Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
(WIP) Secrets of Old Pandora, Drafting my vision for a Pathfinder 2e West Marches
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="The-Magic-Sword" data-source="post: 8224103" data-attributes="member: 6801252"><p>Yeah absolutely, I was just alluding to their choice of system as a note that it can be done with a 'balance-centric' system with scaling math. </p><p></p><p>As for the rest it will be interesting to see how it evolves, especially since this is already an evolution on our 5e 'guild game' that one featured no treasure at all, and instead you got money to spend as a part of your build every level. The game didn't use player scheduling at all, as GMs just posted sign ups for sessions, the players had very little freedom. Part of the idea was supposed to be that we'd run multiple excursions into an 'adventuring area' (a dungeon, but abstracted) until it was completed, but in practice they were just very pick up game type things the GMs (mainly me) ran on the weekly. We had very little investment in it, though some players enjoyed it, and massive turnover. </p><p></p><p>This is me tackling the fundamental problems of that game with a vengeance-- player scheduling means more investment in character relationships and players deciding what they're interested in. Logistics will give players goals and such, and the game being treasure centric was the missing ingredient to make the exploration feel worthwhile-- its worth finding all the secret doors because that'll likely net you more cash. Rushing the sessions felt bad, so I moved away from having to be back in town at the end of one session, but addressed the player scheduling elephant in the room by forcing players to abandon an adventure or go on without the full party, or get everyone together, if they want to use that character again. Paying to level solves the issue where regular exp would make some players level into a range there were very few active players who could participate in, players can now hold off on that in-definitely and are technically rewarded for doing so as they'll be better equipped, if people REALLY want they can give their friends gold to train them up to join in on treasure hunting at whatever level (I'll need to make sure the prices don't make this <em>too</em> easy.) </p><p></p><p>All the things you might want to pay for (your ship, hirelings to crew it, all of the magic items you might want, a permit for a valuable port, etc) also create both an incentive to adventure, to explore well, and for us to bypass the WBL table in adding the possibility of getting quite rich, without just giving them everything, which in turn creates a feeling of earning it. </p><p></p><p>Finally, moving to a hexmap of a specific region of the world was intentional, because the previous game basically involved hand waving long distance travel and teleporting gimmicks to put adventures all over the world, which again made the game feel too floaty and indistinct. The Pandoran Islands is ideal because its at the center of the world and you can run into anything there, or even naturally travel far enough to access the coasts of several lands, all without handwaving. Players will really feel that they've accomplished something when they go from adventuring on the relatively large landmass they started on, to being able to sail after rumors and such on their own power. </p><p></p><p>I'm also going to get to do so much 'Object-Oriented' storytelling, which is my word for sandboxing that emphasizes the nature of picking a thing to interact with, and the GM fleshing it out as you go there-- you're picking what story is going to unfold. I'm super excited about this because I think its an opportunity for me to explore new styles of game (though obviously, I won't be the first one to do it) in a conscious way that seeks to exploit all of its benefits.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The-Magic-Sword, post: 8224103, member: 6801252"] Yeah absolutely, I was just alluding to their choice of system as a note that it can be done with a 'balance-centric' system with scaling math. As for the rest it will be interesting to see how it evolves, especially since this is already an evolution on our 5e 'guild game' that one featured no treasure at all, and instead you got money to spend as a part of your build every level. The game didn't use player scheduling at all, as GMs just posted sign ups for sessions, the players had very little freedom. Part of the idea was supposed to be that we'd run multiple excursions into an 'adventuring area' (a dungeon, but abstracted) until it was completed, but in practice they were just very pick up game type things the GMs (mainly me) ran on the weekly. We had very little investment in it, though some players enjoyed it, and massive turnover. This is me tackling the fundamental problems of that game with a vengeance-- player scheduling means more investment in character relationships and players deciding what they're interested in. Logistics will give players goals and such, and the game being treasure centric was the missing ingredient to make the exploration feel worthwhile-- its worth finding all the secret doors because that'll likely net you more cash. Rushing the sessions felt bad, so I moved away from having to be back in town at the end of one session, but addressed the player scheduling elephant in the room by forcing players to abandon an adventure or go on without the full party, or get everyone together, if they want to use that character again. Paying to level solves the issue where regular exp would make some players level into a range there were very few active players who could participate in, players can now hold off on that in-definitely and are technically rewarded for doing so as they'll be better equipped, if people REALLY want they can give their friends gold to train them up to join in on treasure hunting at whatever level (I'll need to make sure the prices don't make this [I]too[/I] easy.) All the things you might want to pay for (your ship, hirelings to crew it, all of the magic items you might want, a permit for a valuable port, etc) also create both an incentive to adventure, to explore well, and for us to bypass the WBL table in adding the possibility of getting quite rich, without just giving them everything, which in turn creates a feeling of earning it. Finally, moving to a hexmap of a specific region of the world was intentional, because the previous game basically involved hand waving long distance travel and teleporting gimmicks to put adventures all over the world, which again made the game feel too floaty and indistinct. The Pandoran Islands is ideal because its at the center of the world and you can run into anything there, or even naturally travel far enough to access the coasts of several lands, all without handwaving. Players will really feel that they've accomplished something when they go from adventuring on the relatively large landmass they started on, to being able to sail after rumors and such on their own power. I'm also going to get to do so much 'Object-Oriented' storytelling, which is my word for sandboxing that emphasizes the nature of picking a thing to interact with, and the GM fleshing it out as you go there-- you're picking what story is going to unfold. I'm super excited about this because I think its an opportunity for me to explore new styles of game (though obviously, I won't be the first one to do it) in a conscious way that seeks to exploit all of its benefits. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
(WIP) Secrets of Old Pandora, Drafting my vision for a Pathfinder 2e West Marches
Top