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What Is an Experience Point Worth?
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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7732400" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>I see it as possible, but in all likelihood not sustainable. Why's that, you ask? Because if the DM isn't interested in running the game or story that results from the players' hooks that game ain't going very far (without a DM there's really no game); while if a player isn't interested in playing the game or story that results from the DM's hooks the game can (in many cases) survive that player's departure.</p><p></p><p>Put another way: if I as DM put together a campaign or setting with an underlying idea that the game will revolve around maritime tales and adventures, pirates, swashbuckling, build in some of the mythology etc. from Pirates of the Caribbean, etc., then that's what I'm largely looking to run. But if the players turn up with one looking for a largely-urban and diplomatic campaign where he can save his brother from demonic possession, and another looking for a campaign where she can play out the story of working her way up from scurvy lab mage to the head of the guild, and a third looking for a campaign with lots of arctic ice-and-snow dungeon crawling...yeah, we'd better have a session 0.</p><p></p><p>Depends. Most of the time IME players simply want a game to play in, and they'll more or less buy in to what the DM is selling - at least to begin with - in order to play said game. Then, as it goes along (unless the campaign is just a straight start-to-end AP) the players via their characters will learn more about the game world and start coming up with their own ideas as to what to do with/to it, to which the DM must react accordingly.</p><p></p><p>As a player, I don't put that much thought into (most of) my characters until after they've survived their first adventure or two, as many - particularly at low levels - don't*. And in process of surviving those first few adventures some of their backgrounds and much of their personalities will grow organically out of the run of play, so instead of doing a bunch of forethought and player prep ahead of time that might be wasted I need only do some later backfilling of gaps.</p><p></p><p>* - it's a known fact that any character so unfortunate as to have me as a player is in mortal peril every waking moment...</p><p></p><p>They have no ideas of their own as to what to do next and are looking to the DM to drive. Some players are like that - they are perfectly good at reacting to what the game world does to them and playing through whatever arises, but that's about all they want to do as they're not so good at proactively driving the story.</p><p></p><p>Highly unlikely it would ever get to this point, as were there no coastline the characters (players) would almost certainly already know this - the basic maps are not hidden. So instead they'd jump on horses and ride off into the sunset... <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>I think in these examples the end result might look very much the same in play, with the mechanical difference being that the DM is - if uncertain (e.g. she hasn't pre-determined whether there's any sewers or not that will suit the PCs' plans) - doing the random rolling to make these decisions instead of the players. Were the players to seek information about the sewers then yes, they'd get some sort of roll to see how well they did. Meanwhile I'd be rolling in secret to determine a) if this town has much by way of a sewer system, and b) whether the sewers will suit what the PCs are trying to do (e.g. are the pipes to the bank big enough for a person to fit through), then using all these rolls in combination, narrate the results of their info search.</p><p></p><p>Again, anything to do with the actual construction and make-up of the game world (in this case, the sewers) is DM-side stuff.</p><p></p><p>This is more or less how something like this would play out here too, though it'd probably go into a bit more detail instead of being concatenated into just one perception check. If the PCs (players) cared about what ships there were I'd likely end up being asked for numbers, types, whether each is docked or anchored-off, presence or absence of crew or guards, etc.</p><p></p><p>Anything is possible. Not all things are practical.</p><p></p><p>Lanefan</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 7732400, member: 29398"] I see it as possible, but in all likelihood not sustainable. Why's that, you ask? Because if the DM isn't interested in running the game or story that results from the players' hooks that game ain't going very far (without a DM there's really no game); while if a player isn't interested in playing the game or story that results from the DM's hooks the game can (in many cases) survive that player's departure. Put another way: if I as DM put together a campaign or setting with an underlying idea that the game will revolve around maritime tales and adventures, pirates, swashbuckling, build in some of the mythology etc. from Pirates of the Caribbean, etc., then that's what I'm largely looking to run. But if the players turn up with one looking for a largely-urban and diplomatic campaign where he can save his brother from demonic possession, and another looking for a campaign where she can play out the story of working her way up from scurvy lab mage to the head of the guild, and a third looking for a campaign with lots of arctic ice-and-snow dungeon crawling...yeah, we'd better have a session 0. Depends. Most of the time IME players simply want a game to play in, and they'll more or less buy in to what the DM is selling - at least to begin with - in order to play said game. Then, as it goes along (unless the campaign is just a straight start-to-end AP) the players via their characters will learn more about the game world and start coming up with their own ideas as to what to do with/to it, to which the DM must react accordingly. As a player, I don't put that much thought into (most of) my characters until after they've survived their first adventure or two, as many - particularly at low levels - don't*. And in process of surviving those first few adventures some of their backgrounds and much of their personalities will grow organically out of the run of play, so instead of doing a bunch of forethought and player prep ahead of time that might be wasted I need only do some later backfilling of gaps. * - it's a known fact that any character so unfortunate as to have me as a player is in mortal peril every waking moment... They have no ideas of their own as to what to do next and are looking to the DM to drive. Some players are like that - they are perfectly good at reacting to what the game world does to them and playing through whatever arises, but that's about all they want to do as they're not so good at proactively driving the story. Highly unlikely it would ever get to this point, as were there no coastline the characters (players) would almost certainly already know this - the basic maps are not hidden. So instead they'd jump on horses and ride off into the sunset... :) I think in these examples the end result might look very much the same in play, with the mechanical difference being that the DM is - if uncertain (e.g. she hasn't pre-determined whether there's any sewers or not that will suit the PCs' plans) - doing the random rolling to make these decisions instead of the players. Were the players to seek information about the sewers then yes, they'd get some sort of roll to see how well they did. Meanwhile I'd be rolling in secret to determine a) if this town has much by way of a sewer system, and b) whether the sewers will suit what the PCs are trying to do (e.g. are the pipes to the bank big enough for a person to fit through), then using all these rolls in combination, narrate the results of their info search. Again, anything to do with the actual construction and make-up of the game world (in this case, the sewers) is DM-side stuff. This is more or less how something like this would play out here too, though it'd probably go into a bit more detail instead of being concatenated into just one perception check. If the PCs (players) cared about what ships there were I'd likely end up being asked for numbers, types, whether each is docked or anchored-off, presence or absence of crew or guards, etc. Anything is possible. Not all things are practical. Lanefan [/QUOTE]
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