Considering a New Game - call this a "sign up" if you will.

[DrowArchmage]

Fair enough, as i said before, sorry to question you. Stinks that two of our people died though. Oh well.

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

Three. And its okay.

[DrowArchmage]

Were zakaria and Keal supposed to have a past toghether? I could get with him and make one with him if it would work.

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

Originally posted by DrowArchmage: Were zakaria and Keal supposed to have a past toghether? I could get with him and make one with him if it would work.

They are your characters. If you want them to have a background together - then work one out.

However, I would advise against it as it seems a tad too convenient but its up to you.

---

On another note:

Levelling Up. There are three options here -

– The first is "not", but I'm not fond of this as I feel characters should grow in a game - however its your choice (as a group)
– The second is "group shared experience"; therefore, you gain experience as a group and everything is "equally divided". This is the “fairest” method.
– The third is "individual xp gain" - meaning exactly that. The DM awards each character a number of points based on his assessment of their performance, etc, etc, etc – this is potentially the most “unfair”.

Now, you lot have a choice to vote on this – and when you have, I’ll award points or not, as the case may be.

As to how levelling up actually *works*, well it’s listed below:

Level Up Rules

The system is based on “points” – with which you can increase your character’s performance in an area(or areas) of your choice. Points can be “stored” and kept for later use.

3 to 7 points are awarded* (per mission/quest/story advance/DM’s discretion)
*(sometimes this may be more or less depending on the situation – there will be exceptions to this rule)

Costs are as follows:
An attribute costs 8 points to increase to 2 or 3; it costs 12 points to raise to 4 and 16 to raise to 5
A skill raised to Novice level costs 2 point
A skill raised to Expert level costs 4 points
A skill raised to Master level costs 6 points

Adding new spells to a magic sphere costs:
5 points first spell
7 points second spell
10 points third spell
15 fourth spell
20 fifth spell

Martial skills raised to Acolyte cost 3 points
Martial skills raised to Expert cost 5 points
Martial skills raised to Master cost 7 points

Signature Attack: Minor costs 10 points
Signature Attack: Major costs 15 points

Important: There are several ways of justifying your newfound abilities – the most common is:
You must train “IC” when adding new skills, magic or whatnot. Either before or after you add it. That way you don’t just suddenly “gain” a skill with no prior training.

Alternately, another path is to say the character always knew it but never realised it – this isn’t a good choice unless it’s well RPed however. Such as suffering from amnesia and slowly recovering memories, or memories of a past life.

Thirdly, there is the “awakening” classic DnD “sorcerer” style method – where a character awakens to his newfound abilities. Again, this is a bit of a cop-out, but in certain situations, having a “trigger” can be played very well.

Finally remember that just because you’ve added it to your sheet, you need not actually use it immediately. More often, it is better to wait and justify everything IC before actually ever using an ability.

[ 01-27-2006, 07:24 AM: Message edited by: Calaethis Dragonsbane ]

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

All right guys, from the looks of things, we'll have some PvP. As a DM, I won't stop it, nor you from duelling/fighting one another (to the death or otherwise).

However, as such, there are some rules that will need to be heeded especially right now:

Each player will state their actions, but not their results.

The DM posts the results

Now, if you want to work things out between you via PM or an instant messenger program and post the actions/results as a joint post, I have no problem with that. That way, its sorted out by the two players without the need of a DM playing adjudicator - but in most cases, I imagine it will be scenario #1

Any questions or queries shall be answered below.

Edit: Do bear in mind that as always the DM is neutral and impartial and it isn't personal in any way, shape or form.

[ 01-24-2006, 05:38 AM: Message edited by: Calaethis Dragonsbane ]

[shamrock_uk]

Well, from a roleplaying perspective, the individual XP seems the most realistic to me. The problem will be finding enough XP for those characters who don't stick swords into everything that moves.

I've certainly got no aversion to equal distribution between the group though, whatever the group decides is quite fine by me.

[ 01-25-2006, 04:44 PM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

Honestly, I'd give more points out over Roleplay than I would Combat. If a character can avoid bloodshed and find a peaceful solution, I'm far more inclined to give more XP to those who simply stick a sword through their advarsary with no questions asked. "Psychotic Evil" isn't encouraged .

That said, I would award XP for acting IC - especially when its easier to break form.

[DrowArchmage]

Alright,i get the picture, i think.

[Ivelliis]

I'm not too bothered about the experience. Giving it on good things (in the DMs eyes) would be good.

However, I'm not sure how you can make the enemies equal ability to make it challenging for our level, as the game is focused more on roleplay than bloodshed (ie. no dice rolls, AFAIK)

[Legolas]

I'd tend towards a group advancement system simply because it's easy.

Say that at each level-up the players get d5+2 points (3-7 points, randomly picked for every seperate character).
If you do at one point decide to give players a bonus, grant a pair of extra points or roll twice and pick the best result.
Since the group level-up is more or less periodical there's no need to track progress or achievements to determine just when an individual can 'advance'. All you have to do is review whether or not you have a good feeling about the way a player is taking his character.