State of the Campaign, Episode VIII

[copied from my original Facebook Notes, circa June 2010]

Robin's Laws and House Rules

It has been a while since the last update. The game has progressed regularly, however I don’t feel that this string of Notes should be a simple recollection of the story. Rather, I would like to use the story as a way of bringing up some topics when and if they share a commonality. For a long time, I was content to let the story unfold naturally and let it capture ideas for this Note series like a virtual mousetrap. So, let me begin by summarizing the past few sessions:

Currently, the PCs have left the Hall and Oxylchotl behind. Immediately after him dying, the PCs all took part in another vision, this time showing Bargle negotiating with a evil demonic ape. Bargle instructed the ape to kill the PCs. It now seems that Bargle is aware of the PCs and has trained his crosshairs on them. The group moved on further into the jungle and came upon a mushroom forest. Passing through it, Mythyria caught a strange disease that led her to behave erratically. After being healed, they moved on and came across a half-orc that appeared out of nowhere. He introduced himself as Hekuba and is looking for his lost brother. A wizard transported him here and his brother is to be found nearby. Moving on, they found the site of a recent battle, with various humanoid bodies scattered around. Hekuba’s brother walks out of the mushroom forest, only to be attacked by the PCs. You see, they noticed that his body was covered with the remains of several mushrooms that had recently been brushed off of him. A large incorporeal beast emerged and proceeded to kick some party butt. Yet Hopop, the lizard wizard, chastised the spirit and drove him to the Great Beyond. The party collected much loot from the bodies, surmising that this was a group of guards, whom were escorting slaves, presumably toward the central plateau and Bargle’s camp. After exiting the mushroom forest, they came upon a village of aranea, shapechanging spider people. Hopop knew them and the party was welcomed to the village. Eriks hunted with the people, finding their similar modes of eating (digesting their victims from the inside out) to his liking. A long bartering session ended with the PCs acquiring some good gear, including a scroll of True Resurrection, which Kamal performed on Eriks, returning him once again to the land of the beating hearts. The party found out about the Dark Mountain Pass and the Cliffs of Dread, which would lead them to the lizardman villages. They passed through most of the Pass, noticing that they were being followed by some sort of palpable evil. After fighting 2 enormous centipedes (which attempted to drop several characters down a water-filled gorge), a black pudding, and several mummies, the party is now resting.

Before this last session, I had come across the idea of universal- or equal-XP. The author of the discussion mentioned that unequal XP could lead to unequal party power and the player-vs-player mentality. I put the question to my players and they more or less decided to keep playing the way we are. Personally, I prefer this current method also. One, since I give players that show up a 10% bonus to each session’s XP, it encourages players to be present. Two, we’ve had a couple times when the character was just about to gain a level, but fell a few XP short. That is another incentive to come back for more. Knowing that you are “this close” to leveling is akin to a kid on Christmas Eve. You know some goodies are about to arrive, just around the corner.

This (along with a recent post on the Paizo forums) has gotten me thinking about houserules. When I ran my OD&D and 2E games back in high school, I had several house rules. Granted, I can’t recall a single one right now, but I know that I used them. It seemed a critical part of the game experience. You couldn’t call yourself a DM if you didn’t “improve” on the game. You were expected to analyze the rules and adjust them, based on your players and their style of play. So, what houserules am I using now? I don’t know of any rules, per se, but I have instead made some basic changes to my game. One, I gave the players more points to build their characters. Even beyond the “Epic” 25 points in the rulebook. I’ve also taken the OD&D setting of Mystara and made it fit the Pathfinder rules. Nothing mechanically has changed, but the flavor is different. I’ve also taken several monsters and ideas from various sources and converted them to PF. And I’ve custom-built some non-core races and classes. So, yes, I still use houserules, but they are less mechanical and more flavorful.

Further, this has led me to re-read Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering. I’ve only read through the first couple of pages, but I’ve already found some good ideas. Sweet!