Survivor 4e

[Black Plauge]

http://www.umit.maine.edu/~r.springuel/survivor-logo.png

4th edition has been released and so the preparations are underway. Even as we speak, venues are being groomed, monsters captured, and deals with intelligent foes contracted to provide a select group of adventurers the experience of the after life. CBS has even graciously agreed to loan it's host Jeff Probst to serve as announcer to this unique series, provided that his interdimensional travel is at our expense and his safe return is guaranteed.

While player selection is still some ways off, our judges have decided to release a preview of the basic rules of this contest in order to start generating interest in the tournament.

The tournament proper will consist of 15 challenges. After each challenge, 1 player will be eliminated from the tournament, and in keeping with Survivor tradition, the final selection of the eliminated player will be by vote. However, unlike in the TV show, the vote is not restricted to the game's players or a subset of them. Instead, the voting will be open to all sophants in the multiverse in the most interactive version of the competition possible.

With 15 challenges staked out, that leaves room for 16 competitors. However, the judges have graciously decided that if more than 16 competitors express interest in participating, then there will be a single qualifying challenge that will be used to select the contestants from the applicant pool.

In order to add some spice, and interest to the tournament, contestants will be trained between challenges so that their skill sets and abilities will evolve through out the tournament. This will allow them to play off each other's strengths and weaknesses, as well as possibly prepare for the next challenge. [Mechanically: Challenges will be at even levels (2, 4, 6, etc.). If there is a qualifying challenge it will be at level 1.]

For the first 9 challenges players will be divided into teams: two teams when there is an even number of contestants, three teams when there is an odd number. Teams will be decided in a mostly random fashion prior to each challenge. For the next five challenges, it will be every man for himself. For the last challenge, the two remaining contestants will get to pick 4 eliminated contestants each to serve as their teammates for the final challenge. [Mechanics note: the eliminated contestants who are chosen will participate as level 25 characters, not level 30.]

Each challenge will present each team with a set of objectives. Objectives may not be the same for each team, but will be set up so as to be of similar difficulty, taking into account the relative size of the teams. In each challenge the first team to achieve all of it's objectives is the winner and will get immunity from elimination.

While CBS normally has the rewards that make progression through the tournament easier on the contestants in a separate challenge, the judges here have decided to embed the rewards into the immunity challenges in order to make the environment more familiar to the kind our adventurers are used to. As such, each challenge will have gear and treasure available in it, as well as a special reward: competitive edge. These rewards may be hidden, guarded, or simply placed in out of the way places. As such, going after the rewards will generally slow a team down in achieving their objectives, but ignoring the rewards will eventually disadvantage a contestant as their opponents become better equipped than themselves.

Merchants will be available in between challenges to buy and sell gear that the contestants want or retrieve, but contestants are also encouraged to trade amongst themselves. Please note that while contestants may offer to use their competitive edge to the benefit of another player as part of such deals, they cannot actually trade their competitive edges to another player.

The special reward of competitive edge will allow contestants to manipulate the progress of the tournament directly giving them the following options:
Preview: You get to know one aspect of the next challenge prior to training for that challenge: either an objective that must be completed, the venue where the challenge will take place, or a monster that may interfere with the completion of a team's objectives.
Teammate: You get to pick one of your teammates for the upcoming challenge after the nature of the challenge is announced
Objective: You get to pick the objective set that one of the contestants (including themself) must compete under after the nature of the challenge is announced.
Counter: You may counter the results of an edge spent by one of your competitors. You must announce that you are using an edge in this way immediately after a contestant announces that he will spend a point of edge in order for the counter to be effective.
Challenge Special: Some challenges will have a special use for competitive edge. The nature of that use will be detailed in the challenge description where appropriate.

Would be survivors can sign-up here. (http://online-roleplaying.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9423)

[LeadPal]

The tournament proper will consist of 15 challenges. After each challenge, 1 player will be eliminated from the tournament, and in keeping with Survivor tradition, the final selection of the eliminated player will be by vote. However, unlike in the TV show, the vote is not restricted to the game's players or a subset of them. Instead, the voting will be open to all sophants in the multiverse in the most interactive version of the competition possible.You're sure it's not actually Faerunian Idol then? :fun:

Hmm...

With 15 challenges staked out, that leaves room for 16 competitors.That's a heck of a lot. I'm concerned that the first challenges might be a chaotic mess with that many players, and that it might be difficult to hold onto players for that long as well. (I'm can't think of a challenge or tourney to date that hasn't had dropouts.)

For the last challenge, the two remaining contestants will get to pick 4 eliminated contestants each to serve as their teammates for the final challenge. Do the original players get to run the chosen contestants? Could be impractical if they lose interest after being eliminated. Does the DM run them? Kind of makes the last challenge less fun in that case. Does the contestant who choses them for their team run them? Could be a major pain for the player.

[Mechanics note: the eliminated contestants who are chosen will participate as level 25 characters, not level 30.]Do players have to enter two builds, one for level 25 and one for level 30, or can they wait to back-form the original build?

[Tashalar]

Sounds like good fun!

I, for one, am not yet convinced of the whole 4th edition business, but I do like the concept (of this tourney - not 4th ;) ). Maybe I can glimpse at a some Core Books somewhere to get a character together and update that character for each challenge. No promises though - I won't spend money on those books. :)

[Lord Twig]

I'm in the same boat with you Tash, I'm will not be buying the 4th edition books. If there is an SRD that I can create a character from then I might do so to try the game out. Otherwise I will just be an observer.

[Black Plauge]

That's a heck of a lot. I'm concerned that the first challenges might be a chaotic mess with that many players, and that it might be difficult to hold onto players for that long as well. (I'm can't think of a challenge or tourney to date that hasn't had dropouts.)
In the case of drop-outs, a vote-out will be eliminated, with the drop-out automatically being eliminated. The challenges will still run, so that players have the opportunity to get the rewards associated with the challenge, and so that they can gain the bragging rights that go along with winning immunity (even if they don't need it).

Do the original players get to run the chosen contestants? Could be impractical if they lose interest after being eliminated. Does the DM run them? Kind of makes the last challenge less fun in that case. Does the contestant who choses them for their team run them? Could be a major pain for the player.
The original player gets to run the chosen contestant. Should said player no longer be interested in playing, then their character will not be eligible to be picked.

Do players have to enter two builds, one for level 25 and one for level 30, or can they wait to back-form the original build?
Most contestants will be eliminated before they reach 25th level, thus if they are chosen, they will have to be advanced several levels to make up the difference. The two characters eliminated at the 28th and 26th level challenge will have to have the appropriate number of levels removed, but I don't foresee this being a big problem.

I, for one, am not yet convinced of the whole 4th edition business, but I do like the concept (of this tourney - not 4th ). Maybe I can glimpse at a some Core Books somewhere to get a character together and update that character for each challenge. No promises though - I won't spend money on those books.
WotC does plan to release an SRD and so far as I know said SRD will be released simultaneously to the books themselves. With no supplements released, those working from the SRD will be at no disadvantage to those working with the books.

[Tashalar]

Hey BP,

approximately when are you planning on starting this?

End of June maybe so that everyone who wants to participate can get a hang of the rules? A little later would also suit me rather well. But that's just personal preference. ;)

[Black Plauge]

Sign-ups will open on Monday, immediately after the rules are out. Tournament start, however, will probably be at the end of June, as you suggest, not only because players need time to familiarize themseleves with the rules necessary to make a character, but also because I need time to stat out the challenges.

[Tashalar]

So far I've been following the discussions about 4E here and on Dragonavenue especially... I still haven't had a look at any 4E book.

Any update on a SRD that one can use?

And concerning the challenges:
How much is actual fighting part of this as opposed to the skill challenges or simple role playing, problem solving, etc. ?
What's the environment where this will take place? An island? Or will it change with each new challenge?

[Black Plauge]

So far I've been following the discussions about 4E here and on Dragonavenue especially... I still haven't had a look at any 4E book.

Any update on a SRD that one can use?
Nope. Still waiting on WotC's Rules Compendium and/or Character Builder.

And concerning the challenges:
How much is actual fighting part of this as opposed to the skill challenges or simple role playing, problem solving, etc. ?
What's the environment where this will take place? An island? Or will it change with each new challenge?
For managability, each challenge will be run in initiative order as if it were a combat, even if characters aren't actually fighting each other. Each is/will be designed to be completed in 10 to 20 of these rounds, so you shouldn't plan on taking short rests to regain encounter powers. Actual player actions, however, could alter these parameters.
The location/environment of each challenge will vary from challenge to challenge and you won't know anything about the next challenge prior to the between challenge level ups unless you use a competitive edge to get a preview.

The overall setting of the whole tournament is the afterlife. Characters are all famous heroes who have moved on (i.e. completed their mortal epic destinies) and are now living in their afterlife. This is why a single encounter can result in a two level bump and why in challenge death doesn't eliminate your character from the tournament (though quick dying might be counted against you by the voters). Note: While your character has already lived a complete life, they are not in anyway obligated to follow the career path of their mortal life in their abilities in this tournament. You could design a character whose mortal life was as a Wizard but who is a Fighter for this tournament. None of your mortal life's abilities are available in this tournament, but it could make for a memorable character to play and interesting role playing along the way (which could help sway voters to keep you in the game if your team loses a challenge).

[Tashalar]

Nope. Still waiting on WotC's Rules Compendium and/or Character Builder.
We-ell... what I've seen so far and what is being posted over on Dragonavenue does not get my hopes up high.

I mean... I might very well be able to get a 2nd level character up. With your help (or someone else's) I might also be able to level said character.

The only thing that means that there's a chance that LT or I can still participate and have fun is, that this is not all about combat. At all (crosses fingers). If it were, we'd stand no chance...

BUT! I think I'd like to go for some kind of roguish character. Skill monkey.

So far we've got an infernal warlock and a dwarven paladin.

BP - are you still aiming at 15 contestants? I don't think we ever had that many players join in... let's see where this goes - I could go and advertise for this over on ENWorld for instance. I did get two people to join CC after all - and I guess that interest will be much higher for a 4E tourney like this. :)