How do you expect high level play to differ from low level play in a high fantasy RPG?

[Blue]

I'm not sure I can explain it very well, but I expect, in "high-level" play, for the characters/players' decisions to affect something more than themselves. They might not be the leaders of groups themselves, but they're probably involved with the world in ways that "novice" PCs aren't and as such the things they do, the opinions they express, and what is expected of them creates a different set of stakes than is mostly the case for beginning characters. Which isn't to say that characters starting out can't be leaders in a community and I've been in a very fun game based around that exact premise, but it's something that's more common and more expected when the characters are powerful.

I had fun subverting this is one campaign I'm running. All of the characters were chosen by these mask relics of the (failing) Imperium. It made the agents of the Imperium, responsible to the Child-Empress. Who sent them over (magic-nullifying) seas to a new land with the right of High Justice - they could legally try and condem a person to death, as well as having a bunch of other authority. At level 1. They quickly got involved in what would normally be "mid to high level" category things, doing what they could with diplomacy, intimidation, and the force they could bring to bear.

 

[Orius]

I view all that as things that should holistically happen as the game progresses. Players should pick up followers, build fortresses,or become political players, or go build that remote wizard tower to do cutting edge research.
This does two things. One it gives players ability to feel high level, it also gives them weaknesses that can be exploited.

There's that too, and it feels more natural than a sudden gear shift at name level. In the old days though, not only was there the sudden shift later, but there was training costs earlier too, which sucked up all the gold PCs needed to find just to level.

 

[Fenris-77]

Whatever happens should be what makes sense based on what's come before in that campaign. It's not one thing or the other, or this or that,

 

[Schmoe]

I expect fewer restrictions on the types of challenges the DM can put before the players. I expect the game to pose problems without a known solution and ask the players to figure it out. I expect a much broader expanse of possibilities for the types of adventures.

 

[Bluenose]

I had fun subverting this is one campaign I'm running. All of the characters were chosen by these mask relics of the (failing) Imperium. It made the agents of the Imperium, responsible to the Child-Empress. Who sent them over (magic-nullifying) seas to a new land with the right of High Justice - they could legally try and condem a person to death, as well as having a bunch of other authority. At level 1. They quickly got involved in what would normally be "mid to high level" category things, doing what they could with diplomacy, intimidation, and the force they could bring to bear.

My own, still running, most recent experience involved a patriarchal clan where the men and particularly the male leadership was slaughtered and the female leaders were faced with decisions they weren't willing to take about the clan's survival. We played young women, hunters and herders, who had ideas of what to do and were willing to carry them out to help our kin survive and propser - which we have, even if it has been difficult and not without setbacks.

 

[GMMichael]

I think that 4e did a pretty good job of breaking down play expectations of low (heroic), mid (paragon), and high (epic) level of fantasy play, . .

Care to provide an example, for those of us who aren't 4e-knowledgable?

. . . I once ran a high-level adventure that was just some 20th level PCs trying to find a recipe for some really nice beer that happened to be in a lost brewery that became the nest of some horrific eldritch entities. . .

A good example of PC level scaling with situation level. High level play can mean that the PCs push the world around, but the world can also push back. Super hero PCs might seem pretty impressive in the "normal" world, but if they travel to, say, an elemental-ice-demiplane in which they must resist glaciers that move like falling sleet, well, they don't seem so super anymore.

I expect it to be harder to run, harder to prep for, harder to adjudicate, more time-consuming, for equal or lesser amounts of fun.

This seems like a question specific to D&D ans similar games. It doesn't make much sense in other systems, though, because they don't have the problem of spells systems like D&D. . .

Some games, like those with complex NPC character sheets, are going to be more time-consuming at higher levels as those sheets become less wieldy. But if "high level" just means "more chaos," then I suspect all games will suffer the problems brought up by innerdude. A GM can design a dungeon or situation with an obvious problem and a best solution, but "high level" can mean that PCs can create their own best solutions, or oftentimes PCs can use those levels to create more obvious problems.

 

[Ovinomancer]

Care to provide an example, for those of us who aren't 4e-knowledgable?


A good example of PC level scaling with situation level. High level play can mean that the PCs push the world around, but the world can also push back. Super hero PCs might seem pretty impressive in the "normal" world, but if they travel to, say, an elemental-ice-demiplane in which they must resist glaciers that move like falling sleet, well, they don't seem so super anymore.



Some games, like those with complex NPC character sheets, are going to be more time-consuming at higher levels as those sheets become less wieldy. But if "high level" just means "more chaos," then I suspect all games will suffer the problems brought up by innerdude. A GM can design a dungeon or situation with an obvious problem and a best solution, but "high level" can mean that PCs can create their own best solutions, or oftentimes PCs can use those levels to create more obvious problems.

Again, this is pretty specific to D&D (and similar systems) due to the spell capability and interoperation "features." It's lacking in other systems. Savage Worlds, for instance, ends up running into the exploding issue at higher "levels" -- challenges require exploding dice or are too easy, and that neans resolution is more random.

 

[corwyn77]

One of the reasons D&D et al is not my go to game system is that D&D at different levels is not the same genre. I prefer a game where I can decide the power level of campaign and, while there is still character growth, the game style is still recognizable - GURPS, primarily, but also BESM, M&M, Hero in the past.

 

[Blue]

Whatever happens should be what makes sense based on what's come before in that campaign. It's not one thing or the other, or this or that,

I should have been more explicit - what do you expect from the system (which inludes mechanics but also thing like monster manuals and such) for high level play.

 

[Ovinomancer]

I should have been more explicit - what do you expect from the system (which inludes mechanics but also thing like monster manuals and such) for high level play.

Again, what kind of system are you talking about, here? This is general, D&D isn't the default assumption.