Loot availability/distribution in adventures

I haven’t met players who take fewer ‘risks’ with their secondaries, but I HAVE come across players who play with secondaries (using foreknowledge of what is going to happen) who make decisions so they get the best gear, then using willing intermediaries are able to transfer the best gear to their primaries when they didn’t get it the first time.

This isn’t to say it happens often, or even recently, but I have heard and seen this happen.

Ah. I hadn’t thought about that aspect of it. I’ve seen very little trading of special items (I’m sure it happens – I’m just unaware of it). I don’t think most living campaigns allow trading (I’m 99% sure in LFR you can loan items for the current adventure but not trade permanently). If that is the concern, I’d rather just see a rule to the effect of “an item you trade away can never be traded to another of your characters” but that would be hard to track/enforce.

I’m really not sure where the right balance is. I do view characters as completely separate – it wouldn’t have even occurred to me to trade items from one of my characters to another one.

Yes, if you replay, all you get is what’s on the replay cert (xp and gold). I thought you could trade items (but I could be wrong).

I was wondering why you can’t get anything besides xp and gold on a replay (since it is a different character). I don’t know of any other living campaign with that restriction. It’s not something I’m really concerned about (though it will mean my primary can’t get most items from arc 2 simply because he’s too low rank to play arc 2 currently (so my secondary is)) – it’s just very different from other living campaigns so I was curious of the reasoning (if you can trade items, that could explain part of it).

I also like the idea of allowing Heroes to buid their own weapon/item/whatever. Now, I’m just thinking outloud here, but maybe we could assign a point value to an item, rather than gold and allow those items to be “turned in” for something that the player truly wished to have.

I’m sure there are other issues, but the idea has merit. Now its just a matter of seeing if we’re smart enough to come up with an equitable way of doing it.

Given Henry’s invitation, let me throw out at least one starting point for a possible system. My thinking is agree on the principles first and then the prices later.

Character Signature Points

Methods to Earn
1 per Chronicle Page. Conveniently we have a space to track them as we don’t track Fate Points any more.
Rationale: This encourages and rewards players for every mod played. This covers both 1st time and replay. Arguably set a base number of points for a 1.5 Cert though lower than the 25 Arc 1 mods that are available.

In place of items found. This would be special items. Not all items would have this. A character that takes an item either for use or sale does not get the associated Signature Points.
Rationale: This ensures everyone gets some benefit even when there are limited item options. It also means that for things that are easily bought – weapons and runes for example, some armor, it’s all money and shouldn’t go above and beyond the base price.

Items found have a Signature Point cost to take as part of the mod rewards.
Rationale: If you’re taking an item there should be an opportunity cost in buying other signature items if one of the goals is to keep rough parity between characters. This doesn’t mean that the item should necessarily be the full cost, but something. Say a Gauntlet of Immaculate Defense is found and the Signature Point cost of it is 10 if bought using SP, then perhaps it costs 5 SP to take it as their share. Half may not be the right balance point, but it lessens the incentive to grab it if it’s not as appropriate as it means setting backing buying something that is. It should also discourage the kinds of manipulating the system that some folks are doing to get the rewards they want.
Edit: Add: Players with insufficient points may go into a hole with GM approval. This way a new character who hasn’t played any or many mods yet doesn’t miss out on something that works for their character.

What you can “Buy”
Tier Appropriate Gear – These are items from an approved list for a set cost for each item. Pricing should be done based on relative rarity of the item from a story perspective and usefulness.

Special Flavor – a defined set of history related to these particular items. Examples could include things such as 1st Imperium, Auxunite, Kio or other campaign approved plans. This list is there as hooks for future stories in one form or fashion that the authors can build around. This can help the player who buys it more of a sense of being integrated into the broader world. Consider getting an item once owned or wielded by the Sorcerers who protected the Imperator of the 1st Imperium… perhaps only to discover that the item is valued and actively sought by the Mourners given its ties to the Eryunellians.

Special Materials – this could include fervidite, sarishan steel or whatever. There may be limits on what these get combined with or a higher cost for odd combinations. For example, there was speculation that it was possible to have a Sharishan Steel Kio Sword. Only Henry probably knows if this is even possible, if it is perhaps there’s a cost and it’s allowed, perhaps not.

Item Quality – price to be able to make an item Fine or Exceptional. Legendary obviously would need to be approved and maybe needs to be worked with the campaign staff to determine an appropriate history.

Item Flaws – Part of what makes some items more personal and memorable are the impact they have on the character. These could provide a modest cost break and may be dependent on what Archetype you are. An envious sword is going to have less of an impact on a caster than on a martial character for example.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

I added one additional clarification to my original suggestion. It’s included in green above. It’s:

Edit: Add: Players with insufficient points may go into a hole with GM approval. This way a new character who hasn’t played any or many mods yet doesn’t miss out on something that works for their character.

I felt this needed to be added so there was flexibility on a case by case basis and especially so new players that we’d encourage to play, don’t loose out or get turned off.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

I don’t particularly see a problem with Replays getting Signature Points using this model, given that any items “purchased” with the points are only available on the replay character.

Hello Paul,

Interesting proposal and something I’m sure the Staff and I will discuss, but the following:

Special Flavor

is not something I am comfortable with.

If the idea is that you’re trading in items and resources to have something made for you, then, by definition, it can’t have a backstory like the ones you list above.

I would much rather have those special flavor items be ones that are found during play, not something purchased.

My thought was that the signature points represented acquiring the item, not necessarily commissioning it. With that in mind the item could have been acquired from a collector or in some way spelled out by the special flavor. My intent was that the options for that were completely controlled by you and the campaign staff, not open to player definitions. It became an extra tool in your storytelling box, perhaps to even set up hooks for stories you or the other authors hadn’t started to tell. That said, I can certainly understand not wanting to take the spotlight off of items discovered within the stories. If it’s better not to offer that, or only offer it within the context of specific mods or events, that’s fine.

As I mentioned, I figured what I put out there would simply be the start of any discussion. I would have been shocked if it had been adapted whole cloth.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

I like the idea of the Signature Point system presented by Hat. After thinking about it briefly, it seems to strike the right balance to not throw tons of items into the game and also not have people feel like they never gain anything that can’t be purchased.

Hopefully we’ll see something like this in an upcoming campaign guide.