TURNING THE DIALS: Initial Settings

NOTE: I don't need this in your RTJ. We'll discuss all this once the party is formed.

Before we get too far into things, I want everyone to weigh in on the following topics. They should be fairly self-explanatory, but as always, please ask if you have any questions.

What I'm looking for is a vote, and some idea of how important that is to you. I like a scale of one to three (the Give a Sh*t Index, or GSI), where 1=Could go either way, 2=Strong preference, 3=WANT.

1. Lethality
Do you want your character to be able to leave the game (i.e.die) when you don't want them to? Note this isn't "Challenge" - that's a whole different thing.

• Non-lethal: your character only 'dies' when you say so. If the dice say they die, and you're not ready to let them go yet, they survive (probably with some kind of permanent injury to show for it)
• Extra Lives: Everyone has access to one or more 'extra lives.' So if the dice say you die, and you say no, you cash in an Extra Life to survive (as above). But when you're out of Extra Lives, that's it. The way I've done this in the past is that everyone has one extra life, but you can give one to someone else if they need it and you don't.
• Play it as it Lays: No extra lives, no divine intervention. If the dice put you out, you're out.

2. Morality
How morally complex do we want the game to be as a whole? One one end, I can play up every monster as a vicious, evil beast that any sane person would put down. On the other end we can wrestle with situations with no clear right answer. Similarly, the Duke (and her administration) can exist on a sliding scale of "Liberator" to "Colonizer."

• White Hat: The Duke has good intentions and can be trusted. Bad guys are BAD. Monsters are clearly evil. We keep anything really morally compromising (like noncombatants) off-screen.
• Grey Hat: What do you do with young orcs? How can you dispense justice fairly on the frontier? Does the Duke have everyone's best interests at heart? Where's the line between hero and mercenary?
• Dirty Hat: The 'real' world. No clear moral imperatives. People generally move toward what benefits them. Monsters are just different kinds of people.

3. Starting Point
What level do you want to start at? The old-school vibe leans toward 1st. But that can be a real drag when you've done it a million times. If we vote for 1st, I promise you'll only be 1st for a very short time. But if you'd rather, we can start at 2nd or 3rd.

I welcome your thoughts.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:24, Sat 04 Mar 2023.

Lethality - 1
I like the idea of a character death being pivotal to the story, not just because a roll decided.
Think Gandalf in LOTR.

Morality - 2
Are the real monsters, monsters? Or people doing bad things?

Level - 3
Enough abilities have come online for each class to help them be distinctive, plus it shows we have done some things to get the Duke's attention to come along on this adventure.

Lethality.  I am ok with games that have a chance where the PC's might die.  If I am being honest though, any of the three proposed settings [non-lethal, extra lives, and play it as it lays] would work well for a tale like this.  GSI = Indifferent

Morality.  I prefer a little gray in my black-and-white.  The dirty hat option looked intriguing as well.  Anything but the first option would be my vote.   GSI = Strong

Starting Point. I am totally fine with starting at whatever level you decide.  GSI = Indifferent

Lethality: (GSI: 3) I'd say I'm somewhere between the first and second honestly. I wouldn't want anyone to be basically 'unkillable' in the sense they can run up to something way over their heads and expect to walk away, but on the other hand, I think that 'bad luck' with dice can prematurely end a good gaming run more often than not. The luck of dice are fickle things! So I'd say a little 'extra luck' to survive the hatred of the dice, but limited luck to avoid foolish mistakes!


Morality:(GSI: 2) I'd go Gray or Dirty. Have a little intrigue, plotting and overall sinister natures creep in the backgrounds. That can be a little more towards the Gray or go full blown to the Dirty; again, no absolute preference between those two.


Starting Point(GSI: 1): In agreement with Kovaan in that the characters have displayed enough skill (or whatever) to attract the Duke's attention in joining the campaign. Of course, the Duke has to balance the demands of bringing someone 'more experienced' (and more expensive) vs someone with the more basic skills. But as also noted, if we start at first, we won't stay there long, so I have no strong preference either way. Roll for it if nothing else. Heh.


Edit: Realized I had the GSI values flipped in terms of high/low. Fixed!
This message was last edited by the player at 15:58, Fri 10 Mar 2023.

Lethality (GSI 1=Could go either way): Extra lives. I like this idea. I'm normally OK with actions having consequences, but I also want to create a good story! So just in case we misunderstood the lethality of a situation or we have a streak of unlucky rolls, this gives us an Out of an otherwise a perhaps anti-climactic death.

Morality (GSI 2=Strong preference): Grey hat. I'd like to explore a bit of morally grey situations, but not too much. It can be mentally taxing, and if it's done all the time it might get tiring. Sometimes you just need to wack a monster in the head and not think about it. Other times it can be the focus of the story and be really interesting!

Starting Point (GSI 1=Could go either way): No strong preference here. I have a soft spot for level 1, but truly I'm happy at any level :)

Just to respond to this. It's an excellent point. But I would never let 'non-lethal' mean you could just, like, leap headlong into a box of rabid border collies or whatever because 'g0d m0d3 lulz.' This is just so that a trash string of rolls doesn't take you out. I've had lots of players over the years accept a PC death (even a random one) as a good story beat.

It's just sometimes nice to have the option.
This message was last updated by the GM at 17:43, Thu 09 Mar 2023.

1. Lethality. I prefer play it as it lays. There are in game ways around death still available. Strong preference.

2. Morality. I like grey hat. I don't want to get too grimdark. I could go either way

3. Starting point. I like starting a couple levels in. I could go either way.

Lethality
I’ve played with GMs who never kill anyone, even when they did something incredibly stupid and deserved it.  Those games lacked something.  I like the threat of dying.  It forces us to play smart.  (GSI 2)

Morality
I would lean toward dirty hat here with some exceptions.  I would like the Duke to be a proven good guy.  Someone we can put our trust in.  Heck, we came out here because of it.  I would like to see intelligent races run the gambit of morality.  My biggest hope is to have a great game with some new and different encounters.  I don’t want to have to fight every encounter.  Not every orc being evil is a great start.  (GSI 3)

Starting Point
I don’t mind 1st level.  It gives everyone a chance to get a feel for their character and the game world.  Given the storyline, having some experience makes sense.  I can go either way here.  (GSI 1)

Okay, that's great, everyone. Thank you.

Seeing all the responses, I do hereby propose the following (slightly out of order):

Morality
We will assume the Duke's intentions and ethics are good. She's a good person, a benevolent leader, and she wants to re-establish her family name. She's may have different morals than you, but you can trust her word. Anyone working for her, though, all bets are off. Her staff and officer and administration may or may not have her best interests at heart.

I won't present monsters as mindless evil drones. Even if they're thieving and marauding, the creatures that live here will have thought and language and (at least some) culture. But I won't randomly or frivolously put children (or other noncombatants) on the playing field.

Level
We do a quick intro adventure, a Chapter 0 or sorts, where you clear out the Keep in advance of the Duke's arrival. We do that intro at level 1, and then jump to level 3 for the start of the game proper. Just so we get a taste of that old school feel.

Overall, I plan to have pretty quick level advancement (every second 'mission' or so, probably). Just to counteract how long everything takes in this format.

Lethality
The party, as a whole, has access to three (3) Extra Lives. Anyone can use one if they want. And anyone has the option to use one or not. As previously stated, an Extra Life is to undo a bad string of rolls or other, similar event and they can only be used if it's plausible that you might have survived.

The default setting for when a monster brings you to zero HP is that they're trying to kill you, so unless I say otherwise, any time you hit zero it's Death Save Time. But I won't make a point of having monsters delivering coup de graces in the middle of combat.

Anyone may, if they like, in an encounter that represents genuine danger, declare that they "Raise the Death Flag." Raising the Death Flag means you waive your right to use an Extra Life should you die in this encounter. Raising the Death Flag gives you Inspiration. I might unilaterally Raise the Death Flag for everyone for particularly dramatic fights.

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If anyone has any strong objections to any of the above, please let me know (privately or by PM). Otherwise, your character sheets are all open, please feel free to get started on characters.

EDIT: I posted a character sheet. You're welcome to use that one, or any other format you like. So long as the information is all there.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:53, Sat 11 Mar 2023.

Woot!  Stoked to see this one get underway.

Can you clarify how you want us to determine starting attributes?  It looks like there might be a typo in the CharGen thread where starting stats are mentioned.

Good catch!

Not so much a typo as wavering between two different methods.

It's fixed now. We're going with the slightly better than standard array.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:33, Fri 10 Mar 2023.

Sounds good!

Curious to see the Death Flag in play.