Typewriter
2011-04-04, 01:42 PM
So I created generic classes that granted stat bonuses and the like. Physical classes had a higher HD and granted more bonuses to physical stats, arcane classes granted more skill points and more bonuses to mental stats. At the end of this session that 'character' became a template that each player gets to apply to their real character. Half the HP, the stat modifier as a bonus, skill ranks become untyped bonuses, and they get to keep all the feats they had.
Basically the characters discovered a portal to a new world. In the new world they got new bodies that reflect their 'minds eye'. The majority of the campaign takes place in the new world, and whenever a character dies he 'wakes up' in the old world where their villagers have been tending to them in a coma-like state. They can then re-enter the portal (leaving their body behind) and use the template to create a new character.
To make death meaningful there are a few things that happen:
I created two custom decks of cards, one is a 'challenge' deck, and the other is a 'penalty deck'.
The normal penalties are: XP gets set to base of current level, 2 draws from the penalty deck.
When a player dies they draw a card from the challenge deck. If they can pass the challenge by themselves (riddles, puzzles, etc.) they get to ignore 2 penalties (the 2 cards, or a card and the XP hit). If they are able to pass with the help of the group they get to ignore 1 penalty. If they can't pass the challenge, they take the full penalties.
The penalty deck consists of some flaws, some stat penalties, some curses, etc. etc.
And the other thing is that the portal connects to a specific place. While the character travels they must play a temp character until their main catches up (hasn't actually happened yet).
I'm just curious as to what peoples thoughts are. Is there anything I could change to improve the flow. The group seemed to like this when I explained it to them because we've been trying to find ways to keep death meaningful, but not removing characters that players like.
I'm considering having a limit on how many times a player can do this before the trauma becomes too severe, or possibly making the number of penalties increase as time goes on.
Story wise it makes sense, and the worlds are ones that my players are heavily invested in so they get what's going on...
But mechanically... does it make sense? Does it flow? Has anyone done anything similar to this before? Just looking for thoughts/input/advice/etc.
Basically the characters discovered a portal to a new world. In the new world they got new bodies that reflect their 'minds eye'. The majority of the campaign takes place in the new world, and whenever a character dies he 'wakes up' in the old world where their villagers have been tending to them in a coma-like state. They can then re-enter the portal (leaving their body behind) and use the template to create a new character.
To make death meaningful there are a few things that happen:
I created two custom decks of cards, one is a 'challenge' deck, and the other is a 'penalty deck'.
The normal penalties are: XP gets set to base of current level, 2 draws from the penalty deck.
When a player dies they draw a card from the challenge deck. If they can pass the challenge by themselves (riddles, puzzles, etc.) they get to ignore 2 penalties (the 2 cards, or a card and the XP hit). If they are able to pass with the help of the group they get to ignore 1 penalty. If they can't pass the challenge, they take the full penalties.
The penalty deck consists of some flaws, some stat penalties, some curses, etc. etc.
And the other thing is that the portal connects to a specific place. While the character travels they must play a temp character until their main catches up (hasn't actually happened yet).
I'm just curious as to what peoples thoughts are. Is there anything I could change to improve the flow. The group seemed to like this when I explained it to them because we've been trying to find ways to keep death meaningful, but not removing characters that players like.
I'm considering having a limit on how many times a player can do this before the trauma becomes too severe, or possibly making the number of penalties increase as time goes on.
Story wise it makes sense, and the worlds are ones that my players are heavily invested in so they get what's going on...
But mechanically... does it make sense? Does it flow? Has anyone done anything similar to this before? Just looking for thoughts/input/advice/etc.