daemon@decwrl.UUCP (10/11/83)
From: Ed Featherston HL01-1/P06 225-5241 <roll::featherston>
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Newsgroup : net.games.frp
>From : ORION::SCHUETZ
Organization : Digital Equipment Corp.
Subject: Re: Other compaigns
One dungeon that I play in has had about 140 sessions over 4 years. The
characters are 7th and 8th levels, with only 1 or 2 items of any consequence
each. There is one artifact among the group and most characters have one
slightly magical weapon. But noone has magic armor or shields. The DM is
very creative and has introduced several magic systems that are orthogonal
to each other and result in a rich environment with complex interlocked
plots all over the known world.
I agree with others that sparse worlds lead to more role-playing and
development of players abilities, not just advancement of characters.
In the group that I DM, magical items are a little more common, everyone
having one magical weapon at least and several potions, scrolls, and rings
scattered among the group. But although magical items are more common,
their usefulness is questionable. (For instance, they just used a ring of
Feather Fall for the first time in a year.) I think that offering the
characters the use of several low-level magical items expands the alternatives
to just smashing and killing every opponent. These characters are now just
6th level after 82 sessions over 2 years.
Most of the groups that play AD&D here in the local area runs spells
completely different than the book. Any mage can learn any spell he wishes,
provided he can find an instructor. Also casting a spell costs the mage
a certain amount of Spell Points, re-generated overnight. Most DM's use
3 spell points per level of spell cast i.e. a 4th level spell costs 12 SPs.
Characters have spell points equal to their CON times half their level.
E.G. a 7th level mage with a 15 con has 60 spell points.
Personally, I decided that spells are not just linearly more difficult to
cast and I made the cost in spell points steeper. Although a 3rd level spell
costs 9 SP, a 4th costs 14 and a 5th 20 sp. You also have no restriction on
the number of each kind of spell that you can cast, but a 5th level mage is
only going to know 3 different Firsts, 2 Seconds, and 1 Third. There are no
such thing as Spell Books in any of the dungeons I know of.
How do other groups manage the mechanics of spell casting? One dungeon
recently converted everyone to the SWORDBEARER system, which uses nodes of
mana aligned to 7 basic elements. It seems to work ok, but whether it is
better or not has not been demonstated yet. Anyone have any experiences
with more than one system?
/Chris Schuetz DECWRL::ORION::SCHUETZ
Mail address : ...decvax!decwrl!rhea!orion!schuetz
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