Of Wooden Ships and Flaming Men

[Lord Judas]

I have to make a clarification. My allegory was misleading; the Cleric was "laid low" meanining -5 hit points or so. Only the Ranger Erdrick was killed outright with an awesome blow of 29 points damage on the final swing. (remember: 8th level on average). The cleric lived and was able to bring Erdrick back to life via scroll.

I see that many of you advocate "full exp", but the ship had a crew of about 35 people (a 'Go-Shuin', an Asian 2 mast ship), Rouges level 2-4, including an 8th Level Mage, a 10th level barbarian Captain, and a 6th level Rouge("Ninja"- he was the one looking for the book while the Mage and Barbarian created a "distraction"). Now the idea was the ship would send over a raiding party (not every last crew member) and take the Stallion. If they failed, the ship would flee and enter the realm of "item to be used at a later date". If I were to give out this sum of EXP, (I havent ran the numbers yet) wouldnt it catapult the freshly minted 8th level characters to 10th level or close to it?

Killed in regular combat was the Mage, Bar., 2x Rouge 4 (the Gunners at the Cannon), the Ninja (immolated by the party Sorceror), and 3 Raiders (Rouge 4, but under equipped, killed in general Melee). I would have sent a few more Rouges over, but I reasoned that they would have become busy fighting their own fire spreading under deck.

 

[Pixie Barbarian]

The PC magic user said that he was looking for the schmuckiest schmuck on the pirate ship. I told him he could easily find several. I figured he was going to try to clobber several with a Fireball in order to try to break their morale. No such luck.

The little so-and-so cast Polymorph Other at the nobody pirate (zero level), and polymorphed him into a sperm whale! The pirate failed his save and there was a sperm whale amidships on the pirate ship.

Wow. I never thought I'd see a tale of an adventurer turning seamen into sperm

 

[Dogbrain]

If I were to give out this sum of EXP, (I havent ran the numbers yet) wouldnt it catapult the freshly minted 8th level characters to 10th level or close to it?

And?
So?

Are you going to reward the players for what they have done or withold the reward? If the latter, you got some 'splainin' to do, Lucy--and not to us.

 

[Lord Judas]

This isnt a roll-playing/monte haul campaign. Characters level, on average, every 2 sessions which I feel allows character developement. No post or rules lawyering is going to make me decide on leveling the whole party 2 levels in one game due to one creativly cast spell. This is because it will disrupt the pace of the story, and put the 2 characters that didnt show up that night at a disadvantage.

I know what I am going to do, but I was wondering what other "happy mediums" might be out there.

 

[Dogbrain]

This isnt a roll-playing/monte haul campaign.

Ah, yes, of course, and EVERY SINGLE CAMPAIGN that is not run 100% according to your prejudices is some sort of inferior "roll-playing/monte haul campaign". How SILLY of me to not realize that you are the arbiter of all that is good, pure, and holy in gaming. How FOOLISH of me to not realize that anything that did not meet to your methods is nothing but "roll-playing/monte haul" or similar drek.

 

[Lord Judas]

<yawn>