Messages

1

RPGs / Re: Victim of Circumstance

« on: January 19, 2013, 01:44:34 AM »

Did your billionaire mutant consciously give himself hyper intelligence?  If not, then he's somewhat a victim of circumstance, isn't he?  And then what makes him heroic is the fact that he chooses to do heroic things with the power that he has.  I think this is the crux of the genre.  It DOES create an intersting game dynamic if you explore the 'gifted power' vs 'sought power' dynamic, but in most every heroic story, the focus is on what one does with the power that one has.
That said, you could sure do fun things in a campaign where some PC's were quite powerful by accident, and so hadn't worked through all of the moral ramifacations of super-heroism; and some obtained their powers intentionally, and before doing so had develped clear plans on how to use their powers.

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RPGs / Re: Want ideas for replacing chars in 4e

« on: January 19, 2013, 01:29:28 AM »

This is good. Each player will create a small stable of 1-2 "extras" with a hook as to why they might join the group, and I'll share this stable throughout the party, so each dead char may choose from the stable.  Or maybe they randomly roll to see which stable char they get.  I do like this idea.  Plus, in a long campaign, this gives the players who love making new chars something to do.  Thank you, Journ-O and FuzzyDan!

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RPGs / Want ideas for replacing chars in 4e

« on: December 27, 2012, 01:38:50 AM »

I am starting a new 4e campaign, expected to last a couple years, and am looking for game mechanic ways to add replacement chars.  For example, in our last 3.5 Eberron campaign, if somebody died, new char was added a few levels lower than the rest of the party, but with a number of action points that could only be spent to boost other chars' rolls.  For every x action points so spent, the replacement char gained a level, until he reached the party level.  I liked the dynamic that this created with new chars, where they were at first not quite as tough as the swaggering old boys of the party, but were immediately very helpful and welcome additions, and had an incentive to help out.

I don't want to do the same thing for 4e, and this is my first 4e campaign, so I would love to hear any clever ideas on bringing new chars into the party.  I plan to run a sort of zombie apocalypse game (which is tough in 4e, but we love D&D, and I think we can pull it off), which means one player death every 18 encounters or so, but party integrity is important to us, and I want to have a metagame mechanic that makes it fun to integrate a replacement char into the party.  The action point thing was fun, but I'd like something new for 4e.

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RPGs / Re: Question about introducing people into role playing games

« on: December 22, 2012, 01:42:09 AM »

I would recommend using a published adventure.  That allows you to focus all of your attention on the players, without also having to think so much about what's going to happen next.  A good published adventure is likely to have a good flow of hack'n'slash action with well-balanced encounters, which means less floundering and less player frustration.  Also, if the players haven't gamed with you before, I think that seeing you work from something printed helps the players to feel that there is some structure and authenticity to the events that are unfolding, which is important.
At any rate, with brand new players who want a hack'n'slash game, I would definitely be very prepared.  Don't make up the game as you go.  Prepare a good, tight scenario.
Try to give them a reason early on to all work together.  (If that seems obvious to you, then good.  Some games encourage rivalries or a certain level of initial distrust between the PC's, which can be a lot of fun for experienced players, but is very hard for new players to manage.)
Also, there should be a crazy hermit.   There should always be a crazy hermit.