Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ClarkKent07 02-25-04, 10:24 AM	First off I want to say Greetings and well met fellow DMs, I come to the boards nearly everyday, but post so seldom that most of you will not have ever seen me before....I am the board ghost, but now I find I must manifest myself more corpreal to plunder the depths of my fellow DungeonMasters' wisdom. Now to the heart of the matter, I have only two players willing to RP in a semi-fulltime capacity, we have a possible third but he is only in it for combat so for the most part he only comes if I request wandering heroic help for a really tough encounter...but I am getting off topic Anywho, I am working on a new major campaign for these two player...first time with only two and am pondering over what I think may be a unique idea.... These two are decent enough role players so I am considering having them RP individually a very small simple adventure as thier characters would have been before becoming adventurers...IE the elven fighter will play as an elven warrior of his village not yet trained to be a true fighter and the rogue will play as an expert of some sort with skills ranks in appropriate focus..then haveing completed thier intitial encounters and discovererd more clearly who they want thier characters to be allowing them to become first level adventurers...adding all HP and skills to the commoner class levels I hope that this will in effect accomplish two things... THe first and most important is it will make them more survivable for the first few levels.... Two help them really flesh out who thier character is BEFORE applying any stereotypical templates based on thier class... So my brothers and sisters in mischief lend me your thoughts, stories of similar attempts and what have you..... Thanks in advance...CK:D
VirgilCaine 02-25-04, 10:30 AM	Sounds like a man with a plan. Good for you.
Autosponge 02-25-04, 03:34 PM	Let them play 2 characters each, or give them a powerful template like half-celestial and don't bother with ECL adjustments (maybe they don't even know they are half-celestial) or make them gestalt characters (variant from the new Unearthed Arcana). Either will make them most survivable and better suited for a small party.
donbaloo 02-25-04, 04:04 PM	I think the idea is good. Stick with it. And you can run a campaign with only two players where each player plays only one character and without even having to resort to fantastical racial heritages or introduced templates. The idea you have is great and should be an interesting start to your campaign. If I recall correctly the old hardback GREYHAWK campaign book had guidelines for playing 0 level characters, or apprentices, much in the same light as you are describing. You say that it should provide a means for the players to flesh out their characters before applying stereotypes and it will do that but keep aware that the fleshing out process may very well be greatly affected by the story you create and the encounters they meet. So you may have more of a hand than you mean in nudging characters one way or the other if you're not careful. This would also set the perfect stage for introducing those NPCs and contacts that new characters always bring to the table but really never have a face or background because the player has never really interacted with them. I'd be sure to get a few of those contacts into the story. Back when I was younger and gaming a friend of mine tried his hand at DMing for a change. The game was rough and his grasp of the rules was weak but he had some neat ideas in his game. He started us out the same way as you're discussing for your guys be he even added the extra step of starting us with relatively average ability stats. Then, according to our actions and play manner he began adding very small bonuses to our basic stats that we were relying upon. By the time we finished the introductory game we had essentially worked our characters into who they would be, complete with above average stats in our primary abilities. Anyway, keep with the idea. It should be fun and provide for really fun roleplaying.
ClarkKent07 02-25-04, 10:51 PM	THanks for the great input so far, just as a side note I am allowing them to use a point buys system to generate thier stats so that they can be pretty much exactly who they want too, but I also REALLY like the idea of lowering the points and slowly adding to the abilities they show dependency on early in thier careers.. Please keep thoughts and stories of past experiences with such comin. THNX CK