Hat wrote:
mith wrote:
<snip>"to be part of the story" - that's my 'reward' for attending the convention in the first place and playing a Con exclusive, otherwise why wouldn't I just play everything at home? Bottom line - this should be a 'given' and not factored into the BI reward.
Yes and no. A lot of people couldn't afford or get the special Henry run tables that BEAST participated in. The experience of being able to do something that those who couldn't be there is part of the reward. Arguably the rest of the reward for participating should be somehow connected to the event.
The special tables aren't really part of this discussion, as it is entirely focused on the BI. However, it was suggested going into the special table that we would not receive XP. In fact, most of us assumed going in that we wouldn't get *anything* at all due to the scope of the story. All we asked for was a chance to learn new lore and have an affect on the world we live in. Any items, blessings, curses, xp, whatever...well that would just be gravy. For my $300 to sit at the table, I got exactly what I was expecting and hoping for - and I haven't even gotten a cert yet. The BI is an entirely different animal. Any attempt to compare the two is akin to comparing apples to 747's.
Hat wrote:
mith wrote:
<snip>storylines (in the standard mods) that were incredibly 'meh' to my S'sressen table (BEAST)
The storylines are what they are, and the Ss'ressen aren't central to the stories being told this time around. In a home campaign the GM can tailor the adventure for the characters. There are a variety of very interesting character builds out there that aren't going to have an obvious hook into every mod. If you choose to play a character concept that isn't likely to have a strong tie to the main story, there's nothing wrong with that. BEAST is a neat idea. When you expect the central story to engage everyone equally even those characters that are more off the beaten track, that's when you have a problem. It's a choice.
No one at all is suggesting Ss'ressens are central, hell I'm not even stating they're important. My point was that we sat at the first table and it was all political in-fighting this and backstabbing that. As a special forces squad, BEAST couldn't have given two poops about what was going on. It was pink-ish skins backbiting, lying, cheating, and generally being humans - that ultimately had almost nothing to do with Milandir, thus even less to do with the Black Talon.
There's always a mod that comes along where the character (and/or the player) simply doesn't care about the plot or reasoning. At a home game, sure, it's easy to say "nah, I'm going to sit this one out", but at a con...playing the game is the entire reason for being there in the first place. Why in Hades would anyone say "you know, I paid a lot to come to this con, then paid for the badge, then paid for the slot...but the plot just doesn't interest me, I'll see you guys in a few hours"!? Doesn't happen - at least that I've ever heard of. You slog through, you rationalize that somehow you care about more than the XP (and maybe loot) you're going to get at the end, but in the end...you still don't really care. You get the cert, add in the XP, and hope in the next mod there's more of a hook for your character. I'm not whining, I'm not complaining...I'm simply stating that other than XP, there was no reason for any member of BEAST to bother with the first mod, yet it would have been pretty stupid for any of us to sit out.
Hat wrote:
mith wrote:
campaign wide "gritty rules" that may likely kill my characters (spending multiple advancements into defenses alone does not fit said characters, thus I refuse to do it)
Ok, this argument has worn itself out for me. You wouldn't take a character who's Mute to a RP intensive mod that might have no combat and expect it to necessarily be fun. Likewise a battle interactive is a battle interactive. It's combat intensive. It's risky. Characters that are fragile for whatever reason are going to have problems. Nothing requires you to bring that particular character into the BI. You could build a combat intensive character who primarily only plays BIs and who shines there. It could still be designed to fit into BEAST or whatever theme a group has. That way you as the player don't miss out and increase your enjoyment of the experience. If it's critical to play the same character through everything, then the character should be designed to function reasonably well in BIs and standard mods. If it's not then you have a disconnect you need to fix.
The key thing with my sniper is you have to see him to hit him (or use AoE where you think he is). His hide is typically in the mid to high 30's. So it works GREAT. But... When the GM nerfs/disallows something specifically in the rules that completely gimps my character's ability to hide, THEN I have a serious disconnect. Tick 1 (first Tick 1) of the round at the BI with all of those bridges and groups of crossbowmen my character took 4 wounds (and was down), not a single one because of a crit...all because Pedro said I couldn't use one of my Talents and hide. Ask Flynn, my sniper is a beast (no pun intended), but when you have an entire squad of minions targeting a single character, something's going to give. Keep in mind that unlike every other Ss'ressen, Ghost Scale get almost no AR. Additionally, to use all of my talents which help me hide - you know, those talents Pedro said I couldn't use - require that the character not where ANY ARMOR. So the entire BI I was double whammied, which was just awesome. Replace those talents I couldn't use with defenses and sure, I wouldn't be complaining about 'gritty rules' either. As for my second character, he's a lover, not a fighter - which is why his ass stays out of BIs.
Hat wrote:
I've played or run 3 mods since Origins. All using the massive damage rules. Wounds have happened on rare occasion, but they certainly haven't threatened the lives of the characters. There may be specific mods that are more deadly, but as a general rule I don't think this is as much of a concern as most people think. For reference my character has defenses of 20/18/19 at 2.2 with Fortitude being my weakest.
And in how many of those modules have you had entire squads of minions unloading with their best attacks on a single character?