To be clear to everyone, I did not start this thread to seek praise, appreciation, etc. Nor did I do it to call anyone out or make them feel bad. I did it because I want everyone to have a fun time at BIs and I often think that certain assumptions/expectations can come into conflict to what is actually intended, thus causing distress.

@Eric...what you have described, I would not call going "off-script". That would be ad-libbing a line here or there. For example, in that same encounter, my table attempted to move/force push one of the large "roadblock" creatures off the walkway. That was something I had not even considered when writing the stats. I, on the fly, gave the critter Relentless to prevent it because I knew to allow otherwise would 1) cause a 45min scene to be done in less than 10minutes (since the goal was to cross the board, not kill opposition) and 2) would mean that the "special" table comprised of people knocked off the ledge would be short a man...and I knew what they were going to have to face. To me, off-script is doing something completely against the intended fight design. (off the top of my head: switching the minion crossbowmen to casters and dropping AoE spells, or significantly changing the amount of foes faced)

I have said it before, and I think it bears repeating. Fights are not just intersting combat diversions in the middle of a story. Fights ARE story. They are a tool for illiciting drama, joy, sorrow, and self reflection of a character. Yes, stat blocks are a mechanical breakdown of an obstacle. But (at least when I build them), they are also a reflection of that NPC. Weapon choice, maneuvers, fighting style, etc are as much a part of that persona as is speech pattern, vocabulary, and personality.
Paul's example proves the point perfectly. How long ago (in real time) was the Epebyn BI? and yet, for those of us that played then, we remember the climactic moment where the ground opened up and we were all caught in a collective nest of il-huan. It was not a question of if your Hero would survive, it was a question of how long could you survive their mental onslaught...and it was glorious.

I think one thing that would really suck about having a character killed is to lose a tier 2.x (or, worse, 3.x) character and only be able to create a new tier 1.5 character. To somewhat lessen the effects of character death, maybe have the death cert Haakon mentioned allow the creation of a new character at the x.5 or x.10 tier closest below the killed character. The only problematic aspect I see would be which modules would the new character be eligible to play?

To be honest, I do like the idea of a "Next of Kin" cert which allows you to make a character at -5 ranks or something below your present character. I think a modification of this could be done for "Special Tables", such as the one which attempted to penetrate the Citadel of Nier/The Silence where it was pretty much a suicide mission going in, where the players get a special cert allowing for special characters (like the "Black Vals" or val'Vasik from the Kickstarter, or like the val'Hamen from "Shadows of a Forsaken Past" when a Dark-kin is killed).

As for notes about how deadly Battle Interactives are. . . I'm sorry to sound heartless but I do not see how ANYONE could view a BATTLE as anything but a bunch of lethal fights?! To think anything else is ludicrous. That said, I understand why players would throw their character in regardless of any martial skills, because BI's grant 500+ XP and that is simply too much to give up because your character wouldn't be interested in risking their life. To that end, I personally would prefer fewer BI encounters with more variety (similar to this year's Savona Interactive) with missions for Stealth, Heavy Combat, and even come combat engineering stuff rather than "Well, I guess you all have to deal with Infernals raining from the sky. . ." I would also love to see more "ArcaniCon-style" Interactives and LARPs at Origins, but as someone who has helped with the last two, I know how much of a pain that is to pull off.

I agree with Cody. BIs are meant to be lethal and there should be a 'play at your own risk' element to it. Not every character is built to grind out round after round of heavy combat. I would not expect a player of a val'Mehan Emissary, for example, to be in the front lines of such a combat and not come out like a walking pin cushion. However, it would be nice if there were encounters between such combat action where characters like that can shine (negotiating POW exchanges, interrogating prisoners which can influence upcoming missions, stealth missions, etc.).

Agreed. I think this needs to be called out more explicitly as I think Matt is correct and the player base generally speaking doesn't have this mindset.



And here's where the "Yes, but..." comes in. Either the event supports the character throughout or it doesn't. As I mentioned before, I like the idea of different type activities during the same round to mix things up and play to different players strengths. The only other idea that comes to mind is for players being able to bring a second character along with the expectation that if they use different characters for different missions, the rewards get split between the characters as well. This is probably more headache than it's worth though.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

Never make any assumptions when you say val'Mehan...

(I will be one in Tier 5...)

~T

You'll be a pin cushion in Tier 5? Good to know!

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

Hello,

I have mixed feelings about Battle Interactives, primarily because while I enjoy the event, the inevitable complaining that follow immediately after is disheartening - the fights were too hard, the fights were too easy, I wasn't challenged enough, my GM sucked, the story personally offended me because (pick a psuedo-trigger), etc., etc., ad nasuseum.

I applaud the efforts of Tony, Joe, Matt and Cody in designing an event that created a hybrid LARP/BI, but we don't have the ability to do that format at Origins, given we are also offering a LARP due to popular demand (and yet more complaining about its absence last year).

Additionally, due to the amount of grief Eric received from running last year's Invasion of Tultipet, he will not be narrating this years BI. I will.

I am still designing the event, but here's what you may expect:

This is a pure BATTLE INTERACTIVE - where warring factions clash to achieve an objective by (primarily) martial means.

While I am changing the format slightly there may or may not be moments for your non-combat Heroes to shine. If you have a diplomat, go to the LARP where roleplaying such a character will have its benefits. (I'm changing a few things there as well).

This is a LETHAL event. I will be using the Massive Damage Rules. Heroes may fall in this battle. If you do not want to take the chance of this happening with your character, don't bring him/her to the BI.

These events take a lot of work and planning from a number of people and that's not even counting the unsung heroes of every BI, the judges!

If you enjoy this sort of thing, then please join us at Origins. I will try to write a compelling adventure that strings together what I hope to be challenging fights.

But know this: NO ONE IS OUT TO KILL YOUR CHARACTER. Not me. Not the GM or Campaign Staff.

We like you (well, the vast majority of you) and speaking for myself, I do not like killing characters (unless you're in my Home Game, then you'll probably be mangled horribly). But this is war and good people (the Heroes) die in ugly ways.

One last thing - I have been told by some that the ubiquitous "THEY" have said that this is all predetermined; that the Heroes will always win.

This offends me.

I work out in advance what the most likely outcomes will be in case of a Win, Lose or Draw. I was perfectly willing for the Fiendish Expanse to roll down into the Hinterlands if you didn't kill Uhxbractits. I was completely ready for the possibility of the First City being under siege by the Unholy Alliance of dwarves, giants, Tzizhet - controlled Voei and Malfelan elorii. It would have made certain stories rough to tell, but I had a plan for it. This takes extra effort and work on my part, so hearing such things bother me.

So yes - your victories do matter and the story line is affected by the outcomes of these Battle Interactives.

See you there!

Hi Henry,

Thanks for the response. Looking forward to the teaser!

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

Hi Henry,

That's kind of funny. Because I too have a few mixed feelings about BIs. On the one hand they're great flagship events that bring pretty much all the Arcaniacs at Origins into one room to fight or die as they leave a finger print on the fabric of the Arcanis Campaign. That's close to pure awesome. I probably wouldn't attend Origins w/o the Arcanis Special events. But on the other hand I worry that the time and energy that goes into them wouldn't be better spent at the moment putting out another 5ish 1 round modules for home campaign over the year. In Oregon developing the player base suffers from a lack of new material. And I also worry a little that people who don't make Origins or Arcaniscon (ie. most players in Oregon and Washington) miss important elements of the story like Tultipet.

=/ It's true you can't please everyone all the time.

I think "Uncle Eric" has been a great narrator, and not just because we share the same name! I'm sorry to hear that there is a *They* out there that hasn't enjoyed him leading the BIs. But story time with Uncle Henry has always been the best. So I'm really looking forward to seeing you there for the BI!

Can't wait for the teasers.