Stormbring3r wrote:
Bring back super crits from ALFA1. If a crit does half your hp's or more then you are now a one hit wonder as well as dead.
.
Ah! never knew this existed! sounds like a very cool way to get rid from our arcane casters sadly , it would be dangerous to rogues as well, and i like those...
Come to think of it...we don't have any long standing rogue here(shocking?) - they tend to die often anyhow....
Stormbring3r wrote:
Bring back super crits from ALFA1. If a crit does half your hp's or more then you are now a one hit wonder as well as dead.
.
Ah! never knew this existed! sounds like a very cool way to get rid from our arcane casters sadly , it would be dangerous to rogues as well, and i like those...
Come to think of it...we don't have any long standing rogue here(shocking?) - they tend to die often anyhow....
So i am all up for bringing that back!!!
Oh yeah. Back in ALFA1 on The Frozen North server saw a 9th level fighter get hit by a 3 hd Minotaur and dropped in one hit. It was awesome for my 3rd level barb to see. but I Hell yeah bring them back. I can always make another character.
ALFA NWN1 Notable PC's
Jenna Steel (dead)
Marcus Agent of Mask (dead)
NWN2 PC's
Current PC.... Merin (Merry) Gwinkill
Will Menen (Dead)
I was quite serious, thanks for the mocking laughter though.
I love hanging out as a level one. The main problem comes in that so other few level ones are around so you never get a good group going; if we had a total (temporary) vault wipe for week or so, I think a great many people will find it more engaging then they realize.
People talk of bestial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as man, so artistically cruel.
I think its pretty obvious that levels are a positional good. They aren't completely positional of course, largely for reasons of content:
-We don't generally offer interesting solo content for level 1s. D&D and low-level soloing really just don't mix.
-We don't generally offer interesting content for very high levels.
-It is easier to DM and script for lower levels.
I don't think arguing over the positional elements of level preference is worth anyone's time, though those preferences are telling.
Stormbring3r wrote: I can always make another character.
This. This is the attitude we need to nourish in ALFA. If we do, 99% of our drama and other issues will be solved.
That does not work for me, and I will thank you not to shove it down my throat.
First Character: Zyrus Meynolt, the serene Water Genasi berserker. "I am the embodiment of the oceans; serene until you summon the storm." Zyrus: http://tinyurl.com/9emdbnd
Second Character: Damien Collins, the atypical druid. "What? Being a stick in the mud is boring. No pun intended grins"
Western Heartlands HDM: On break. PM for emergencies
Stormbring3r wrote: I can always make another character.
This. This is the attitude we need to nourish in ALFA. If we do, 99% of our drama and other issues will be solved.
Attitude yes, but epic stories can't be molded for PCs whose life expectancy is 10 DM sessions, and DMing becomes more rolling on encounter tables than shaping exciting stories. Random PC death (by super-crits or whathaveyou) isn't the answer, meaningful death on a story is. Because why would a DM bother with spending a couple hours planning exciting game with a PC when the PC will likely just die a random death before that.
For example if the -6hp floor would not kick in on a roll of less than CharLevel-1 on a 1d100, and do so only when a DM is present.... Then DM plans won't be even more frustrated by players killing off their PCs to crits while static hunting due to bored, but it would decrease the problem of high-level PCs seemingly never dying to level-appropriate content - at least relative to how it is for lower levels. Players not being able to rely on the -6hp floor 100% would also work wonders for the ability of a DM to provide true challenge, danger, and thus excitement.
(Or, we could ask tech to turn over our systems to play the version of DnD where you're capped at lvl8, and then gain feats as opposed to levels, forget what it's called...)
I've always wanted to play an e6/e8 PW game. There was one a while ago but it folded. IIRC a later incarnation of Haze was considering adopting e6.
As I posted in another (probably inappropriate) thread, IMO ALFA’s sweet spot with regard to level range where everything seems to fit together more comfortably for everyone involved is probably ~Lvl6; being significantly below this point, i.e., starting levels, or significantly above it, i.e., Lvl9+, subjects the player to grossly disproportionate danger or nigh on invulnerability respectively. DMing such an enormous disparity of level ranges must be a considerable pain in the arse and I applaud all those who do their best to run an inclusive game when mechanistically DnD is anything but. (This is one of the reasons why I haven’t followed through with an application to DM here; I’m not interested in struggling with institutionalised imbalances.) Whilst the e6/e8 systems do little to address the disproportionate danger at Lvl1-2 they do prevent the high level invulnerability problem, and that’s half of the battle won in my book. A system where the gamut of power range is narrower makes writing engaging, appropriately challenging and most importantly inclusive stories so much easier, and it also places a greater store in how a character is different from another of similar class by virtue of who they are and not their power disparity.
Time to take the red pill: ALFA will never adopt such a system, of that I’m certain; it would just be far too much of a fundamental change and in many ways I’m okay with that. This is not to say that I wouldn’t support a leg-up for starting characters (i.e., a +2000 XP ‘Lvl2.5’ start) and an overall level cap (~Lvl9*) should something of that ilk be proposed.
* There are a number of PCs that are way, way beyond Lvl9. (My PC has just hit Lvl8 and considering the time it’s taken to get that far I feel like I’ve earned it**, and I would be happy to cap it at that.) Why such spectacularly damaging level ranges were ever allowed in ALFA I’ll never understand; perhaps no-one considered that such a thing would be possible so nothing was put in place to prevent it.
** This is not to say that people who have levelled much faster than me somehow don’t deserve it; I would never say that. I mean that I feel within myself that it’s been a long, hard slog thus making it this far has a grander caché attached to it than if I’d levelled more rapidly.
I'd agree with IKP on the sweet spot. Level 5-7ish for me was always a golden time, both in PnP and alfa. Got a few hps, got a few tricks, and a few fun spells (lightning bolt!, vampiric touch!).
Also echoing IKP on the rapid rise in levels vs taking it easy...
With Jessel (the first keeper pc since my return to alfa2) I hit the statics and dms pretty hard when i came back. So many statics in BG! I was trying to play "catchup" with some of my former buddies so that I didn't feel so useless when out adventuring with them. And jessel leveled pretty fast between the static xp, the dm xp, and the rp xp i was getting just from the long hours. I think I got to lvl 4 in 5ish weeks? maybe. And to be honest, his xp increased faster than his personality did. A bit of a hollow pc to be honest. And one I began not to enjoy. So I retired him.
Then with Wolf I took it a lot easier. The only XP he gets is from RP and DM. I havent touched a static, he doesnt go looking for critters to beat up. This time I am just enjoying the ride. And this time it will be his personality maturing faster than the XP, not the other way around. I have found it a lot more satisfying. He is currently a lvl 3 punching bag (Most lvl 1s could take him down easily), but he is still RP awesome.
sadly , it would be dangerous to rogues as well, and i like those...
