XP, Backup Characters, General Rules Notes

Since we'll have some time between now and the next Eberron session (I'm guessing December at the earliest, and with the holidays, probably January), it might be a good time to make sure everybody has at least one backup character built. Not that I'm *planning* on killing anyone, but... well, after that last fight, and a couple fatalities in the party, you all know Eberron is a dangerous place.

So... first off, my general ruling on XP for sessions: If your character is there, but you are not, that character will gain 1/2 XP for the session. This reflects a lighter usage of your character (mostly door opener and combat monster) when he's in someone else's hands, and also rewards folks for coming out to the game.

Backup characters will always be built one level behind the average level of the party, which as of the last adventure is now level 9. This does mean that resurrection, even though it costs a level, is just as viable an option as a backup character, *if* you can find someone to resurrect you. You will have the XP in the middle between the level you are and the level of the rest of the party.

So currently, if you build a backup character, that character is level 8, and has 32,000 XP. You can spend as much of that XP as you want on building magic or psionic items if you have Crafting feats, as long as you don't exceed the cash limits for those items.

Which are: You will start with the wealth indicated on the Character Wealth by Level table (DMG, p. 135). Currently, that is 27,000 gp. At least 20% of that wealth (5400 gp, in this case) must come into the campaign in liquid form, either as gold/platinum pieces, bags of gems or letters of credit from House Kundarak. Of the rest, you can spend no more than 9000 gp on any one item. This means that practically speaking, you're limited to +2 weapons and armor. In addition, any wondrous item that costs more than 2500 gp, or any item that comes from a source other than the main Eberron book or the DMG, is subject to GM approval. You'll probably get it, but I reserve the right to say no.

Also, on the store-related front: I'm making a change to the amount of money you get from selling magic items in the store. Since it's going to be harder to sell anything more unique or powerful, you're not going to get that cash as quickly. So what I'm going to do is, when you sell any item that is worth 5000 gp or less, you'll get 75% of its cost. When you sell an item that costs more than that but less than 10,000 gp, you'll get 60% of its cost. And when you sell an item that costs 10,000 gp or more, you'll get 55% of its cost.

This basically represents a longer time that your money is held in the Bank of Kundarak before you get a cash influx from somebody buying a magic item. If I wanted to get real complicated, I'd do something like put the items in a pool, roll randomly to see if someone bought them, give you the money for those then, but that would be a huge pain in the ass and it's easier to do it more abstractly like this. Seem fair to everyone?

Oh, and since we're most likely using FUDGE for Call of Cthulhu, I added a link to the FUDGE site and a PDF of the FUDGE rules (it's a free game) to the sidebar links.