Dear Players:
I have given a great deal of thought about the evolution of Caer Falken lately. At the completion of two years, it has become far more than my earliest anticipation. Whereas we started with three hard core players, two intermittent players, and three others that were destined not to last, our core base has now grown to a solid five, with six on many days, and an occasional seven. Essentially, we have doubled our player base, and I am given to understand we have more on the way.
I have constantly asked for input from the player base, both public and private, and the desires of the playership vary. I am thinking of making a major change in the way we will experience Caer Falken, and I am giving advance warning, just in case my astrologers have misread the stars.
Most of the steady players have been of two minds about their characters. Some have favorites they would prefer to play all the time while others like to switch around. Some find that even two characters are limiting. On the other hand, we don?t want to have too many either, as it confuses those who prefer continuity.
The continuity factor is a major issue. The original concept of chatting in the inn during the week just doesn?t work since Be Seen removed its Chat interface. The newer chat rooms just don?t measure up and makes the free form chatting harder to do. With different characters popping in every week, the characters no longer bond with each other, nor do they feel they can work adequately together, from teamwork, friendship and tactical vantages. In the current format, anyone not involved in the Devonshire plotline would get only one week a month to play, and those who were supposedly committed to the Devonshire Plotline are not able to always attend (and real life has always had that nasty tendency to get in the way anyway).
More and more, the growth of characters, the development of skills, the bonds they form with each other through interaction, all serve to make the old Caer Falken format rather trite and watery. The real meat and potatoes of role playing is the campaign. It is ironic that I conceived of Cattalinia and the Inn based on the unlikelihood of getting a viable campaign going, especially with the resources available over two years ago. Now we have enough interest in steady playing for not just one campaign, but two.
My plan, unless there is overwhelming rejection of it by the playership, is the following:
Starting very soon, there will be two simultaneous campaigns. For lack of better wording, I will call them the Hero Campaign and the Training Campaign, each to be played in alternating weeks. Caer Falken will remain the base of operations, the starting point, the ?home port? or ?headquarters?.
The Training campaign would be for new, starting characters, of low level. The old style Cattalinia storytelling would still be in effect, though perhaps not in the same manner. Perhaps I might have you return to the Inn each week, maybe every now and then, or perhaps only when the fates have decided you are too weak to go on without a resting period, need a chance to supply up, or in the worst case scenarios, when characters die and need replacing.
The Hero Campaign would include seasoned characters, those who have survived to high levels. These are the characters who will have the strongest bonds, the most history, the most powerful items, and are most likely to hit epic levels of adventure. Characters lost in this scenario are more likely to return by various means, and when they don?t, there are standby characters for almost all players. Eventually, the Training campaign characters may cross over into the Hero Campaign, replacing the fallen, or merely giving some heroes time to take a break for personal agendas, much the way Aoborr, Celene and Seara have done. The Hero Campaign may get their start for each adventure with Cattalinia, but will more likely continue from place to place based on leads and hooks. Occasional travel to the Caer Falken Inn may still be needed to drop off gold or recover old items, and these times would also afford good occasions to switch off characters if so desired.
There are some sacrifices to be made in this format. Players will no longer be able to bring in just any old character, and it commits players to playing just one or two characters for long stretches, depending upon how many campaigns you are in. Those who wish minimal time gaming can sign on to just one. The hard core players will get two steady characters. Those involved in campaigns but cannot make it for the night will be handled in ways that best fit into the evening. They may be left recovering in an inn, standing guard somewhere, on recon, or simply ghosting behind the party.
There is no doubt that the losers here are those players who never wanted to be involved in a full campaign, those who liked the freedom of simply playing whenever they felt like it. While I regret that I cannot please everyone, I really think this plan is the way to make the most people happy. This plan will likely go into effect as soon as the new players have chosen characters. It also allows players to start with new low level characters if they want to. While most of you have new characters already in play, do not feel that you are stuck with those if you would rather take this time for something new.
As always, feedback is not only welcome, but encouraged. I would like to think that I have walked a steady line between DM authority and leadership and allowing for player participation in the overall Caer Falken experience. I don?t intend to stop.
Sincerely,
Christopher R. Regan
Dungeon Master
Innkeeper
Starshadow
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