Re: New Campaign Questions

From: Viktor Haag <vhaag_at_...>
Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2003 15:23:24 -0500

Roderick and Ellen Robertson writes:
> > I am planning on all the characters starting as
> > Initiate-level, i.e. 18-20 year olds. I was thinking that
> > as Keyword ratings, I would go with Culture 12, Occupation
> > 15, Magic 15 (no devotees), all others 12, and two abilities
> > at 1w and 18. How does that sound?
>
> Remember that magical rank (Initiate/Devotee) is not usually
> based on age. The Heortlings do not see a natural progression
> from Community Worshipper -> Initiate -> Devotee (-> Disciple)
> nor see it as as age based. Most people (in Heortling society)
> initiate to their gods and leave it at that (Note that Kallyr
> is only an initiate in both Vinga Dar and Rigsdal). Devotion
> is a special level of worship above and beyond the norm (in
> most people's eyes).

Are you planning on revising the character writeups in SiR:Barbarian Adventures with this in mind? All but one of the 'leader' writeups in that book are Devotees of one kind or another, instead of Initiates.

> If the players have fun with that level of ability, then
> great. If they feel constrained by it, then you may want to
> "Fast Forward" a few years to give them better ability
> ratings. The HeroQuest "Fast Forward" method is one Keyword
> raised by 1/year of downtime.

Oh dear; that doesn't jive with my ratings handed out to my players. I expect I should have given them keyword ratings of 16 rather than 15, since "three years of normal life" would then be taken to raise them all to the standard level.

Hmmm -- I'll think about giving them all that extra pip before we actually start play this week...

> Depending on what you want them to accomplish, you may wish to
> push the start date of your game back a bit so that they are
> at appropriate levels to deal with the larger events you plan
> to put them through (if any - you may wish to stay in Pavis
> fighting Rubble Bandits and Broos and ignore the Hero Wars
> entirely..).

Exactly: that was my tactic; having my players start as young teens in 1618 lets them "work up" to the events in BA and OiD (and followon books in that series).

As for my other group, I intend to start them in Prax with Borderlands, so that would be 1615. Still haven't decided whether to use RQ to start them off with, or just move straight to HW/HQ. The French edition gamebooks I now have have lots of material useful for creating Prax/Zola Fel type characters, so the conversion work will be minimized (I hope).

-- 
Viktor