Hi all, this may be somewhere else but I figured that this fell under the category of homebrews, in a way. I just barely got Ultimate Campaign two days ago for my birthday and I'm pretty impressed with everything they packed in here. Lots of flavor, lots of stuff that'll help my players get into their characters more, which I love. Getting to the optional Campaign Systems got me thinking if anyone has tested them out yet in a campaign, and/or if they're compatible with one another in such a way that utilizing Honor, Reputation, Contacts, etc. all at the same time won't significantly slow down gameplay.
It seems to me that having the optional systems be something that players can opt in on would be the easiest route. The Paladins and Cavaliers can use the Honor rules, the Rogue who is playing around with building up contacts can simply ignore that system, and in this same game the Bard can work on increasing his fame. Any input or experience would be great, I'm planning on implementing these as optional systems for characters that want to work for the bonuses while those who aren't as interested can just pass them up.
Thanks!
I recommend against using more than one optional system at the same time.
They're all pretty good, in my opinion, but not every campaign benefits from their inclusion. Some of them look like they fit together pretty well, but every rule you add slows down the game a bit as players are not instantly familiar with the rules.
Don't bite off more than you can chew. Pick the 1-3 systems that appeal to you most, or are most thematic for your campaign, and start there. Otherwise, wait until someone actually says "hey, we should use the Honor rules here..."
Yeah, I agree. I was thinking more along the lines of using them primarily in a sort of pseudo-Downtime state. Instead of necessarily using the Goods, Influence, etc. stuff that they list there I was thinking that if a player wanted to they could build up Contacts during Downtime while another player was building up his Fame. So instead of the characters building houses and bases and whatnot they can be focused more on a campaign system of their choice. They do seem to be made to play off one another, but I'm with you on how much they'll bog things down.
Thanks for the input! Have you used any of them, or anything like them? I always DM so I see all these rad things that I'd love to use as a player but never get really get the chance to.
I adventure vicariously through my players.....
I think you can safely use all the final chapter, kingdoms and war, together.
IMHO they are very incompatible with the downtime system, but work with retraining.
Kingdoms and War or the optional campaign systems? Downtime seems to be tailored more towards those players who want to set up bases and build things, which we're not really too interested in at my table. I like how in-depth they went with all of the things you can do with your downtime though, and it seemed to me that it would be pretty easy to use that same sort of idea--the more abstract "we have 5 days before our next adventure here's what we do" thing--with other mechanics in place of buildings or whatever. Build trust with your contacts, get honor points schmoozing with nobles or clergy.
I also like retraining. My players like to dork around with different abilities so I think this'll give them a good opportunity to try new things out.
I've used the prototype versions from the various adventure paths, though not all of them. I've yet to break out the new versions, but I look forward to it.
I know a lot of people like the Kingmaker realm expansion/conquest stuff. I have yet to run that module but it looks pretty cool. I've done most of the other prototypes, too, and I think the only one I was kind of meh about was the Jade Regent caravan stuff. Didn't seem like it would be very exciting to have a group of bandits attack the caravan and then... we roll caravan vs. opponent? That system got nixed after the first caravan battle: it was already iffy when the party spent almost an hour just figuring out the caravan rules.
Still, I applaud the guys at Paizo for making efforts at introducing systems like these. They usually get about 80% of the way there and the rest is just personal preference I think.