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I wholeheartedly approve of any policy change that lightens the administrative burden of the DM. And I can vouch for these message boards being a good failself for imperfect recordkeeping.
As I reviewed Vilarneseh last night for the first time in a month, I checked to see if he could afford anything nifty yet - and was chagrined that he only had a few hundred gold. Knowing that he has never made a significant purchase, I checked the treasure distribution from his last adventure and discovered he had earned more in that night than I was showing as his life savings. I knew I had made an error!
I can't say that it would be so easy to catch a mistake with a character who has thousands to his name, but the yahoogroups posts result in emails, which can be deleted. These messages are sure to come in handy.
That being said, my otherwise meticulous record-keeping allows me to announce that the thousand xp earned has given the elven rogue three levels of advancement, bumping him from fourth to fifth. [img]wink.gif[/img]
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(Originally posted at Yahoogroups)
Dear Players:
When the game was new, and I didn't really know some of you, and many players were as yet unfamiliar with the game, I required every tiny aspect of your characters to be run through me. I approved everything, I rolled the hit points and I kept close watch over the treasure and xp to be sure no one either openly cheated, or did so through negligence and poor record keeping. This method also aided players who "lost their character sheets", enabling me to give them what they had lost.
Due to the abundance of characters, I am altering my past policies. There are officially 27 characters in play at Caer Falken, though three are mine and a few get played so rarely as to make them virtually retired. Seven players control these characters, not counting me and my universe of characters and monsters. Keeping each one updated to the last copper piece has become a chore that is monumental, and it has even begun to detract from the DM's real job, the creative aspect. While the burden was less with fewer players, lower level characters and the simple foes, higher level play requires the creation of high level enemies, each with their own spells, wealth and plot lines weaving in and out of each other.
While some of you are more meticulous than others with record keeping, I believe I can now trust each of you enough to keep your own character records. There are a couple of you that tend to get careless, but perhaps knowing there is no longer a safety net will help you stay focused. In instances where records get lost, we err on the side of caution. "Did I add that 1,000 gold from last game?" Assume you did, and if you didn't, oh well, perhaps Vilarneseh or Stythel borrowed it.
I still want each of you to run by character changes when you level up, though you can now generate your own hit points. I still want to approve all feats not found in the core books as well. You no longer need to send me your prepared spells.
I am putting a great deal of trust in the playership at this point, as control of the game for balance purposes has always been important to me. If I begin to see signs of...think of a word that sounds better than cheating...I may reverse this policy.
I think we have an excellent group of players and a very good game going here. I now trust you to take care of your characters with the same diligence as I take care of Fangea and its inhabitants.
I am posting a copy of this message on the Host Boards, in case anyone cares to ask questions or discuss this further. Anyone wishing to get information about their characters should do so at this time.
~The Innkeeper
