This happened right after the group mostly died on a overt lure of greed.
TIDEWATCHERS END: 8-2022; 4 of 6 characters died from the Whisperer of Secrets- The Hangman Tree of Caliban’s Slurry.Issue 1: It recently came to my attention that something I suspected is true. Mainly this is that there are some negative emotions around my approach to creating characters for players. It was a misguided attempt to insert myself into the process to increase the chances of the PCs working together. It worked in the past, but I’m seeing that it’s not having specific outcomes I thought it might right now. Not to say i’m unhappy with the players or characters. Peoples expectations of themselves as gamers have improved as have their roleplaying and story-telling skills – which is exactly the long term outcome I was trying to facilitate. But, since I want to take this group all the way to 15-20th level, I would rather do it with characters you had a greater hand in. And, this aligns with my last post of the Gaming Contract, wherein I posted that I would no longer be making characters. My energy is better spent on GMing – as fun as character creation can be for even the GM!
Issue 2: I keep dumping new characters into the roles of old ones to pick up the campaign. The players keep losing track of the huge amount of responsibilities of the story that got dumped on them in an instant. I propose a return to the most successful level of GM and player enjoyment we ever had: Newbys. The players will all sit down, as a group, and make new characters of first level up to starting level determined by GM. These characters will learn the world, system changes, and the seriousness of their roles and responsibilities as they progress – this makes knowledge and power hard fought and won, not inherited. The information sticks better, and the sense of belonging and immersion is greater.
The 1-2 years of recovery after the Soul Scourge is the perfect time to have low pressure start to happen and grow organically. Also, there will be a “handler”/”sponsor” that, instead of characters picking big campaigns altering personal paths and making decisions “for roleplaying” that cause clashes, the paths are offered and manicured to provide maximum character development gain with little clash within the party. This scenario worked perfectly multiple times before. It means I need to go back and build a ramp up that treats everyone equal and assumes nothing in order to bring the characters forward into their roles.