Living Star Wars Saga edition?

[OnlytheStrong]

I don't mind having an archive... could even make it the Jedi Archieve being rebuilt lol. I don't like having it off limits to players though.

I do like.... 3-4 GM's getting together and running 3-4 seperate groups into one HUGE fight. That's an awesome idea.

 

[knightemplar]

I would like to offer a suggestion though. When the adventure is over and the players are awarded their xp. How about having the DM get the same xp and the cash award, no items, to apply to one of their own characters, as long as the character is not in an active game at the time.

This will have two rewards:

First, most DMs like to play too. This will allow the DMs to have a character to play in other games, instead of DMing all the time. I have noticed in some of the FtF games I have played, if the DMs character is an active DMPC in the game, that the character becomes favored while in play. It might be best to have the character inactive, but still eligible to go up in experience. Also this would give the Living group a couple of extra higher level characters for a higher level module if it was introduced by one of the DMs.

Two it might get more people to DM, since they do not have to worry about their characters being left behind.

Also what about sectioning off certain games by level like the current 4E RPGA is doing it. Say start with games running Level 1-4, so you dont have to worry about having the characters all at the same level, but they are still within a certain range that will not overpower the other characters.

My suggestion on the adventure database might be an outline of the adventure, as most DMs can fill in the blanks relatively easy.

 

[fireinthedust]

would we want to section off games by level? I say sure, but we will need characters that have been around long enough to have higher levels than the general level of the setting. I might want to have my character tag along with more powerful Jedi, though, like in the movies. If I'm a DM, that is, and I finish an adventure with a fun group of players, but my main PC is with a different group, I might want to have a Droid join the fun. R2 can still repair the ship or zap battle droids while Obiwan and Anikin fight count dooko. Not that it'd really happen that way, but maybe!


GM rewards: if there is a set amount of XP for the game, I could see giving GMs a share of it. It'd make my job easier so I don't have to calculate every adventure.
then again, what do other Living games do? Is it as much as their adventure is worth (at which point I attack with dozens of easily defeated battle droids) or is it a reward plus the time the campaign drags on for (ie: 500xp plus 10xp per month)?

 

[garyh]

Let me pass on something the 3e Living EN World veterans passed on to us in Living 4th Edition: Do NOT have every PC in a shared world in a single mega-adventure. Something goes wrong, and the entire community is in trouble. A botched mega-adventure came VERY closed to killing Living EN World, I'm told.

As for DM's having PC's, in L4W, all the DM's have PC's. Their PC's adventure in other DM's games. I don't see why that won't work here. Also, DM's in L4W get "DM Credits" that can be spent leveling up their own PC's. 6 months DMing can be cashed in for one PC level.

 

[fireinthedust]

Let me pass on something the 3e Living EN World veterans passed on to us in Living 4th Edition: Do NOT have every PC in a shared world in a single mega-adventure. Something goes wrong, and the entire community is in trouble. A botched mega-adventure came VERY closed to killing Living EN World, I'm told.

Hmm... okay, so no mega adventure per se. However, I was thinking of having it set up where each party is its own exclusive section of the goings-on (if you will). For every part that succeeds in its goal (by not fizzling), the Rebels go up one point in victory. That translates to a specific thing, like one group rescues a Jedi Master in stasis since the purge (allowing for Clone Wars force powers to be used in general); another party finds a massive shipyard the alliance can use to build ships (allowing PCs to use Starships of the Galaxy fighters/transports for games).
Or maybe something else (cause we want access to books we buy, not just after an adventure), like in-story rewards or something. Like, um, En isn't occupied by the Empire, or a planet doesn't get blown up or something. Or maybe specific to the members of that party, I dunno.

I do see your point, though. But if it was like one of those video games where your character has to do three side quests to get the special bonus material/items that they can then use for the rest of the game... that might be okay.

As for DM's having PC's, in L4W, all the DM's have PC's. Their PC's adventure in other DM's games. I don't see why that won't work here. Also, DM's in L4W get "DM Credits" that can be spent leveling up their own PC's. 6 months DMing can be cashed in for one PC level.

Really? That's sweet! I joinged Turtledome in the hopes an arena would let me level-farm (just a short adventure, no really... and it comes with a free Golden Gate bridge!), but DMing could help that too...

 

[Insight]

Having not played any of the "Living" games on EN World, I have to admit that I'm a little surprised at the way it's been portrayed in this thread. Do they not have "set" adventures that people play through, a la RPGA? If not, then DMs are pretty much just using the same setting for their adventures. If we're using the SW universe, how is this any different than just running a regular PBP? I guess the main difference is that you could play the same character in different adventures.

 

[garyh]

Having not played any of the "Living" games on EN World, I have to admit that I'm a little surprised at the way it's been portrayed in this thread. Do they not have "set" adventures that people play through, a la RPGA? If not, then DMs are pretty much just using the same setting for their adventures. If we're using the SW universe, how is this any different than just running a regular PBP? I guess the main difference is that you could play the same character in different adventures.

That's correct, the current EN World Living games do NOT use adventures multiple times. The "Living" part comes from the fact that there's dozens of PC's in the campaign that can all cross paths, and PC's can and often do swap parties between adventures. PC's also adventure with different DM's over time. Also, the Judge is also responsible for stepping in and finishing an adventure if a DM disappears, so there's more protection for players that their PC's will continue to exist.

 

[Insight]

That's correct, the current EN World Living games do NOT use adventures multiple times. The "Living" part comes from the fact that there's dozens of PC's in the campaign that can all cross paths, and PC's can and often do swap parties between adventures. PC's also adventure with different DM's over time. Also, the Judge is also responsible for stepping in and finishing an adventure if a DM disappears, so there's more protection for players that their PC's will continue to exist.

How does the coordination work in terms of maintaining the shared setting? Is someone (or some persons) in charge of making sure things make sense? Is it completely free-wheeling and no one cares about consistency?

 

[fireinthedust]

Lots of consistency, that I know of. Judges are sort of the moderators for the setting. I believe they're the ones who vote stuff in or out, and they approve of adventures that get run by GMs before they can advertise for players.

So, for example, if I want to explode a planet with Chewbacca on it as a GM NPC, the judges can go "are you insane? why would you kill Chewey?!" and veto that part of the adventure.
They also go over monster stats and player stats, and make sure everything is kosher. Every time I level in L4W I need to do the sheet and have the Judges say "this is okay, but you forgot such and such here".

I don't know if there should be a GMs only archive, but for sure an archive of important stuff that's freely available to all. I might want to read it, for example.
Then again, we could add in stuff only GMs should know, like how the Empire's secret base (that the PCs didn't discover during that module) is still in the asteroid belt; but the PC wiki says "ships go in but never return through the asteroid belt".

 

[fireinthedust]

Also, Insight, if you have adventures you want to write but not run, I think that's brilliant. If they're even a scenario with several sites and foes fully statted up, plus the plot that goes with them, a GM can grab them, then run the adventure for the group. It could even have a list at the end of important events per planet, or things that could be added to the general Wiki *after* the adventure (ie: this is the time the PCs met Zap Brannigan on Tattooine, and crashed a yt1300 near the Sarlac (in case someone wants to go after it later)).
They might not be for multiple groups to go through, but it would still be pretty cool.


Also: I tried starting up a wiki for LSW, but I... well, realized I was a deer in headlights for wiki code right now. I need to see it done before I know what to do with it (or some other wiki), but yeah.

Also: we need content! Should we start up a thread here with some articles and go from there? Vote on them, then cut/paste?