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
This message has been sent to both the Yahoo Forum, as well as the Hostboard.
This is an interesting idea, and is similar to something I participate in on another online game I play on Saturday.
I'm willing to commit Caela to the 'Training' Campaign while either Gwylln or Celene enter into the next 'Heroic' one, post Devonshire.
I like the idea too, and must admit a good part of it is because two new friends of mine are the ones that really caused this effect!! I like I like. Ok....and of course, Merilin is primary hero, but don't forget Seara! And Ravensong will be my training barbarian.
Welcome to the new players, looking forward to you both joining us!
I really like the idea of alternating character/ adventures from week to week. Marren in training...hmmm
Bring it on - I'm all about this idea. One aspect that I find compelling is that one can be in a campaign without committing to three or four Fridays a month. There will likely be times in the future where I will be unable to do that, and I like the opportunity to be in one of the two campaigns.
I can't say for certain who my trainee will be . . . likely my rogue, but as some of you know, I have a character waiting in the wings for the right chance to debut. Who knows?
Greetings eveyone,
First off, thanks Christopher for the upcomming oportunity to play in one of your campiagns. I am very much looking forward to it. I am trying to familiarize myself with the boards/forums the best I can to be more ready. The biggest challenge for me right now is picking what class of character to play.. Things have changed greatly since i first played...yep back in the 70's..hehe. But I am close to narrowing it down. I am looking forward to roleplaying with you all and any helpful advice or input to get me on the right track will be greatly appreciated. Have a great day all.
Mark .... (soon to have a character)
Oh well, I myself enjoy having a potluck to choose from and bringing in "just any old character" but I can completely understand how hard that can be to rationalize and make the DM's work load that much harder.
As for who would be my 'main two', as of yet, I am totally unsure. I tend to vacilitate anyways, so I may just hang back and see what's made.
Aksor was/is fun as 'one of the gang' but I am unsure if I want him as half my gaming characters for this.
It didn't help that a friend gave me "Tome and Blood" (hello wizards and sorcerers) and get my mind going in that direction.
I know this is frustrating to the DM, and apologize for that. My own thoughts on my characters are thus:
Andrin- I think I'll retire him. He's died once, and got very spooked by it, and besides, Bards are notoriously prone to wandering off anyways. [img]smile.gif[/img] This means a certain elven rogue (if used) will have to get invisibility spells from someone else, but them's the breaks.
Aoborr- While quite smitten by a lady fire hair of his aquaintance, Aoborr also wishes to learn of "What was lost" to his people, and perhaps find them a land to conquer. This could mean he's ideal for retiring as he goes 'off on his own quest', or his background could be ideal for some high level stuff. He still wants to assemble a certain sword.
Aksor- (Note to self, I use too many A names for characters) Aksor is still a bit raw, but he does have the distinction of being the first half orc to be played in CF (My claim to fame [img]wink.gif[/img] ). He does feel a bit redundant at times with so many warriors of comparible level, but he's got the potiential for a lot of depth...even if he does pick his nose.
Jaskyn- Ever my most reluctant adventurer in someways, Jaskyn has his temple plans. He could easily retire after doing so (Perhaps even as priest of that temple). His main reason for adventuring beyond that is either going along with Lynliss his love, or Seara, his sister. Motivating him beyond the above reasons can be a bit hard, but on the other hand, clerics are surely needed.
So the only SURE thing I can say for now is that Andrin is on the 'retired' list. Not much, but it's a start.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Greetings back,Originally posted by Sylvrr Knight:
Greetings eveyone,
First off, thanks Christopher for the upcomming oportunity to play in one of your campiagns. I am very much looking forward to it. I am trying to familiarize myself with the boards/forums the best I can to be more ready. The biggest challenge for me right now is picking what class of character to play.. Things have changed greatly since i first played...yep back in the 70's..hehe. But I am close to narrowing it down. I am looking forward to roleplaying with you all and any helpful advice or input to get me on the right track will be greatly appreciated. Have a great day all.
Mark .... (soon to have a character)
My advice would be to play what class and concept you know you'd enjoy (within the DM's restrictions, natch) [img]smile.gif[/img] Not much help, I know, but if you don't like a particular class, don't play it, even if you think the group could use it.
Don't be afraid to bug Christopher for details on his setting via email etc. While he likes to keep something vague at start overall(so he can develop them later) if you have a question about where a particular class or concept might have come from in the kingdom, he's very helpful, or will perhaps even take your own suggestions/wishes and incorporate them. THat's how the "Barbos" came into being for example, and voila, I had a people for Aoborr to come from.
Andrin- I think I'll retire him. He's died once, and got very spooked by it, and besides, Bards are notoriously prone to wandering off anyways. This means a certain elven rogue (if used) will have to get invisibility spells from someone else, but them's the breaks.
This just plain sucks...I love Andrin...he rules..Stranng is very fond of Andrin(considering he has saved his @## more than once from choices that has lead to near death). Stranng will miss him greatly.
Welcome Sylvrr Knight...Look forwrd to playing with you..My humble suggestion take any character that may have a reasonable resistance to death effects early on [img]biggrin.gif[/img] it seems that whenever we bump into an evil wizard at low levels we see a pinch of black dust and are steadily on our way to meet our makers... [img]tongue.gif[/img]
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