Proposal: Allow Metavoid to play a second PC

[KarinsDad]

Metavoid currently has a PC in Stonegod's Race adventure.

However, he does not have enough XP to level.

That adventure has been going on for 5 months.

In that same 5 months, the PCs in my adventure are nearly level 6.

From my perspective, Metavoid has paid his dues and stuck around long enough to be entitled to play a second PC. Since this is not legal from a rules prespective, I am proposing a change to the rules.

5 months is a reasonable amount of time to be playing in order to acquire a second PC. Most people here who are playing a second PC were able to do so in under 5 months.


So, the proposal is to allow someone to play a second PC if they have made a level, or if 4 months have gone by in their current adventure and they haven't yet leveled. I think playing here for one third of a year shows enough commitment to be allowed a second PC and this rule would handle players in adventures that might be a bit more skill challenge focused, or adventures that have slow points in time for whatever reason.

 

[renau1g]

I'm very sympathetic to this proposal. 5 months indeed seems to be in the spirit of why we have the waiting period. Metavoid's been active in that adventure and in L4W so I'm not sure if waiting a couple months to get officially leveled would demonstrate anything.

 

[stonegod]

I'm sympathetic to the idea, but as I am at work, I do not have time to fully think about it at this time.

KD (and other proposers): It'd be a good idea to post a link to the discussion thread as not everyone checks the forum directly as often as other places.

 

[TwoHeadsBarking]

If Metavoid were to be awarded xp for everything his character has done up until now, would that be enough to level? In one of the games that I'm DMing over in L4W, I awarded xp before I intended the characters to level up (it was in the middle of a dungeon) so they could start building their second characters without having to wait for an extended rest.

 

[KarinsDad]

With regard to Metavoid's PC, Stonegod mentioned in the other thread that he didn't quite have enough to level, even though 5 months of gaming is the equivalent of half of a level from 4 to 5 with player rewards alone.

The proposal (even though the title is for Metavoid's PC) is for everyone. Other first time players in Stonegod's campaign, for example. Anyone who has stuck it out for a lengthy amount of real time, even though the adventure they are in is slower than other adventures in handling out XP for whatever reasons.

 

[renau1g]

As I mentioned before this is a pretty reasonable proposal as some adventure's will focus a bit less on combat encounters (which is where a good amount of the xp is).

 

[stonegod]

2 Complexity 5 Skill Challenges + 1 Minor Quest: 770 XP per player
Even with 5 RP (for 5 months), that isn't enough for 5th. It will be after the next encounter that is starting now. In any case, they will not be leveling until after the extended rest some time in the future.

Per the charter, one can only create a new character when they have leveled a character. Changing this to when they "have earned enough XP and RP to level a character" would be fine with me.

A set n months (be it four or five)? I've had folks be around about that long and then disappear. Its probably the largest spike after those that just create one character and then vanish. I'm not adamantly against it, but I'm not 100% for it at this time. But I'll wait to see what THB & Evo think on this.

 

[renau1g]

Actually I will look at the recent disappearances of PC's in my own games and come to a conclusion.

I'll also take a look at KD's & Scorpius' adventures as well. I'll see if Velmont lost anyone as well. I'd like to have a wide enough sample to gauge things.

 

[KarinsDad]

2 Complexity 5 Skill Challenges + 1 Minor Quest: 770 XP per player
Even with 5 RP (for 5 months), that isn't enough for 5th. It will be after the next encounter that is starting now. In any case, they will not be leveling until after the extended rest some time in the future.

Per the charter, one can only create a new character when they have leveled a character. Changing this to when they "have earned enough XP and RP to level a character" would be fine with me.

A set n months (be it four or five)? I've had folks be around about that long and then disappear. Its probably the largest spike after those that just create one character and then vanish. I'm not adamantly against it, but I'm not 100% for it at this time. But I'll wait to see what THB & Evo think on this.

I opine that the XP is not what should be the deciding factor, rather the amount of real time the player has put into the campaign. XP is an indication of level, not player commitment. Time is an indication of player commitment.

As two examples, Sheeva leveled after exactly 4 months without using any of her Player Rewards and Faile leveled after 3 months and a week without using any of his Player Rewards.

Given a slightly different set of circumstances and using Player Rewards, this can occur in 2 months. For Sheeva, she had 1250 xp in game plus 350 xp for a total of 1600 out of the 1750 that she needed after 2 months. This was an auto-level up at 3 months (I just decided to not spend my Player Rewards because we were in another encounter before the end of the third month).

So I think that the charter needs adjusting so that the game is more equitable with regard to a second PC for all players, regardless of whether the DM throws encounters at the PCs or skill challenges.


What this would mean is that players can have a second PC after they level or 4 months, whatever comes first.

But waiting until sometime in July when your next encounter ends would mean 6+ real months for the new players in your current campaign. I'm big on fairness and I do not consider that equitable compared to what other players have already achieved. 3+ months vs. 6+ months? No comparison. One player is basically screwed on this.

Sure, it won't be totally equitable. But 4 months seems like a reasonable compromise when it's possible for other players to accomplish this in either 6 months or 2 months, just because they happened to be in an adventure with without encounters, or one with three quick encounters. The encounters only need to be 468 XP each (after doubling, or three n+1+ encounters).

 

[renau1g]

The trio I took through the King's Forest mini-adventure earned about 1/2 or so xp in under a month and if I would've had another encounter there they might have made it all the way in 2 months. Personally, I like time basis, perhaps even more than xp.

In L4W, Mal ran an adventure where we leveled up in 19 days.