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My group finally wound up spending some time at camp, so I gave them the run down on the various duties they and the NPCs could fill.
Their decision is 4 defenders, 2 entertainers, 2 hunters, 2 medics.
The reason for the 4 defenders is because they want wandering monsters to come in and get smacked with 8d6 worth of trap damage. They have managed to kill a constrictor, a giant spider and 3 vipers so far. Fortunately the spider swarm ignored it.
From a metagaming perspective they figure that if they have the camp set up correctly that given sufficient time they should hit level 20 (by monsters wandering into the traps).
I will probably still give them xp for these trap defeated critters, but eventually the area they are in will 'run out' of random monsters, forcing them to at least relocate.
Has anyone else gotten some weird results?
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That is disgustingly meta, and quite frankly i'd find turtling in a RPG rather boring.
Hows this for interesting results- the group have a single NPC guard and spend half the day away from the camp. And i've yet to roll a single random encounter. The dice hate rolling 10 or below on D100.
Edit: For clarity it is now Day 5!
That's honestly pretty pathetic.
I would make them live out each and every single grueling day of it. I would do it with a smile.
Soon, another group of people would land on the island. Another ten castaways from the ship. But the PCs wouldn't even notice them. They'd be too busy sitting in their fortress camp.
The new castaways would complete the adventure and move on. I would say... in sixty days.
At day 60, I would close the book and nod to the PCs. "Okay. Another group of adventurers came to the island and finished the adventure now. I've been timing them and running them through the books in my head. They also took the only boat off of the island. Would you like to continue playing? There's no adventure but I figure we can sit here and do literally nothing while fighting jungle goats for the next six or seven months until Carrion Crown comes out. That's only what, 24 sessions? You might be level 20 by then."
Hm. I really wonder how much xp they could make in a year. I need to do a real trial.
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In their defense the party was allowing two of the PCs to recover from the Red Ache (one managed to take 7pts of Str dmg). :)
Also since they were in camp I split the xp they would have earned with the castaways.
I'm pretty sure they won't be staying in the camp now that they are currently all better.
Hm. I really wonder how much xp they could make in a year. I need to do a real trial.
One Year on the Shiv:
I just ran a trial of 1460 random encounter checks on the Shiv-- a whole year of this group turtling in their camp and waiting to level up. Here are my findings.
118 random encounters.
Living on the Shiv for a year generated 19465xp, a little more than what is necessary to reach 5th level. In comparison, adventuring on the Shiv for the so-far average of 60 days generates about 10,000xp.
The group wiped out the cannibals by attrition. Amusingly, one cannibal was killed near the start of the adventure; then one more a month later. Then, in the span of a few weeks, the cannibals attacked the party, at one point sending 9 men to kill the PCs in one day.
The group never encountered
The group killed roughly 29 jungle goats.
The group killed roughly 97 monkeys over the year. Of these monkies, only one monkey survived the gauntlet of traps to actually enter the camp and engage the players in combat. It had 1 hp.
7 spider swarms were killed over the year, totalling 10,500 diminuitive spiders. 6 bat swarms were killed over the year, totalling 30,000 diminuitive bats.
The least killed creature was the ghoul, tied with the shiv dragon. Both were encountered only four times.
Noteable creatures to enter the camp: All of the swarms. One entire wave of shocker lizards (4). One constrictor snake with 1 hp. One monkey with 1 hp. Two venomous snakes with one hp each. Every single wave of zombies. One jungle goat with 1 hp.
Most cannibals in groups survived the traps and engaged in combat with the PCs.
40,773.
Assuming 19465xp is the standard, it would take these characters to reach level 20.
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Assuming 19465xp is the standard, it would take these characters to reach level 20.
Interesting and fun calculation :)
There is a major factor missing though. With the exception of undead (which are in limited supply on the island) critters will eventually learn to avoid dangerous areas. That is why predators actually have to leave their lair to hunt. Food doesn't just show up at their doorstep very often. Relocating might not help much either as a lot of critters can identify their scents wherever they are.
Creative Director
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Another thing to keep in mind: Eventually, the island will run out of things worth XP. It's not all that big of a place. Sooner or later, the PCs will be starving for XP and will need to draw lots to decide who among themselves they kill to get their dose of XP.
In any event, if the players decide to do something like this in my game, I'd probably get frustrated before too long and have the chupacabra attack their tent and carry an NPC or PC off to the mountain just to give them a kick in the pants. Either that, or have a hurricane hit the island and blow their camp away. Either THAT, or I'd just frankly ask the PCs if they'd rather watch a movie than play Pathfinder.
It IS, though, a fun thought exercise to determine how long it would take to level up by just sitting at home in a tent. Not that you technically can't do this in any adventure, of course...
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Well I'm pretty sure that my party won't be turtling next session, they only did so for about a 1/3 of my last session as 2 PCs had to recover from disease.
And then they discovered that sure, the first monster of the day generally got wacked... but the 2nd monster of the day had no problems (jungle goats criticalled on the surprise round... hehe).
I would actually make the PCs go thru the fights vs swarms since the traps don't technically do damage other than physical. Other things with DR would probably have an easier time thru the traps as well (ie zombies).
Also the PCs managed to acquire the NPC quests... so they are getting ready to explore next session... of course if they decide not to I could always *cough* level the jungle goats *cough*. :)
Sooner or later, the PCs will be starving for XP and will need to draw lots to decide who among themselves they kill to get their dose of XP.
that conversation has already occurred.
please oh please let #2 be shipped soonly.
I'd probably get frustrated before too long and have the chupacabra attack their tent and carry an NPC or PC off to the mountain just to give them a kick in the pants.
This happened in my game. One of the NPCs was taken during the night and is currently being held by the chupacabra. Since the chupacabra is medium-sized, he went for the smallest NPC.
Alas, poor Gelik. I knew him, Horatio!
I'd probably get frustrated before too long and have the chupacabra attack their tent and carry an NPC or PC off to the mountain just to give them a kick in the pants.This happened in my game. One of the NPCs was taken during the night and is currently being held by the chupacabra. Since the chupacabra is medium-sized, he went for the smallest NPC.
Alas, poor Gelik. I knew him, Horatio!
that is inspiring. Gelick/Gnomes get picked on so much.
In ours, the Cannibals kidnapped Aerys for 'dinner' which lead the party to a midnight raid of the Thrunefang camp.
In ours, the Cannibals kidnapped Aerys for 'dinner' which lead the party to a midnight raid of the Thrunefang camp.
our gm kidnapped the entire crew while we were out and about. made the raiding party easier to track (with two of us aiding the ranger). I really want to know what became of the guy who lived in the Cabin, the one who left the journal behind. I imagine him being very much like Ashe in the Evil Dead series, tromping around Deadite infested woods with his trust Boomstick and Chainsawr arm.
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When we played we did the sit and wait thing very littel after two of the npcs were taken by the canabals. we set alot of traps but they were simpel, like sharpened stakes in the ground or trip line dead falls, and set them in strategec places. we used them along trails to pick off or at least wound some the canabals before we took their camp head on. as well as to gaurd our roving camp sites, witch oddly lead to the wounding, capture, and our eventual befriending of pezok. who then told us about the dryad who inturn alied with us, thanks inpart to my elf who spoke sylven.
Survival and camp basics were set around gathering fire wood, catching water in contaners, and cooking most of the monkies,goats,snakes,and shocker lizards. That harassed us during our wonderings and attempts at rest.
In all we were in a hurry to get off that cursed place and we did so with no fatalites, though admitably plenty of close calls and lasting scars and ability damage.