Starting Level

[EricRoss]

I find that many experienced gamers like to play more advanced characters and adventures. I personally like to start my players and my own characters at 4th to 6th level, depending on the setting. for example: a Ranger campaign would have to have a starting level of 6 to have a PC that has just one level of the Anla'shok PrC. What do you think? What do you think is a good starting level for a more advanced campaign?

 

[Eryx]

Regardless of game, I like to start at the beginning as per the rules. My players have the same opinion.

One short addies are good starting at different levels, but I find you just don't have the same tie to the character.

However, as long as you and your players are cool with it, start higher than 1st.

 

[petitbilbo]

Regardless of game, I like to start at the beginning as per the rules. My players have the same opinion.

Same here!

Especially when playing in a campaign.
Starting as newbies serves two purposes in that case :
1) the players have a much closer relationship with the characters
2) the characters grow with the story arc and evolve to meet the "final test" at the end



petitbilbo

 

[El Cid]

In my PBEM game I have allowed the players to choose from 1st to 4th level for their starting PCs.

Thay have had to provide a detailed background write up including their PC's history.

No matter what level you have your players start at, I have found the background write up to help the players and tthe GM understand the PCs as well as provide possible story hooks for the campaign.

Sidney

 

[EricRoss]

the problem I see with starting at 1st level all the time comes from the unbalanced nature of some of the classes.
Take telepaths, you can create a first level Teep and choose to be a higher P-rating than the standard 1-2. You could even go 'high-end' and create a Telepath that is a P-9 to P-12 within the rules. Now as we know all human P-12 telepaths are automatically designated PsiCops. However at first level this incredibly strong P-12 would only have the abilities of accidental scan; mind shield; sense telepathy; and warning. The player would have sacrificed a great deal of skill points to get to be a powerful teep and would be absolutly useless as a functioning telepath untill at least 2nd level. I really couldn't see the PsiCorp sending anything less then a sixth level telepath into the field as an intern. Even a P-5 Commercial Telepath would have to be 2nd level to get the surface scan ability to make any money and be of any real use in a campaign.

 

[frobisher]

the problem I see with starting at 1st level all the time comes from the unbalanced nature of some of the classes. .... {snip}

This probably nails on the head the problem with the d20 approach to my mind (levels as against skill points, and keeping the various classes on a par with each other).

But then, my SF RPG background is with Traveller and Star Trek (FASA) which had the mechanisms in place for this (and also explains why I don't like points based systems like GURPS).

Of course a rigorous system for Pre-aging characters would be nice (hint!). I'd hand converted some characters I'd used in my previous B5 campaigns (using Traveller) and it was quite scary coming out with a level 9 Officer (Pilot) / Level 6 Agent to represent one of them (and to be honest, that did somewhat under represent the character in question...).

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I generally start folks at 2nd level for any D20/d20 like game. It add significantly to their chances of survival, and makes my mistakes in scaling less likely to kill the PCs. Plus, not all partys/teams are created equal, a conflict that a combat heavy group would waltz through could leave a talking group a PPG riddles mass of steaming flesh. While the combat drop team may be tempted to blast that annoying Centauri agent the second time they run into him. Having 2nd level means that at least one or two characters generally cover multiple roles in regards to play.

The Auld Grump, 'Of course I am willing to talk to you old friend... it has been far too long a time since your presence has enriched my life', rubs two fingers together as though warming a coin...

 

[EricRoss]

Of course a rigorous system for Pre-aging characters would be nice (hint!){snip}

Acctually the system already exists in D20. I will Quote from the Star Wars Core Rulebook; page 121:
"For those who want to start a campaign with more experienced characters, use table 6-4:Starting Levels and Ages as a guide...

Table 6-4 Starting Levels and Ages
Age Category Level
Young Adult 1st
Adult 1st
Adult (limited experience) 3rd
Adult (moderate experience) 5th
Adult (high experience) 7th
Middle-age (moderate experience) 6th
Middle-age (high experience) 8th
Old 9th"


now I have not seen any hard rule on age in Babylon 5, but it seems resonable that since not even Minbari live forever that such a system could work in Babylon 5.

 

[scottmage]

It is the only way to play certain prestige classes, i.e. Commercial Telepath, etc.

I doubt that the Psi Corps wants the character running around "adventuring" till they have enough experience to gain that level to have all the prerequisets to be a certain prestige class.

That or the GM could just start a Psi Corps campain with "Class. Class. Shutup!" :twisted:

It is the equivelent to the US Army did not want me to go blowing things up before I went to Basic Training.

Maybe that is what we really need is a few Feats that are "Basic Training" packages for characters so that you could start as a certain prestige class :?:

 

[EricRoss]

I doubt that the Psi Corps wants the character running around "adventuring" till they have enough experience to gain that level to have all the prerequisets to be a certain prestige class...It is the equivelent to the US Army did not want me to go blowing things up before I went to Basic Training...

you waited for that?
I was blowing up my toys when I was 14! 8)

 

[Cypher226]

Personnally I think you have to base this on the campaign you want to GM (the necessities of the story) and how experienced your players are.

I started (last night actually) GM'ing my first B5 campaign with the main character (it's a solo game for my gf who's an experienced RPGer) as a Lieutenant on a rebel Earthforce ship at the beginning of the Earth Civil War. Based on the profile for Ivanova at the start of season 1 in the core book (it's the only one I have ), I came up with the determination that level 5 would be a good starting point.

High enough to be interesting, low enough to allow for plenty of development.

And as I have a good idea of where the campaign will finish up, quite manageable in the department of scaling too.

 

[frobisher]

Of course a rigorous system for Pre-aging characters would be nice (hint!){snip}

Acctually the system already exists in D20. I will Quote from the Star Wars Core Rulebook; page 121:

That could work, with GM guidance. I was thinking more of a Career Path kinda thing (yup, like Traveller and FASA Star Trek have).

That way, you could pretty much pin a history on a Character (which can come back and haunt them :twisted: ) and age them as much as you'd like.

 

[El Cid]

I simply stole . . . er borrowed, Yea! That's it! borrowed a character background form from another GM which has the players give the background, relatives and important folks that their PC has interacted with.

I allowed them to choose between 1st and 4th levels as their starting level based on the background that they provided.

It also gave me plenty of hooks for each PC.

Sidney

 

[scottmage]

I doubt that the Psi Corps wants the character running around "adventuring" till they have enough experience to gain that level to have all the prerequisets to be a certain prestige class...It is the equivelent to the US Army did not want me to go blowing things up before I went to Basic Training...

you waited for that?
I was blowing up my toys when I was 14! 8)

I was talking about blowing up Armored vehicles, building, bunkers and such :wink:

 

[EricRoss]

high explosives are fun, but the thrill of filling my old Star Wars Hoth playset with about a pund of black powder and seeing the results :twisted:

 

[Dr Goth]

Of course a rigorous system for Pre-aging characters would be nice (hint!).

Oh, yes! But that will naturally be included in B5 RPG 2nd Ed, which of course will be an OGL. :wink:

 

[NeoSamurai]

I've considered starting a B5 game with a varied level group akin somewhat to the show's character level distribution.

 

[Babylon 5 Aide]

Remember, the characters as presented in each episode guide levels what, one or two levels between seasons too? I think it's a level every 6 months basically. And they go through quite a bit, so we balance off of that based on back story.

if a player comes up with a juicy backstory then they get 2 levels a year for that time... if not, well then their character was not ever really in the thick of things. It is a good motivator for our group.

 

[Michka]

Instead of giving the characters levels for each year, you could give them experiance points for each year. That's what the Traveller T20 rules did for previous experiance.

 

[Ranger66]

Really seems to depend on the player. I have different players in my B5, Star wars, D&D game and they all wanted to start at 1st. I prefer it myself as I feel a bigger sense of acomplishment when I gain levels than if I start out higher up.

I find that many experienced gamers like to play more advanced characters and adventures.