wingsandsword
Legend
I don't know if I'm quite ready to go all the way to E6, but the idea of focusing the D&D I run on very low levels, around 5th or 6th level and below, is growing on me.
Here's what's lead to that thought.
First, animals. Wild, ferocious, dangerous real-world animals are typically between CR 1 to CR 4 (at most). Tigers, Grizzly Bears and Great White Sharks (i.e Huge Shark) are CR 4. In the real world, taking a group of 4 or 5 people and telling them to fight a grizzly Bear, shark or a tiger while equipped with some swords, clubs and maybe a bow or crossbow would be quite a fight, for even some fairly tough hombres. They'd probably win, but it would be a challenge, and people would get hurt, maybe badly.
In normal D&D terms, if you think of a CR 4 creature, you generally think "that's not so tough". If you think of a great white shark or a grizzly bear, away from D&D, you'll probably think "that's a tough and dangerous animal!" 5th or 6th level D&D characters will shrug off an encounter with them as something that will be over in 1 round. People who could take down a beast like that in only a few seconds (with medieval-level weaponry) in the real world are pretty tough dudes.
Second, wilderness. In D&D, wilderness travel is often completely overlooked. Once PC's get to mid-levels, there is little about wilderness travel that poses a challenge thanks to travel-assisting magics and relatively high levels of the Survival skill (and Climb and Swim).
I'm in the National Guard. I'll admit I'm not out in the field horribly often, a few exercises a year, but last months I was at an exercise where I had to lead a fire team (i.e. a 4 man group, about the same size as a typical adventuring party) across several miles of wilderness alone to assault an objective. It really showed me how it can be a challenge to overcome terrain, deal with the environment, look out for ambushes, and so on. What in a tabletop game would probably be reduced to "you leave town and walk to the dungeon" in even a low-level adventure was on it's own as much of a challenge as the actual fight.
Those two facts together made me realize that as D&D players we often gloss over low-level play, most games I've played in either start at 3rd to 5th level and quickly level to the high single digits, or start at 1st level but level up very quickly (as in one level per session) until they are around 6th level or so.
Third: Precedent. Back when I was first starting to play D&D, the implication was that higher level characters were super-rare. A 9th level Cleric could be a Bishop over a major area, with a 14th level character being a Pope-like leader of a world faith (according to the old 2e Castle Guide), 1e certainly implied that characters in their teens in levels were world-scale movers and shakers by making some classes not even go up to 20th level, in 2e a 15th level Druid was the leader of all Druids in the game world. Being out of single-digit levels meant you were a "somebody" who people might know far and wide. Nowadays, it seems to mean you finally got high enough level to get your Prestige Class and actually have the basic skill set to be a real adventurer and out of the "boring" stuff.
The very first D&D product I ever bought was the old "Black Box" Basic D&D set, with Zanzer Tem's Dungeon. Said villain was a 5th level Magic User who was the villainous overlord of a mid-sized town. A 5th level mage was strong enough to bully a town without having anybody who could easily knock him over coming by (until the PC's get that high level). Speaking of 5th level Magic Users being nothing to sneeze at, we all remember the famous "Gandalf was a 5th Level Magic User" Dragon Article. By that old 2e Castle Guide, it suggested that a 5th or 6th level Cleric would be the Parish Priest for a town or similar area.
Now, low level play can have it's downsides, with hit point totals so low that a character could go from fit to dying in one lucky hit, but that seems like something easier to fix than making characters instant superheroes where even "weak" characters can handily outperform people who in the real-world would be quite tough and impressive in their deeds.
Who else has sat down and thought that the experience of low level play has been underappreciated?
Here's what's lead to that thought.
First, animals. Wild, ferocious, dangerous real-world animals are typically between CR 1 to CR 4 (at most). Tigers, Grizzly Bears and Great White Sharks (i.e Huge Shark) are CR 4. In the real world, taking a group of 4 or 5 people and telling them to fight a grizzly Bear, shark or a tiger while equipped with some swords, clubs and maybe a bow or crossbow would be quite a fight, for even some fairly tough hombres. They'd probably win, but it would be a challenge, and people would get hurt, maybe badly.
In normal D&D terms, if you think of a CR 4 creature, you generally think "that's not so tough". If you think of a great white shark or a grizzly bear, away from D&D, you'll probably think "that's a tough and dangerous animal!" 5th or 6th level D&D characters will shrug off an encounter with them as something that will be over in 1 round. People who could take down a beast like that in only a few seconds (with medieval-level weaponry) in the real world are pretty tough dudes.
Second, wilderness. In D&D, wilderness travel is often completely overlooked. Once PC's get to mid-levels, there is little about wilderness travel that poses a challenge thanks to travel-assisting magics and relatively high levels of the Survival skill (and Climb and Swim).
I'm in the National Guard. I'll admit I'm not out in the field horribly often, a few exercises a year, but last months I was at an exercise where I had to lead a fire team (i.e. a 4 man group, about the same size as a typical adventuring party) across several miles of wilderness alone to assault an objective. It really showed me how it can be a challenge to overcome terrain, deal with the environment, look out for ambushes, and so on. What in a tabletop game would probably be reduced to "you leave town and walk to the dungeon" in even a low-level adventure was on it's own as much of a challenge as the actual fight.
Those two facts together made me realize that as D&D players we often gloss over low-level play, most games I've played in either start at 3rd to 5th level and quickly level to the high single digits, or start at 1st level but level up very quickly (as in one level per session) until they are around 6th level or so.
Third: Precedent. Back when I was first starting to play D&D, the implication was that higher level characters were super-rare. A 9th level Cleric could be a Bishop over a major area, with a 14th level character being a Pope-like leader of a world faith (according to the old 2e Castle Guide), 1e certainly implied that characters in their teens in levels were world-scale movers and shakers by making some classes not even go up to 20th level, in 2e a 15th level Druid was the leader of all Druids in the game world. Being out of single-digit levels meant you were a "somebody" who people might know far and wide. Nowadays, it seems to mean you finally got high enough level to get your Prestige Class and actually have the basic skill set to be a real adventurer and out of the "boring" stuff.
The very first D&D product I ever bought was the old "Black Box" Basic D&D set, with Zanzer Tem's Dungeon. Said villain was a 5th level Magic User who was the villainous overlord of a mid-sized town. A 5th level mage was strong enough to bully a town without having anybody who could easily knock him over coming by (until the PC's get that high level). Speaking of 5th level Magic Users being nothing to sneeze at, we all remember the famous "Gandalf was a 5th Level Magic User" Dragon Article. By that old 2e Castle Guide, it suggested that a 5th or 6th level Cleric would be the Parish Priest for a town or similar area.
Now, low level play can have it's downsides, with hit point totals so low that a character could go from fit to dying in one lucky hit, but that seems like something easier to fix than making characters instant superheroes where even "weak" characters can handily outperform people who in the real-world would be quite tough and impressive in their deeds.
Who else has sat down and thought that the experience of low level play has been underappreciated?
