[Leveling Mechanics] Would you play in this game?

[the Jester]

Why would I want to play a character I didn't get to control? I'd rather just read a book.

 

[Mark Causey]

Why would I want to play a character I didn't get to control? I'd rather just read a book.

Maybe I'm not making myself clear; it's a group effort for a group of characters. You're getting to make choices as you play the character you've chosen and once every three or four meetings or so you all help decide the growth of all of the characters. You counteract an unbalancing situation of feats every level by making most of the choices a group decision. The entire story that you are creating together then has more group ownership, not that other people play your character.

When I said that the group, not you, I meant not just you.

 

[Li Shenron]

Maybe I'm not making myself clear; it's a group effort for a group of characters. You're getting to make choices as you play the character you've chosen and once every three or four meetings or so you all help decide the growth of all of the characters. You counteract an unbalancing situation of feats every level by making most of the choices a group decision. The entire story that you are creating together then has more group ownership, not that other people play your character.

When I said that the group, not you, I meant not just you.

We have very often discussed together what was best for each other to choose when levelling up... strange that this doesn't happen to others as well. But at the end it was always the "owner" of the PC who had to make the final choice.

I don't know what system you're planning here, is everyone in the party going to vote? This could be fun (at least in the short run, or a single campaign) but watch out for charismatic players who may eventually take over the rest, and end up choosing for everyone.

Nonetheless it could provide an interesting different take on the game, I could try this sort of things for a while. An even more extremist option that I would try for once is extracting random feats, abilities and even classes: definintely something which isn't nice on a long term, but for a one-shot adventure it could force the arcane-lover for once to try and play a fighter, or the combat-lover to play a spellcaster.

 

[whydirt]

Just a small nitpick: I think you mean every 3*x level since 3^x would only be levels 1, 3, 9, 27, 81, etc.

 

[Mark Causey]

whydirt: yeah, that's what I meant ^^;

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Generally in my experience players consult each other about where there characters are going (both story/personality wise and feat/skills/level wise). So I don't really see what the advantage of this would be.

Ultimately it should always be the players decision how his character advances.

 

[Mark Causey]

Then, let's move on. Does anyone have an idea for a mechanic to counteract the concept of getting a feat every level?

 

[Cintra]

Balance it with the fact that you also give the opponents a feat per level or Hit Die.