Recruiting new players [Archive] - Wizards Community

Recruiting new players [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Rosella
03-21-04, 07:25 PM This is to address a serious issue that should be given some thought around here, especially by the moderators.

We have received our own forum, that's nice. We can now edit things, create polls etc.

There is one thing that has been bugging me though since the move; I have the feeling that the core coliseum has become isolated. New DnD players and munchkins frequently visit the character optimisation board, but there's no reference there to our little enterprise. How will they ever know that they can try their skills here?

I fear that we might lose players over time due to other folks simply not knowing that we exist. I think this should be addressed by having some link on the optimisation boards.
kattattack22
03-21-04, 08:07 PM I have tried to get a couple friends on here, but they never finished their characters.

Anyway, the Link idea is cool maybe alos the Player's Handbook forums as well. Also seeing the COre COliseum in the forum jump might get some people.
Arstimis
03-21-04, 09:21 PM I got 3 friends to join :D
i bet you can guess who they are
Coyote Skyheart
03-21-04, 10:08 PM Well I'm new here *grin*

I made it here because of two reasons. One, a while back I saw Moherajikuyx's name in the optimization thread for starting this tourney fight with a gazillion posts, so curious, I browsed and really liked what I read. Caterane, arena bard, made my day.

Then later, while playing a colliseum game on the RD&DA thread, I happened to notice the CoCo thread, and his name, yet again.

Very cool!
So here I am, mostly because the resources are much more user-friendly than before. They're collected in one place.

The character sheet is more of a hassle than in RD&DA, for instance, but people will do what they need to in order to participate. I don't think CoCo will attract newbies to DnD.

I still get a bit lost navigating the threads you have here though, its not exactly easy to find everyone one needs to know, or realize where one should post for x question or reason.

There does seem to be a disparity of purpose though... or is it me? I dunno - its all core rules yes, but like I found out in the question about 5x price limited use items, there's some people here just to fight in an arena by any means, or for roleplaying purposes, and some people here to test a build useable in a campaign.
...these don't mix, 'though the rules do bring them close together.
honeynuggets
03-22-04, 09:47 AM One thing that might help bring new players is to introduce more variation in the arena. The 5 ft high rocks and ceiling high columns aren't enough to favor all the various builds.

Maybe split the arena in half and have one side be a wild environ with the rocks being replaced by heavy undergrowth, the columns being replaced by trees and some light undergrowth thrown in between.

See my official rule following maps of the different types of forest to see how drastically forest terrain can change things.

http://members.cox.net/shinyhalo/D&D_3.5_Sparse_Forest.jpg
http://members.cox.net/shinyhalo/D&D_3.5_Medium_Forest.jpg
http://members.cox.net/shinyhalo/D&D_3.5_Dense_Forest.jpg
barrel_master
03-22-04, 12:17 PM Originally posted by honeynuggets
One thing that might help bring new players is to introduce more variation in the arena. The 5 ft high rocks and ceiling high columns aren't enough to favor all the various builds.

Maybe split the arena in half and have one side be a wild environ with the rocks being replaced by heavy undergrowth, the columns being replaced by trees and some light undergrowth thrown in between.

See my official rule following maps of the different types of forest to see how drastically forest terrain can change things.

http://members.cox.net/shinyhalo/D&D_3.5_Sparse_Forest.jpg
http://members.cox.net/shinyhalo/D&D_3.5_Medium_Forest.jpg
http://members.cox.net/shinyhalo/D&D_3.5_Dense_Forest.jpg

One of the things that I think brings people into the areana is that it's easy to get into and without that many rules... adding things might deter new people.
Magagumo
03-22-04, 05:30 PM Location... location... location.. we got to advertise more :-D

Yea, Snark got me hooked on this thing, so I think word of mouth si key.
Captain Mutilate
03-22-04, 07:31 PM I'm planning on joining here. As soon as I get my character ready...
Rozman
03-22-04, 08:21 PM Just a few comments from a newbie to the board:

The posted objective of this board is to compare core builds against each other. Short and simple. Not neccesarily to find out which one is better (because the classes are not balanced in respect to a 1-on-1 fight in the first place) but to learn more about the mechanics, to see how certain combinations work out in combat, etc. An education experience with some competition thrown in to liven things up.

Reading the fights and discussions, it looks more like a contest about who can find the:

a) best (generally 1-shot) magic item to win the day, especially at lower levels. How much do I learn about my character when I get Quaal's feather tokened or Fireballed at ECL 2?

or

b) best animal companion/cohort/handled animal/raised critter/Paladin's mount.

The mechanics of how this arena are set up seem to be removing the focus from the build and placing it on other neat things you can find in the rules. If I poke around on a board and find such a drastic difference between the posted goal and the actual implementation, I might not be inclined to participate. Shifting back to the original goal may help.

These are some rather drastic proposals, but I think they help return the arena to the posted intent:

Since each character is actually fighting a series of 1-off battles, use the 1-shot adventure rules from the DMG (pg. 199) where 1-use items cost 5x, and charged items start with 1/5 of their full charge. However, when you start your next fight, you get your scrolls/potions back, and your wands recharge to 10 charges. Crafters pay 75% of 5x, which is 375%.

Ban Leadership and Improved Familiar. Allow only the original basic list of companions/mounts for Druid/Ranger/Paladin, of course advanced as appropriate based on class level. This still allows the use of their class abilities while limiting the continued escalation of critters in the arena.

For Handled animals, allow only the animals on the list in the PHB. How much does that Hydra reflect on your ability to defeat other PC's in the arena? At higher ECL's you should be outshining your critter anyway.

Fight 2 fights at each ECL, then bump automatically. I'm more interested in seeing how I do against a variety of builds than I am in advancing quickly. However, some builds take time to take off, so we don't want davancement to be too slow. It should however still be a reward for those who stick around and keep their characters active, and it will still limit the number of (lengthy) high-levels fights that have to be run.

I may be just a voice in the crowd, but I'm interested to see what kind of discussion this stirs up as well.

EDIT: For relevence to the thread topic :)
PostalBoy
03-22-04, 08:55 PM I'm new myself, but dont want to make to many waves... yet. I think that the one shot items should be utilized, this will keep things more balanced, instead of a contest to see who can spend the most money. The only other problem that I have is the one character allowance.

I understand why this was done, no need to explain it to me, but I wonder what we could do to speed along Character advancement. I have several builds I want to test out, one is a straight monk build that I want to test, but I am not really interested in his performance until about level 10, until that time I do expect him to loose every combat, so I just sit here and wait for 6 months to see him realized, then if I decide I dont like it I have waited around for 6 months to find out what I wanted to know now. *shrug*

I also wanted to know if having to take a no-contest week because of an odd amount of players in that ECL counts towards level bumps.

EDIT: Depending on how things pan out I may even be able to get my wife to post a build for the CoCo
xeno_eleusis
03-23-04, 11:00 AM Originally posted by Rozman
Since each character is actually fighting a series of 1-off battles, use the 1-shot adventure rules from the DMG (pg. 199) where 1-use items cost 5x, and charged items start with 1/5 of their full charge. However, when you start your next fight, you get your scrolls/potions back, and your wands recharge to 10 charges. Crafters pay 75% of 5x, which is 375%. I've always been against the 5x cost for items, but this rule seems more resonable the way that Rozman puts it. If you get to keep your items (they are not used up) then why not spend more on them. This is a great idea, and I don't remember what thread I tottaly bashed this idea before, but now it seems a lot more reasonable.
Coyote Skyheart
03-23-04, 06:50 PM Originally posted by Rozman

Since each character is actually fighting a series of 1-off battles, use the 1-shot adventure rules from the DMG (pg. 199) where 1-use items cost 5x, and charged items start with 1/5 of their full charge. However, when you start your next fight, you get your scrolls/potions back, and your wands recharge to 10 charges. Crafters pay 75% of 5x, which is 375%.

I like it too - it makes a lot of sense. It would also simplify keeping track of some things and updating sheets.
Battousai2005
03-30-04, 11:35 PM Originally posted by Arstimis
I got 3 friends to join :D
i bet you can guess who they are
I'm one. Kaigan is another. Mustadio is the next. Oh, and if anyone cares, we all live in the same town at the moment. Though two of the three of us are seniors.
Honestly, this is kinda a lame idea, but does anyone have any experience in web design? We could make a web site dedicated to the COCO. Ive seen it work in the past for other message board related games. That, and it shows on search engines really nice.
Mustadio[MoF]
04-11-04, 01:50 AM I'm one. Kaigan is another. Mustadio is the next. Oh, and if anyone cares, we all live in the same town at the moment. Though two of the three of us are seniors.
I think you mean 2 of the four of us are seniors. not that it matters, I dont mind being called a senior :P

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Rosella 03-21-04, 07:25 PM	This is to address a serious issue that should be given some thought around here, especially by the moderators. We have received our own forum, that's nice. We can now edit things, create polls etc. There is one thing that has been bugging me though since the move; I have the feeling that the core coliseum has become isolated. New DnD players and munchkins frequently visit the character optimisation board, but there's no reference there to our little enterprise. How will they ever know that they can try their skills here? I fear that we might lose players over time due to other folks simply not knowing that we exist. I think this should be addressed by having some link on the optimisation boards.
kattattack22 03-21-04, 08:07 PM	I have tried to get a couple friends on here, but they never finished their characters. Anyway, the Link idea is cool maybe alos the Player's Handbook forums as well. Also seeing the COre COliseum in the forum jump might get some people.
Arstimis 03-21-04, 09:21 PM	I got 3 friends to join :D i bet you can guess who they are
Coyote Skyheart 03-21-04, 10:08 PM	Well I'm new here grin I made it here because of two reasons. One, a while back I saw Moherajikuyx's name in the optimization thread for starting this tourney fight with a gazillion posts, so curious, I browsed and really liked what I read. Caterane, arena bard, made my day. Then later, while playing a colliseum game on the RD&DA thread, I happened to notice the CoCo thread, and his name, yet again. Very cool! So here I am, mostly because the resources are much more user-friendly than before. They're collected in one place. The character sheet is more of a hassle than in RD&DA, for instance, but people will do what they need to in order to participate. I don't think CoCo will attract newbies to DnD. I still get a bit lost navigating the threads you have here though, its not exactly easy to find everyone one needs to know, or realize where one should post for x question or reason. There does seem to be a disparity of purpose though... or is it me? I dunno - its all core rules yes, but like I found out in the question about 5x price limited use items, there's some people here just to fight in an arena by any means, or for roleplaying purposes, and some people here to test a build useable in a campaign. ...these don't mix, 'though the rules do bring them close together.
honeynuggets 03-22-04, 09:47 AM	One thing that might help bring new players is to introduce more variation in the arena. The 5 ft high rocks and ceiling high columns aren't enough to favor all the various builds. Maybe split the arena in half and have one side be a wild environ with the rocks being replaced by heavy undergrowth, the columns being replaced by trees and some light undergrowth thrown in between. See my official rule following maps of the different types of forest to see how drastically forest terrain can change things. http://members.cox.net/shinyhalo/D&D_3.5_Sparse_Forest.jpg http://members.cox.net/shinyhalo/D&D_3.5_Medium_Forest.jpg http://members.cox.net/shinyhalo/D&D_3.5_Dense_Forest.jpg
barrel_master 03-22-04, 12:17 PM	Originally posted by honeynuggets One thing that might help bring new players is to introduce more variation in the arena. The 5 ft high rocks and ceiling high columns aren't enough to favor all the various builds. Maybe split the arena in half and have one side be a wild environ with the rocks being replaced by heavy undergrowth, the columns being replaced by trees and some light undergrowth thrown in between. See my official rule following maps of the different types of forest to see how drastically forest terrain can change things. http://members.cox.net/shinyhalo/D&D_3.5_Sparse_Forest.jpg http://members.cox.net/shinyhalo/D&D_3.5_Medium_Forest.jpg http://members.cox.net/shinyhalo/D&D_3.5_Dense_Forest.jpg One of the things that I think brings people into the areana is that it's easy to get into and without that many rules... adding things might deter new people.
Magagumo 03-22-04, 05:30 PM	Location... location... location.. we got to advertise more :-D Yea, Snark got me hooked on this thing, so I think word of mouth si key.
Captain Mutilate 03-22-04, 07:31 PM	I'm planning on joining here. As soon as I get my character ready...
Rozman 03-22-04, 08:21 PM	Just a few comments from a newbie to the board: The posted objective of this board is to compare core builds against each other. Short and simple. Not neccesarily to find out which one is better (because the classes are not balanced in respect to a 1-on-1 fight in the first place) but to learn more about the mechanics, to see how certain combinations work out in combat, etc. An education experience with some competition thrown in to liven things up. Reading the fights and discussions, it looks more like a contest about who can find the: a) best (generally 1-shot) magic item to win the day, especially at lower levels. How much do I learn about my character when I get Quaal's feather tokened or Fireballed at ECL 2? or b) best animal companion/cohort/handled animal/raised critter/Paladin's mount. The mechanics of how this arena are set up seem to be removing the focus from the build and placing it on other neat things you can find in the rules. If I poke around on a board and find such a drastic difference between the posted goal and the actual implementation, I might not be inclined to participate. Shifting back to the original goal may help. These are some rather drastic proposals, but I think they help return the arena to the posted intent: Since each character is actually fighting a series of 1-off battles, use the 1-shot adventure rules from the DMG (pg. 199) where 1-use items cost 5x, and charged items start with 1/5 of their full charge. However, when you start your next fight, you get your scrolls/potions back, and your wands recharge to 10 charges. Crafters pay 75% of 5x, which is 375%. Ban Leadership and Improved Familiar. Allow only the original basic list of companions/mounts for Druid/Ranger/Paladin, of course advanced as appropriate based on class level. This still allows the use of their class abilities while limiting the continued escalation of critters in the arena. For Handled animals, allow only the animals on the list in the PHB. How much does that Hydra reflect on your ability to defeat other PC's in the arena? At higher ECL's you should be outshining your critter anyway. Fight 2 fights at each ECL, then bump automatically. I'm more interested in seeing how I do against a variety of builds than I am in advancing quickly. However, some builds take time to take off, so we don't want davancement to be too slow. It should however still be a reward for those who stick around and keep their characters active, and it will still limit the number of (lengthy) high-levels fights that have to be run. I may be just a voice in the crowd, but I'm interested to see what kind of discussion this stirs up as well. EDIT: For relevence to the thread topic :)
PostalBoy 03-22-04, 08:55 PM	I'm new myself, but dont want to make to many waves... yet. I think that the one shot items should be utilized, this will keep things more balanced, instead of a contest to see who can spend the most money. The only other problem that I have is the one character allowance. I understand why this was done, no need to explain it to me, but I wonder what we could do to speed along Character advancement. I have several builds I want to test out, one is a straight monk build that I want to test, but I am not really interested in his performance until about level 10, until that time I do expect him to loose every combat, so I just sit here and wait for 6 months to see him realized, then if I decide I dont like it I have waited around for 6 months to find out what I wanted to know now. shrug I also wanted to know if having to take a no-contest week because of an odd amount of players in that ECL counts towards level bumps. EDIT: Depending on how things pan out I may even be able to get my wife to post a build for the CoCo
xeno_eleusis 03-23-04, 11:00 AM	Originally posted by Rozman Since each character is actually fighting a series of 1-off battles, use the 1-shot adventure rules from the DMG (pg. 199) where 1-use items cost 5x, and charged items start with 1/5 of their full charge. However, when you start your next fight, you get your scrolls/potions back, and your wands recharge to 10 charges. Crafters pay 75% of 5x, which is 375%. I've always been against the 5x cost for items, but this rule seems more resonable the way that Rozman puts it. If you get to keep your items (they are not used up) then why not spend more on them. This is a great idea, and I don't remember what thread I tottaly bashed this idea before, but now it seems a lot more reasonable.
Coyote Skyheart 03-23-04, 06:50 PM	Originally posted by Rozman Since each character is actually fighting a series of 1-off battles, use the 1-shot adventure rules from the DMG (pg. 199) where 1-use items cost 5x, and charged items start with 1/5 of their full charge. However, when you start your next fight, you get your scrolls/potions back, and your wands recharge to 10 charges. Crafters pay 75% of 5x, which is 375%. I like it too - it makes a lot of sense. It would also simplify keeping track of some things and updating sheets.
Battousai2005 03-30-04, 11:35 PM	Originally posted by Arstimis I got 3 friends to join :D i bet you can guess who they are I'm one. Kaigan is another. Mustadio is the next. Oh, and if anyone cares, we all live in the same town at the moment. Though two of the three of us are seniors. Honestly, this is kinda a lame idea, but does anyone have any experience in web design? We could make a web site dedicated to the COCO. Ive seen it work in the past for other message board related games. That, and it shows on search engines really nice.
Mustadio[MoF] 04-11-04, 01:50 AM	I'm one. Kaigan is another. Mustadio is the next. Oh, and if anyone cares, we all live in the same town at the moment. Though two of the three of us are seniors. I think you mean 2 of the four of us are seniors. not that it matters, I dont mind being called a senior :P