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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8392786" data-attributes="member: 6790260">For my part, "epicness" doesn't really need to be magical (though it is almost always supernatural--more on that later), nor does it need to mess with physics per se. An epic-type adventure needs to stretch the bounds of what seems possible or achievable, usually by going up against fantastical forces, thinking of a clever solution to a previously insoluble problem, or breaking a previously inviolable rule/pattern at a very grand scale. "Mythic" fits into a similar boat, but doesn't (to my mind) require quite as much...scale or breadth as "epic" does. You can have a "mythic" adventure as a child exploring the woods behind your grandmother's house, but not really an "epic" one in the usual sense. (It could be epic from a young child's perspective, but that's because they don't really have a well-calibrated sense of scale yet. To a five-year-old, neighbor's houses are enigmatic domains of wonder and mystery.)As an example, one of my favorite bits of lore from the 4e World Axis setting is that Bahamut is building divine arcology-ships in order to house the many souls that aren't allowed to go to the heaven they should have gone to. (This problem was caused by the Dawn War destroying the Lattice of Heaven, and several distinct sets of deities merging their divine domains in order to protect themselves.) That's a pretty cool thing all on its own, Bahamut literally calling together some of the greatest artisans, living and dead, to try to fix a problem no other deity is particularly concerned about. That's a pretty much textbook epic backdrop.But it gets better! See, the 4e version of Kord isn't just some layabout STRONK BOI who likes to challenge people to contests of strength or whatever. He's actually a lot more like Batman: moody, brooding, CRAZY-prepared (though others see it as just crazy or rather paranoid), extremely determined, and disinclined to work with the team when he thinks he knows better. And one particular hypothetical scenario has Kord, or at least agents of Kord, hijack the first completed ark-ship, implicitly trying to get the jump on the Dusk War, but almost surely both triggering that war and wrecking most of reality in the process. This then leads to a desperate chase and struggle to stop Kord (or his agents) from setting reality on fire in their efforts to protect things.That's an "epic" adventure--one with vast scope, a problem that looks potentially insoluble, tools and allies that are nearly too vast for the human mind to wrap around, and the pretty clear expectation of truly awesome, as in actually inspiring awe, scenes and events.</blockquote>

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