I wanted my players to start out at first level, and seperated, for two reasons. First, I believe you can get to know and flesh-out your character better, when starting at first level, and second, individual travel, I thought, would help them get a better feel for my homebrew world. This course of action, does have it’s setbacks though. We spent several weeks just writing notes back and forth. I begged my players for their patience, and hoped that they would individually, enjoy what was happening to each of them. If I had to voice an opinion on the matter now, I would have to say, that they did not get as much out of the experience, as I had hoped for.
I believe that it is hard sometimes, for my players, me included, to play first level characters. When you have played the game, for as long as we have(most of us, for 20 to 25 years) you get a little jaded. You can get a little mechanical about the game, and the player, plays his or her character, with far more experience, courage, calousness, and insite, than a character would have at that level. With the storyarch that I am running, I wanted my players, to be on the inexperienced and generally ‘innocent’ side. I did not want six hardened characters, to decide, that they could just do and handle whatever they wanted or came down the pike. This is a story, where the characters need to grow, and be shaped by the events that are unfolding around them. There will be plenty of time, for them to become hardened, if they so choose later.
I began the Adventure, with all of the characters, except Wynnder (her storyline prevented it), starting from their home town. I wanted to incorporate some of their background, into the beginning. Actually, with Wynnder not starting out in her home town, that in itself is playing into her background story. I believed that with the characters, traveling by themselves at first, I could introduce them to some of the nuances’ of my world (ie.- racial interaction, landscape, individual country traditions, etc.). Some players seemed to become almost completely reactionary, during this time, while others took the small hooks that they were given, and ran with them.
This lack in player inniative, actually led to some minor problems, regarding experience points, and accquired wealth. Some of the characters were accomplishing far more than the others. I take part of the blame for this. I think I rewarded a little too highly, the players that ran with the ideas that were presented, and got a little too frustrated with the players, who were more reactionary. I am a DM who believes that players/characters should be rewarded individually for their role-playing. I believe that in a melee situation, all the players should get an even amount of experience and loot. Some characters are just better at dealing damage than others, but all characters play their part. In a role-playing situation however, I am a firm belever, that the players must give at least what the DM does. I believe the best role-playing, and I am speaking of my own past experiences, have come from situations, such as that.
For the party's character creations, I told my players, that they could be from any country on the continent. They could be from any of the limited races(Eshih-Elven,Devonan-Dwarves,Ahebban-Human,or mixed races), and any of the altered and allowed classes. As I have stated earlier, in the general description, I tried to bring a strong element of Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time' world into a D&D setting, with some twists of my own thrown in. I think I should give you some background, of my world, so that you will understand the characters that were created, a bit better.
Nick is playing the human rogue Valerian D'Coeur from Kantora.
AJ is playing the devonan fighter Torrack Nalarten from Uruz in Harthelen
Becca is playing the eshih rogue Wynnder Darcy from Keening
John is playing the human willworker
Chris is playing the human fighter Caneus Valorn from Cendrillion.
Giorgo is playing the devonan druid
Nick
I have to give alot of credit here, to Nick. He basically, almost co-created this world with me. He is a far better writer and DM than I, so he helped me flesh-out , most of my ideas. Thanks Nick for always giving me your ear, and more importantly your brain, to bounce ideas off.
Nick, is the the type of player, who can easily handle the roll playing or role playing, sides of the game. He likes the role playing side of the game better, probably even as much as me. He likes to physically role play his characters (their voices, mannerisms, etc.), a quality he is very adept at, and I admire very much. He is also quite capable of maximizing the rules of the game, to get the most of his characters. Nick likes to present(while DM), and play(as a character) moral quandries.
Becca
I have to give credit here to, to Becca. She designed most of the Eshih(elven) land and cities. She also is a far better writer, and I would say, DM than I. Her specialty is political intrigue and inner workings. Thank you Becca for giving me some of your creativity, in making my world.
Becca, as I have said, has a gift for political situations in the game. Her characters are usually, but not always, monetarily motivated. I would say she is on the fence, between roll playing and role playing, but she is certainly capable of some fine role playing, if she is into her character. She very much prefers role playing with notes, rather than verbally, and her notes can be fantastic.
AJ
AJ is definitely the rules lawyer of the group. As much as he is on the roll playing side of the game, and I am on the role playing side, I do find his retention of the rules impressive. Remembering all the rules and their nuances, was never a strength of mine. AJ's characters are almost always monetarily movated, the traditional 'blade for hire' character. AJ is very good at finding specialty classes, and doing character builds.
John
John is good at role playing or roll playing his characters, it depends on how much he likes his character. He is very good at making hit point punishing characters. John does not make weak or frail characters, and he hates interparty strife. John is very good at getting maximum damage and efficiency out of the character classes he chooses.
Chris
Chris can be good at role playing his characters, especially at the beginning of a campaign. Sometimes he can lose focus on that, later on as the campaign progresses. I think this is due to, either he gets more caught up in the roll playing end, and the power his character is accumilating, or he looses touch with the character's personality, after a prolonged break in play. Chris likes powerful characters, and characters that can get away with doing things.
Giorgo
Giorgo is a quiet player, with a wicked wit. His barbs are so sharp and deadly, that he could be sitting there, seemingly not even paying attention, head in a book, and then out of nowhere, show you your own heart beating in his hand, before you knew he even ripped it out of your chest. Giorgo is excellent at picking unique character creations, and then maximizing their potential.
I started playing D&D (AD&D to be presise) when I was in the eighth grade. I am 39 now. and currently playing under the 3.5 rules. 95% of my experience with the game, was just that, playing. Oh I tried to dabble into running the game a couple of times, but I wasn't very successful. I would come up with what I thought were good ideas, but could never quite get them to materialize, like I wanted them to. They would eventually fizzle out, either because I would hit a creative wall, or I would come to some self-perceived notion, that the players were not interested anymore. I am a DM, for better or worse, who comes up with what I believe are these really detailed and important situations, that are to be, the road signs and party shaping moments of the adventure. All else is the leading, to and from, these moments. The bad thing about this course of action,(and I am sure there are many of them) at least to me, is that the party, does not always see these situations, as important or in the same light, as you the DM does. Times like that can leave me a little frustrated, to say the least, but I think I am a bit better dealing with that now, than I was a coulple of years ago.