Bullgrit
Adventurer
Our current RPG campaign is being run by a DM of the “tailored” school of game mastering (vice the “status quo” school). This DM tailors encounters to the PCs, and he wants every battle to be an equal challenge. He sets up encounters to challenge our characters, and if we are wounded (or hindered in some way), I think* he tailors down the challenge. If we are somehow “charged up” (or something), I think* he tailors up the challenge. This DM also likes random character generation.
* = He has not stated directly that he does this rejiggering, but from a lot of gaming and talking with him over the years, I firmly believe he does this behind the scenes.
This DM has run part of a D&D campaign for us, and I’ve seen the above in that game. But we are currently running a Battletech campaign where we are a mercenary company. Now, the observation I want to make is not BT-specific, but what I consider the foibles of tailoring and random generation has really come clear to me in this campaign.
The basic thing to know about Battletech is that the battlemechs (walking war machines) range between 20 tons to 100 tons – the light mechs are fast with pea-shooters, the heavy mechs are ponderous gods of war on the battlefield. The mid-range sizes (40-60) are the most common mechs on a battlefield.
When we initially started this campaign, the DM told us to pick a mech in the medium size range. We did, and we players all came into the game with a machine within 10 tons of each other (45-55 tons). We were pretty well balanced among ourselves and with most opposition we’d encounter. We were all close to equally effective and useful in our warfare.
We played several game sessions like this. Our opposition tended to be in the medium weight category, but occasionally there was a light or heavy mech among them (but the overall opposition was pretty well balanced with our overall size). Putting this in a D&D sense, the EL matched our party level even though sometimes the enemy was made up of more lower level or fewer higher level individual enemies.
Then the DM wanted to do a little sort of reboot of the campaign, where we rolled our mechs up randomly. Fine, we did it. As a group, we ended up with a mix of light, medium, and heavy machines (30-75 tons). As a whole, we ended up a little more powerful than we were with all mediums. Where before we averaged about 50 tons, this time we averaged maybe 60 tons. And our opposition tended to lean a little more to the more powerful side, too.
Then, last game session, my character was killed (not common in BT). I needed to create a new PC and roll randomly for my new mech. I rolled randomly and am able to choose something in the 80-100 ton range. Wow! Great luck! I’ve never played with a 100-ton mech. This is a rare opportunity for me as a BT player, and such a machine in our mercenary company can significantly improve our battlefield presence.
But then I remembered the DM’s style – tailored. If I choose the 100 ton mech, our enemies will tend to be heavier, bigger, and more powerful to challenge my machine. Adding this virtual war god to our group probably won’t really give us an edge in our battles, because our opposition will end up coming in with more power, too. But one of our PC mechs is just 30 tons.
Again, to put this in a D&D sense (let’s compare 20-100 ton mechs in BT to 2nd-10th level characters in D&D), this is all like rolling randomly for our levels, and I just rolled a 10th level PC. And I know the average EL of our enemies will jump up to provide a challenge to our increased average party level.
So, by getting real lucky on my “character generation,” I haven’t made our battles easier for us as a group, I’ve actually made our battles harder for us as a group, and very dangerous for some of the PCs. I've considered taking an 80 ton mech, or asking the DM to let me bring in something smaller (forget the die roll), but the siren's call of playing a 100 ton behemoth is very enticing -- I may never get the opportunity again.
This situation has made me more prefer non-random character generation and status quo campaign settings.
Now, I’m not looking for advice on this situation. I’m just putting this scenario out here for discussion, not for help.
What do you think of tailored vs. status quo gaming, and random character generation?
Bullgrit
* = He has not stated directly that he does this rejiggering, but from a lot of gaming and talking with him over the years, I firmly believe he does this behind the scenes.
This DM has run part of a D&D campaign for us, and I’ve seen the above in that game. But we are currently running a Battletech campaign where we are a mercenary company. Now, the observation I want to make is not BT-specific, but what I consider the foibles of tailoring and random generation has really come clear to me in this campaign.
The basic thing to know about Battletech is that the battlemechs (walking war machines) range between 20 tons to 100 tons – the light mechs are fast with pea-shooters, the heavy mechs are ponderous gods of war on the battlefield. The mid-range sizes (40-60) are the most common mechs on a battlefield.
When we initially started this campaign, the DM told us to pick a mech in the medium size range. We did, and we players all came into the game with a machine within 10 tons of each other (45-55 tons). We were pretty well balanced among ourselves and with most opposition we’d encounter. We were all close to equally effective and useful in our warfare.
We played several game sessions like this. Our opposition tended to be in the medium weight category, but occasionally there was a light or heavy mech among them (but the overall opposition was pretty well balanced with our overall size). Putting this in a D&D sense, the EL matched our party level even though sometimes the enemy was made up of more lower level or fewer higher level individual enemies.
Then the DM wanted to do a little sort of reboot of the campaign, where we rolled our mechs up randomly. Fine, we did it. As a group, we ended up with a mix of light, medium, and heavy machines (30-75 tons). As a whole, we ended up a little more powerful than we were with all mediums. Where before we averaged about 50 tons, this time we averaged maybe 60 tons. And our opposition tended to lean a little more to the more powerful side, too.
Then, last game session, my character was killed (not common in BT). I needed to create a new PC and roll randomly for my new mech. I rolled randomly and am able to choose something in the 80-100 ton range. Wow! Great luck! I’ve never played with a 100-ton mech. This is a rare opportunity for me as a BT player, and such a machine in our mercenary company can significantly improve our battlefield presence.
But then I remembered the DM’s style – tailored. If I choose the 100 ton mech, our enemies will tend to be heavier, bigger, and more powerful to challenge my machine. Adding this virtual war god to our group probably won’t really give us an edge in our battles, because our opposition will end up coming in with more power, too. But one of our PC mechs is just 30 tons.
Again, to put this in a D&D sense (let’s compare 20-100 ton mechs in BT to 2nd-10th level characters in D&D), this is all like rolling randomly for our levels, and I just rolled a 10th level PC. And I know the average EL of our enemies will jump up to provide a challenge to our increased average party level.
So, by getting real lucky on my “character generation,” I haven’t made our battles easier for us as a group, I’ve actually made our battles harder for us as a group, and very dangerous for some of the PCs. I've considered taking an 80 ton mech, or asking the DM to let me bring in something smaller (forget the die roll), but the siren's call of playing a 100 ton behemoth is very enticing -- I may never get the opportunity again.
This situation has made me more prefer non-random character generation and status quo campaign settings.
Now, I’m not looking for advice on this situation. I’m just putting this scenario out here for discussion, not for help.
What do you think of tailored vs. status quo gaming, and random character generation?
Bullgrit
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