So, I've just started a new campaign after a real long runner, pretty fun, but some of the players started to get tired of playing the same character for months on end. Relating to this, one of my players approached me recently with an idea where each player has more than one character. Basically, each player would have a roster of two-three characters they can choose between for adventures, with wealth and loot being shared out between a player's characters (I.E. This wand is useless to my monk, but my wizard could use this!). The idea would be to keep things fresh for some of the players while also allowing more experimentation with party composition.
The player himself has offered to do any book keeping for some of the less organised players and nothing about this strikes me as particularly outrageous, aside from having to take wealth distribution and experience per adventure into consideration, but has anyone done anything like this before?
If so, any advice on what to else watch out or account for aside from that?
I suggest:
- some logical rationale for sharing loot between a player's several characters (they're brothers, blood brothers, father & son, married, etc)
- use an xp system where you arbitrarily say "everyone advances to X level for the next session", or else be ready to manage level disparity in the party, as some obtain xp while others don't.
Having a standby character can be extremely helpful in case of a sudden death, or having a character captured or similar.
Instead of having a pool of characters for each player, why not simply allow those characters who want to try something to new to put existing characters into a sort of semi-retirement, where they become a shopkeeper, innkeeper, captain of the guard, librarian or whatever, and try out a new character for a few sessions?
Another option would be to have all PCs be members of a transnational organization, like Agents of Shield or Hydra, with different teams sent on different missions in different parts of the world. Allow for occasional transfers between teams.
I've been contemplating multiple characters per player but for a play-by-post game.
For a table game, I would try having the players run two parties that are separate from one another.
Here's an example of how I might try this:
You could do something like the two parties are in mirror dimensions of one another and when the party in dimension A kills a great evil, it merely manifests itself in a new way in dimension B. Eventually, the two parties come into contact with one another and must destroy the great evil simultaneously (somehow) to defeat it once and for all.
This way, the players get to play different characters every now and then in a way that makes sense in a narrative.
Each character would track loot separately and have separate XP or whatever. You don't have to worry about loot sharing or anything like that.
You might even have an epic final battle with two battle maps at once.
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I'm sure others will have more understanding of the mechanics (how do you plan encounters, etc.), so I'll address the storytelling aspects. I've done this before in different settings, and here's some things I've found:
First, if continuity in roleplay is important to you, you'll probably want to come up with an in-game mechanism for the players to swap out characters.
Pathfinder Society does this by having the venture captain collect agents and send them on a mission (somewhat in the vein of the old Mission Impossible series), but it's an episodic campaign so it's a lot easier to change characters every session. Any characters that belong to the same overarching organization (church, family, guild, rotary club, whatever) could easily know each other and decide to go off adventuring in different configurations.
Second, consider how often you will let players swap out characters in game time. If you're letting them switch every session, then you're probably best off with the episodic set up. If you divide your game plot into story arcs or "books", you can create natural breaks in the plot to allow characters to switch. This can also let players choose some role-playing/character development instances to trigger a trade out: If you died last adventure and had to get raised, maybe you want to take a vacation for a bit.
Trading out characters is much, much trickier to pull off when your plot line involves a lot of travel or dungeon exploration that lasts for weeks on end. There's one adventure path where characters are trapped in a small town by the BBEG, and no one is allowed to enter or leave for weeks. Trading out a character in that situation is nearly impossible.
Third, consider the party dynamics when the players trade characters. If two players have teamwork characters, letting one trade out breaks the other's build. Having players run builds that step on each others' toes or duplicate roles might be an issue ("I want to be the rogue, darn it!"). Or having one player swap in a necromancer when someone else swaps in a paladin can be tricky. (In one game, I handled this by having two separate teams--everyone swapped together. I don't know if that will work for you.)
Make sure everyone in the group is OK with some players swapping characters, and make sure that all the characters have at least some chance of getting along.
Good luck!
I suggest:
- some logical rationale for sharing loot between a player's several characters (they're brothers, blood brothers, father & son, married, etc)
- use an xp system where you arbitrarily say "everyone advances to X level for the next session", or else be ready to manage level disparity in the party, as some obtain xp while others don't.Having a standby character can be extremely helpful in case of a sudden death, or having a character captured or similar.
Instead of having a pool of characters for each player, why not simply allow those characters who want to try something to new to put existing characters into a sort of semi-retirement, where they become a shopkeeper, innkeeper, captain of the guard, librarian or whatever, and try out a new character for a few sessions?
Another option would be to have all PCs be members of a transnational organization, like Agents of Shield or Hydra, with different teams sent on different missions in different parts of the world. Allow for occasional transfers between teams.
Thanks for the advice. The only issue with the organisation thing is that the players are starting as freelance mercs with the intention of getting involved with a lot of political factions in setting, but the rest of this looks helpful. I was already using an arbitrary xp system anyway, so that should be easy enough. Should I keep wealth rewards the same as if they were one character or increase it?
to make it easier on yourself i to keep Cr's in check and wbl and everything is that if the players want to do this they can only make changes at logical points so no switching mid dungeon even if it goes between sessions.
whenever you give out wealth as its distributed every character that player has gets that wealth so you arent trying to figure out how much to give during an encounter and people who only have 1 character get more loot than everyone else
for example Player 1 gets a +1 Greatsword he has a fighter a rogue and a wizard the rogue gets a +1 shortsword and the Wizard gets either a +1 weapon if he wants or sells for half and gets an item at that value from what would have been available.
and you can do xp the same way all chars even ones not being used in that immediate session/arc gain the same xp so its seamless for players to move in and out
the other thing i would recommend is at the end of each session tell everyone ok this is a point where anyone who wants can switch out their character to one of their others so everyone can be prepared going into the next week and no time is wasted making decisions right as you are about to start
Sounds good, luckily I was already planning for largely letting them switch only at the end of a adventure rather than a session like Gwen Smith suggested (Exceptions for things like character death notwithstanding), so that shouldn't be too hard. Personally, I might try and justify the characters 'off screen' gaining wealth as them adventuring on their own, just so there's a semi-logical reason why they're gaining wealth at the same time as the characters being played. But yeah, that sounds like the best method.
Thanks for the advice. The only issue with the organisation thing is that the players are starting as freelance mercs with the intention of getting involved with a lot of political factions in setting, but the rest of this looks helpful. I was already using an arbitrary xp system anyway, so that should be easy enough. Should I keep wealth rewards the same as if they were one character or increase it?I suggest:
- some logical rationale for sharing loot between a player's several characters (they're brothers, blood brothers, father & son, married, etc)
- use an xp system where you arbitrarily say "everyone advances to X level for the next session", or else be ready to manage level disparity in the party, as some obtain xp while others don't.Having a standby character can be extremely helpful in case of a sudden death, or having a character captured or similar.
Instead of having a pool of characters for each player, why not simply allow those characters who want to try something to new to put existing characters into a sort of semi-retirement, where they become a shopkeeper, innkeeper, captain of the guard, librarian or whatever, and try out a new character for a few sessions?
Another option would be to have all PCs be members of a transnational organization, like Agents of Shield or Hydra, with different teams sent on different missions in different parts of the world. Allow for occasional transfers between teams.
Actually pretty simple. The were part of X mercenary unit. Leadership got wiped out in some debacle. The 15 of them is all that got out with just the gear on their backs. They fled to {where ever they are now} and are trying to get started again.
Need special permit to form non-affiliated units larger than 5. (Which is only given to local nobles.)OR
Due to the reputation hit from being on the losing side, they can only get hired for odd, individual, low pay jobs.
etc...
A problem you may have is wealth distribution among a players 3 characters. Jimmy-Joe-Bob really likes his warpriest and always seems to decide that item Y would be best utilized by the warpriest. Pretty soon JJB is only playing the warpriest which has the wealth of 3 characters. You need to get your players to agree to keep the equipment reasonably equal.
I might increase the gear/cash found, but I wouldn't triple it. Being able to tailor the ideal character set for each individual mission should make it easier to accomplish.
Are you going to have the characters that did not adventure gain XP to level or only the ones that did do something? Makes a pretty big difference.
Actually pretty simple. The were part of X mercenary unit. Leadership got wiped out in some debacle. The 15 of them is all that got out with just the gear on their backs. They fled to {where ever they are now} and are trying to get started again.
Need special permit to form non-affiliated units larger than 5. (Which is only given to local nobles.)
OR
Due to the reputation hit from being on the losing side, they can only get hired for odd, individual, low pay jobs.
etc...A problem you may have is wealth distribution...
To answer the xp question, I was planning to play it mostly by ear, leveling up the players characters arbitrarily at the same time rather than count exact xp.
The point about wealth distribution is appreciated, might just have a talk with the players and ask them not to just pile all their wealth on one character. They're a decent group, so it shouldn't be a problem.Since I'd already started the game, it may be I'll have to get the players to actively 'recruit' new members for their mercenary group, but the whole taking odd jobs for reputation thing should work well.
I agree with ElterAgo.
First with the mercenary unit, that you guys can be sort of a Guild of people that receives contracts and this sort of things from all the country. The 5 men team can be a protocol of your organization. If you guys already started the game, you 5can be recruited by this organization instead.
Second with the WbL problems. But these can be easily fixed, just say that the hole guild has a common treasure chest, where it's members can take their part of the loot and arm themselves. The thing is, if a player start giving all of his loot to one single character, you can have the Guild Leader or even the other characters confront him for taking more than he is entitled.
One adventure idea can be your hole guild being summoned at once to a contract where they have to invade a big and highly secured facility through 3 diferent fronts and confront hordes of minions, lieutenants and generals, having to find shelter in dark corners, sewers and things like that to rest between encounters, so they can finally arrive at the BBEG's chamber.
Then you can have the BBEG be in three diferent chambers in three diferent dimentions, where your characters have to coordinate the kill through mirrors in the room, OR Have it be Three diferent Bosses, each with a diferent mechanic than the other. The players may switch between rooms to better coordinate the abilitys of the characters with that of the bosses, but the character lose a round each time they change room. Also have the portals to that room lock when the room's Boss die.
Plot twist: the BBEG is the Guild MAster all along. He hired all the people he thougth could defeat him and sent them to die never especting them to reach the final room. In the first scenario above he is the three dimensions at once. In the second, he splits himself in three where each part assume a monstrous form representing a dark part of himself.
I agree with ElterAgo.
First with the mercenary unit, that you guys can be sort of a Guild of people that receives contracts and this sort of things from all the country. The 5 men team can be a protocol of your organization. If you guys already started the game, you 5can be recruited by this organization instead.
Second with the WbL problems. But these can be easily fixed, just say that the hole guild has a common treasure chest, where it's members can take their part of the loot and arm themselves. The thing is, if a player start giving all of his loot to one single character, you can have the Guild Leader or even the other characters confront him for taking more than he is entitled.
** spoiler omitted **
Have to admit, I'm tempted to do just for the opportunity for a player to be chewed out by one of their own characters! Sounds like a good notion in either case. The adventure idea itself sounds cool, even if it would be a logistical nightmare to track all at once.
I've played in 2 campaigns that have done this.
In the first we all played 3 PCs and had 7 players so 21 PCs. In the first session we all played all 3 characters so a virtual army of 1st levelers going on an adventure. First encounter we dropped (rapelling into a deep hole)into a slaughter (multiple trolls ambush) and this brought our group down to 10 or 11. From then on we could only take 1 PC per player but could swap out with any of the remaining PCs at any time. As a group we were allowed to gift items to the non-played PCs and those non-played PCs got half XP while on the sideline. Not much swapping occurred.
In a later campaign we RPd pirates and had an entire shipload of PC/NPCs. Being a pirate ship, most everyone had to stay aboard. There were always repairs and upgrades to be done, food to be cooked, cargo to handle or sell, guard watch rotations to be filled. This allowed us to have 2 PCs each and swap whenever we needed to. Like the Enterprise, we had Away Teams in which the Captain almost always partook in the adventure. Sometimes we took a redshirt with us. Redshirts could always be converted to PCs as needed and since they were frequently involved in mass combat (ship to ship), we equiped them as best we could. It would not do to have all of the sailors die and your boat be stranded at sea or in a port. PCs all leveled at the same time. NPCs leveled slower.