A Land Far Away

I have heard some mention on here of increasing some of the rewards in order to attract/retain players. When this comes up people always talk about the possibility of making more static content, the benefits of crafting ect ect.

What I would like to see changed are the guidelines for xp wealth on dm adventures. I think having standards so that playing for one dm isn't more rewarding then playing for another is good, but being able to predict the window of rewards for every dm adventure you participate in gets old real fast. Maybe we could have some standards based on dice rolling with a little more variation.

Also I wish going on a dm adventure seemed a little more dangerous. It should be extremely frighting to dungeon crawl because such activity is extremely lethal. One of the adventures I will remember the most we lost half the party and you can bet everyone else was on pins and needles. If we make it so the only way a pc has a real risk of dying is by hunting spawns of unknown lvl the we really aren't playing in a permadeath world.

If we focus on improving the static content we will maybe attract more players who like grinding. If we focus on opening up the possibilities in dm adventures we will retain more players who enjoy that style of play.

DMyles wrote:Also I wish going on a dm adventure seemed a little more dangerous. It should be extremely frighting to dungeon crawl because such activity is extremely lethal. One of the adventures I will remember the most we lost half the party and you can bet everyone else was on pins and needles. If we make it so the only way a pc has a real risk of dying is by hunting spawns of unknown lvl the we really aren't playing in a permadeath world.

Talk to your local DM team about this? I mean there's not really any way to mandate this unless you force DMs to up CR which is going to result in even less wealth being available to characters as they burn through it to survive the harder encounters.

This needs to be revised in title.

"Give us XP and phat lewt and give us death!"


Also, I notice that you're not on any DM teams, DMyles! You're not in a very good position to influence the habits of DMs like that. Lead by example, I say. Like that, the worst case scenario is there being only one DM doing what you see as the ideal. But that will be one more than right now. Win for us all.

Also I wish going on a dm adventure seemed a little more dangerous

Evidently never been DMd by me

my last toon did die on a dm adventure, and all i can say is that it was f'n spectacular! seriously, thanks danielmn. while every now and then i do get this nagging feeling that it would have been fun to keep on with him, it was a good story and a good death. period.

and i do agree with original post that for most part dm adventures do feel sort of like kid gloves things. way too often, in my opinion, we don't get squished by something big and horrible when we make that dumb decision. or... well, it could be just me making dumb decisions..

dirsa wrote:my last toon did die on a dm adventure, and all i can say is that it was f'n spectacular! seriously, thanks danielmn. while every now and then i do get this nagging feeling that it would have been fun to keep on with him, it was a good story and a good death. period.

and i do agree with original post that for most part dm adventures do feel sort of like kid gloves things. way too often, in my opinion, we don't get squished by something big and horrible when we make that dumb decision. or... well, it could be just me making dumb decisions..

It's not something that can be easily fixed. Problem is that fairly often we get groups of players that range from level 1-level 9. In order for an encounter to be challenging for all involved requires pretty extreme risk for the low levels of instant-kills.

It can be somewhat ameliorated with clever DMing tactics -- using spells, targeting specific PCs or making a particular PC or set of PCs vulnerable, but often that doesn't even work because of how clunky the DM client is.

I can def see how it is hard esp in mixed lvl groups. I also seem to mess up the engine a ton. Half the time I can't even manage to walk in the direction I want to go if there is a hill involved.

Also this is was not meant to be shot at any of the current dms. I think all the current dms I have played with are great. The story is as good as ever. Just saying I would like to see a bit more variation in how hard it is to grow a pc and the possibility to find something cool, unique, special that is not worth 1-300 gp if i had one or two wishes. give me something cursed idk. I just think we should as a community turn up the risk and rewards a little to make things a little more exciting.

i will give you xp, fat l00t AND death but I don't think you are in my timezone

mixed level groups are a problem but not one I take much notice of.

When I come up with a plot, even if its just a one shot/one session game, I come up with my NPCs before I get any PCs involved. I try to make it fairly clear in the hook how dangerous it is. Its then up to the player to decide to get involved or to duck out.

I'll sometimes pm the player of a high level character and ask them to step out of a hook if its too low level. IMO anyone around level 10 should be delegating tasks to lower level allies, rather than baby sitting lower level PCs through a quest anyway. They'll still get some XP for doing so from me and can save up their energies for the really dangerous higher level things.

For example maybe theres three possible areas a powerful NPC is holed up. Rather go look in all three themself the PC could send off some lower level PCs to have a look whats in the area, then report back. Pay 'em some cash, give them an item for doing so, etc. If i'd done all the grunt work to get the experience and skills to be an uber-knight I sure as hell would want to go trudging through skanky dungeons looking for bad guy X if I could pay some crows a few pennies to do it for me while I get pissed on cheap beer

Bit late to the table but it takes a while to build.

here is my response DMyles:
http://www.alandfaraway.org/forums/view ... 93&t=45490

I don't really see an issue much with rewards of dm quests just the costs of healing potions. I like lowering the costs of clws and cmws would go a long way to helping players aford there own loot.

Vendrin wrote:I like lowering the costs of clws and cmws would go a long way to helping players aford there own loot.

And lower the (relative) overpoweredness of Clerics and assorted healers.

Currently there is a single exception for healing in the rules - CLW potions may be 50gp when they're CL2. Which makes a difference of 1 whole hitpoint healed.


As far as I can tell, most PCs prefer to spend their hard-earned cash on permanent items. In PnP you're expected to expend a sizeable part of your "net worth" in defeating foes but this simply doesn't seem to apply in ALFA.

Regardless, I wouldn't want to advocate lowering the prices of healing magic. Maybe give all new PCs a potion instead; so they can get used to having those around. Or make the Heal skill work as in PnP, so that fewer warriors go into battle without being at full strength. Our pricing rules are much maligned as it is - no need to add to their complexity.

my experience with consumables like potions has been generally I either die having not used them, I use them on accident, or I use them and feel I am spending more money adventuring then I make. I like the practice of handing out a few things at the begining of an adventure like a few potions ect if it is ic.

I have added some rings to each of the temple shops on MS which should alleviate the gp burn rate for consumable potions. Please make use of jmecha's hard work on these and resume your DnD experience. In others words pls break camp and get out there to the wilds.

Castano wrote:I have added some rings to each of the temple shops on MS which should alleviate the gp burn rate for consumable potions. Please make use of jmecha's hard work on these and resume your DnD experience. In others words pls break camp and get out there to the wilds.

*fights off gaggle of Stirge that surprise attacked him at a campfire last week*

Camp is dangerous enough!