30 Levels

[mhensley]

A conversation overheard at Gencon between D&D Brand Manager Scott Rouse and a gamer about the future of D&D-

Scott Rouse: In 4th edition D&D levels all go to thirty now. Look, right across the board, thirty, thirty, thirty and...
Joe Gamer: Oh, I see. And most games only go up to level twenty?
Scott Rouse: Exactly.
Joe Gamer: Does that mean it's better? Is it any better?
Scott Rouse: Well, it's ten levels better, isn't it? It's not twenty. You see, most dudes, you know, will be playing D&D at level twenty. You're on level twenty here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're character is level twenty. Where can you go from there? Where?
Joe Gamer: I don't know.
Scott Rouse: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Joe Gamer: Put it up to thirty levels.
Scott Rouse: Level thirty. Exactly. Ten better.
Joe Gamer: Why don't you just make twenty levels better and make twenty be the highest level and make that a little better?
Scott Rouse: [pause] 4th edition D&D goes to thirty.

 

[Asmor]

Does this mean that E11 is the new E6? I mean, it only makes sense that E6 get cranked up to 11 as well.

 

[Shadeydm]

My question is does this mean that levels 21 - 30 are built in epic levels?

 

[Bagpuss]

No from what I've seen in articles the idea is to stretch the "sweet spot" level 4 to 14 out longer.

 

[Li Shenron]

Is it 30 better than 20?
Does 30 mean that the current "power range" of character is simply be stretched, so that a 4e 30th PC is roughly the same as a 3e 20th PC?
Or does it mean that those levels are added "beyond", so that a 4e 20th PC is the same as a 3e 20th PC?

Personally I would prefer the latter, so that the game would accomodate powers beyond the ones available to 20-level characters in the current edition.

I certainly don't see a "stretch" of levels a good thing instead. I know that this is attractive to players, but already I have experienced problems with players that are mostly focused on character advancement all the time, and don't bother paying serious attention to the adventures around them... Stretching levels (or splitting them into sublevels) only mean to exacerbate this problem, since there'll be PCs levelling up more often. It's totally understandable that such thing is highly marketable, players (including me, when running a PC) are sucker for getting new abilities quickly and often, but when DMing I would really prefer bigger advancement "steps" but less frequent.

What also scares me a bit is that they're talking about the game being just as fun at low levels as in high levels... If they mean that the game will be just the same, only "bigger numbers", then it doesn't seam like a good reason to play high level at all. Except for someone to be able to say "look, I've got a 30-inch PC! Ehr, I mean 30-level..."

If they mean that the game will be JUST AS EASY TO PLAY/RUN at low levels as at high levels (but still having DIFFERENT things to do at high levels) then it would definitely be a huge improvement!

 

[Nebulous]

My question is does this mean that levels 21 - 30 are built in epic levels?

That was my assumption too, but now that i think about it, 4th edition could very well spit out a 31st-40th level Epic Handbook.

 

[kaomera]

No from what I've seen in articles the idea is to stretch the "sweet spot" level 4 to 14 out longer.

They might just be able to do that - I'm cautiously optimistic. But all of the (easy) ways I can think to accomplish this for me, I don't think they'd actually go through with any of those... :\

Damn, I can't wait... The suspense over what parts of 4e are going to rock my world and which stuff is just going to be epic fail is killing me.

 

[mhensley]

I'm curious as to how this will affect the CR system (assuming there will be a CR system) and the monster manual. There aren't too many CR 20-30 monsters out there.

 

[Obergnom]

A conversation overheard at Gencon between D&D Brand Manager Scott Rouse and a gamer about the future of D&D-

Scott Rouse: In 4th edition D&D levels all go to thirty now. Look, right across the board, thirty, thirty, thirty and...
Joe Gamer: Oh, I see. And most games only go up to level twenty?
Scott Rouse: Exactly.
Joe Gamer: Does that mean it's better? Is it any better?
Scott Rouse: Well, it's ten levels better, isn't it? It's not twenty. You see, most dudes, you know, will be playing D&D at level twenty. You're on level twenty here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're character is level twenty. Where can you go from there? Where?
Joe Gamer: I don't know.
Scott Rouse: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Joe Gamer: Put it up to thirty levels.
Scott Rouse: Level thirty. Exactly. Ten better.
Joe Gamer: Why don't you just make twenty levels better and make twenty be the highest level and make that a little better?
Scott Rouse: [pause] 4th edition D&D goes to thirty.

 

[mhensley]

Damn, I can't wait... The suspense over what parts of 4e are going to rock my world and which stuff is just going to be epic fail is killing me.

I feel the same way. I loved the year leading up to third edition with all the rumors and previews. It was the only time I ever subscribed to Dragon. It certainly makes the forums a lot more interesting.