Post by Mutant Lord: William McAusland on Apr 19, 2013 9:19:13 GMT -8
Character Trees
by C.H.U.D. » Mon May 30, 2011 3:43 pm
I've been thinking of taking a rule I saw the first edition of Dark Sun. The game was so deadly that in addition to starting at 3rd level, players had multiple characters in reserve. The idea was that when an active character gained experience that the non active characters gained half experience from doing their own thing. Characters also could be swapped out at appropriate times for inactive ones. I like this idea for TME mostly so replacement characters don't have to be rank 1 in a rank 4 world for instance. Of course replacement characters to fill the empty slot in the tree would be rank 1. One could be devious' and actually have a table for inactive characters who gain experience that could result in death, an enemy, etc. etc.
Any thoughts?
Re: Character Trees
by Brutorz Bill » Mon May 30, 2011 11:47 pm
I remember that rule from Dark Sun. Pretty good idea actually.
Re: Character Trees
by WillMcAusland » Tue May 31, 2011 6:36 am
Aw, I loved the dark sun setting!
I think the art by Brom www.bromart.com/index.html made it much more popular and visualized than it otherwise would be. His work greatly influenced me and I've collected all his art books since then.
I like the idea of reserve characters, and giving them some ranks to correspond with the main character's advancement will help them stay alive in higher rank adventures. I am a fan of back up characters for sure, because there is nothing worse than a game session where one guy gets his character killed and has to halt the game to roll up a new one. Trying to explain how this new PC shows up in an subway system or sewer, is another issue. IN such remote locations, I usually have backup PCs show up as prisoners who the PCs rescue underground, and must outfit from their own supplies. If the PCs are able to call up replacement or alternate characters, I sometimes have them be a relative of the previous players character, or old militia comrades, even teenage children... some plausible, strong tie to the character to avoid having to do a scene explaining who they are and why they want to join the party, etc.
Also, backup characters or playing multiple characters in different sorts of adventures can be viewed like scenes in a movie or book. I mean, its not hard to follow along with various characters in a show, keeping them straight in your head, and with a good character sheet a RP gamer can easily juggle two or three different persona's even in one session. In many cases, however, when I GM, I tend to ensure that the player is only controlling one PC at a time, or at least, identifies which one has the stage and is his guy or girl at the time, who the players is speaking as, etc.
Its a huge , interesting subject, and various groups and GMs view multiple PCs per player very differently. The forthcoming Issue 2 of Excavator Monthly will have a whole article on this subject.
by C.H.U.D. » Mon May 30, 2011 3:43 pm
I've been thinking of taking a rule I saw the first edition of Dark Sun. The game was so deadly that in addition to starting at 3rd level, players had multiple characters in reserve. The idea was that when an active character gained experience that the non active characters gained half experience from doing their own thing. Characters also could be swapped out at appropriate times for inactive ones. I like this idea for TME mostly so replacement characters don't have to be rank 1 in a rank 4 world for instance. Of course replacement characters to fill the empty slot in the tree would be rank 1. One could be devious' and actually have a table for inactive characters who gain experience that could result in death, an enemy, etc. etc.
Any thoughts?
Re: Character Trees
by Brutorz Bill » Mon May 30, 2011 11:47 pm
I remember that rule from Dark Sun. Pretty good idea actually.
Re: Character Trees
by WillMcAusland » Tue May 31, 2011 6:36 am
Aw, I loved the dark sun setting!
I think the art by Brom www.bromart.com/index.html made it much more popular and visualized than it otherwise would be. His work greatly influenced me and I've collected all his art books since then.
I like the idea of reserve characters, and giving them some ranks to correspond with the main character's advancement will help them stay alive in higher rank adventures. I am a fan of back up characters for sure, because there is nothing worse than a game session where one guy gets his character killed and has to halt the game to roll up a new one. Trying to explain how this new PC shows up in an subway system or sewer, is another issue. IN such remote locations, I usually have backup PCs show up as prisoners who the PCs rescue underground, and must outfit from their own supplies. If the PCs are able to call up replacement or alternate characters, I sometimes have them be a relative of the previous players character, or old militia comrades, even teenage children... some plausible, strong tie to the character to avoid having to do a scene explaining who they are and why they want to join the party, etc.
Also, backup characters or playing multiple characters in different sorts of adventures can be viewed like scenes in a movie or book. I mean, its not hard to follow along with various characters in a show, keeping them straight in your head, and with a good character sheet a RP gamer can easily juggle two or three different persona's even in one session. In many cases, however, when I GM, I tend to ensure that the player is only controlling one PC at a time, or at least, identifies which one has the stage and is his guy or girl at the time, who the players is speaking as, etc.
Its a huge , interesting subject, and various groups and GMs view multiple PCs per player very differently. The forthcoming Issue 2 of Excavator Monthly will have a whole article on this subject.