tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829093857574761981.post5227330537515318313..comments2024-03-29T08:28:44.726+00:00Comments on Roles, Rules, and Rolls: Four Clocks: Real, Play, Game, LevelingRoger G-Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594440701279968693noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829093857574761981.post-78912917656067106502013-02-22T14:12:42.117+00:002013-02-22T14:12:42.117+00:00What I like to encourage is the notion t5hat chara...What I like to encourage is the notion t5hat characters aren't ever stagnant: you don't level up because you fall off the grid for a few weeks to train (if that were true, why not just train, train, train for a few years then go kick god's ass?) - you level up because your character has been improving incrementally over time and they've reached a point where it can be represented mechanically. The Wizard reads his books by the light of the campfire every night and the Thief practices slight of hand as they trek down the road, but the game just isn't granular enough to measure that. Characters can get the full effects of leveling up "immediately" upon reaching the XP goal because they've been training the whole time. (Though for practical reasons I try to level at the end of a session, so that choices can be made away from the game table.)<br /><br />Other than that I'd defer to Gygax on measuring time and making sure you're sticking with it - it seems to me that tasks in real life always take morwe Turns than I expect them to. If you're marking acurate time and making overland distances reasonable, then it doesn't matter that you've only been adventuring for 3 months, they've just been eventful months! (Do you characters never take weekends or sick days? That'd be a pretty crazy work ethic...)<br /><br />Final note: "able to level but unable to spare a month or two while a villain still remains at large"... Either the villain doesn't require you to level (in which case time dictates that you forego leveling for now in order to stop the Bad Guy) or he does (in which case taking time to level is required for success). There's nothing wrong with going in underpowered because it has to be -now- (that's a dramatic trope!), these things just need to be communicated to players so they understand the consequences of training or not.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829093857574761981.post-31799270795996144692013-02-21T16:59:39.935+00:002013-02-21T16:59:39.935+00:00I'm playing a S&W game with a DM who clear...I'm playing a S&W game with a DM who clearly learned to play D&D from 3e onwards. After our first session, we decided to leave the dungeon to recover as some players where pretty beat up. I told him we'd spend a few days resting and gave him a list of things we'd do in the meantime (look for henchmen, investigate a strange item, etc). But, rather than just advance the clock and tell us the result, we started the next session just outside the dungeon and had to "role play" out all the tedious walking and talking (with no real decisions to be made on our part). We were back in the dungeon the very next game day.<br /><br />I ran my 3e campaign pretty much this way and I think the characters hit 11th level before 9 game months had past. That's pretty ridiculous.Hedgehobbithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17606283586332210195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829093857574761981.post-76050103893403137182013-02-21T00:01:33.543+00:002013-02-21T00:01:33.543+00:00I see that working for some things (fighting, HP, ...I see that working for some things (fighting, HP, clerical miracles) but not others (thief skills, scholarly magic). I'd also be happy to leave the whole concept of experience sitting in between simulations and beholden to none, like hit points are.Roger G-Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08594440701279968693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829093857574761981.post-78986347122122816282013-02-20T23:59:42.298+00:002013-02-20T23:59:42.298+00:00This is true, my campaign has used overland treks ...This is true, my campaign has used overland treks between places, but not extensively, and travel to the adventure spots has been fairly short. They did get a huge change of scenery off a fortuitous teleportation trick.Roger G-Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08594440701279968693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829093857574761981.post-51853440818213697792013-02-20T12:49:08.912+00:002013-02-20T12:49:08.912+00:00Treating level like confidence and reputation, rat...Treating level like confidence and reputation, rather than training, as Talysman does, can help with the verisimilitude here, I think. Especially if the power curve is not too steep.<br /><br />I don't much care for the interpretation of level as skill and training much anymore, though I'm pretty sure that's how 95% of players think about things. Considering levelling as training encourages a level of fiddly detail (most obviously on display in the AD&D training rules) that seems to get in the way without adding much.<br /><br />I agree that tracking the diegetic game world time can be quite valuable (and a great source of adventure hooks), but I don't think one needs to assume that PCs should require many, many years to gain a few levels. Many conquerors in the real world, even, rose to prominence relatively quickly, if one requires historical justification.Necropraxishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12716340801054739658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829093857574761981.post-87195724212009035752013-02-20T08:42:35.923+00:002013-02-20T08:42:35.923+00:00The only thing I can say is realistic travel times...The only thing I can say is realistic travel times, although I don't think your campaign is broken in any way.<br /><br />The adventure locations ought to be perhaps a week's travel away from civilization, no? That means 6 adventure sites equal 12 weeks of travelling back and forth, which is 3 months just there without any serious downtime for training or the like.<br /><br />I try to use periods of travel like this, to pace the campaign. They also work as stressers for the players and let me set off some campaign world events such as wars, famines and other backdrop stories in a realistic way.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com