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Old 02-12-2018, 08:54 PM   #41
sir_pudding
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Default Re: Do you have any special rules/restrictions to regulate character advancement paci

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Originally Posted by Stormcrow View Post
No AlexanderHowl says he defines campaign in the single-objective way.
He does? He said that he allows characters from one campaign into another. That could be "story arc"="campaign" but it could also be "hey can Thorgar somehow be available for the new game?".
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Old 02-12-2018, 10:04 PM   #42
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Default Re: Do you have any special rules/restrictions to regulate character advancement paci

A campaign is a series of related adventures within the same setting. A setting is the background world for multiple campaigns. If I am doing a game within the same genre, I generally use the same setting.

For example, in a horror setting, I would imagine that you could have multiple campaigns, each with their own unique Big Bad, with each adventure within the campaign contributing to the defeat of the Big Bad in some fashion. If it was a secret horror setting, the Big Bad might be a single supernatural monster that was preying on the human population in a fashion that was objectionable to the PCs. The PCs might have to find themselves other supernatural creatures to ally with to take down the Big Bad, with each alliance requiring it's own adventure. But the defeat of one Big Bad does not mean the end of the setting, it is just the end of a campaign.
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Old 02-12-2018, 10:07 PM   #43
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Default Re: Do you have any special rules/restrictions to regulate character advancement paci

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AlexanderHowl said he gives 5-point bonuses at the end of a campaign. sir_pudding challenges this, on the assumption that the end of a campaign is the end of ever playing with those characters or that setting again, so what's the point of giving anyone points? AlexanderHowl says he defines campaign in the single-objective way. If you're going to be discussing regulation of character advancement and bonus points at the end of a campaign, you need to agree on which "campaign" you're talking about.
(1) It seems to me that you may be defining "campaign" in kind of a wargamy was, as "there's an ongoing struggle to attain a particular objective, and when that objective is attained or abandoned, the campaign is over." I have a more literary/dramatic definition, as "there are a theme, a conflict relevant to that theme, and a premise that makes that conflict possible, and when the premise's implications are fully explored, the conflict can be resolved and the campaign ends." I'm not saying that there's no relation between the two, but they aren't quite identical. For example, the Iliad is set during the Trojan War, and the Trojan War could be called a campaign in the military sense; but the conflict of the Iliad is over the anger of Achilles, directed first toward Agamemnon and then toward Hector.

(2) I'll stipulate that you could have a setting where you portrayed a series of different conflicts reflecting different themes, and that you could carry the same characters forward This happens, for example, with the Vorkosigan novels, where various of Aral, Cordelia, Miles, and Mark Vorkosigan and Ivan Vorpatril are present in all the stories; or in the Discworld novels, where several different groups of characters come back repeatedly; it could be done in a game. But what I'm saying, and perhaps what Sir Pudding is saying, is that I don't choose to reuse setttings, with rare exceptions, and that even for those exceptions, I have never had a character reused and likely would never allow it. And given that, awarding points to player characters at the end of the final session doesn't allow further character growth, though I might conceivably do it as a ritual closure of that session. This has nothing to do with my defining a "campaign" as something that has to end with the characters being taken out of play; it reflects the fact that I personally do end campaigns that way. For someone who might, in effect, publish a sequel, things could be different.
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Old 02-12-2018, 10:37 PM   #44
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Default Re: Do you have any special rules/restrictions to regulate character advancement paci

Touching on one of the foundational pillars of tabletop roleplay D&D; I find that most games under a particular GM take place within the same setting, even if they don't overlap much.

We do need to remember that most RPG systems don't allow nearly the same level of freedom as GURPS and a different setting for every campaign is a luxury we can indulge in.

Genre contain settings.

Settings contain campaigns.

Campaigns contain adventures.

Adventures contain moments.

Seems to be the standard definition that most people in the hobby would agree to.
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Old 02-13-2018, 07:22 AM   #45
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Default Re: Do you have any special rules/restrictions to regulate character advancement paci

Yes, that sounds about right, though I would say that adventures contain sessions and sessions contain moments. When I run Exalted or Shadowrun, I do not just use the setting once and throw it away after the campaign, the setting exists for potentially a lifetime of campaigns.
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Old 02-13-2018, 07:27 AM   #46
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Default Re: Do you have any special rules/restrictions to regulate character advancement paci

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Touching on one of the foundational pillars of tabletop roleplay D&D; I find that most games under a particular GM take place within the same setting, even if they don't overlap much.

We do need to remember that most RPG systems don't allow nearly the same level of freedom as GURPS and a different setting for every campaign is a luxury we can indulge in.
I've used Big Eyes, Small Mouth (second edition) to run a campaign set in Middle-Earth; one set in the Vorkosigan universe; and one set in an original fantasy world where all the PCs lived in a huge isolated castle with no regular contact with any other human settlement. And I've found FUDGE adaptable as well.

But yes, it does seem that many systems aren't as adaptable to multiple genres and settings. Some of them even have a single standard setting, as is the case with RuneQuest II or Mage: The Ascension. That's one reason I run more GURPS than anything else, and secondarily more BESM.

I'm not going to say that there's anything wrong with running games for a single group of players with fairly low turnover, or with always running the same genre, or with always using the same setting. But I can't really imagine wanting to do any of those things, if I had another choice.
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Old 02-13-2018, 06:12 PM   #47
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Default Re: Do you have any special rules/restrictions to regulate character advancement paci

Again, for those of you that put caps on Attributes or skills, what caps do you set them at?

At the end of your campaigns, when you're basically done with those characters, about how CP total do your players reach?
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Old 02-13-2018, 06:16 PM   #48
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Default Re: Do you have any special rules/restrictions to regulate character advancement paci

In games of 200-400 CP, I cap DX, IQ, and HT at 14. I also cap skills at (Attribute + Advantage - Disadvantage + 10).
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Old 02-13-2018, 07:28 PM   #49
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Default Re: Do you have any special rules/restrictions to regulate character advancement paci

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I also cap skills at (Attribute + Advantage - Disadvantage + 10).
What do you mean by this? Example?
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Old 02-13-2018, 09:56 PM   #50
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Well, a character with HT 14 and Allure 4 would be allowed a maximum Singing of 28.
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