If anyone has run or participated in a game like this, how was it? Any lessons to pass on?
Creating all those characters takes a long time though!
I've been workign on and off on an RPG where players create multiple characters and accumulate destiny - which is specific to the player and not the character - so players can choose which characters become important (and maybe pump destiny into a minor character if the main one dies).
But in D&D, hmm. I wanted to run a campaign which "cross cuts" kind of like Traffic (the TV show or Film). Say it was the classic, "goblins threaten village" Well maybe the players start of running a small household of villagers and their first adventure is just to survive and send out for help. If they succeed then they get to play the villages saviours - adventurers. Then the campaign may cross cut to some epic conflict with a council of gods. The results of that scene affect the whole world (say the enemy unleashes a perpetual Winter) and the campaign cross cuts back to the adventurers (fighting the hordes unleashed in the minor conflict) and the villagers (wondering why it's so damn cold in April).
I guess you could play D&D and treat XP like Destiny or Will of the Gods - specific to one player but not to the character.
Not actually playtested any of these ideas yet though!
Ars Magica sort of works like that - the players create a community of magi, alongside expert companions and grogs (warrior minions). All the players play a magus, an expert and anyone can take control o one of the grogs at any time.
I've heard of this game, but never played. Do you have any experience as a player or GM for this? How do players normally feel about working for a covenant, instead of just powering up themselves?
I've been workign on and off on an RPG where players create multiple characters and accumulate destiny - which is specific to the player and not the character - so players can choose which characters become important (and maybe pump destiny into a minor character if the main one dies).
This is actually a bit of what I was hoping for, only the entity that accumulates the benefit is the community.
In terms of a single player's characters, its interesting. Do you have a link to a thread discussing it?
But in D&D, hmm. I wanted to run a campaign which "cross cuts" kind of like Traffic (the TV show or Film). Say it was the classic, "goblins threaten village" Well maybe the players start of running a small household of villagers and their first adventure is just to survive and send out for help. If they succeed then they get to play the villages saviours - adventurers. Then the campaign may cross cut to some epic conflict with a council of gods. The results of that scene affect the whole world (say the enemy unleashes a perpetual Winter) and the campaign cross cuts back to the adventurers (fighting the hordes unleashed in the minor conflict) and the villagers (wondering why it's so damn cold in April).
I guess you could play D&D and treat XP like Destiny or Will of the Gods - specific to one player but not to the character.
Not actually playtested any of these ideas yet though!
I can see this application for your idea. Kind of cool, especially how you relate the different sets of characters together through the events, even if they may never meet in game.
Also, I wasn't looking especially at D&D. I'm more wondering if just the concept itself is something players like working within. It seems very different from what is presented in most rpg game systems (not an expert or anything) and wondered if perhaps there was a reason for this. Ars Magica seems to be the one exception
Rather than selecting a class for your character, you would select a type of society for your realm, which would give you access to certain powers and capabilities.
Could work, but would probably require some work to get in place.
Sorry about the delay in replying. We had some internet (DSL) line resistance issues after a heavy rain.
I've heard of this game, but never played. Do you have any experience as a player or GM for this? How do players normally feel about working for a covenant, instead of just powering up themselves?
In terms of a single player's characters, its interesting. Do you have a link to a thread discussing it?
A little but not much - we started a campaign just before lots of people left school. Well I guess the market segment is a little different, since "powering up" is not really the focus so much as the story. Having multiple characters helps encourage this and the published adventures tend to be more mysteries and social dilemmas than dungeon crawls and battles.
This is actually a bit of what I was hoping for, only the entity that accumulates the benefit is the community.
In terms of a single player's characters, its interesting. Do you have a link to a thread discussing it?
I'm "Creatures of Destiny" on this forum. BTW these guys have a strict "don't bump old threads" policy.
This was the thread where I first presented my intitial idea (different from later ideas, in part as a result of discussion)
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=25642.0
I you PM me your email I can send you a pdf of the work in progress - I'm kind of curious if it makes any sense at all to an outside reader.
[QUOTE=CravesLove2;17233006
I can see this application for your idea. Kind of cool, especially how you relate the different sets of characters together through the events, even if they may never meet in game.
Also, I wasn't looking especially at D&D. I'm more wondering if just the concept itself is something players like working within. It seems very different from what is presented in most rpg game systems (not an expert or anything) and wondered if perhaps there was a reason for this. Ars Magica seems to be the one exception
I think the reason is that D&D's innovation was to go from the battle scale to the individual scale and most other RPG's (and later generation D&D) followed suit.
But there are computer games like Populous, SimCity and realtime strategy like Warcraft 3 (not World of Warcraft). In those games as the community expands the potential power expands, in Warcraft you mine gold and accumulate lumber so you can build things and certain buildings give you certain things. So you could build a temple to train clerics and a barracks to train warriors, forges to produce equipment, farms to provide food and so forth. In Populous and Warcraft you can take control of certain individuals in order to play out certain actions.
So using that as a model you could start each player or group with a small community and characters from that community. They might deal with problems (like bandits attacking farmers or a drought) and so improve the lot of the community. As it expands they decide to build a temple to thanks the gods and thus recieive blessings. Later the local baron decides to conscript the peasantry into his army - do they comply (and risk losing all their workforce) or rebel (risking the baron's wrath)? Maybe they rebel and decide to ask the elves for help. They go on a mission to win the elves friendship and now elves become available. Or maybe the peasants who fight for the baron come back as seasoned veterans and hire themselves out as mercenaries.
Depending on their decisions the community may grow and as it becomes a town it attracts new opportunies (maybe some wizards move in) as well as new problems like crime and violence between the original inhabitants and the newcomers. Later they might decide to conquer/ally with or trade with neighbouring communities.
And so on.
The old TSR Birthright campaign... the focus was to grow your realm rather than your character (even though you could combine it if you wanted). The game mechanism was not working the way you suggest, but it would be an interesting approach to it.
Rather than selecting a class for your character, you would select a type of society for your realm, which would give you access to certain powers and capabilities.
Could work, but would probably require some work to get in place.
Hmm, Birthright actually covers a bit of what I want, but it does so....not deeply enough.
I'd really like the community the player-characters join to be rated across all the classes/skills. And it would require some work to figure out the specific abilities/skills/items available to the community at each rating in each field.
Since it requires that extra work/planning, was trying to get some idea if anything similar had been tried before, and what the results were
This was the thread where I first presented my intitial idea (different from later ideas, in part as a result of discussion)
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=25642.0
I you PM me your email I can send you a pdf of the work in progress - I'm kind of curious if it makes any sense at all to an outside reader.;\
Cool concept, and a bit different than your initial explanation seemed. I can see that the later one would be easier to run and perhaps more fun to play, even if likely less meaningful. I will pm you my email and see what I can understand.
...you could start each player or group with a small community and characters from that community. They might deal with problems (like bandits attacking farmers or a drought) and so improve the lot of the community. As it expands they decide to build a temple to thanks the gods and thus recieive blessings. Later the local baron decides to conscript the peasantry into his army - do they comply (and risk losing all their workforce) or rebel (risking the baron's wrath)? Maybe they rebel and decide to ask the elves for help. They go on a mission to win the elves friendship and now elves become available. Or maybe the peasants who fight for the baron come back as seasoned veterans and hire themselves out as mercenaries.
Depending on their decisions the community may grow and as it becomes a town it attracts new opportunies (maybe some wizards move in) as well as new problems like crime and violence between the original inhabitants and the newcomers. Later they might decide to conquer/ally with or trade with neighbouring communities.
And so on.
This exactly what I'd like to see! Only, the player characters influence the town's decisions through the NPCs, or maybe directly if they are given seats of power. The PCs can still go out adventuring and bring back wealth for the community, which could be used to build up businesses, buy needed improvements, or attract other NPCs. Also, PCs are limited not only in race by the community, but also class, class level, skill level, spells, and items.
Wow, you have really done what I could not in describing the concept in a succinct and easy to understand way. Thank You
So....anyone ever tried something like this ?
You could try something more broad, like the Progress levels in D20 modern. It would allow you to give them magic items and classes from a certain level of power. Also, I very much recomend the LoC thread, players spend points generated by their races to improve their races. Reduce it by several orders of magnitude and viola!
I think I'd like to keep the levels of progress as specific and separate as possible in every field. My reason is to give the players as much input as possible in how the community develops. For instance, they might end up with a community focused very deeply upon sword fighting and sword crafting, but not knowing much else (they may choose to specialize even more by focusing on 1h or 2h swords). Alternatively, they might see what they can do about building up a town as a wizard academy, with a good magic items trade, but almost no fighter skills or abilities.
I had read the first few posts in the LoC ooc thread and was going to post that it didn't quite seem what I was thinking of.....but if we tune it down 'by several orders of magnitude', it could be quite near. Will look at it again
Skip to about pg. 40, thats were the concepts really start to be used. Progress levels would be a broad approximation. For example, at PL 3, the community of swordsmen could use short swords and longswords, but not bastard or greatswords. They also could refine iron, but not steel. That what you were thinking of?
Ok, will start on page 40 (!) and see what's what.
Re: Progress Levels, they are exactly the opposite of what I would prefer.
I would like to see the players starting in a community with short swords, for example, and have to develop/encourage/buy the skills to use longswords. And also, have to develop/enourage/buy the skills to use iron, etc.
Each skill/ability/etc would be unconnected to other skills/abilities/etc through anything other than prereqs. Each would have to be developed on its own.
Think of it this way, players normally work on tweeking their characters to the nth degree to achieve their concept of perfection. Now, they can focus that attention upon the community. The players are no longer working directly for themselves - they are working as hard and as diligently as usual, but now to build up their community.