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Plans for the wrap up
I’ve been thinking about how to wrap up this game, since I know we won’t have time for everything.
Though I don’t actually know when I’m leaving (I need the nod from the synod, an answer I won’t receive until late Nov/ early Dec), I estimate we have 8 sessions left (no Nov 11, and a short Dec 9), unless they tell me I cannot move (I’m not anticipating that).
I would like to make to run through the next Ancient site, hopefully in 3-6 sessions, and then jump forward a few years of game time.
Doing so would leave us 2-5 sessions, I’m thinking level 21, with some special epic destinies (not the ones in the books).
I would like to hear your thoughts about this.
If we did this, we would have to work out a few things:
1. Advancing all the items to Ancient 6 (Just tell me the planned crystal patterns). (We can assume you will find a means to adjust the Skycaptain’s Armor or transfer the enchantment, your choice) (We can assume the items bought in the thrift shop are eventually empowered as well)
2. Updating mundane magic (I’m thinking what you have plus standard level 21 starting stuff added of your choice, 1 level 20, 1 level 21, 1 level 22, or their combined gold value in items (no more than 4 items, none higher than level 23)
3. Obviously bring the characters up to level 21.
4. Decide about whether or not to allow Kel’s destruction of civilization (We may just have to play this out as a single session).
5. Decide whether or not you allow the dragon out of the prison (more info related to this will come if we advance the time line)
6. Updating Wil – Depending on your actions, most likely, Wil will lose access to all “Divine” powers by level 21, for reasons that will be explained. So Dustin and I need to work out how to re-balance or re-build his character based on that event.
1) Sounds good to me.
2) The 4 item cap I’m not a fan of. Most level 21 character are trying to get every slot filled, even if it’s just low level utility.
3) Sounds good.
4) Is Kel going to get a chance? If so, that might come up in session. This isn’t an issue I ever thought would actually be relevant. Depending on the circumstances, I may need an alternative character. This could be a split the party kind of thing.
5) No? Cullen knows the language now so there’s no benefit to us. Depends a bit on what we learn after the time change though.
6) We’re going to kill gods? I can live with that.
1. I don’t know of a better way of doing this. We know from previous experimentation that some combinations are orders of magnitude more powerful than others, and that was just at Ancient 1. Putting that all the way up to 6 in one session is a bit scary.
2. What level item is an airship? (kidding) I agree with what Ryan said that we’ll be significantly underpowered compared to our normal perception of level 21 characters, but this is probably more than made up for by our group’s power gaming tendancies. I think we generally roflstomp things that the rules say should be challenging combats?
3. I’m generally not a big fan of big level jumps right before the end of a game. In general it seems that you get a big pile of cool stuff and not much time to use it. Especially at the high levels, finding a rhythm with your new abilities and how to work together with the other characters’ new abilities takes some experimentation. (Though this time, as a ranger, I’m pretty sure Erithys won’t play terribly differently from now.) Especially considering how long it takes us to figure out our ancient upgrades, and doing that twice (once for the next site, presumably, and once when we go to Ancient 6) we’ll be losing a lot of game time to that, leaving very little time for our updated characters. I understand that it’s probably important for the story, though, so I’d lobby for the jump happening sooner rather than later so we have more time to play with the new stuff.
4. Definitely a party-splitting thing.
5. I think if we let the dragon out at this point it’s to kill the dragon for his tasty, tasty xp, and maybe also to get at Osnappar.
6. Ha! Nice going, Cullen.
1) Since we’re skipping the exploration & fiddly bits of getting to lvl 21 and Ancient 6, spec’ing out our Ancient 6 items might go smoother if you can enumerate the different power tiers/thresholds:
eg +6 at Red X, +7 at Red Y… Specific-color power thresholds at 5, 10, 20, whatever… do the 0-strength “flavor” colors ever come into play… etc. We would probably have enough data and/or knowledge from our skipped adventures to discern that stuff by then anyways.
2) I’ll echo the concerns about the item count. To be sure, it looks like we’re on track to be well above average value-wise between multiple Ancient 6s plus 22/21/20. That being said, if needed (if needed) I would be willing to lose a little total value to be able to get rid of the arbitrary item count cap and fully flesh out the gear.
3. I agree I would like to power through Ancient 3 and make the leap ASAP. If there are feats related to using Ancient magic/items more expressively, I would be interested in learning more.
4. Muy is fairly ambivalent about the fates of governments, but if Kel began actually going for major depopulating… party split.
5. Dragon release? Strong leaning towards no. If we’re going to betray him and not let him out, I would prefer to go all the way and slay him proactively.
6. Uncertain where Muy would stand on this without more context, but no strong leanings.
When it comes to the custom epic destinies, is it that we can choose a custom destiny, we have to choose a custom destiny or you will choose a custom destiny for us?
Depending on how much time I have to work on it and when we make the transition, it may be a collaboration or I may hand them out. I need to look at the Epic Destinies first, before I decide, so I get a feel for how elaborate they are, and whether or not I can give some guiding principles to make them collaborative.
