kaomera
Explorer
I have been thinking a bit lately about what I would do for my next campaign... I'm currently running Dark Sun and it's going well (I'd say the glass is only about 10% empty, not that I wouldn't like to improve that), and will probably go on for a bit longer, but eventually I'm going to wrap up what I have planned for that. And while my current game is in "A-" territory, it has seemed to me that one of the really obvious things that could have made it better for me would have been to set some concrete limits on what was available as far as characters go...
I have three basic ideas I'm currently tossing around:
1) Essentials only. I think every player I know at this point has expressed some interest in at least one of the essentials classes, but I haven't actually seen one in play yet. I think part of this may be not wanting to "cross the streams", and an essentials-only game would give players a chance (or maybe a push) to actually try one in play. This would be a very significant limitation, but it would also have it's benefits, such as making it much easier for me to bring all of the needed materials to the game. Might also be better for newer players, even if only because they wouldn't need to buy a whole lot of books (and it would be more reasonable for me to bring the player-side books as well).
2) Races, classes, and items from PHB1 + essentials only. This nicely cuts out everything I actually have any kind of issues with in 4e, although it also ends up tossing out some stuff I rather like. I think this should provide enough options for nearly every player to find something the enjoy. (And I think that it's reasonable that a player who has to have an option that I don't like dealing with in order to have fun would probably be better served by playing in a different game.) This does mean that we're still dealing with multiple splatbooks (and possibly other sources of feats, etc.), but I feel pretty confident in letting the players manage their own characters without any need for oversight in 4e.
3) Create a comprehensive whitelist based on the setting / campaign I come up with. This would be my more traditional approach, but it's got the problem of being more open to argument. Of course that could be a good thing in some cases, but it goes against my specific reasons for going back to limits on acceptable PCs. Something like this is also much more work, although I think I could safely allow any/all feats and prestige classes at least (well, barring those excluded because I've made their requirements unavailable).
In any of these cases I might end up house-ruling items as well. Nothing too major (or at least I don't think it is), but I find myself constantly lagging behind in handing out the allotted number of items, and I'd like to pass most item selection off to the players. This would also bypass the awkwardness of wish-lists without having to deal with unwanted / un-used items.
Options 1 & 2 create an interesting situation where I would be creating a setting around the limits I've imposed, instead of the other way around. I'm thinking this shouldn't be too huge of an issue - I ran 4e with just the "core 3" before any other supplements had been released, and I think essentials covers all of the major bases fairly well. So anything reasonably straight-forward should work. I'm also trying to find a concept that appeals to me and also focuses much more on "actual dungeons" than my recent campaigns have, so something more "back-to-basics" might help there.
Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts about these options / ideas and their relative merits. Which you would / would not be interested in and why, or any thoughts to hone or improve my ideas...
I have three basic ideas I'm currently tossing around:
1) Essentials only. I think every player I know at this point has expressed some interest in at least one of the essentials classes, but I haven't actually seen one in play yet. I think part of this may be not wanting to "cross the streams", and an essentials-only game would give players a chance (or maybe a push) to actually try one in play. This would be a very significant limitation, but it would also have it's benefits, such as making it much easier for me to bring all of the needed materials to the game. Might also be better for newer players, even if only because they wouldn't need to buy a whole lot of books (and it would be more reasonable for me to bring the player-side books as well).
2) Races, classes, and items from PHB1 + essentials only. This nicely cuts out everything I actually have any kind of issues with in 4e, although it also ends up tossing out some stuff I rather like. I think this should provide enough options for nearly every player to find something the enjoy. (And I think that it's reasonable that a player who has to have an option that I don't like dealing with in order to have fun would probably be better served by playing in a different game.) This does mean that we're still dealing with multiple splatbooks (and possibly other sources of feats, etc.), but I feel pretty confident in letting the players manage their own characters without any need for oversight in 4e.
3) Create a comprehensive whitelist based on the setting / campaign I come up with. This would be my more traditional approach, but it's got the problem of being more open to argument. Of course that could be a good thing in some cases, but it goes against my specific reasons for going back to limits on acceptable PCs. Something like this is also much more work, although I think I could safely allow any/all feats and prestige classes at least (well, barring those excluded because I've made their requirements unavailable).
In any of these cases I might end up house-ruling items as well. Nothing too major (or at least I don't think it is), but I find myself constantly lagging behind in handing out the allotted number of items, and I'd like to pass most item selection off to the players. This would also bypass the awkwardness of wish-lists without having to deal with unwanted / un-used items.
Options 1 & 2 create an interesting situation where I would be creating a setting around the limits I've imposed, instead of the other way around. I'm thinking this shouldn't be too huge of an issue - I ran 4e with just the "core 3" before any other supplements had been released, and I think essentials covers all of the major bases fairly well. So anything reasonably straight-forward should work. I'm also trying to find a concept that appeals to me and also focuses much more on "actual dungeons" than my recent campaigns have, so something more "back-to-basics" might help there.
Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts about these options / ideas and their relative merits. Which you would / would not be interested in and why, or any thoughts to hone or improve my ideas...
