Article: Frostgrave Campaign Rule Changes

[LordBrentlake]

There is a lot of good stuff in there and I commend your group on coming up with it and thank you for sharing it. Although as you say the original system is ok for short-duration campaigns, something like this is necessary IMO for longevity.

With Argonor, I'd want to have a little uncertainty about the game length but agree that 5 is a good mean value.

Keep up the good work but make sure you enjoy playing too. There is so much potential in the game.

[Kealios]

[I didnt read all the comments]:

I noticed last night during my first play-through that yes, the experience really rewards offensive wizards. My Soothsayer was not slinging offensive spells - not that it mattered in this game, but I like these changes.

[ducat]

Some very interesting and well thought out things here.

A couple of things I could see added or tweaked when we run a campaign...

Each shop has a list of things it has bought added (kept) which are available to all players that visit as well as the three random items.

Wizards get xp for killing in standard melee/shooting (so not for doing it with a spell)...this lets you build that monster wizard who wants to physically hit stuff etc.

Very minor stuff that just add a tweak. I especially like the shop inventory and can see it becoming an interesting list indeed in big multiplayer campaigns

[Calmdown]

Some very interesting and well thought out things here.

A couple of things I could see added or tweaked when we run a campaign...

Each shop has a list of things it has bought added (kept) which are available to all players that visit as well as the three random items.

Wizards get xp for killing in standard melee/shooting (so not for doing it with a spell)...this lets you build that monster wizard who wants to physically hit stuff etc.

Very minor stuff that just add a tweak. I especially like the shop inventory and can see it becoming an interesting list indeed in big multiplayer campaigns

We actually did consider those changes, you're definitely right they could work. The reasons we didnt go with them, in case you're interested:

Dave's first version of the out of game had a single shop that all players could buy from, and you could buy items that other people had sold, etc; there were two reasons we didnt go with that though. Firstly we wanted to stick to light/no bookkeeping, and secondly this sort of requires all players in the campaign to play games at the same time and the same number of times to keep the  shop at the correct "point in time" for buying and selling. We wanted to keep our rules simple and generic that people in all sorts of situations - clubs, FLGS, etc, who dont all necessarily play the same number of games or on the same schedule - could use. If you are OK with the bookkeeping and your playgroup allows it though, the shop approach would be a lot of fun and add  a lot of narrative to the between games.

We considered the same thing with Wizard XP, too, but we still felt that it broke the core of the issue that we were trying to solve; one type of Wizard should not be rewarded more than any other type. Even though a "Paladin" would be awesome, he still shouldn't be rewarded more than a Soothsayer or Illusionist or other "support" mage in our opinion.

[Drachenklinge]

I am just a silent bystander ... well, byreader .. so, just wanted to say thanks for the discussion. Very helpful and inspiring!

And even the "faults" make me want to play a game. Still haven't 

[Dakota Mike]

Hmm, there haven't been any updates to Bad-Karma.net in a long time.  I was looking forward to reading Calmdown's take on the rest of the Wizard Schools / Spells.  Also, now it seems that you can get access to the current articles by direct-link, there is no option through the Bad-Karma homepage anymore. 

I hope that Calmdown and Bad-Karma are still going to do more Frostgrave articles.  Their Soldier guide and Campaign stuff has been really good.

[gorillacrab]

I agree I greedily hope to see more from calmdown and badkarma. The changes to the campaign system and limiting games to 5-6 turns have improved an already great game system and both my groups use them.
- GC

[Darkson71]

Unfortunately it seems Calmdown has re-found World of Warcraft.