Post by Sol on Feb 7, 2005 22:59:30 GMT
(The Intro):
Hello all! On the suggestion of OmegaFlareX, I am creating a topic solely for the purpose of discussing Team Play. What is Team Play? This is when you play through the books while using more than one Lone Wolf character, perhaps 2 or 3, perhaps 10 or more. This is a little Die-Hard method that I developed as a way to play more legal games of LW at the same time in the hopes that one character would one day complete all 20 books without Cheats.
Most of you already know what Kai Team Play is, but since this is the first post, I will include some of my thoughts on Team Play and how it works below.
Also, naturally, I will post updates as to the progress of my own Kai-Team-Ten - will they reach the end of the Grand Master Series alive? I also invite similarly interested players to give this method a try or to discuss the shortcomings or virtues of Team Play or similar methods.
For the Kai!
Sol
(Rules Explanations Part One):
I roll up ten characters. They are all legal-to-the-letter. For example, you often get some 12 or even 10 CS characters. Hopefully you also get some 18 or 19 CS characters, too. Character Generation takes lots of time - so does everything with ten. I suppose you could take just five if you like, or even three. I just like to up my chances!
Then I start reading with Book 1. Most of the time (and whenever I know the best paths) I send ALL of my ten characters the same way. When in doubt of which path is best, I send just 1 character down that path (a "scout") to see if it is safe. If it looks good, I assume that the rest have also taken this path. If it does not look good, that one Kai is on his own until his path meets up again with the others (it eventually will) or until he dies (if he made a fatal choice).
Many times, the path is not your choice, but determined by a random number. This can cause the group of ten to be split up into 2 or more parties who then adventure separately until their paths meet again. Whenever a roll is required in this way, I make 1 roll for each character as normal, keeping track of the results for each.
The combats take the longest. Let's say 7 Kai come across an opponent and must fight him. Then I have to finish 7 separate fights, one at a time.
The whole concept is basically the idea of playing several games in parallel. You save some time when reading through the story sections... and if you have some bad luck or make an unlucky choice, you can keep playing. Of course, that's for strict players like me who believe Lone Wolf has to be able to make it through all books without dying, or those who like the challenge.
(Rules Explanations Part Two):
I started doing Team Play after deciding that it was nearly impossible to survive the series with just one character. If you play everything by the rules, either you will get low initial stats or you will run afoul of a bad random roll, or you will just make a fatal choice. This gets pretty frustrating after the ninth or tenth time. I would, for example, play a character starting at Book 1, make it all the way to, say, Book 8, then die because the Anapheg grabbed me and pulled me into the water. I would start over and then die in Book 2 as the mast fell on me, etc. You all know what I mean!
Now, one way to solve this would be "do-overs." I used to allow myself one "do-over" but it still seemed like cheating... so...
Starting at Book 1, I made three Action Charts instead of just one. All stats were rolled honestly. One of my Kai was very weak in the CS department, but I kept him - essentially decided that he had as much "right to life" as the others... plus if I could just roll all day until I got stats I liked, well, then why roll at all?
So then I started at Book 1. Each time the section called for a choice, I would have the option of making a different choice for each character. Usually I would make the same choice (I would not need as many bookmarks this way), but if the choice seemed perilous, I could try the choice for my 3 kai one-at-a-time. It would be similar to reading Book 1 three times in a row and making different choices each time, but instead of doing that, I would play all three games at once.
If three kai were in the same section of the book (let's say the section of Book 2 where you get the Sommerswerd) then I would mark down that item on all three character sheets. It may seem weird to have 3 Sommerswerds, but it helps to remember that I am really playing 3 games, not one.
In this same way, if the group ends up in a section where there is a fight, all the kai have to fight the creature. Each has his own separate stats, each has his own equipment, etc. If it helps, imagine that when Lone Wolf runs into the Vordak that there are three Vordaks or three Burrowcrawlers, etc. The point isn't to be convoluted though - it is more about me finding a creative way to play through the series three times in the same space that it would normally take me to play once.
If every Kai gets all the equipment due him AND fights every monster at full strength along the way, then you see, that character is just as legal as if you played with just one character. In other words, he ran up against exactly the same odds.
In the game that I am detailing here as Kai Team Ten, I am actually playing the equivalent of 31 separate games. If I played 31 times through the series in the normal one-at-a-time fashion, I'd have gone cucoo by now and might not be much closer to a "non-cheating" win. This way, even if I lose a game here and there (out of these 31 games, 14 are already over) I can still continue to read the next book and the next with a minimum of starting over at Book 1.
OPTION for TEAM PLAY:
FATE ROLLS:
Upon generating a new character (CS and EP) you are allowed to measure your character's Fate. Essentially, you are allowed to make certain Random Rolls in this Kai's life ahead of time. The rolls would be:
A Roll for the falling mast
A Roll for the Bandit Sniper in Book 4
A Roll for the Ikitar flight
A Roll for hitting the Zakahn with the Dagger
A Roll for the bridge at the end of Book 13
etc.
Hello all! On the suggestion of OmegaFlareX, I am creating a topic solely for the purpose of discussing Team Play. What is Team Play? This is when you play through the books while using more than one Lone Wolf character, perhaps 2 or 3, perhaps 10 or more. This is a little Die-Hard method that I developed as a way to play more legal games of LW at the same time in the hopes that one character would one day complete all 20 books without Cheats.
Most of you already know what Kai Team Play is, but since this is the first post, I will include some of my thoughts on Team Play and how it works below.
Also, naturally, I will post updates as to the progress of my own Kai-Team-Ten - will they reach the end of the Grand Master Series alive? I also invite similarly interested players to give this method a try or to discuss the shortcomings or virtues of Team Play or similar methods.
For the Kai!
Sol
(Rules Explanations Part One):
I roll up ten characters. They are all legal-to-the-letter. For example, you often get some 12 or even 10 CS characters. Hopefully you also get some 18 or 19 CS characters, too. Character Generation takes lots of time - so does everything with ten. I suppose you could take just five if you like, or even three. I just like to up my chances!
Then I start reading with Book 1. Most of the time (and whenever I know the best paths) I send ALL of my ten characters the same way. When in doubt of which path is best, I send just 1 character down that path (a "scout") to see if it is safe. If it looks good, I assume that the rest have also taken this path. If it does not look good, that one Kai is on his own until his path meets up again with the others (it eventually will) or until he dies (if he made a fatal choice).
Many times, the path is not your choice, but determined by a random number. This can cause the group of ten to be split up into 2 or more parties who then adventure separately until their paths meet again. Whenever a roll is required in this way, I make 1 roll for each character as normal, keeping track of the results for each.
The combats take the longest. Let's say 7 Kai come across an opponent and must fight him. Then I have to finish 7 separate fights, one at a time.
The whole concept is basically the idea of playing several games in parallel. You save some time when reading through the story sections... and if you have some bad luck or make an unlucky choice, you can keep playing. Of course, that's for strict players like me who believe Lone Wolf has to be able to make it through all books without dying, or those who like the challenge.
(Rules Explanations Part Two):
I started doing Team Play after deciding that it was nearly impossible to survive the series with just one character. If you play everything by the rules, either you will get low initial stats or you will run afoul of a bad random roll, or you will just make a fatal choice. This gets pretty frustrating after the ninth or tenth time. I would, for example, play a character starting at Book 1, make it all the way to, say, Book 8, then die because the Anapheg grabbed me and pulled me into the water. I would start over and then die in Book 2 as the mast fell on me, etc. You all know what I mean!
Now, one way to solve this would be "do-overs." I used to allow myself one "do-over" but it still seemed like cheating... so...
Starting at Book 1, I made three Action Charts instead of just one. All stats were rolled honestly. One of my Kai was very weak in the CS department, but I kept him - essentially decided that he had as much "right to life" as the others... plus if I could just roll all day until I got stats I liked, well, then why roll at all?
So then I started at Book 1. Each time the section called for a choice, I would have the option of making a different choice for each character. Usually I would make the same choice (I would not need as many bookmarks this way), but if the choice seemed perilous, I could try the choice for my 3 kai one-at-a-time. It would be similar to reading Book 1 three times in a row and making different choices each time, but instead of doing that, I would play all three games at once.
If three kai were in the same section of the book (let's say the section of Book 2 where you get the Sommerswerd) then I would mark down that item on all three character sheets. It may seem weird to have 3 Sommerswerds, but it helps to remember that I am really playing 3 games, not one.
In this same way, if the group ends up in a section where there is a fight, all the kai have to fight the creature. Each has his own separate stats, each has his own equipment, etc. If it helps, imagine that when Lone Wolf runs into the Vordak that there are three Vordaks or three Burrowcrawlers, etc. The point isn't to be convoluted though - it is more about me finding a creative way to play through the series three times in the same space that it would normally take me to play once.
If every Kai gets all the equipment due him AND fights every monster at full strength along the way, then you see, that character is just as legal as if you played with just one character. In other words, he ran up against exactly the same odds.
In the game that I am detailing here as Kai Team Ten, I am actually playing the equivalent of 31 separate games. If I played 31 times through the series in the normal one-at-a-time fashion, I'd have gone cucoo by now and might not be much closer to a "non-cheating" win. This way, even if I lose a game here and there (out of these 31 games, 14 are already over) I can still continue to read the next book and the next with a minimum of starting over at Book 1.
OPTION for TEAM PLAY:
FATE ROLLS:
Upon generating a new character (CS and EP) you are allowed to measure your character's Fate. Essentially, you are allowed to make certain Random Rolls in this Kai's life ahead of time. The rolls would be:
A Roll for the falling mast
A Roll for the Bandit Sniper in Book 4
A Roll for the Ikitar flight
A Roll for hitting the Zakahn with the Dagger
A Roll for the bridge at the end of Book 13
etc.