Adso said:
That and the fact that in LG you have characters in the campaign, and even the same table sometimes, that are between 1st and 13th-level. Having a 1st-level character taking that “one-cool item” suited for an 8th-level character creates a strange campaign dynamic that those familiar with online RPGs and the old Living City campaign will understand.
Well the way LG is supposed to work, you certainly shouldn't have a 1st leve and a 13th level person at the same table. I grant it can happen, but it certainly is unlikely. What I don't like about the current system is the convoluted way in which you have access to magic items. Presently (for those who don't play LG), you can only buy:
A) A baseline of low end magic items (+1 stuff, scrolls, potions)
B) Stuff made available by joining a meta-organization (ie a Thieve's Guild)
C) Things available from an adventure cert.
These certs however limit availability of the items into a number of categories. There are
A) Any - buy the item whenever you have the gold- not very common in my experience
B) adventure (the other extreme)- but it at the end of the adventure or never.
C) regional- available after playing a regional module
D) core- available after playing a core module.
This leads to the problem of, for example, at Gen Con, you get a pile of cash, and would really like to buy something you are likely to need, but since everything is core, and the certs say regional, you have to wait.
I personally preferred the year two policy (buy what you like within a gp limit set by level).
Adso said:
I am glad you had a good time running Endgame. It sounds like you gave your group some good challenges, and that your group gave you some good experiences to talk about. That’s fantastic! Thanks for DMing for us at Gen Con.
Endgame was a wretched adventure and the writer should be barred from issuing any more such rubbish. A friend of mind has quit LG over it (and he had played since year one, with a number of characters). Of his table of six, two others are doing the same. At my table the way in which things set up had everyone extremely angry (at which point I kept reminding people that it was the author's fault not the DM's, since the mood was rather like a lynching). That module is constructed to kill players. Not to kill people who take undue risks, or do something stupid, but to set people up for near certain death. Every combat was contrived such that the players were either suprised or in some way rendered ineffective. I will be avoiding anything further which is written by David Christ, and I reccomned that course of action to everyone else.
Of course nothing will be done about his abusive writing style since he is on the Circle (governing council of Living greyhawk).