judges are frustrated at the amount submitted.

 

[Phoenix8008]

I'm definately for only having one character at launch. We can add another in later after the first one is up to second level and such. This way the judges aren't bogged down so much.

 

[renau1g]

I agree, 1 PC/account, at launch that is.

I choose to revisit later, but I'm thinking now that we should wait until there are a good amount of people that are lvl 2 before allowing others to create at that (like stonegod said LEB did)

 

[Erekose13]

gah board ate my post. essentially said I agree with sg but that we should avoid starting with higher level characters as LEB does it.

 

[Halford]

Well first off my three characters comments were an assumption, since all the other living worlds seemed to use that. Please disregard!

But after considerable reflection I have to say I am not keen on beginning with one character. I want to encourage a thriving community and I think the best way to do that is by trusting players rather than starting with the premise that they are likely to be unreliable, etc. I feel that a player having two characters gives them twice the chance to have a great experience which will keep them coming back for more; I can easily envision some threads stalling or simply not being a players cup of tea and multiple charcters gives them multiple chances to find a game that fits them.

I also hope that when play begins there will be a number of adventures and I know I will want to be in more than one! Pretty sure I'm fighting a loosing battle here, but there you go.