Gamer+ News June 21, 2021 from hairylarry's blog
Join us tonight on Inspired Unreality open game chat. The opening topic is Mixed Parties, that is parties where the PCs are at different levels. This was baked into OSR games, back when sometimes the monsters killed the PCs and when different classes took more or less XP to level up. Also you can bring your own topic. Open game chat. All gaming is on topic.
Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you've never been we have an invitation for you here.
https://archive.gamerplus.org/index
There is an ongoing discussion thread on this topic at Gamer+. This will be the starting point for Inspired Unreality tonight.
Draklorx wrote "I think this is a cool aspect of old school games that isn't common anymore. I love the grittiness of it, and the mixed levels never bothered me when I played. ... That said, for a dungeon master it's much easier to do milestone leveling and have all the players be the same level."
ZDL wrote, "There are several aspects of old school games I like, most notably the increased diversity that randomness tended to cause.
The wildly divergent capabilities of characters, however, was not one of them. In the presence of most GMs, having the weakest character meant a) dying, or b) not having anything to do. Neither of these is really conducive to enjoyment."
hairylarry wrote "And then there's the whole non combat side. The role playing, puzzle solving, exploration part where characters of all levels are more equal and the results depend more on the player than on PC stats."
hairylarry wrote "There is a built in premise in OSR games. PCs need XP to level up. You get XP by killing monsters. So, let's go kill some monsters. At a lot of tables that is the game. To me, it's a side show and as I get older I run more games that are all exploration and role play without any combat at all."
CarlHeyl wrote, "I'd like to add that in the oldest of old school most of your XP came from earning treasure not killing monsters. Which means two things 1. You don't have to fight that big bad monster if there was a way around it to get the treasure behind it. and 2. Your lower level character would level very rapidly because of the amount of gold the higher level party was able to procure."
If this interests you there's more here.
https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4131
Worldbuilding Magazine is proud to present our June 2021 issue: Cosmology. We’ve taken a step back from our usual in-depth look at the details of worldbuilding and this time we’re talking about the cosmos.
https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4133
I hope to see you tonight on Inspired Unreality to hear you opinions about mixed parties. Or you can log on to Gamer+ and share your thoughts.
Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com
Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you've never been we have an invitation for you here.
https://archive.gamerplus.org/index
There is an ongoing discussion thread on this topic at Gamer+. This will be the starting point for Inspired Unreality tonight.
Draklorx wrote "I think this is a cool aspect of old school games that isn't common anymore. I love the grittiness of it, and the mixed levels never bothered me when I played. ... That said, for a dungeon master it's much easier to do milestone leveling and have all the players be the same level."
ZDL wrote, "There are several aspects of old school games I like, most notably the increased diversity that randomness tended to cause.
The wildly divergent capabilities of characters, however, was not one of them. In the presence of most GMs, having the weakest character meant a) dying, or b) not having anything to do. Neither of these is really conducive to enjoyment."
hairylarry wrote "And then there's the whole non combat side. The role playing, puzzle solving, exploration part where characters of all levels are more equal and the results depend more on the player than on PC stats."
hairylarry wrote "There is a built in premise in OSR games. PCs need XP to level up. You get XP by killing monsters. So, let's go kill some monsters. At a lot of tables that is the game. To me, it's a side show and as I get older I run more games that are all exploration and role play without any combat at all."
CarlHeyl wrote, "I'd like to add that in the oldest of old school most of your XP came from earning treasure not killing monsters. Which means two things 1. You don't have to fight that big bad monster if there was a way around it to get the treasure behind it. and 2. Your lower level character would level very rapidly because of the amount of gold the higher level party was able to procure."
If this interests you there's more here.
https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4131
Worldbuilding Magazine is proud to present our June 2021 issue: Cosmology. We’ve taken a step back from our usual in-depth look at the details of worldbuilding and this time we’re talking about the cosmos.
https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4133
I hope to see you tonight on Inspired Unreality to hear you opinions about mixed parties. Or you can log on to Gamer+ and share your thoughts.
Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com
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