nogray
Adventurer
I am DMing a long-running campaign that has made it into the epic tier. After making it to 25th level, the group took a break from playing that campaign, including recently playing a bit of Dungeon World. During those Dungeon World sessions, we introduced a new player to the group (and roleplaying games, in general). Now that the group will be rotating back to my epic campaign, I started thinking of how to introduce this new player to the complexities of playing 4e at epic level as well as the ongoing storyline, and I had a bit of an idea as to how to proceed.
My idea was to replay certain key moments in the campaign at various levels, reimagined as delves of three or so encounters with a skill challenge and roleplaying component, of course. Pretty much a session or so at each key level. The other players seemed enthusiastic about the idea, as it will give them a chance to re-acclimate themselves with the characters and rules and revisit some of their favorite campaign-defining moments.
My question to the forum is, then, at what levels do you feel we should play? I thought a couple levels per tier would be sufficient to allow for learning the increasing complexity of the character, plus allow for the player to make tweaks to the mechanics so that the concept is reflected appropriately and the character plays to satisfaction. My first instinct is maybe a total of five distinct levels.
A quick rundown of my initial idea: 3rd (a couple encounter powers to play with, but still pretty simple), 6th (a couple encounters and dailies are available, with magic items starting to fill out), 11th (new paragon path and action point antics), 16th (late paragon buffs and abilities coming online), and 21st (epic destiny choice and initial buff and pretty much all the complexity that you get).
I was already planning on assisting the new player with character creation and making some "cheat sheets" for playing the character, and I am considering the possible benefits (and drawbacks) of an essentials-style character as an option if it is possible to fit the new player's concept to one of those classes.
Thank you for your time and any forthcoming input.
Highest regards,
nogray
My idea was to replay certain key moments in the campaign at various levels, reimagined as delves of three or so encounters with a skill challenge and roleplaying component, of course. Pretty much a session or so at each key level. The other players seemed enthusiastic about the idea, as it will give them a chance to re-acclimate themselves with the characters and rules and revisit some of their favorite campaign-defining moments.
My question to the forum is, then, at what levels do you feel we should play? I thought a couple levels per tier would be sufficient to allow for learning the increasing complexity of the character, plus allow for the player to make tweaks to the mechanics so that the concept is reflected appropriately and the character plays to satisfaction. My first instinct is maybe a total of five distinct levels.
A quick rundown of my initial idea: 3rd (a couple encounter powers to play with, but still pretty simple), 6th (a couple encounters and dailies are available, with magic items starting to fill out), 11th (new paragon path and action point antics), 16th (late paragon buffs and abilities coming online), and 21st (epic destiny choice and initial buff and pretty much all the complexity that you get).
I was already planning on assisting the new player with character creation and making some "cheat sheets" for playing the character, and I am considering the possible benefits (and drawbacks) of an essentials-style character as an option if it is possible to fit the new player's concept to one of those classes.
Thank you for your time and any forthcoming input.
Highest regards,
nogray