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1. You can play your PC at a level you previously attained. You must down-level your PC in a valid way (ideally back to what you were, but not required), retaining your class, race, etc. The campaign could even require the CB. You receive the gold and XP rewards for the tier. You can take items (but you probably don't want to do so). Basically, a way to play with people that can't play often and have a low-level PC. There probably needs to be a control clause capping any "your level" rewards.
2. A Mini campaign or discrete arc could allow down-leveling of up-leveling of PCs so as to make it more accessible. This could be a good idea for a central theme story arc, such as some core plot that is important to general play and which all players may want to experience. (Such as the Ether threat was in LG).

Feb 25, 2010 -- 9:30PM, imaginaryfriend wrote:

LFR already is very disposable to a lot of people. Only in non-random groups it is usually not. I just do not get why letting "other" people make their PCs at higher level has to have an impact on how you play.

Because I want it to get increasingly better, not increasingly worse. I give up playing the amazing RP I can find in L5R to get the better game play of 4E. I give up the setting of Shadowrun, the non-cheese of Spycraft, etc. But, at some point, if the setting/story doesn't continue improving... then I'll dispose of my LFR and find something else.

Elturgard was a huge step forward. A lot of the newer arcs, both core and regional, are big steps forward. If the campaign would have started this way... I become energized about the campaign because of things like this. I wouldn't be writing and contributing without that energy.

I want to continue seeing improvements away from disposable and towards "living". A change the other way is a big deal to me. The replay rules... I never was a fan but I understood them back then when there were few choices. I would love to see them gone now. The retraining rules... I didn't like the core 4E retraining rules but I understood them. The latest CCG retraining rules are way too much for me. And it is because it changes what I encounter at the table. Everything becomes less unique, less RP, less experienced, less meaningful. "What is the strongest build out there for my class? Oh, I should make that. In fact, what is the strongest class at each level of the game? I'll make that and just always play that. I'll call all of them Mr. McCheesy. Sweet." There is a place for that, and it is one-shot programs (like delves).

Living should be about the ability to show up and bring your PC, with all the levels you earned and all the stories you accumulated and be able to continue a chapter in an ongoing story, even if the people at the table are playing PCs you never met. That's the difference between one-shot and living. Insta-play of any PC/level/whatever is not living to me.

Feb 25, 2010 -- 9:30PM, imaginaryfriend wrote:

I am just still trying to figure out why peoples connection to the living aspect of a campaign is so dependent on everybody else.

I hesitate to bring it up, but hopefully another analogy will help.

Trying to play a consistent, "living' character in a ruleset with free PC creation at any level is kind of like trying to be a hardcore RPer on a non-RP server of WoW (or the MMO of your choice).  Yes, you are free to RP however you like, and if you have a couple of buddies to RP with, you can go right ahead and RP with them all you want.  But, you have to be a strong enough person to ignore/deal with the constant WTFs from anyone else you happen to encounter, and you have to be prepared to generally be surpassed by all comers at in-game mechanical achievements.  You are voluntarily playing a game within the game that limits your options compared to your peers.

It's easy to say "Hey, play the way you like, what everyone else does shouldn't matter".  It's another thing to actually pull it off.  "Keeping up with the Joneses" is a real motivation, whether it should be or not.

Coming back to LFR for a minute, in my local club we tend to really celebrate when people get their first character up to a new tier (especially H3/level 7, which seems to come at about the time when people start to really hit their stride in the club and with the whole RPGA/WPN scene).  A major part of people's motivation to play is a phrase I hear over and over again, variations of:  "I can't wait to get my Rogue into the next tier - only 2 more H2 to go!".  The sense of accomplishment comes from advancing PCs - the only recurring story we ever really care for is the relationships between our PCs.  Even us old hands get pretty excited when PC #8 finally climbs up into H2, or when the fourth and final member of an Adventuring Company finally catches up to the others in P1.

OK, so it means that our goals for LFR are not adventure/story based.  I bet fewer than 5% of the PCs in the club give a flying fart what their home region is (and the player probably couldn't tell you what it is without looking on the character sheet), and we're lucky if 1 in 6 players can remember the name of the NPC their character met 5 minutes ago.  It is a true challenge when we have to go through our Adventure Logs to see if anyone has the right Story Awards for the current adventure, since none of us can remember which adventures we've played with which PCs.  But we have a fantastic time, running 24 unique tables a month (closer to 30 with Slot Zeros), and 3 multi-day convention-type-events a year, and our club membership is growing in leaps and bounds right now (our Gameday this Saturday looks to have 5-6 completely new members, and another 5-6 who have been to fewer than three previous Gamedays).

I really think that our approach to the game is pretty typical for a medium-sized game store-based club, with the one exception being that our hardcore players are far less demanding of playing at the bleeding edge of tiers.

A change to free PC creation at any level, or even one of the halfway approaches bandied about in this thread, would put a serious dent in the enthusiasm of our club members (remember, our chief motivation is getting PCs to the next level band).

• I would not ever want to start a PC at higher levels unless in very very special circumstances. Having a PC without developing it, giving it some character (or gimmicks as the case may be) and  having it be affected by the adventures it plays, not for me. 
• I want less disposable LFR and more story, more living. I like my PCs to have a place in a bigger story. I try to look for the bigger arcs, major quests etc. And Eltugard was awesome. Still looking to play my paladin through it, because its fits the character.
• I don't much care for replay, I see the reasons for it, but I think it is a lot more damaging to the idea of a living campaign than higher levels could be. It creates a market situation where people pick and match their adventures to their gear choices.
• I do not like the emphasis on "Look what broken thing I can do" that comes with random tables after the new retraining rules. Although considering I did use the rules for a char I may be a tad hypocritical in that (my goal was not new cheese though ).