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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RedCliff" data-source="post: 762477" data-attributes="member: 5829">I'm a huge fan of epic stories, but I think the real meaning of the word has become sadly diluted from overuse these days. Every movie is described as epic, though few actually are, for example. Whenever I try to tell an epic story, I almost invariably start my group at 1st level. Epic stories are about stakes and often the heroic struggle to rise to the challenge, not being amazingly powerful. The problem with campaigns is that they are difficult to maintain at these levels of greatness. Most epic heroes have one great achievement in their lives, and if you follow the classic structure, often die in their moment of triumph. But even if they don't, the story usually ends with that single epic moment. For example,Maximus kills the Emperor of Rome at the end of Gladiator, and Luke defeats the Emperor and redeems his father at the end of the original Star Wars saga. The tales are nearly over at the moments of their greatest triumphs. Life may go on for some after that, but the tale of the epic hero is over with that victory.There are exceptions, of course, but this level of stakes becomes difficult to maintain. Games risk getting stale or even rediculous if the party is saving the world, the plane, or even the entire cosmos every adventure. But if they're just going back to dungeon hacking then they're not performing epic deeds anymore. They're just regular adventurers with a whole lot more power. In my experience, epics done right can be some of the most amazing campaigns, and their ends can even border on moving. But anytime I've run a game through to the end of an epic tale, it ends with that final conflict the campaign has been building toward the whole time, and then the characters retire, usually with a little epilogue.That's not to say you can't use the epic level handbook, but as others have said, just because you're powerful doesn't mean your the protagonist in an epic tale. A book or article on how to continue on after the first epic tale would be a very interesting project IMO. Something that focused on campaign structure, types of adventures, and other non-mechanical aspects of the game could prove an invaluable companion to both the ELH, and the books Psion mentioned earlier.</blockquote>

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