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2 years ago ::
Feb 10, 2011 - 7:59AM
#1
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Having never played encounters, I have a few questions.
1) How is continuity maintained regarding PC resources? Say I blow three surges and a daily in a session. Same player could theoretically show up next week with a new character or select a different pregen. I know this program is designed to attract new players, but swapping PC's like this lowers the bar quite a bit. Very curious how much this happens.
2)MotPB is 13 chapters. Do you know how many encounters you have to play before an extended rest?
In the sense that it is built into the story rather than by player choice.
3)Are you having fun?
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2 years ago ::
Feb 10, 2011 - 8:25AM
#2
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Date Joined:
May 25, 2009
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1. At my FLGS, we track who has used what resources by player, regardless of which character they are currently using. In your scenario of somsone using three surges and a daily power, if they came next week with a different character, they would be three surges and one daily power down. All limited resources like this are kept in mind - including action points, daily powers, HP, surges, and milestones.
That said, this hasn't ever been an issue. The only people I can recall who have switched characters have done so only because they showed up to their first session not knowing in advance what they wanted to play, so they just grabbed a pregen to get a feel for the table / environment.
2. Last season was 20 sessions with 4 sessions per chapter, and there was an extended rest between each chapter. With 13 sessions, I would anticipate roughly the same amount (1 extended rest per four sessions). I'm not 100% sure how the dangling 13th session will be handled, but I expect that one of the 3 chapters will be 5 sessions rather than 4.
3. Loads of fun, yes. There's been some good RP already at our first session, our characters are interesting and provide for good tactical mixes, and from the DMs at our LFGS, they're saying the adventure is really cool.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 10, 2011 - 8:28AM
#3
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Date Joined:
Jun 13, 2008
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1) Hardly ever happens. Usually I've noticed if players are going to switch, they will do so between chapters. Also, if you get any magic gear, then switching characters will forfeit that gear (though exp carries between characters).
2) 4, 4, and 5 for this season.
3) As a DM I have a lot of fun, and it doesn't look like my players have too much to complain about. Though last session, I did have one player suggest I let the encounters be a bit more difficult. I usually do, because I find players have more fun being challenged, then they do in a cake walk. But for the first session I wanted to see what type of party I had first, just in case it was an odd mix (once dm'd 4 leaders and a striker...)
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2 years ago ::
Feb 10, 2011 - 1:25PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Jan 17, 2010
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Actually, I believe XP is done individually per character in this season. Also, characters don't level up unless they reach the XP mark needed to level up. Which is a change from the past seasons where everyone leveled upon reaching a certain point in the story, regardless of how often they showed up to the game.
Another deterent in the past was that renown was done per character and not per player. I think it all depends on the situation and on how the DM/Organizer wishes to handle it. I've dm'd the past 2 seasons for my store and I haven't seen this type of thing happen at all where I'm at.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 11, 2011 - 9:22AM
#5
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- Dragon Slayer
- If only he would apply himself
- Dammit Jim, this is Star Trek, not D&D!
Date Joined:
Jan 31, 2006
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Actually, I believe XP is done individually per character in this season. Also, characters don't level up unless they reach the XP mark needed to level up. Which is a change from the past seasons where everyone leveled upon reaching a certain point in the story, regardless of how often they showed up to the game.
This is an important change and DMs/organizers should let players know. It will impact whether players switch PCs.
Personally, I would allow someone to transfer XP earned with a pregen to a PC they hand-craft. I would consider it if they just got bored of a PC and wanted to switch.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 11, 2011 - 10:35AM
#6
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Date Joined:
Jan 17, 2010
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As I said, it all depends on the situation and how the DM/Organizers want to handle it. I'm all for leniency where it's deserved, such as starting with a pregen and switching to a homemade character. But I would be quite a bit harsher on someone who seemed to be abusing the system, which is what the original question was about.
I do agree that it needs to be pointed out that characters do not auto-level in this season as well. It's going to be an issue for those who have scheduling confilcts several times a season as they probably won't hit level three as the others will.
and again, to reiterate, each situation should be handled individually by the DM/Organizer to determine what the cause of switching characters is and what is the best solution for dealing with it.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 11, 2011 - 1:59PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Jul 29, 2008
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Actually, I believe XP is done individually per character in this season. Also, characters don't level up unless they reach the XP mark needed to level up. Which is a change from the past seasons where everyone leveled upon reaching a certain point in the story, regardless of how often they showed up to the game.
I believe Nightwalker is correct. XP is effectively tracked by player, not by character. If I wanted to replace my current PC, I'd copy the XP from my existing character (but not any found gear).
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2 years ago ::
Feb 14, 2011 - 7:56AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Jan 17, 2010
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www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/d...Specifically this section: Keeping It Simple: Start at 1st Level Starting this season, all characters start at 1st level, regardless of when the player starts the season. In addition, you’ll level up when you obtain enough XP to make your levels. There are no "level bumps." This makes it easy for new players to join at any point during the season and rewards players who attend each week by giving them a faster track to gaining their levels.
Read it however you want. As I said, it's ultimately up to the DM/Organizer on how to handle these situations. I personally wouldn't hamstring a player just because they ended up really not enjoying the character that they started with. I would use this more as a deterent to players abusing the rules by burning dailies and surges and then bringing in a new character just so they could have a fresh start.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 14, 2011 - 10:43AM
#9
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Renown and experience points have always been tracked by player, not by character (although XP didn't really matter before this season).
As for the OP's questions:
1) Tracking healing surges, hit points, action points, daily powers, etc. between encounters, is on an honor system. It pretty much has to be, as it seems the typical experience involves substantial churn in player (and sometimes DM) composition, and the DM can only track so much for the players. Details of how to manage this will differ among DMs: whether changing characters makes a difference, what new players start with, etc.
2) You know how many encounters come before an extended rest if the DM tells you. Some do, some don't.
3) Lots of fun.
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2 years ago ::
Feb 14, 2011 - 12:56PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Jul 29, 2008
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Does anyone have the mod handy? I'd swear the folks spreading the "XP by player" information at my FLGS were reading that right out of the booklet.
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