Welcome

[kenada]

I have minor problem with that note. Namely, absences cannot always be avoided.

If someone just doesn't show up, or posts/calls Saturday morning saying they can't come, they should not get XP (unless it's a good old fashioned emergency - if your mom is in the hospital, you should not have to worry about letting us know you will not be there).

The problem I had in my last campaign was that there was a particular minority of players who would cancel because they decided to make other plans for that day. Even if I’m told several days in advance, it’s still infuriating to have it happen several sessions in a row.

On the other hand, if some has to leave town, and know they have to leave town in advance, lets the group know in advance, takes steps to deliver character sheet/file, etc, that person should not be denied gold and XP. It's easier for everyone - character is still there, GM does not have to come up with reason character left and then came back suddenly, does not have to re-adjust encounters, and does not have to worry about long term discrepancies in levels.

I’m trying to get away from chains of combat encounters, so I’m not entirely comfortable with missing PCs being botted. However, I am open to suggestions.

I just don't like the idea of punishing people who cannot come, especially when it creates more work for the GM.

My post was meant to address a real problem we had in the last campaign before it became one in this campaign as well. I relaxed the schedule then to make prep (lol) easier for me and provide ‘off weeks’ for people who would not otherwise be able to play every week. That did not work out very well in practice.

Edit: If my post comes off as harsh, it wasn’t meant to be, but I do think some of my frustration manifested in my reply. I apologize if that offended anyone.

The idea behind the make-up XP is to encourage people to let the group know in advance so that I can compensate accordingly. It also provides the possibility of people having a dramatic impact behind the scenes. It’s more work for me, but that’s fine. I wouldn’t have proposed it if I weren’t willing to do it.

[Atreys]

Experience Points
Experience points are awarded to individual characters for killing monsters and completing quests (a.k.a. ‘story XP’). Players who are absent from a session will receive 0 experience points for their character.

Giving points for the kill may reward heavy strikers too much.  Do you plan on awarding the characters who diminish the enemies' defenses and corral them for swifter pickings as well, even though they are less likely to administer the killing blow?

Since encounters already have a suggested xp, are you going to award people for being awesome from that xp pool and then split the rest of the xp amongst everyone, or do you plan to do the split and then award awesomeness from an extra pool of points?

[kenada]

Er, by killing monsters I meant the regular way of doing it.

[Measure Zero]

Experience Points
Experience points are awarded to individual characters for killing monsters and completing quests (a.k.a. ‘story XP’). Players who are absent from a session will receive 0 experience points for their character.

Giving points for the kill may reward heavy strikers too much.  Do you plan on awarding the characters who diminish the enemies' defenses and corral them for swifter pickings as well, even though they are less likely to administer the killing blow?

Since encounters already have a suggested xp, are you going to award people for being awesome from that xp pool and then split the rest of the xp amongst everyone, or do you plan to do the split and then award awesomeness from an extra pool of points?

I'm totally gonna kill-steal and take your exps.

[kenada]

Trever came over last night and rolled up his character. I also talked to Thomas, and he appeared interested in playing the aloof Wizard suggested by Mike last Saturday. This gives us a full party (listed below). I would encourage everyone to post their character backgrounds (in a format similar to this or this) in a separate thread for each. I will provide feedback as necessary or answer any character-specific background questions in those threads.

Our interpid adventuring party consists of:

• Barbarian - Josh
• Cleric - Trever
• Sorcerer - Mike
• Warden - Rob
• Wizard - Thomas

First post changes
I tweaked the background description a bit and reworked the experience points section. My intent should be a bit clearer now. I will upload a new version of the campaign settings file since WotC so kindly broke the existing one in this month’s Character Builder update.

[BobChuck]

did they break it with arrow or with arrows?

[kenada]

did they break it with arrow or with arrows?

I don't know; I'd have to look.

[Measure Zero]

I'll write something more verbose later, but here is the background idea for my character (I don't want to get into the rival dragon styles, distant sister temples, and the avatar prophecy just yet):

When Balasar's egg was laid, there was something odd about it: it was silver with a splotch that looked almost exactly like the holy symbol of the Platinum Dragon.  When he was born, he had silver scales and eventually manifested icy dragon breath.  His parents handed him over to a temple of Bahamut in the mountains that is run by an ancient silver dragon.  Once there, he was raised up as dragon nobility and taught the ancient art of dragon magic, along with fighting techniques passed down by silver dragons for ages.  To complete his training, he was instructed to leave the temple along with his lackey Aramil to fight injustice in the world.

Balasar is a devout follower of Bahamut, and seeks to right injustice in the world whenever possible.  At the same time, he is easily offended, and he will not take blasphemy against the Platinum dragon lightly.  Due to his nature and upbringing, he tends to see himself as above people who have not demonstrated their worth in battle.

[kenada]

avatar prophecy

Avatar prophecy? (Is this something I need to know about as a DM?)

To complete his training, he was instructed to leave the temple along with his lackey Aramil to fight injustice in the world.

I assume your lackey is just an NPC and not meant to be a companion character?

Edit: I uploaded the fixed campaign settings file.

[Measure Zero]

avatar prophecy

Avatar prophecy? (Is this something I need to know about as a DM?)

To complete his training, he was instructed to leave the temple along with his lackey Aramil to fight injustice in the world.

I assume your lackey is just an NPC and not meant to be a companion character?

Edit: I uploaded the fixed campaign settings file.

Unless you want him to be a companion character, he'll just be some guy who follows my character around and probably waits in town most of the time.  Otherwise, my intention is to have him do silly things like hold my coat so it doesn't get dirty on the ground.  For comedic effect, I might use him to talk for my character in the third person.  The avatar prophecy is just going to give you a list of people who would want to fight my character for no good reason and will involve my character in church affairs more than he probably wants.

[kenada]

Hey everyone, I’d appreciate it if you could start threads about your characters as discussed here. I think most people have shown me something, so I don’t expect this to be a major problem. If you have questions or concerns, please PM me.

I’ve left the slate of the world fairly blank so that you can fill in the blanks for your background. If you have questions about something you would like to do, let me know. If something is completely unreasonable, I’ll let you know. I’d like to have everyone’s character information up by next Saturday. I’m considering treating characters without information as Distracted (see below).

Distracted was introduced in the DMG2 for characters that operate against their core motivations. Its application here would be a bit heavy handed, which is why I’m only considering it right now. I think fleshing out everyone’s backgrounds helps make the party more interesting than if everyone is just defined by what class they chose to play.

My intention is to run a game where I describe what happens, and the players explore the situation. Because of this, I’m going to try to slow down the pace a bit. We moved through a good chunk of the module last week, and I fear that I’ve been chopping out too much exposition and failing to make clear the available options. 

Distracted
A character who is Distracted is subject to the following:

• Grants combat advantage.
• Takes a –2 penalty to saving throws.
• Loses one healing surge after each rest.
• Can’t regain action points.

Edit: I’m really loving the character creation suggestions in the DMG2. Please also include the following information in your write-ups: a core motivation, a tie to at least one other character, and a source of conflict between your character and one of the other ones.

Core motivations are your reasons for adventuring and should not be passive, vague, or impersonal. Several of the write-ups I’ve seen (PM’d to me or on your sheets) had what I would consider reasonable core motivations. The penalty for betraying one’s core motivation is to become Distracted (see above). Core motivations may be changed over time as you get a better feel for your character, and as your character grows and changes.

Ties generally involve strong positive feelings towards another character, and all involved players must agree to this relationship. Ties are first come, first serve; so once someone has established one, you can’t mirror it back for your character’s own specific ones.

The source of conflict should not be something game destroying and should probably be relatively mild or humorous. For example, maybe one character feels the fighting style of another is reckless and will get them all killed some day.

Edit 2: While Scales of War is a semi-sequel to Red Hand of Doom, please do not treat any material from that adventure as canon for Scales of War. I’m not more than superficially familiar with the events that happened within it, so I’m not going to be concerned with continuity.

Edit 3: Full text of distracted side bar:

Distracted
After having gone to the trouble to create them, players probably stick to their motivations. When a PC ignores his motivation to gain a short-term advantage, or for other reasons that seem out of character, declare him distracted. The stress of acting against his instincts costs him precious mental concentration. Until he reverts to his established motivation, he labors under some or all of the following consequences.

• Grants combat advantage.
• Takes a –2 penalty to saving throws.
• Loses one healing surge after each rest.
• Can’t regain action points.

A player who wants to alter his character’s motivation to fit an evolving conception of the character can do so without penalty. A character who constantly shirks his motivation to suit momentary circumstances is a shifty opportunist, and his motives should reflect that. Work with the player to recast his character’s motivation to match his behavior.

[Measure Zero]

I think that this "distracted" penalty is way out of line for this.  Especially since "exploring the situation" runs completely opposite to how my character operates.  Balasar will spend some time to rally support, but as soon as he feels he has what he needs to get things done, he is going to move forward.  Detailed plans, discussion, etc. run against his core motivation of meting out justice as efficiently as possible and gaining glory in the eyes of the Platinum Dragon and other dragonborn (in order to live out the expectations put on him by his adopted family).  If you plan to punish me for not doing this, then I will take that to mean that you want me to play Balasar even more like Balasar and to not worry about whether or not it disrupts the plot of the module, cuts short discussion time, or results in a split group.

It appears to me now that you may be asking me to spend every session going against what I think of as the core concept of my character.  Under normal circumstances this would be fine: character growth happens.  But this "distracted" penalty is way too much: it basically seems like a punishment for not making a character that happens to fit correctly with the plot of the module, of which we had absolutely no foreknowledge while planning characters.  It's a punishment for putting too much thought into my character's story and personality, which is probably the opposite of what you intended.

In fact, it's too much under any circumstance.  In Exalted, where core motivations are the core of the game, characters aren't punished so severely when they go against their motivation.  Instead, characters that go with their motivations are rewarded with extra defenses against mind control, while the worst punishment those that go against core motivations might get is a few extra limit points.  Why should it be so much harsher in D&D?

I think that it would be much better to say something like this: you get all of these expertise feats as a bonus, but only while your character is following his motivation.  That way, you give the characters a few levels to grow and get in line with your idea of how the game is supposed to go before you start with the punishments, and the punishment reads more like "you are just not going to get this bonus without paying a feat."

[kenada]

I think that this "distracted" penalty is way out of line for this.  Especially since "exploring the situation" runs completely opposite to how my character operates.

My intent was to indicate that I am working towards a DMing style where I frame the situation and otherwise let the PCs do the rest. By “explore the situation”, I mean that I’m not going to dictate how players proceed once I have framed the situation—comparing how they handle any given situation to exploring a dungeon.

If the PCs want to rush after the bad guys instead of interrogating the captives, that’s fine. I just happened to fail to tell you guys that there was a captive to interrogate, and that’s where I want to improve my DMing. I’m also trying to avoid the trap of my treating an adventure as a sequence of encounters and narrating what happens between them rather then allowing the players to do that.

Balasar will spend some time to rally support, but as soon as he feels he has what he needs to get things done, he is going to move forward.  Detailed plans, discussion, etc. run against his core motivation of meting out justice as efficiently as possible and gaining glory in the eyes of the Platinum Dragon and other dragonborn (in order to live out the expectations put on him by his adopted family).  If you plan to punish me for not doing this, then I will take that to mean that you want me to play Balasar even more like Balasar and to not worry about whether or not it disrupts the plot of the module, cuts short discussion time, or results in a split group.

I actually hadn’t planned on punishing anyone because the status quo is mostly fine for our group.

But this "distracted" penalty is way too much

I failed to summarize being distracted correctly. I’ve updated the original post with the complete write-up rather than a summary. I think it’s mostly meant to punish players who refuse to match their motivations with how they play the character.

it basically seems like a punishment for not making a character that happens to fit correctly with the plot of the module, of which we had absolutely no foreknowledge while planning characters.

I don’t consider any of the known PC motivations as being incompatible with the plot of the module. If I did, I wouldn’t have said, “Several of the write-ups I’ve seen (PM’d to me or on your sheets) had what I would consider reasonable core motivations,” and would have offered to work with the player of those PCs I felt had incompatible motivations.

It's a punishment for putting too much thought into my character's story and personality, which is probably the opposite of what you intended.

Correct, that wasn’t my intent.

[kenada]

I’d like to thank those who have posted backgrounds and would like to remind those who have not that I’d still like to see theirs posted.

[kenada]

Since I’m reading through the "Skill Challenges" chapter of the DMG2, I wanted to remind everyone that I will prompt the party for a group roll if that is what I am looking for. Otherwise everyone’s rolling is a sure way of insta-failing a skill challenge. PCs who do not have a particular skill trained would be best off assisting someone who does than rolling untrained.

Also speaking of skills, I am considering a revision to the way knowledge skills work monsters regarding monsters. Most things (e.g. identifying terrain) use level appropriate easy/medium/hard DCs to determine information about them, but knowledge checks are fixed. I’m considering using level-appropriate DCs for those as well, but I need to do some reading to see if there is some obvious caveat that I am missing.