Wishlists?

[Kelz]

From what I've seen, it's sort of a standard practice to fill out a wishlist for a DM prior to adventuring so that he has an idea of where you want to go in regards to gearing out your character. Are you interested in us filling something like that out, or do you prefer to exercise control over that for the sake of the "randomness" of loot acquisition? Just wondering about that as I wrote the forum "session" summary a minute ago. Let me/us know!

[Dustin]

If I had less than 4 characters I wanted to play already, I would roll a Cleric of Gond and drag people on quests to get ingredients for magic items.

I can't speak for Danny except to say the man loves random charts, so wishlist or not, at least some loot will probably always be rolled.

[Kelz]

That's fine with me, as well... I'll just donate/outfit the group with what I find until I get what I want. I just wasn't aware of whether or not Danny rolled to make it easier/random or if it was because we hadn't given him a list.

[Danny]

King's to you, Dustin! I DO love random charts!

Basically, I want to clarify to anyone else who happens to read this: The "Magic Item Wishlist" is by no means a standard practice in any game, my own included. When I've run 4e D&D, I've used the Wishlist before, because it's a suggestion from the 4e books. On top of that, 4e has a Diablo-esque(HUGE) number of magic items, so you're just shooting in the dark with all the piddling little bonuses available. A player might not care about having Resist 5 to Necrotic and Fire and would PREFER an extra healing surge per day. Only the player knows and it's great to ask!

The downside to wish lists is that players may feel entitled to what's on the wish list, especially if the DM doesn't make it very clear that the wish list is just a suggestion from the player to the DM of what the player would enjoy seeing in the game.

Now that I've said all that, I'm totally fine with players submitting wish lists as long as they promise that their feelings won't be hurt if they receive 0 items from it over the course of their entire adventuring career. If you put items on it from the basic/expert books, then it's virtually impossible not to receive at least 1 thing on your list.

EDIT: Also any wish list request for a specific "plus" bonus on your weapon will be translated into a request for "a magic version of that weapon with any bonus"

Post magic item wish lists in "general discussion" since they're OOC and related to the game.

[Kelz]

Thanks for the clarification. Understand that by "standard practice" I mean "based on the 4e sourcebooks that I've read" this being my first time actually playing and all. Some of my preconceived notions have been a bit off so far (see Docks, After Hours) so I once again ask for forgiveness for being the kid in the class that has all the questions. Wasn't implying that it was being done incorrectly or anything like that. Off to make my list lol.

[Lydia]

Hey Tony!

Questions are great. Ask questions! You shouldn't feel like it's wrong to ask them. You're not the only new kid in class, but you are experimenting a lot, so you may be the first one to ask a lot of questions that don't even occur to those of us who have been playing for a while.

It's really important to remember that we are all part of the game; we are all playing the game, even Danny. I have seen you interact almost exclusively with NPCs thus far; rather than try to recruit player characters for your bounty hunting guild, you opted to make NPCs to interact with, for example.

I got the impression that Myra and Jason might have been receptive to being asked to join the guild, and Dustin and I also have characters that could potentially be courted for that purpose. The upside to interacting with player characters is that you don't necessarily have to pay us if we opt to join the Bounty Hunter's guild in the same way you do NPC retainers! (Though I'm sure some player characters might be more likely to extort than others!)

I can tell that you really like Avarice and he's very important to you; I can tell that you're a serious, excited, dedicated player and you want to be able to do a lot with him! That's okay, but remember, too, that everybody has to start somewhere. Avarice is still only level 2 right now; he may act like he's the biggest fish in the sea, but he's not, not yet. It's just as important to be able to take your lumps as it is to be the dramatic badass who lurks in the shadows and terrifies children! And most importantly-- if you go with PCs, and your characters get along, you don't have to worry quite as much about whether or not you can trust each other.

One last thing, and this one is really important: Just because a character doesn't get along with another character doesn't mean that the player dislikes the other person's player. So, even if Bear and Avarice clash in the future, for example, I still like you and I'm glad to have you at our table; and rather than have Bear be a jerk and try to kill you, I would prefer that Bear and Avarice bicker with each other and have some kind of awesome rivalry. I think every one of us feels THAT way around the table, and I know Danny does, too. You're not the 'new kid', you're one of our pals, now-- and that means we want to look out for you.

Sorry for the long post, I just thought you sounded discouraged. You're doing fine! Avarice lives to see another day, after all!

[Danny]

Hear hear! I keep forgetting to mention this, but I cannot stress exactly how important it is to involve other players in your plans, plots, antics, etc.

D&D is a team game that tells a story that emerges during play. Involving more people in the story means more people are having fun, and that's always a good thing!

[Kelz]

Lydia -

As far as the NPC/PC interaction stuff goes, I'm just very conscious of trying to pull someone into something that they aren't interested in. When I posted the initial Bounty Hunter's Guild notice, it was meant for everyone, not just the NPC's I created. In all honesty, I created the NPC's so that if someone else was interested in joining they wouldn't feel like we were a "sub" team within the team. If that wasn't clear, then let me take this opportunity to invite everyone into the BHG, formally. I thought that we talked about it the first session after it was created, as far as none of the PC's were expected to pay for the license or anything... I must not have been vocal enough about it at the table. I'd prefer that our party do as many things together as we can, period. If anyone's interested in doing "intermission" bounty adventures or anything like that, I'm down, 100%.

Avarice's level (3, damnit lol) was the main driving force behind the NPC creation. I knew that I'd want to go off and do things from the first time I started posting on the forum, and that as a single PC I wasn't going to have the best luck if I ran into something that I couldn't handle or get away from, so I created a crew to save me if it was needed. My original thought was for the retainers to be the BHG regulars, and then for everyone else to contribute to it when they felt like it. Like I said, I know not everyone is in the position to be as active on here as I am, so I didn't want to pressure anyone to be involved if they weren't interested. Also, if someone was trying to get something else accomplished I didn't want to interject my PC into their business without speaking to them about it. Following Velira was the only time that I did that, and afterwards I regretted it. I can only assume that everyone is "into" their characters as much as I am, and that includes having side-interests that might not necessarily involve others for whatever reason.

As far as in character vs. out of character, please don't ever feel that you need to worry about that! This is a game, first and foremost, to me. It's fun, and I really enjoy the creative processes that it allows me to explore, but at the end of the day, if Avarice dies, I'll make a new "Avarice" that night and be right back in it. Half the reason that I made a NE PC was that noone else had lol. I don't expect everyone to get along, or even like eachother ALL of the time. That's what the party is about - exploring social interaction between people who may not always see the same way on everything (or anything, for that matter.) My favorite example of this is from Dragonlance, where Raistlin and Sturm CONSTANTLY talked shit to each other and made it known that they would gladly kill the other with relatively no hesitation... but they needed each other, so it never came to that. That internal conflict makes the story much more engaging to me. In short, Bear and Avarice can bicker and argue as much as you want... it's more fun that way in all reality. But if Avarice has an opportunity to save him or let him go, he'll save him everytime.

No discouragment on my end, for serious. I've already created the next batch of NPCs (Images, anyway, I'll let Danny tell me when/if they become available) and the whole "party wipe" thing gave me a reason to have Avarice more interested in Sweetgrove for the time being than the mission that he was on. Plus, it added more character to him... now he's not some shadow dwelling arrogant guy, he's an obsessed, vengeful guy who's bidding his time.

Thanks for the post, though. If I WAS discouraged by all of it, I would have really appreciated the fact that you reached out to iConsole me. Looking forward to holding the coats for everyone on Wednesday!

[Zolexa]

Following Velira was the only time that I did that, and afterwards I regretted it.

Oh I didn't mean for that! Since Avarice doesn't 'know' Velira's backstory (the part she doesnt talk about) he would have no clue that being followed like that would 'set her off' (in character). Velira in no means hates Avarice, he just activated one of her pet peeves.

I had a blast with that whole scene though!

[Kelz]

Right, I didn't take it as that, Myra. I regretted it from the standpoint of stepping in on someone else's roleplaying. IF you had wanted that to be a singular exploration, and I just jumped into it both feet first, that would have been my bad for not speaking to you about it first, in my opinion. That's the thing with the Forums... there's not the table interaction where the "feeling out" process takes place as you make your decisions. I wouldn't think twice about it at the table, but on a forum I hesitate to be everywhere at once, popping up in everyone else's plots. Not to say that I don't want to be involved or anything, just that I would message you about it first. Glad that wasn't the case in that situation!

[Danny]

Haha, just post the damn things already. This thread is LOCKED.