Me neither, this is just a one-shot for halloween. But this kind of you-are-a-piece-of-shit-and-cannot-do-anything-to-survive isn't something I'd do for weeks on end.
I actually try to go insane or die before the end of the one-shot usually. Not this one thought, because a soul is in jeopardy this time.
Used to be. In 5th, all you lose is the possibility to switch spells. And with a focus no need for most components except the ones that have a gold cost.
ONLY if the player is cool with it. I prefer to break immersion that lose a player. If I have to choose, fuck immersion, I love my players and I want to keep them at my table.
Althought I do love immersion. You can have your cake and eat it too. Just... fuck it if the cost is a player's fun.
Plus I think its unfair that some classes are bounded to strict conditions and some not. Why doesnt the artificer or wizard able to lose their powers then if the cleric or paladin does ?
I agree with you. If the player agrees to it, sure go ahead. As a bad surprise or a bad consequence of something else ? Find something that would affect anyone the same. Like jail.
If I had time, I was going to get Continual flame rings on his middle finger. He was the king of Vicious mockery, Dissonant whispers, and used Healing Word to intimate dead people back to life NOW !
You gotta live it. And make it progress. I also one time did Smokin Joe Rudeboy. If you do not know who that is, you are missing out. Try in in youtube and tell me this isn't an epic concept for a character.
This is a nice reading. Thank you for taking the time to share it with us.
The funny, very funny thing in retrospect, is that I'm not sure if I'm well placed to answer that. Not only have my previous campaigns been using a magical moving merchand call Xoblub, but in the campaign that I've been heading for more than 2 years now, there is no money. They can find shinies, they certainly find items, but their tribe has a magical weapon, armor and item shop that is there to trade away and get rewards from their objectives. And since there is no civilisation to speak of, no money. It's Barter Town.
Last games, the players actually managed, as they say in John Wick, "an impossible task". After 4 encounters draining their resources away and no rest, they found a Lich wanting to rob the store from ALL of it. Meaning if they didn't somehow stopped it, they wouldn't be able to trade away or get rewards anymore.
They did it. They fucking did it.
There was even a harry potter moment, where a player used a magical item to reverse Power Word Kill on the Lich itself and was saved because of that.
Fucking amazing.
Sorry, I got taken over. But all this to say, like you said, it's all about what you want in your games and for your players.
Both as a DM and player, I'm into the generous type. I like magical items, and money, and means to buy magical shit. It's fun. Gold becomes a secondary XP meter that they can orient to a certain point. And if they are more challenging, then you get to use the 7 undead units I got to try in that last adventure.
So, I quite literally have an economy of magical items. And honor. And reputation. Making the numbers and economy behind it VERY fluctuent.
So fluctuent that, you know what their master will give them for saving the magical store and tens of citizens ? Any magical item. Anything. If it were a normal economy and world it might shatter from it, but mine ? Well, I'll tell you later. I don't know yet what they will pick :)
But yeah. Once this one is done, I might try a more down to earth campaign with lower starting point. See how it is when it's more survival-esq.
Yeah. But if you start to think of it as part of a real world economy concept its not the same game anymore. But would you really prefer realistic conditions ? I mean maybe, everyone is different. But I dont think it would be fun for me personnally
Indeed. I think you are thinking it the wrong way. If it doesnt make sense in the economic aspect, do you know where it does make sense ? The gameplay aspect. The best armors of the game should be behind dungeons or paywalls to guarantee a level 1 or 2 doesnt go straight to it.
It doesnt make sense when you think of it as anything but a game. And its still a game. Its why in RE games you constantly find ammo and helpful items where there is no in universe reason to have them there at all.
Just like treasures in dungeons. How long would a world need to exist to have every dungeon ramsacked by elite warriors and mages ? A few years top. And most worlds are older, so it makes no sense to still have dungeons and loot in them does it ?
But its fun. Its a game and its fun to go and explore a fresh dungeon even if its very existence doesnt make sense in universe.
Hence the meme indeed