Starting a new Campaign... plz help.

[Astros]

Hello, all. If you were at ICON you may know me as the quiet paranoid uncle trying to retake the thrown. In any case, I am potentially starting a BW campaign (players willing) and could use some advice.

I don't know what type of game the players want to play yet, but I want to make it a generally balanced game. How can I do that? What would you suggest for new players? I want to give them options, as well as allow elves and dwarves, but I dont want some characters being able to do everything, and having other characters just sit there.

I was thinking of impossing an age limit, combined with a lifepath limit, but dont know if thats ok... because I understand preists and wizards take longer to develope, and i want those options open as well. We have 5 players. I was definitly thinking about limiting people's lifepath choices (humans) to Villager, and make them go from there. I dont know if this is a good option either.

Please tell me what I could do, or at least look out for to make sure the party is relatevly the same power level. From reading I understand that powergaming is frowned upon (as I think it should be) but an B8 power and B8 forte only results in a low B2ish will.. so its the player's choice to be extremly strong but dumb and fragile as a stick.

Help appreciated.
-Lance

[luke]

Hi Lance. I don't think you'll have a problem with this. First off, starting character exponent maximums are 6. And all exponents must be approved by the GM, regardless. Therefore, you have a hand in helping balance characters (so they don't have two skills at G6 and 6 other skills and B2).

I recommend 3 LP for rank beginner characters, 4 LPs for starting novice type characters and 5 LPs for solid, experienced characters.

What you should really do is sit down with your players and discuss what kind of game they want to play in. I strongly recommend not limiting lifepath choices.

And then you should decide the mood of the game you want to run. Dark, gritty? Epic? Comedic? I can recommend some other choices based on your tastes.

-Luke

[Kublai]

First off, just a quick check on your Stat math: keep your Mental and Phys points seperate. It looked like you might've dumped them altogether in your above example.

Anyway, moving on...

I strongly recommend you talk to your players and discuss the kind of game they want to play. With all the options you get with the BW lifepaths, it's real easy for your players to come up with great characters that have ABSOLUTELY no connection whatsoever. This is really bad for GMs, trust me!

You'll find beginning skill exponents of 4 are best for beginning a new campaign. There'll be plenty of growth and this makes for much player satisfaction. Starting with higher exponents means less growth, which new players might not prefer.

You might try limiting the last lifepath's Setting an easy way to get players in the same locale to begin with. If every player had to make his last lifepath in the Village setting, you'll automatically have an easy in for creating past relations among the PCs.

Finally, a rule of thumb that's quickly becoming BW canon is to enforce that your PCs all have at least one Belief that ties them into the campaign goal. This will provide motivation for all your characters from the get-go and you won't have to spend lots of time trying to hook them into your plot. For example, if everyone has a belief that includes getting revenge on a local lord/monster/whatever, you'll find keeping them interested is much easier.

Good Luck!

[Astros]

Thanks for the responses so quickly. I am in the process of speaking with the players via email, asking them what type of BW game they would like, etc... But I did find your comments helpful on many things.

We. as a group, have already ended now 2 d20 campaigns because of character interaction fatalities. Not in the sense that characters killed one another, but that character interaction was killing the game. We have notriously stubborn and "niche" gamer group who enjoy their eccentric and exotic concepts.

I liekt he idea of bringing their lifepaths together, and making them have a campaign oriented belief. Thanks.

I will let you know more when I know more from my players.