Some would. Other won't. You see, I live in a French environment. Most of my players do not speak english nor can they read it.Ouch.
You might have, but many people didn't; and the real problem with published settings is when the players know it better than the DM (and even worse, when they complain about the DM's changes to it).
Ha HA! A sandboxer.Yikes! That campaign will be over before it starts!
This approach works better with mile stones. I prefer a faster pace with exp until level 5 or 6. Then exp slows down by itself and since I enforce the 5-6 encounters per day I have random encounters table set. A random encounter never gives any experience. It is also one of the reasons that my players try to do as much as possible between short and long rests. No treasure, no gain and only pain. No 5mwd for them.At least 2 or 3 adventures per level, try; knowing you'll not run all of them anyway and that others will arise in the meantime due to in-game developments.
Useful magic: Potion, scrolls, amunitions maybe a common magical weapon like a dagger.Sound advice except for the bolded part; tailoring supposedly-randomly-found magic items to the specific characters quickly ends up looking fake and contrived. They get what they get, let them deal with it.
A mighty advantage!Some would. Other won't. You see, I live in a French environment. Most of my players do not speak english nor can they read it.
I see any campaign as open-ended in terms of real-world time, provided players still want to play in it and I still have ideas to run in it.I do it the other way around. I manipulate the events so the players feels they are the ones pulling the strings but I manage for them to go where I want. It is a mix between the railroad and the sandbox. When I do pure sandbox, it is usualy full improvisation. Otherwise, the players are aware that we are trying to build ourselves a story. The prep and the time for it are not infinite nor are they cheap. If they are not ready to accept a certain amount of railroading then they should try to find an other DM and leave their place to a newer player that will be more than happy to have a bit of railroad.
I'm the opposite: I love low-level play!This approach works better with mile stones. I prefer a faster pace with exp until level 5 or 6.
Difference in philosophy, I guess: to me an encounter is worth the same xp regardless of context, so defeating four wandering Orcs in the forest gets you the same xp as defesting 4 Orc guards the adventure insists you get past.Then exp slows down by itself and since I enforce the 5-6 encounters per day I have random encounters table set. A random encounter never gives any experience.
A talking head that shoots magic missiles? Cool!An other one I once gave was a talking head inside of a glass bubble. The head could be used as an arcane focus (orb) that doubled as a wand of magic missile. The head was constantly talking limiting the stealth a character could make but it was giving +2 bonus to all knowledge check (Arcana, History and Religion). That head stayed with the character until the end of the campaign.
1) Yep quite an advantage for me. Quite a lot of work too; as I have translated everything in the PHB, XGtE (that is concerning the players), and a bit of the SCAG, Wildemount, Ravnica and a few others. A lot of translations. And books in French are prohibitive. I also put my three PHB (in english) available at the table for my players. (My fourth copy is safely on the shelf.)1) A mighty advantage!
2) I see any campaign as open-ended in terms of real-world time, provided players still want to play in it and I still have ideas to run in it.
3) I'm the opposite: I love low-level play!
4) Difference in philosophy, I guess: to me an encounter is worth the same xp regardless of context, so defeating four wandering Orcs in the forest gets you the same xp as defesting 4 Orc guards the adventure insists you get past.
5) A talking head that shoots magic missiles? Cool!![]()
Indeed.Birthright with ability to use Regency without Bloodlines ie a Domain System that can be used in any setting
So probably most of us here know this, but Eberron was the winner of a Setting Design contest ages ago, IIRC back when Dragon was a print Magazine.
But they actually retained the option to the top THREE results.
One of which (again IIRC) was the work of Rich Burlew creator of OotS.
So, I'd really like both of those settings to finally see the light of day as published products.
I was sort of vaguely aware, but I still think that a fully polished version would be a thing worth having. Even if all the bits were pillaged and had the serial numbers filed off, putting them all back together in the original package seems like it would be interesting.Not sure if you're aware, but Rich has publicly commented that he sees zero point in publishing his submission. Not only was it only a 100 page draft as opposed to a full setting, but according to him all the good bits were scavenged over the course of the 3.5 product line. It's possible the other setting wasn't touched, but I suspect it befell a similar fate.
Clothes. Particularly cloaks. I want a full book dedicated to mundane clothes. That way when my players ask to buy a cloak I know exactly what cloaks are available, their cost, and weight.
And after that they can publish one on how to deal with lycanthropic characters, too.I need a book...or two...with excruciating detail on how to deal with player-contracted lycanthropy.
Actually, I think that at least a pamphlet for this would be very useful -- especially if your game includes a lot of subterfuge/role play.Clothes. Particularly cloaks. I want a full book dedicated to mundane clothes. That way when my players ask to buy a cloak I know exactly what cloaks are available, their cost, and weight.
Curious - what sort of specific things did you have in mind here, as prep can take many forms:
Short-range prep - i.e. coming up with adventures and-or how to tweak the adventure you're about to run?
Immediate prep - i.e. getting tonight's session together?
...