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Starting XP for Replacement Characters
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Volar the Healer
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Joined: 04 Aug 2003
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 12:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In my campaigns, when a PC is killed, his replacement comes back as a beginning character (who is still of heroic quality). The experienced PCs will have to look out for "the new guy". This mimics real war well.

The group is reduced in ability by losing one of their regulars, which is all the more reason to take care of each other - especially your wounded.

One other thing I insist upon is the replacement cannot be the same template as the lost PC. It's time for the actor (player) to try something different. This also helps the PCs to realize he IS a replacement.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 3:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Interesting, requiring them to change templates..

Would that work if say i took the outlaw tech - droids focused, and i died but wanted my next guy to be an outlaw tech - cybernetics instead?
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Volar the Healer
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 2:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would not allow it. Something other than a tech would be called for in my campaign.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 12:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bringing this thread back up for some of our newer folk..

When you have a player who's character dies, what do you give him(her) for their starting stats? More than base starting characters? Half CP of what the lowest active PC has earned? Half the CP of what the prior character had earned? Something else?

What about starting gear? If say i was playing a pc who at the time of death had earned a ship which i had 30K worth of mods in, a supped up suit of armor (8k in mods in), and several thousand credits to my name (so to speak), would a replacement pc start with any MORE credits/gear than what the base template he picked gets??

What about like Volar, do you make them have to play a different template/race?
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 10:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This has come up for me twice (as a player). Both times I started from scratch. Other PCs were in the 7D-9D range for their frequently used skills.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 2:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

garhkal wrote:
What about like Volar, do you make them have to play a different template/race?

I don't have a well thought out opinion on the subject, but my initial thought is that a different sort of character is appropriate, unless the campaign requires something similar.

A couple examples:
    Dash Rendar - Dash Rendar is very much a Han Solo clone. With Han Solo unavailable, Shadows of the Empire just gave us a character who was almost exactly like Han Solo in every way, but then appeared to kill him off right around the spot in the timeline where Han Solo would be coming back anyway. This is exactly the scenario that results when a player is allowed to essentially remake the same character that just died.

    Wraith Squadron - In many ways, the plot of the Wraith Squadron books reads very much like an RPG setting. Multiple characters are killed off over the course of the series, and the replacements brought in are all also pilots. Since the scenario is a starfighter squadron, starfighter pilot characters are practically a requirement. However, unlike with Dash Rendar, all of the new characters added to Wraith Squadron managed to bring something new and unique to the table with regard to their backgrounds and non-pilot skills.

So, my thought is, there are situations where your campaign will need the same type of character. If a ship's crew needs a pilot or a tech, then that slot will need to be filled by a character with that skill set. However, a character with a similar skill set is not the same character. Give them a different background, or mannerisms; anything to make them distinct from the previous character while still allowing them to perform the task required of them.

Of course, if the campaign does not require a character to perform a specific roll, then all bets are off.

As an aside, the most recent Shooting Womprats podcast had an idea that I liked. I'm paraphrasing a bit here, but the idea is to have players create a character using the standard 7D / 21 pips of skill points to make a starting PC, but then give them 15 pips of roundout dice, with the provision that they can't be applied to any of the same skills improved with the original skill points. I'm also considering limiting roundout dice to a maximum of +1D in a given skill.
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griff
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 9:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I gmed I would have the player create a new character RAW, and give that character the same number of character points that the dead character had earned (I made the players keep track of all awarded cps), no extra force points. And I had the rule that the new character had to be as far removed from the dead character as Lando was removed from obi wan (I always thought that Lando was the replacement character for obi wan's player).
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Whill
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 9:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

As far as replacement characters being different, I agree with the general sentiment expressed here that they should not be clone of the dead PC. If the dead PC is a human I definitely allow the player to make another human (human PCs are too infrequent in my games). If the dead PC was an alien (or even near-human), I want the replacement PC to be human or different character race. My players have always chosen a different template, but if they really want to play the same template again I might allow it as a basis if the player puts a lot of effort into making the new PC different (background, personality, and some skills).

As far as the new PC's skill set, I would never institute any hard rules about the skill differences since I have final approval over all PCs anyway, but how far off it can be is largely based on the total skill set of the PC group, the two factors how large and how advanced the group is. Newer and/or smaller groups tend to have each PC fill specific roles with less overlap in skills, so a replacement PC here may not be able to be too far off from the dead PC. In more advanced and/or larger PC groups, there is more overlap of skills and roles so the group can afford to have the replacement PC be more different. I have used droids to pick up a little slack, and very rarely lower-level NPCs when really needed, but in general I prefer the group be fairly self-sufficient except for starship repair and medical droids that usually stay on the ship.

Regardless of skills, I always expect the background and personality to be different than the dead PC, but how successful that is in practice depends on the player's roleplaying ability. Some players just tend to have the same basic personality for all their PCs, so that can sometimes be a lesser factor in how different the new PC should be in other ways.

For some campaigns, during character creation, I have the players also design some of their PC's NPC contacts for me (usually underworld contacts of the number in front of their streetwise skill) with a brief background/personality capsule. Those NPCs have a few times been a replacement character pool, so the replacement character sometimes already has appeared in the campaign's story with a character connection that way. The NPC is just taken and expanded into a full PC. One time, a player even chose another player's contact NPC as his replacement PC.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 1:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

griff wrote:
When I gmed I would have the player create a new character RAW, and give that character the same number of character points that the dead character had earned (I made the players keep track of all awarded cps), no extra force points.


What of gear? Is that base template, or do they get any thing extra?
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griff
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 9:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That would depend on the character created. To take the Obi-Wan to Lando example, the player went from a hermit to a baron administrator. I never understood way there never seems to be any wealthy characters to choose from. I have let players create very rich characters. I usually have players write backgrounds for their characters.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 1:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

griff wrote:
That would depend on the character created. To take the Obi-Wan to Lando example, the player went from a hermit to a baron administrator. I never understood way there never seems to be any wealthy characters to choose from. I have let players create very rich characters. I usually have players write backgrounds for their characters.


In games i have played where characters WERE rather rich, there was often little in the way of challenging them in the normal sense, as they often could just BUY what they needed to override what opposition they faced. That is imo part of the reason most templates are NOT rich.
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 10:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

garhkal wrote:
griff wrote:
That would depend on the character created. To take the Obi-Wan to Lando example, the player went from a hermit to a baron administrator. I never understood way there never seems to be any wealthy characters to choose from. I have let players create very rich characters. I usually have players write backgrounds for their characters.

In games i have played where characters WERE rather rich, there was often little in the way of challenging them in the normal sense, as they often could just BUY what they needed to override what opposition they faced. That is imo part of the reason most templates are NOT rich.

There are a handful of rich characters (mostly noble and Imperial templates), but I completely agree with garhkal. Either the campaign type is supposed to be the nitty gritty but characters could overcome challenges by buying their way out of problems which would be boring for all, or the campaign type is for the rich and powerful PCs managing big business interests and resources (privateer fleets and the like), and that would be boring to me. If a GM and player group all want to play that type of campaign, more power to them, but I won't.

Since I don't run that type of campaign, I don't allow rich characters. They could be formally wealthy but lost it or somehow otherwise became disenfranchised from their wealth (and maybe their trying to get it back). But I generally only run Rebel Special Ops groups and the Rebellion is resource-poor, or I run independent smugglers or mercs (or the like) just trying to make their way in the universe. Being poor (and trying to obtain wealth) is a key to adventure that you don't have if the characters are already rich. The PCs becoming rich has been the conclusion of my campaigns before, with the campaign being the story of that rise to the top. The journey is much more interesting in adventure terms than that destination.
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Kytross
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 5:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm currently running a pirate campaign that I call a low character point, high money campaign. My players can be stupendously wealthy at the start of a session and dirt poor at the end of it. Everything brings in more conflict. The way they make money leads to more people wanting them dead. Kind of a balance there.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 07, 2015 12:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

And depending on HOW they keep their money, that can get targetted.. If they keep it in a bank, have the enemy hire slicers to steal it/block it off.
If they keep it in physical credits, have it stolen (or melted!).
If in cred sticks, someone could EMP them rendering them inert.
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 07, 2015 5:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

garhkal wrote:
griff wrote:
That would depend on the character created. To take the Obi-Wan to Lando example, the player went from a hermit to a baron administrator. I never understood way there never seems to be any wealthy characters to choose from. I have let players create very rich characters. I usually have players write backgrounds for their characters.


In games i have played where characters WERE rather rich, there was often little in the way of challenging them in the normal sense, as they often could just BUY what they needed to override what opposition they faced. That is imo part of the reason most templates are NOT rich.


Of course, the way to challenge such a character could involve many obstacles/conflicts of interest..

Consider Padme, for example. Or, consider Gilligans Island qhich featured two rich people wirh no way to spend their money. Temporarily de.ying a character access to his primary resources is a common theme in our games. Most of the time, the character's full concept is in play, but every once in a while, the "imbalancing" component is unavailable.

Like in Ep2 when Obi and Ani didn't have their lightsabers. Once they got ahold of some, though, the tables turned.
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