Character Development Concerns

[High Lord Dee]

Hello,

I thought I read this on an old thread but I need some help on this topic. Unlike most settings, the concept of "party" does not really hold as true in Hyborian adventures. Most of the players that are in our campaigns play to develop high level characters (starting together at first, and hopefully, keep the party relatively in tact to higher levels).

I am having a bit of difficulty in coming up with ideas that would keep a party together for the long run. With no real alignments and being kind of a dog-eat-dog environment, it is almost detrimental to the setting to keep a party intact. One idea I had was to have the players roll up more than one character at the beginning of the campaign. That also speeds up play when one of them dies a horrible and untimely death :twisted:

I also am toying around with the idea of having all their characters advancing in levels even if they are not being played to keep the "party" balanced. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions........

HLD

 

[Strom]

Hello High Lord Dee.

This may be the threa dyou were referring too:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10502

There are some good ideas for keeping a party together in the Conan RPG.

Hope that helps

 

[High Lord Dee]

Hello High Lord Dee.

This may be the threa dyou were referring too:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10502

There are some good ideas for keeping a party together in the Conan RPG.

Hope that helps

That was the link. Thanks. It still is not quite working for me though. Any other ideas? What do you think about a player having multiple characters and ushering them in and out of stories as it makes sense? Anyone try anything like that? Easy enough to kill them :twisted: but they may get tired of that after awhile.

HLD

 

[urdinaran]

I was thinking of that too.

The PCs in my campaign are 3rd level and I wanted to run them thru Black Kingdoms, but time is running short for them, since they will level soon. Also, I would feel bad just dropping them off in that area before letting them get there (maybe becoming pirates first?).

I have decided that after a few more levels with their current characters, I will have them roll up new 3rd level characters and run them thru Black Kingdoms. At the end of it, they can choose wich characters to continue with, or flip-flop between them if they wish.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I was thinking of that too.

The PCs in my campaign are 3rd level and I wanted to run them thru Black Kingdoms, but time is running short for them, since they will level soon. Also, I would feel bad just dropping them off in that area before letting them get there (maybe becoming pirates first?).

I have decided that after a few more levels with their current characters, I will have them roll up new 3rd level characters and run them thru Black Kingdoms. At the end of it, they can choose wich characters to continue with, or flip-flop between them if they wish.

That's not a bad solution at all.

We often handwave the time between adventures if I (the GM) have nothing planned in there, but getting to the Black Kingdom's by way of being Pirates does seem a pretty "adventure rich" bit of travel to just discard.

How into XP are your players? Any chance you could just say "look you guys, this adventure isn't generating XP, I'll make it up to you later (after The Black Kingdoms bonus XP for the Pirat adventure).

It's certainly not "better" than your plan, but more options usually=good

 

[urdinaran]

They are only 1000 xp from 4th, so, kinda close. Since Stygia is a closed society, it makes getting to the Black Kindoms a little difficult; either swing out to the east of it, or take a ship. Taking a ship would make the most sense, and I wouldn't feel right denying them the opportunity of sailing the high seas.

 

[Evil_Trevor]

There once was a A.D, & D setting called Dark Sun set on a desert-world called Athas this was a harsh world where itwas easy to die the citys were ruled by sorcerous dragon-kings and they granted there templers (priests) spells and most if not all people had some psionic ability to. In this game you rolled up a 'character tree' of five characters and as one character gained experience so did the other four so when (not if) your character died you could bring in another with ease.

What a bloody nightmare it was, when your Elven Thief/fiighter got to level 4/3 what level did that make your Mul gladiator ? 7 ? or 5? not to mention the difficullty of adding a Thri-kreen to the party when they were already half way to the Dragons Crown mountains......

And don't let me talk about Black Spine....

 

[gav]

quote "I am having a bit of difficulty in coming up with ideas that would keep a party together for the long run. With no real alignments and being kind of a dog-eat-dog environment, it is almost detrimental to the setting to keep a party intact."

I know how you feel I am having a similar problem. We talked it through together as a group as though we were all reading a new part of a series of books and focus on what we would all like to see happen in the next chapter.
We just ended a campaign. The party {all Aqulonians}are not really the heroic band of brothers type party. Three of them dont have allegiances or codes of honour.
In the last game one of the players character died. So due to the background of the campaign he would play the love child of a Noble woman Npc and his now deceased character 18 years on. We have never tried this idea. Although it is a good idea I am having difficulties in bringing them together 18 years on for a common purpose. The thing is, playing with these types of characters there really is no bond.
One character is a scheming scholar ( she has 7 corruption }with a demonic pact who has now married into the nobility. The other is a soldier theif who is a cold blooded murderer [not unlike jack the ripper} of innocent noble women who is well on the path of corruption. He too has now married into a wealthy family {then murdered his wife} The last character, a giant and genial man who was the closest to the the dead character was a mighty career soldier and now approaching 60 years has become a useless drunk. The new character, the 18 year old love child is a Noble/ Thief [ the player has not finished his background yet but is going for an assasin spy type.}. Trying to come up with an idea to get this lot together is difficult but after our last get together we spent a few hours chatting and came up with the above ideas. We are waiting for Heretics of Tarantia to see if that gives any more ideas and a possible thread to bring the characters back together yearson..