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Gladius et Aegis: Of service
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=Agree Campaign Concept and Power Level = Before the process begins, its important to know what the overall campaign structure is, where the game is set, what the base premise is, and how powerful the protagonists ought to be. '''Campaign Structure''' is as simple as deciding who will be the GM, how often you plan to meet to game, how many sessions the campaign will run for (which can be "indefinitely", or a set number of sessions, or most realistically "till the end of a single story arc".) You can also work out if you want to try out things like having rotating GMs, a stable of characters for each player or the player group collectively, and so on. The default assumption here is a traditional campaign mode of having a single GM, one player character per player and playing the game till a good narrative stopping point. However, its your group's game, so do what you like! '''Setting''' is a time and place. Because of familiarity, I prefer to centre my own campaigns around London in the modern day. The game doesn't require you to do this, of course, and the setting details are created in an intentionally 'generic' way, in order to allow you to customize this. Normally it'll be the GM who decides setting, with player input. '''Base Premise''' is what the campaign is about, or at least how it will start. Its good to get player and GM expectations on the same page at the start of a campaign. In my own first campaign, the plan is for the player characters to be relatively new recruits to ''Gladius Et Aegis'', and thus able to explore the game setting as they learn the game. Starting a campaign with a "mission-based" approach is not often a bad idea, though most campaigns benefit from being led more and more by the players as time goes by. '''Power level''' is simply a decision about how powerful the player characters are relative to the general population. There are five sample power levels dealt with in this character generation process: ''Disadvantaged, Average, Advantaged, Exceptional'' and ''Extreme.'' I would recommend the ''"Advantaged"'' level is a good place to start a new first-time campaign, which lets player characters be a cut above the norm, but not so far removed from human power levels as to make human antagonists and allies irrelevant. It also ought to offer enough exceptional abilities that the player characters feel empowered and special, but not enough that they become overwhelmed with options or breeze through all challenges. This is just a guideline though: there's no reason why a player group and GM couldn't agree to start a campaign at higher or lower levels for a completely different sort of story, or even for player characters to start at different power levels if this sort of contrast and variety matters more to a player group than "balance" does. Also, there's no need to stick exactly to the sample Power Levels described: a GM and player group could agree to tweak the numbers as they choose. The Power Levels can also be used as guidelines for the GM to create NPCs by. Broadly they are as follows: * ''Disadvantaged'' - The character is, overall, theoretically weaker than an ordinary human. Though they might have supernatural powers they'll have other weaknesses to balance these out, which means that they'll always have to think on their feet to stay ahead of even the average human. An example of this power level might be a shambling revenant that while being strong and possessed of undead powers is less sociable and less intelligent than a normal human. In the default game setting its expected that this power level will generally be used for "footsoldier" antagonists: the sort of supernaturals that generally need to be presented in significant numbers to represent a threat, or which are specialised for a single role. * ''Average'' - The character is overall as strong as an average human. Any supernatural advantages they might have are balanced by a slight deficit in more mundane attributes. Of course, supernatural powers being what they are, this will still probably mean they have the edge over humans in their own specialized ways. An example of this might be a changeling with half human and half faerie blood that has his glamours and enchantments, but is more frail in actual direct physical terms than a human, and harder to like naturally when he doesn't have magic helping him. * ''Advantaged'' - The character is overall at an advantage over normal humans. An example of this might be a young vampire new to the endless night, who not only has vampiric powers but also is that little bit stronger, smarter and more alluring than a normal human. This could be considered to be the "average" point for supernatural creatures in a default campaign in the setting provided. * ''Exceptional'' - The character is a lot stronger than a normal human. An example of this might be a powerful and learned magus who is every bit as scholarly and clever as his mundane academic counterpart, but also has sufficient arcane might to summon lightning storms and raise the walking dead. In the default setting those of this power level are considered to be the movers and shakers in the supernatural world. * ''Extreme'' - The character is far beyond human capabilities, likely in almost every way. An example of this might be the thousand year old avatar of an ancient god, able to punch his way through brick walls, entrance crowds with his divinely empowered oratory, beat a Chess Grandmaster after learning the rules a few days previously and command the oceans to swallow a city with a simple application of will. In the default setting, those with Extreme levels of power are rarities, and generally one-offs in terms of what sort of supernatural creature they are. Their appearance will generally shape the direction of a campaign.
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