Porting of the Tele kind

[not_me]

Here is a question for the "experienced" DMs out there, when running your high-level campaign.

Have you found Teleport a problem, specifically in terms of a) running the campaign in a certain area and having the characters pop-off to go get something elsewhere and then return (items not available where they are) or b) if you are running a dungeony crawl do the characters pop-off to rest somewhere before popping back in.

Just curious if it has been an issue.

Thanks.

 

[Telperion]

Well, the plot usually has something to do with keeping characters in a certain area. Outside of that law, religion, government and military are your friends of the day .

In high-fantasy settings it is not an improbable idea to have an artifact that either straight-out prevents Teleportation spells from working in a certain area, or detects all Teleportation spells and then notifies the appropriate people of the event. These are the two obvious options.

Then we go into the nastier stuff, that a DM can use. These include persecuting the (possibly) innocent players for witchcraft, using superstitious mobs, outlawing certain types of magics, restricting the availability of certain material components (or other necessary resources involved) and that sort of thing. You want to be careful with this sort of thing, but it is one of the most compelling reasons why my players seldom teleport into unknown kingdoms or areas that they don't know about. Teleport, Greater, Teleportation Circle and the all-mighty Gate are some of the most useful spells in the game after you hit high levels, as far as transportation goes anyway.

You might want to drop little clues as to where certain magics might not be appropriate. If you don't you'll just anger your players and no one really wants that. On the other hand: if you players really don't care about local politics, beliefs, culture or any of that stuff, then why should you help them out whenever they run into a problem with such topics? After a couple of close encounters they should start paying attention.

 

[StalkingBlue]

No, on the contrary. Quick travel is one of the features of a high-level campaign, I think it's important for the DM to run with that.

Of course there will be areas you can't teleport straight into because defences have been set up against that sort of thing. In a world that has teleporting assassins, anti-teleport magic would be a staple for the high-end security industry. So might be magical tracking of teleporters ...

OTOH, what's fair for the PCs is fair against them. Enemies can teleport, too.

 

[Telperion]

No, on the contrary. Quick travel is one of the features of a high-level campaign, I think it's important for the DM to run with that.

*shrugs*...it all depends on personal likes and dislikes, theme and that sort of thing. What works in one world doesn't in anohter.

 

[Sir Whiskers]

No, on the contrary. Quick travel is one of the features of a high-level campaign, I think it's important for the DM to run with that.

Of course there will be areas you can't teleport straight into because defences have been set up against that sort of thing. In a world that has teleporting assassins, anti-teleport magic would be a staple for the high-end security industry. So might be magical tracking of teleporters ...

OTOH, what's fair for the PCs is fair against them. Enemies can teleport, too.

I agree. So long as the pc's are using the travel spells for travel, I have no problem. In fact, it usually speeds up play considerably and doesn't take away from the challenges thrown their way.

Now, if the pc's start trying to use teleport to essentially assassinate their opponents (the old scry-buff-teleport), then I would take steps to stop that - IMO it ruins the game, as either challenges stop being fun, or the pc's fall to same tactic from their many enemies. The group I play with seems to understand this, so we haven't had any problems with this abuse. Kind of a MAD (mutually assured destruction) situation.

 

[Piratecat]

I haven't found it to be a real problem. It does mean that you'll have less roadside encounters when going to a familiar locale - but think of it this way. For the bad guys, that's a good thing! Even as we speak, bandits are praying for their adventuring group nemeses to get teleport, because then the bandits will be able to prey on the highways unopposed. . .

It could be worse. In my campaign world, teleporting from the deep underdark is usually impossible. Last week my 19th lvl group got around this quite elegantly; they returned to the surface by gating to an outer plane and then gating back to the surface. Sneaky logistics!

 

[Telperion]

It could be worse. In my campaign world, teleporting from the deep underdark is usually impossible. Last week my 19th lvl group got around this quite elegantly; they returned to the surface by gating to an outer plane and then gating back to the surface. Sneaky logistics!

Now, how did they manage to access the Astral Realm with the Gate spell when it failed for the Teleportation spell?

 

[SylverFlame]

I've never really had a problem with teleport, though it has sidelined one campaign of mine, as the PC's were supposed to start it in the country. It was simple to just drop it in their laps, though it was a little tired.

However, in the setting I'm writing up, teleportations of all kinds are limited. The world is cut off from the rest of existence and has a buffer zone around it. (Think In-Ovo [?] from Clive Barker's Imajica)

Essentially, if you teleport you can end up trapped in the buffer with no way out. Also, there is no planer shifting due to the buffer, so only ethereal travel and going to the shadow plane will work.

I did this for flavour and not to nerf teleport. I also didn't want people jumping to other realms to get around the magic rules I'm going with (it's a Rare/Low Magic world).

 

[reiella]

Here is a question for the "experienced" DMs out there, when running your high-level campaign.

Have you found Teleport a problem, specifically in terms of a) running the campaign in a certain area and having the characters pop-off to go get something elsewhere and then return (items not available where they are) or b) if you are running a dungeony crawl do the characters pop-off to rest somewhere before popping back in.

Just curious if it has been an issue.

Thanks.

I haven't had much trouble with teleport, but then again I have a weird setup.

There exists a Teleportation Circle network for transport between major cities (400 gp per medium-sized humanoid! it's a bargain).

Half of the continent is warded against teleportation + divination effects.

There are a spattering of other regions where Teleport w/o Error and (inbound) Gates always land are forced to 'arrive' at a specific (fixed) point.

I suspect if teleportation in-bound becomes harassing, I'll simply move the adventures to one of those regions where teleportation isn't reliable.

I'd suggest checking into a number of "mundane" solutions to Teleportation issues (like the supposed Assassination run), because paper streamers a few inches apart can keep from teleporting into a room (matter collision).

 

[BSF]

Once PC's hit high enough levels to use teleport, you have to adjust the style of the game a bit to accomodate that. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Saddle them with a few more responsibilities and throw in an adventure hook based on their ability to teleport. Maybe they have finally breached the hideout of the BBEG. They are stealthily tracking through the lair when the party receives word (via Sending) from their home town that they are being attacked. Maybe it is even the minions of the BBEG. does the party teleport home to help? Do they keep up their assault and let their friends suffer?

Sure, teleport gives them options to teleport out of the dungeon and spend a nice comfy night at the inn, but is that the _best_ use of the spell? Let them play like that, but sometimes give them a challenge that requires using that teleport for something completely different.