CTrees
2012-03-20, 10:12 AM
I've been musing over an idea lately, and I'm wondering about the Playground's opinions.
Essentially, the party knows that there's another group out adventuring to parallel, but opposite, ends (somewhat linear guild, I know), but has largely been too busy to focus on that probelm. Said antagonist party has one or two known members, but the party only has hints as to the rest. In the event of a TPK, I'm considering simply letting my players take over for that antagonist party.
Plan is, I'd make up several pre-generated characters and simply let the players fight over who wants what. I have three regular players and three who rotate in and out (complex scheduling), so I average 4-5 players at any given session. I was thinking I'd create about ten characters, for plenty of options (seems like a lot, but creating characters is honestly my favorite activity in D&D, so this is partly an excuse for tons of fun). Make them highly varied and exotic - the antagonist party was alway going to have some level adjustment on every character, and be an oddball mix of archetypes/multiclassing. If I'm controlling this, I can keep everything at roughly the same power level, and if everyone is using LA+2 races, suddenly it doesn't make any difference at all.
This group tends to get really bogged down in character creation, with two players who seem to enjoy it, one who just kind of plops whatever down, and the rest who 1) don't enjoy it and 2) need a lot of assistance. Also, even the first two in that list tend to go for very generic options. Pre-generated characters would, of course, obviate character creation time, and the oddities would definitely spice things up. Power level can be kept fair (another current problem with the party), while levels of complexity of play can vary (barbarian v. druid, for example), so no one is either overwhelmed by options or bored by lack thereof. I'm also planning on giving zero guidance on personality or backstory beyond the past few weeks of in-game time (so players can make their own choices for personification), and leaving a good chunk of WBL open to whatever they feel like adding for general adventuring gear.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, from the recent character creation threads, I know some of you will chafe at any restrictions at all, let alone pre-generated characters, but regardless: What do you all think of this idea? Thoughts, opinions, input, suggestions, etc.
Essentially, the party knows that there's another group out adventuring to parallel, but opposite, ends (somewhat linear guild, I know), but has largely been too busy to focus on that probelm. Said antagonist party has one or two known members, but the party only has hints as to the rest. In the event of a TPK, I'm considering simply letting my players take over for that antagonist party.
Plan is, I'd make up several pre-generated characters and simply let the players fight over who wants what. I have three regular players and three who rotate in and out (complex scheduling), so I average 4-5 players at any given session. I was thinking I'd create about ten characters, for plenty of options (seems like a lot, but creating characters is honestly my favorite activity in D&D, so this is partly an excuse for tons of fun). Make them highly varied and exotic - the antagonist party was alway going to have some level adjustment on every character, and be an oddball mix of archetypes/multiclassing. If I'm controlling this, I can keep everything at roughly the same power level, and if everyone is using LA+2 races, suddenly it doesn't make any difference at all.
This group tends to get really bogged down in character creation, with two players who seem to enjoy it, one who just kind of plops whatever down, and the rest who 1) don't enjoy it and 2) need a lot of assistance. Also, even the first two in that list tend to go for very generic options. Pre-generated characters would, of course, obviate character creation time, and the oddities would definitely spice things up. Power level can be kept fair (another current problem with the party), while levels of complexity of play can vary (barbarian v. druid, for example), so no one is either overwhelmed by options or bored by lack thereof. I'm also planning on giving zero guidance on personality or backstory beyond the past few weeks of in-game time (so players can make their own choices for personification), and leaving a good chunk of WBL open to whatever they feel like adding for general adventuring gear.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, from the recent character creation threads, I know some of you will chafe at any restrictions at all, let alone pre-generated characters, but regardless: What do you all think of this idea? Thoughts, opinions, input, suggestions, etc.