Wednesday, November 6, 2019

How would multiple PCs per player work in DF Felltower?

One of the options in my "things I'd do differently" post was multiple PCs per player. Not just multiple 250-point guys on hand in case you guy dies or in case you want to play a higher or lower point guy. Another option I've considered is to rather have "main" and "secondary" characters you could run at the same time. Here are some thoughts on that approach.

I picture this working as follows:

- you'd have your high-end, "main" guy. This would be your primary character. You'd run this paper man most of the time. You could, of course, have a secondary 250-point guy.

- you'd also have an associated 125-point guy. You could run this one as your only PC for a session (and earn full XP for it) or run it as an ally - running two PCs - and get half for that character. The secondary character would need to be exposed to real risk, but could progress up while getting bootstrapped in a way by other players.

You could always take an Ally as well, and get the lockstep improvements of the Ally on top of having another, lower-point PC to run.


Another option, I think, would be to allow multiple 125-point characters to count as one, as suggested in DF15. That seems like it needs no additional detail than I listed there.


Encouraging Ally might be something else I could do - make it advantageous to find specific NPC hirelings and add them with Ally. Assured access, increases in value as you increase in ability (gain and spend points), and assured loyalty (instead of a secret Loyalty stat) would be some of the benefits. And for low-point guys, this would be fairly cheap. That might not grab everyone, but could allow some players to expand a pool of playable characters and make each of their characters potentially more powerful - you'd have your own crew to draw on if you needed to pad out an expedition.

11 comments:

  1. Those are some REALLY GOOD ideas. He doesn't have points for it right now, but Ulf would find that useful. A 125 point bodyguard for when we're low on fighters, or a 125 point utility wizard ally who did a few very specific things well, but not much else...

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    1. The details might need some work, but it's a workable approach. Not that we often have small groups these days - our typical session is, what, 6 players or so? - but it could be a good way to expand the options for the players.

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  2. "Another option, I think, would be to allow multiple 125-point characters to count as one, as suggested in DF15. That seems like it needs no additional detail than I listed there."

    I don't know that the second line there is exactly true. Sure, for a game where "oops, TPK" is not only accepted but encouraged, yeah. But if you've built a dungeon for 250 pointers and have your megadungeon escalation built off the 250 start premise...

    Two 125 pointers are not equal to a single 250 Character. They may have some level of action economy advantage, but I find that it is vastly outweighed by the focus of a well built 250 pointer.

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    1. You could always take other approaches, but I didn't feel the need to explain further the system in DF15. That's the one I'd use.

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  3. Are you aware of troupe play as done with Ars Magica?

    The campaign Ars Magica focuses on is centered around the Covenant, a community of mages who live and work together.

    While Ars Magica supports one character to per player. They suggest that each player make three characters.

    A mage i.e the kind of character Ars Magica focused on.

    A companion a skilled character while not a mage is just as much an adventurer as a mage. For example a knight allied with the Covenant or a burglar type who lives at the covenant.

    A grog, i.e red shirt. A fleshed out guard or servant employed by the covenant.

    The idea is that a run of session would have each player play a character but pick one of the three. A benefit that instead of all the mages adventuring together, each mage or a small subset would have a moment of their own to shine with the rest of the players playing companions or grogs.

    You can download Ars Magica 4th edition for free from Warehouse 23
    http://www.warehouse23.com/products/ars-magica-4th-edition-core-rulebook

    Hope this helps

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    1. I've never read Ars Magica but this comes up any time multiple PCs comes up in discussion. Thanks for the summary - it'll surely help people who haven't come across it.

      We used to have multiple PCs in Yaquinto's "Pirates & Plunder" and I used that concept in GURPS before, much as I detail above. It's a fun way to play, even without the "you play your main guy and I'll play my secondary" approach that seems central to Ars Magica.

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  4. This might be fun, but given how deadly Felltower is I think you'll have a hard time convincing folks to bring in less capable PCs, or pay points for allies that are even more doomed than the PCs.

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    1. And yet, the first comment is from one of my players, who is clearly generating 125 point guys in his head right now. :)

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    2. Not just in my head. Got em on GCS (GURPS Character Sheet).

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  5. Ike lasted a long time bringing much utility

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