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Old 01-14-2019, 07:01 PM   #11
TippetsTX
 
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

I think we may be straying a bit from the intent of this thread guys.

I was interested in what player behaviors ya'll are seeing around the expenditure of XP from actual gameplay using the 'Legacy' ruleset, not a bunch of mathematical extrapolation.
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Old 01-14-2019, 07:08 PM   #12
larsdangly
 
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

My results are very clear: Up through total XP awards of about 1000 pts, heroes start thinking about transitioning from stat rises to new talent buys at around 600-800 points, and start actually doing it around 800-1000, whereas wizards do something interesting: they transition from stat increases to putting ST in their staff after their XP total hits 400-600 (basically, as soon as a point of staff ST is cheaper than the next stat point). I didn't see this one coming, actually; I thought they would charge up their staffs a bit later. Everyone has their eyes on XP-based minor wishes, but is waiting until they have met some character goals first; I doubt I'll see that really happen until people have ~5000 XP total.
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Old 01-14-2019, 07:12 PM   #13
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

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Originally Posted by larsdangly View Post
My results are very clear: Up through total XP awards of about 1000 pts, heroes start thinking about transitioning from stat rises to new talent buys at around 600-800 points, and start actually doing it around 800-1000, whereas wizards do something interesting: they transition from stat increases to putting ST in their staff after their XP total hits 400-600 (basically, as soon as a point of staff ST is cheaper than the next stat point). I didn't see this one coming, actually; I thought they would charge up their staffs a bit later. Everyone has their eyes on XP-based minor wishes, but is waiting until they have met some character goals first; I doubt I'll see that really happen until people have ~5000 XP total.
That is very useful information, thank you. Are you doling out XP at the rates suggested in the new ITL?
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Old 01-14-2019, 07:52 PM   #14
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

How much cash on hand do these wizards have? Nobody's going for powerstones?
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Old 01-14-2019, 08:12 PM   #15
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

I award about 50 XP per hour of effective play, which is working out to about 100-150 per session. We are playing once per week or two on average, and the surviving PCs are around 1000-1200 XP (roughly; they tend to erase as they spend, so I'm going by memory).
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Old 01-14-2019, 08:15 PM   #16
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

No one has put any thought into power stones or buying spells or commissioning items or whatever. It just isn't the sort of players or campaign that I have. They are into treasure, but want it for more ordinary reasons - a fine sword, plate armor, a good horse, wine women and song, etc. The party has only two magic items: a flaming broadsword they know how to use and a scroll in a language they don't know.
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Old 01-15-2019, 02:26 PM   #17
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

Quote:
Originally Posted by ColBosch View Post
This seems to be getting into "piracy isn't profitable in Traveller" territory. My question is therefore: is this actually a problem in play, and is there a solution or is it just something long-term campaigns have to be aware of?
Personally I'd say, given the lack of time to have extensively played under the new rules, that it's more a "be aware of this possible issue" thing than an actual problem encountered in play. Obviously, one or two people might have some actual statistical analysis if they've got a large group and have been playing hard, but most of us don't have sufficient data to firmly declare "this is a problem" at this point.
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Old 01-16-2019, 08:18 AM   #18
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

I've been playing a roughly weekly campaign using the new edition RAW since it was released in pdf. And, I know the original game very well (pretty frequent play since it was published ca. 1980). I'm aware of the peculiar logical implications of a few of the rules re. magic item generation, experience, wishes, etc., but I haven't encountered any meaningful 'problems' in my campaign. And at this point I don't expect them to emerge. Because the power progression of PC's is pretty predictable and constrained in the new edition I doubt there are any nasty feedback loops I haven't encountered yet. I've tried most of the new talents on for size by giving them to NPCs and seeing how the work in play; they seem pretty good - useful but not fundamental game changers. Basically, it all seems solid.
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Old 01-16-2019, 10:12 AM   #19
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

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Originally Posted by larsdangly View Post
Basically, it all seems solid.
Great to hear!

Are you doing RAW for the combat as well? Any observations there?
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Old 01-16-2019, 12:42 PM   #20
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Default Re: Immediate vs. delayed gratification

Yes, RAW for combat. I would say the only house rule I miss is one I've long used where I give a damage bonus to people with ST in excess of that required for a weapon (in 1:2 ratio, up to double base weapon damage). I've always felt this is a good rule and will also be good patched onto the new edition. But it's a trivial thing, really. Another thing I've been sort of ignoring is the 1 hour grace period for death of figures reduced to -5 ST or below. I prefer the game to have some sort of hard threshold for getting instantly murdered, rather than letting people at -48 ST or something linger for an hour.

My one observations is that the advanced UC talents really have an impact at the table. A 'ninja' sort of character that went after the party to capture them for a bounty succeeded at taking out all 4 without herself getting a scratch; part of her success with stealth and use of a blowgun with paralytic poison darts, but at the end of the encounter she basically walked up and kicked the crap out of two fighters in the blink of an eye.

Last edited by larsdangly; 01-16-2019 at 12:45 PM.
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