Character Threat Value

[StarRaven]

GMs (and Clay, of course!) what do you suppose is the typical Threat Value of a starting character in your game? If you don't look at your players' TVs, what method do you use for limiting the character's power levels at the beginning of the game, if any?

I'm trying to get a feel for the average power level of a starting character, mostly out of curiosity. I usually limit starting characters to a TV of about 15 and I wonder if this seems particularly high or low.

Also because I'm organizing a collection of monsters, items, and spells I've been making and using for my games (and updating them in preparation for running OVA Revised.) They are fantasy-themed! Would anyone be interested in seeing them?

[Kahmal]

Sure the more you bring to the table to more we all can grow in making this game a better experience for the players we GM for.

[Atmo]

GMs (and Clay, of course!) what do you suppose is the typical Threat Value of a starting character in your game? If you don't look at your players' TVs, what method do you use for limiting the character's power levels at the beginning of the game, if any?

I'm trying to get a feel for the average power level of a starting character, mostly out of curiosity. I usually limit starting characters to a TV of about 15 and I wonder if this seems particularly high or low.

Also because I'm organizing a collection of monsters, items, and spells I've been making and using for my games (and updating them in preparation for running OVA Revised.) They are fantasy-themed! Would anyone be interested in seeing them?

Looks interesting! I'm waiting for the full version to restart some games i started last year, as TV wasn't "officially" given to us (via book, i mean).

That aside, are your material focused on one setting or is "fantasy generic"?

[StarRaven]

I'm waiting for the full version to restart some games i started last year, as TV wasn't "officially" given to us (via book, i mean).

If you have information from previous games, that's good, too! (That's what I'm working off of anyway, since I only just started my game with Revised.) The power level haven't changed much. The only difference I noticed was, I think I recall Clay mentioning adding Armored and initiative rolls to TV.

That aside, are your material focused on one setting or is "fantasy generic"?

TL;DR:
There's nothing highly setting-specific about my monsters. That said, they're not the usual D&D fare.

LONG RAMBLE:
I really wanted to create original monsters for my gaming group, because we're all huge geeks with lots of reading and RPGs under our belts. We played Rolemaster together for years, and as players we made kind of a game of seeing who could figure out what monster the GM had rolled from as little information as possible! At the first rustle of tall grass and growl and the clink of a poisonous spine hitting someone's shield, we were all shouting, "Manticore!" That was fun, but there were no surprises. So I spent a lot of time making a unique bestiary so they'd have to figure out how best to fight them by using the information that they were given, instead of just recalling what they knew from the last time they read the Monster Manual or from Greek mythology or a Final Fantasy game.

That said, I'm sure they do have a particular "flavor" to them. I'm a big fan of monster capture/train games like Pokemon and Monster Rancher, and also a huge fan of Monster Hunter. There are a lot of Element-Animal types of monsters, and a lot of big dinosaur/dragon things, and not a lot of humanoids.

Anyway, long story short (too late? lol), I'm doing monster concept art for a project (like a bestiary sort of thing) and I'm also preparing to GM an OVA game so two birds with one stone and all may as well share with the community.

This message has been sitting in an open tab unsent for like three days huhuhuhu.... Anyway I'll share some monsters when I'm done with them.

But really, nobody has any opinions on TV? ;_;

[CursedEmbrace]

But really, nobody has any opinions on TV? ;_;

A lot of the characters in the 2 campaigns I've started have been in the 12-25 threat value range, heavily depends on what rules you set for character creation though.

Using Power Ceiling (12) and Scaled Cost for my most recent campaign had several of the starting characters clocking in at around 15, with my own character (just to make up PC-numbers) being only a mere 7, but he also has the ability to summon minions and a fairly constant, meatier companion to back him up... though, the highest TV in the campaign, at creation anyway was 21.

Not sure if that helps at all, but that's my experience thus far!

[StarRaven]

That helps a ton. *3*

Sounds like my manually-imposed TV limit of 15 is a little on the low-average side. That's cool. That means my monsters are probably scaled about right for other peoples' campaigns, but could stand to be beefed up just a tad.

[CursedEmbrace]

That helps a ton. *3*

Sounds like my manually-imposed TV limit of 15 is a little on the low-average side. That's cool. That means my monsters are probably scaled about right for other peoples' campaigns, but could stand to be beefed up just a tad.

Well the books (1st edition and the kickstarter-backing preview) have some suggestions for additional character creation rules, which is where Power Ceiling and Scaled Cost come from, but it also advises (somewhere) that a character shouldn't really be starting with an attack roll or with a damage multiplier or whatever higher than 5 dice, which is a suggestion I ignored for my most recent campaign and by ignored I mean didn't recall and only rediscovered upon reading the thing more thoroughly.

Feel free to buff your own creations as much as you like obviously, but when you come to think up encounters of say... Goblins, you could always just leave them fairly puny (presumably low-threat value as a result) and just chuck a handful or two at the players, instead of making them tougher... not that I necessarily think you're talking about some kind of creature the likes of your typical goblin or anything.

[Clay]

I wish I had more concrete advice to give here, but it REALLY depends on your PCs. 15 may be just great for one group, but if you have a set of really mundane, low-statted characters, or conversely, really high, Dragon Ball Z-esque ones, it may not be.

That said, 15 SEEMS pretty good. Most of the sample OVA characters (if I recall correctly) dance around the 20 mark. 15 would give them a 25% boost.

Also, you can always increase/decrease the number of enemies in the encounter. If a 15 TV encounter is too weak...odds are TWO 15 TV encounters working together won't be. >:)

[StarRaven]

I remember the character creation rules, don't worry! I was curious if anyone had any data about what sorts of TVs these character creation rules end up with since I always explain TV to my players and ask them to try to hit around a certain mark with it. I don't really nitpick, I think someone's at 17 in the game I'm running now and I'm fine with that, but I like to make sure nobody's too low, either, because I've been that guy and it's no fun when it sneaks up on you. (I've been that guy on purpose, too, and that's fine, though. Ahaha.)

Yeah. In the case of a fantasy game, which is what this is aimed at, I think this is pretty okay. If your party is pre-Tetsusaiga Inuyasha and Kagome, a pack of wolves is a big deal. If you're Goku, you're probably having one-on-one fights with dragons where you punch them in the face into mountains. That's fine, I think. That's the way the world should work.

I am also notoriously easy on my players. I admit it. I'm a nice GM. It's a failing. *goes to a support group*

One day I want to run a game where the characters punch dragons in the face. *single tear*