Just a random thought at the moment, but is the idea of characters advancing based on the standing of their faction relative to others viable?
The origin of the idea is a magic boarding school where, in order to make house politics actually matter to the players, their characters' advancement is based on how well their house does relative to others. Maybe the actual advancement is like AS' karmic advancement, and you get points or draws based on the increase in House Points over the course of a session.
But I could see using this idea in other games, like Logistics and Dragons dirt of games where the players get xp based on how well thought of their kingdom is, or a crime drama game where there's some mechanic for public opinion of the police/department opinion of the squad or its based on criminals apprehended.
I'd this viable or complete horseshit?
Faction Based Advancement
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Faction Based Advancement
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
Sounds...weird. Unless the PCs are the best the faction has to offer from the beginning, then their advancement is near complete fiat. Neither faction makes a move against the other without the PCs' presence or say-so, and to do otherwise essentially means the DM is going "and because the class president was caught smoking pot in the bathroom, you get no/negative XP."
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Sorry, part of my intent was that it would get the PCs involved in what's going on with the houses. So players would actually be somewhat incentivised to be Neville in the first book and try to stop others in their house from doing things that would lose points, but when an NPC tried to pull that the PCs could also explain "yes, but think of how many points we'll get it we succeed"
The are two ways to go with the school politics, and it depends on whether you want to encourage or discourage multi-house parties. If encourage, then advancement is only based on the growth of house standing from last session, and you get points for "promoting house cooperation." If discourage, then treating a rival house down also gives you advancement, and you get points for "promoting house unity"
But the intent is that it would get PCs involved with what's going on with the houses. For things they're not involved in, if probably do a simple roll to limit the amount of dm douchbaggery, and include things like "head boy was caught smoking in the bathroom" and "highest test scores was in your house."
The are two ways to go with the school politics, and it depends on whether you want to encourage or discourage multi-house parties. If encourage, then advancement is only based on the growth of house standing from last session, and you get points for "promoting house cooperation." If discourage, then treating a rival house down also gives you advancement, and you get points for "promoting house unity"
But the intent is that it would get PCs involved with what's going on with the houses. For things they're not involved in, if probably do a simple roll to limit the amount of dm douchbaggery, and include things like "head boy was caught smoking in the bathroom" and "highest test scores was in your house."
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
I think this is only a good idea for a mono-faction party; if the party members are from meaningfully distinct factions that can have different standings, they'll drift apart in power levels.
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Good point. It'd be difficult to balance the characters if the party was composed of a Slytherin Poisoner, a Gryffindor Knight and a Ravenclaw Sage and are all working to advance their own house's points.
But, for cops (magic or no), or Logistics and Dragons type stuff, it could work, as well as for a school based game if everyone is in the same house.
Edit: I was thinking about it driving and the exact execution depends on the system, but I think for a D&D-style XP system, I would work with a range of about -10 to +20% xp change, for a Wod or M&M style Character Points advancement, I'd probably do a -2 to +4 points spread, and for an AS style karmic advancement I'd do -1 (minor, major), +1 (minor, major), +2 (minor, major) cards, and there'd be a table something like-
With the basic idea being that the GM keeps track of what the party (and maybe a single significant npc party from each other house) does over the course of each adventure and at the end of each session (or whatever), they roll a d6 for the random event, and then the teachers award (or take away) house points in game. Player advancement is then predicated on how much their house point total has grown since the start of the session (subtracting demerits from merits for the total growth, so that you have to not only do good things but also minimize the bad, or at least, not get caught).
But, for cops (magic or no), or Logistics and Dragons type stuff, it could work, as well as for a school based game if everyone is in the same house.
Edit: I was thinking about it driving and the exact execution depends on the system, but I think for a D&D-style XP system, I would work with a range of about -10 to +20% xp change, for a Wod or M&M style Character Points advancement, I'd probably do a -2 to +4 points spread, and for an AS style karmic advancement I'd do -1 (minor, major), +1 (minor, major), +2 (minor, major) cards, and there'd be a table something like-
| 1d6 | Happenstance | Effect |
| 1 | Major Embarrassment- House Prefect committed a crime, major figure in house caught helping a rival cheat, etc. | -10% xp/-2 character points/-1 major arcana |
| 2 | Minor Embarrassment- Prefect caught smoking in bathroom, students caught making out in stairwell, etc. | -5% xp/-1 CP/-1 minor arcana |
| 3 | Least Victory- Won a minor (magic sport) game, protected first years from bullying by rival house, etc. | +5% xp/+1 CP/+1 minor arcana |
| 4 | Lesser Victory- Protected first years of rival house from bullying by upperclassmen (thereby proving your house's superiority), embarrassed a rival house, etc. | +10% xp/+2 CP/+2 minor arcana |
| 5 | Moderate Victory- Beat all other houses in (magic sport) games, successfully pranked rival house | +15% xp/+3 CP/+1 major arcana |
| 6 | Grand Victory- Won the season in (magic game), head couple elected from your hosue | +20% xp/+4 CP/+2 major arcana |
With the basic idea being that the GM keeps track of what the party (and maybe a single significant npc party from each other house) does over the course of each adventure and at the end of each session (or whatever), they roll a d6 for the random event, and then the teachers award (or take away) house points in game. Player advancement is then predicated on how much their house point total has grown since the start of the session (subtracting demerits from merits for the total growth, so that you have to not only do good things but also minimize the bad, or at least, not get caught).
Last edited by Prak on Tue Sep 29, 2015 10:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
Even if it is viable what would be the point? To try to force me to care about the faction I, as a Player and Character, already chose to join and care about?
I could see this in something like Blood Bowl (I know nothing about its mechanics I just heard of it). I would see the point if we were a sports team and the closer we get to being a championship team the stronger we get. It would be kewl to build momentum.
I could see this in something like Blood Bowl (I know nothing about its mechanics I just heard of it). I would see the point if we were a sports team and the closer we get to being a championship team the stronger we get. It would be kewl to build momentum.
Also dont get the point.
I got games that promote characters caring for the factions in a collective and colaborative way, like in Blood & Honor where they create a clan collectively and each PC is responsible for an aspect of it (spymaster, general, courtier, spiritual leader, etc) but dont understand the need for rigidly tying personal advancement to faction(s) advancement.
I got games that promote characters caring for the factions in a collective and colaborative way, like in Blood & Honor where they create a clan collectively and each PC is responsible for an aspect of it (spymaster, general, courtier, spiritual leader, etc) but dont understand the need for rigidly tying personal advancement to faction(s) advancement.
The traditional playstyle is, above all else, the style of playing all games the same way, supported by the ambiguity and lack of procedure in the traditional game text. - Eero Tuovinen
I'm working away at the magic school rpg idea again (because I met a cute potterhead), and it was just an idea that came to mind.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
Prak wrote:Good point. It'd be difficult to balance the characters if the party was composed of a Slytherin Poisoner, a Gryffindor Knight and a Ravenclaw Sage and are all working to advance their own house's points.
But, for cops (magic or no), or Logistics and Dragons type stuff, it could work, as well as for a school based game if everyone is in the same house.
Edit: I was thinking about it driving and the exact execution depends on the system, but I think for a D&D-style XP system, I would work with a range of about -10 to +20% xp change, for a Wod or M&M style Character Points advancement, I'd probably do a -2 to +4 points spread, and for an AS style karmic advancement I'd do -1 (minor, major), +1 (minor, major), +2 (minor, major) cards, and there'd be a table something like-
1d6 Happenstance Effect 1 Major Embarrassment- House Prefect committed a crime, major figure in house caught helping a rival cheat, etc. -10% xp/-2 character points/-1 major arcana 2 Minor Embarrassment- Prefect caught smoking in bathroom, students caught making out in stairwell, etc. -5% xp/-1 CP/-1 minor arcana 3 Least Victory- Won a minor (magic sport) game, protected first years from bullying by rival house, etc. +5% xp/+1 CP/+1 minor arcana 4 Lesser Victory- Protected first years of rival house from bullying by upperclassmen (thereby proving your house's superiority), embarrassed a rival house, etc. +10% xp/+2 CP/+2 minor arcana 5 Moderate Victory- Beat all other houses in (magic sport) games, successfully pranked rival house +15% xp/+3 CP/+1 major arcana 6 Grand Victory- Won the season in (magic game), head couple elected from your hosue +20% xp/+4 CP/+2 major arcana
With the basic idea being that the GM keeps track of what the party (and maybe a single significant npc party from each other house) does over the course of each adventure and at the end of each session (or whatever), they roll a d6 for the random event, and then the teachers award (or take away) house points in game. Player advancement is then predicated on how much their house point total has grown since the start of the session (subtracting demerits from merits for the total growth, so that you have to not only do good things but also minimize the bad, or at least, not get caught).
Just make it straight level=rank, faction resources are the only resources. Thus they have reason to help the faction (they get to spend a portion of the house's resources depending on their rank, the more resources the House has the bigger that is).