Speed play

[The_Friendly_Fiend]

With Sezter's new poll in the Character Acquisition forum, I wonder what your opinions are regarding the speed of on-line play.

Is advancement really that slow?

If you could change one thing about the speed of play in your on-line games, what would it be?

Is starting off at a high level the answer to these problems? Consider the things you lose when you spawn into existance at 20th level compared to the advancement of the same character that worked from 1st or even 5th level.

I'll point to you to BigRedRod's Vodalian game. Since starting his game last year, I think the characters have all gained three levels. Is that too fast for a play by post game, or is that still too slow for most people's tastes? Basically, what is your ideal advancement rate?

[Dust]

About a level of advancement every two to three weeks is my ideal :cool:

I'm just a speed guy. I want to keep things fresh all the time, and if too much times passes between levels (especially in PBP game) I get bored. Since I have yet to find a game on online that advances this quicky, I'm an advocate of high level play, because I find those games move faster. For instance, I'm playing in Big Red Rod's Dagern Travels, which is a fun low level game set in a very intriguing world. While I'm interested in this game and having fun with it, we've spent that last month and a half essentially haggling over money with local merchants or our employer. That's just too slow for me. I'm raring for when we get to the nitty gritty aqain; plot shifts, monsters, mysteries to unsolve! In a high level game you don't haggle over the prices very much because you're already rich. You are important, and therefore you time is spent on important matters. You advance quickly, the game moves quickly, and things change quickly. I love it :cool:

[Cadogan Trahem]

I find that starting on higher levels only slows advancement anyway as you now need alot more experience to advance. I prefer the low to low-mid ranged starting levels and don't mind if I don't advance at all so long as Im having fun. While its call good and nice to be able to cast some cool spells, or use some cool items, low level adventures are the ones I remember because you can die at any second - it really adds an edge to playing.

[SponkleofInfini]

Lol, if you think you can't die in a second in Epic campaigns then you don't know what the hell Epic campaigns are :) you're more likely to die in an Epic game then in other type of game.....excluding Cthulhu games of course :)

I like high level games but, then again I like low level games also. It solely depends on the quality of the game itself. If the story is good, what does it matter if you are level 5 or level 25, as long as there is fun to be had.

Levelling up is a minor aspect of PBP's, the story is the keystone, the element which is most important. That is what must be focused on, not on a characters potential power. I feel if you have a variety of games which you participate in you get a flavour of nearlly all types and find you don't mind the slow level increases.

Well I guess I have ranetd on enough.

[BigRedRod]

I'm with Dust on this one

I like to keep PBPs moving and fresh
Although in DT the players seemed to drive for the haggling experience, and it seems to be buildingf (and burning) some inter-character bridges, which is always good.
Still I give very inflated exp in my games to try and push the advancement, one problem with some PBPs is a total lack of level advancement
Gaining levels os a core idea of d&d and so I feel stuff neeeds to be changed so i can include it

The real thing with PBPs is getting the right abmount of stuff to amount of posts
Some are slow moving and everyone enjoys the minute level of interaction, others like to get a fair bit donw in your posts
Tailoring to each group of players is one ofthe challenges (and with 3-5 individuals all with different ideas of ieal speed, it is indeed bloody hard)

[Setzer Gabbiani]

It really depends on the type of campaign you're envisioning. Role-play heavy ones don't need much level advancement, since it's not an issue. Just about any other type, and it's 2d2 weeks per level (If the DM can post often enough to bring it).