The Campaign Builder's Guild

There are a lot of different kinds of players out there, and sometimes they won't match with your game style. In which case, someone will have to adapt, or else you just won't play with them.

To the point of so-called "powergamers", I've seen a couple of types. Some are just obsessed with building up power for their characters, and you can play a co-operative game with them as long as you give them scope to do just that. Of course, this may involve some game balancing issues for the GM if there are other players who seek other things. But that is pretty much normal give and take.

I've also run across some players who treat everything like it was a competition. They try to beat the other players (by having the most powerful character, or whatever) and the GM. I think this kind of player is looking for a different kind of game and maybe can't be integrated as well. And of course, most players have a mix of interests and motivations.

Most players like to have a little challenge thrown in there - something for them to sink their teeth into. In this sense there can be some healthy "competition" with the GM, but the motivation here should be to provide an interesting and challenging game, not to beat anyone or prove anything.

cranberry sauce
giblet gravy
mashed potatos
cornbread stuffing
turkey (dark meat)
turkey (white meat)
pumpkin pie

Way too old, way too childish, way too stressed.

About all you need to know.

Yeah, N&Z are getting ready for kindergarten believe it or not. Time goes by at its accustomed pace, yet somehow it seems to get away from you.

Edit: Oh, and we took our boys to the Boston Aquarium when we went to visit my parents, and they enjoyed it a lot. The sharks and the penguins mostly. And watching the divers in the tank feeding the sharks.

Good to know, I'll keep mine resting for a while then.

As a descriptive scale, that works okay. But advancement is hard to control because there are so few steps. Maybe if you needed X*10 Rep Points to by your Xth dot. That way you could give out a few points here and there without immediately advancing.

A lot of these kinds of rewards (story rewards, reputation, influence, etc.) can be dealt with informally as part of the normal development of an on-going campaign. Obviously, different campaigns will require different approaches. But you might also create some more formalized methods. Action Points or Story Points or some other bonus that allows the player to change or briefly control the narrative are an example of that.

I'm trying to decide whether there is a good way to formalize things like reputation or influence. I've played in games that provided reputation and influence points, but they didn't get used much. Partly because the nature of the campaign and the group didn't favor them much; partly because there weren't many real guidelines for them; and partly because they were too abstract.

Beejazz's point about influence here is a good one. Abstract influence isn't much use. You need to have influence with someone or something. A temple, a noble house, a merchant or guild house, or maybe even a more abstract grouping like a social class or a certain profession. This would make tracking influence more complicated.

Also, I might want to formalize the use of Influence Points. For example, how many Influence Points do you need to be promoted to Archbishop, or elected to the Guild Council? Can you spend influence to get the local Duke to commit some of his men at arms to assist you? Or convince a group of thugs to kidnap the sister of a recalcitrant merchant?

The same things could be said for Reputation, since it is not just how well known you are, but what you are known for. Reputation points might need to be associated with a concept or key word, such as "brave", "merciless", "supporter of Prince Rupert". And again, to really formalize this, you'd need to be able to categorize what the effect of a certain level of reputation might be.

I'm not really sure that formalizing these things is all that useful. Sometimes if you make a list of things that you can do, you risk people acting as if you can't do anything that isn't listed. That wouldn't really be the point.

I'm also trying to think of other ways to formalize rewards besides gains in skills and abilities.

Some areas to think about:

Reputation: A character with a large number of reputation points (RP) would be more widely recognized. The character might be more well-liked or feared. Perhaps a system by which certain social or reputational feats and abilities can be purchased with RP? Reputation could be enhanced by public actions or songs and poetry. Maybe you can buy reputation by donating sums of money for public works?

Influence: A character with influence has access to additional resources beyond just his or her personal wealth and abilities. This might be used to rouse up some rabble, to gain the temporary use of a base of operations, a force of men at arms at her disposal. Maybe a way that IP can be traded for specific benefits? This might be very campaign specific, though. Influence is gained mostly by doing favors for prominent people or institutions.

Contacts and allies: Good roleplaying might be rewarded by designating a certain NPC as a contact or ally for the character. This would turn a given NPC from a one-time encounter to a potentially recurring figure.

Much of this is really around rewarding the player by making his or her character more interesting to play rather than more powerful.

The zombie thread lurches into action...

I expect the next time I actually play will be running games for the boys. Z is an obsessive story-teller, so I'm pretty sure he'll be into it. N, he's more the athletic type, so we'll have to find some kind of sport that a very small but strong and coordinated kid can do well at.

So I've got about six years to finish my game world. Not long enough, at the current pace.

Anyway, I started playing in 1979, I think, with the Basic D&D box set. I don't think the Advanced D&D books were out yet, or maybe they just weren't widely available. It was an article in the Toronto Star about this new thing in games that got me started. Prior to that it was strategy games and war games.

Went to college, found like-minded people, played a lot of other systems. In grad school, I ended up finding a guy who published his own system for his own world called Ysgarth. My groups have always been small groups of close friends, which probably explains why after grad school, it fell by the wayside. The prospect of going down to the local game shop and joining up with a group of guys who are much younger and don't have that much in common just doesn't appeal.

I'm hoping that when the wife is out of her classes, maybe I'll have some time to join some online games, but that isn't so clear.

Question here:
What limits or artifacts are in place to prevent magical counterfeiting of coinage (or other form of currency)?

Presumably that kind of magic would be fairly powerful and expensive, maybe too expensive to be worth it. But if magic is that commercialized, it could potentially have far reaching effects, especially in commodities that would naturally be scarce or difficult to refine. (Don't have access to quicksilver? Magically create it!)

Are there some things that magic just isn't even capable of?

Well, the ability to make and distribute content electronically completely changes the economics of all kinds of publishing. Keep in mind that the marginal cost to create and distribute a copy of a work on pdf, cd, dvd, or blu-ray is next to nothing. All the expense is up front - writing, composing, recording, play-testing, editing, etc.

In theory, copyright provides a legal monopoly which allows the author (or someone to whom they transfer the copyright) to extract a pretty high price despite the low marginal cost. But the internet makes piracy easier so it becomes a bigger problem. The best answer would obviously be for the content producers/publishers/distributors to lower their prices closer to the marginal cost. Then the greater convenience of legal materials will reduce demand for pirated versions, and the lower profit margin will (slightly) reduce the supply curve.

There's a market for things like this, or people wouldn't bother to pirate them. But the changing economics will result in a different-looking market - surely less profitable, possibly smaller, probably with a very different business model.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Work has been crazy, the kids are nuts, etc. But back to the questions...

The beast men should be thought of mostly as people who have picked up some physical features that would be viewed by us (and other people in that world) as "animalistic". This doesn't mean they have picked up any related mental or cultural traits.

For example, the F'rigans are quite civilized, build simple houses, have a town mayor, etc. Having some degree of fur, they don't need as many clothes as the Hairless Ones do. In my mind's eye, I see them dressed in loose breeches with some kind of leather straps on their chests that they use to hold tools, pouches, and the like. They don't have much skill in fine textiles, although the wealthier ones might trade for a fancy silk shirt or something. In cold weather they'd dress in warm woolen or fur coats just like anyone else.

The Kadaan are a completely separate race, in a different part of the world. They aren't as socially advanced, with somewhat cruder forms of governance based more on force and clan relationships. The typical Kadaan worker will keep his or her claws filed and trimmed so as not to interfere with work. They tend to be a bit fastidious about dental hygiene - the better to show off their pearly whites. As mentioned, some warriors do sharpen their claws, but this can be impractical in daily life.

The Kadaans have hair much like other people, so they need normal clothing. Since they aren't terribly advanced, that would be leather, furs, and/or crude textiles. I have to think a bit about whether it makes sense for them to be tending some kind of sheep or goats for wool, or creating cloth from fibrous plant material, or just sticking with hides.

For the second question, the change in jaw shape and dentition would certainly affect their language, probably making certain sounds that involve the lips impossible for them - like 'p', 'b', 'm', 'f'. I hadn't really thought that much about it. Maybe limetom would have some input on that.

That's could happen. One might just hope that such cases would be rare so that the mechanism would have some value anyway.

Beast Men
Like all the other races I am talking about here, the beast men races are fully human. They are just sufficiently different that other races see them as being "bestial" or "animalistic" in form. Of course, they don't see themselves that way; each race has its own identity and culture. The three so-called beast races are F'rigan, Kadaan, and Minaran.

Kadaan
The Kadaans share the large island that forms the eastern and southern boundaries of the Raanic Sea with the Minarans. They inhabit the southern parts of the island. Physically fairly short and compact, Kadaans average 160-170 cm (5 ft 3 to 5 ft 7) in height and 60-70 kg (130-155 kg). Reddish, sun-baked skin makes them very distinct in a crowd. In proportion, they are built like humans, but have strong claws in place of fingernails and a protruding jaw that exposes their prodigious teeth. The combined effect gives them a rather ferocious appearance, which explains why other races classify them as beast men.

For the most part Kadaan warriors use weapons like any other person; but the Muduran Brotherhood is a widespread cult that focuses on unarmed martial arts. The Mudurans will sharpen their claws, giving them a dangerous advantage in unarmed combat.

Small fiefdoms ruled by hereditary leaders make up the bulk of Kadaan territory, with ever-shifting allegiances and alliances. Kadaan are very fecund, and overpopulation leads to frequent conflict over territory and resources. They are also known to take to the sea for raids on neighboring areas.

Kadaan technology is poor, but a strong cultural focus on Earth and Metal magic allows them to make good quality items of clay, brick, and metal regardless. Their religion tends to be equally crude with a focus on strength, luck, and power. Some shamans focus on spirit magic, drawing on the power of ancestral spirits.

Any similarity to real financial firms, living or dead, is purely coincidental.