drnuncheon
Explorer
Bringing it back...
Someone recommended this thread as having some good suggestions for dealing with an epic-level campaign, and it does indeed have some.
One thing I noticed though, and that slightly disappointed me, was that SHARK's method of handling things basically seems to take what's already there, and stretch it across more levels. Like someone said, playing a 10th level character in SHARKworld is like playing a 2nd level character anywhere else. Maybe not in terms of absolute personal ability, but in terms of how you relate to the world around you. If everyone is 10th level, or 20th, or 40th, then it's no longer special. It's kind of interesting in a Final Fantasy, "this one goes up to eleven" way, but it's really just normal D&D with bigger numbers.
That brought me to an important realization: you can have an epic campaign at any level you want to. It's the stories that are epic, not the levels. Frodo and Sam would be what, first, maybe second level? Yet they're the central characters of one of the greatest epics written in the 20th century. (Sure, Aragorn and the others were higher level, but everything they did would have meant nothing if Frodo and Sam hadn't succeeded.)
Similarly, you can play a non-epic game at 40th level if you want, because you can be doing exactly the same thing as you did for the first 39 levels: go into a dungeon, beat up what's there, and take its stuff.
I think that much of the nervousness about running an "epic" campaign is just that: nerves. Really, the questions aren't that different from the ones you'd have to ask yourself at lower levels. "Where were all these 10th level guys when we had to save the town back at fifth level?" is the same question as "Where were all these 30th level guys when we had to save the world back at 15th level?" Once your PCs have saved the world, where do you go from there? It's the same question if you ask it at 5th level, 15th level, or 50th level.
So in a way, SHARK is right - you do have to plan your games if you want them to go epic. The planning you need to do, though, is more along the lines of planning what sort of story you want to tell, and matching your pacing with that plan.
J
Someone recommended this thread as having some good suggestions for dealing with an epic-level campaign, and it does indeed have some.
One thing I noticed though, and that slightly disappointed me, was that SHARK's method of handling things basically seems to take what's already there, and stretch it across more levels. Like someone said, playing a 10th level character in SHARKworld is like playing a 2nd level character anywhere else. Maybe not in terms of absolute personal ability, but in terms of how you relate to the world around you. If everyone is 10th level, or 20th, or 40th, then it's no longer special. It's kind of interesting in a Final Fantasy, "this one goes up to eleven" way, but it's really just normal D&D with bigger numbers.
That brought me to an important realization: you can have an epic campaign at any level you want to. It's the stories that are epic, not the levels. Frodo and Sam would be what, first, maybe second level? Yet they're the central characters of one of the greatest epics written in the 20th century. (Sure, Aragorn and the others were higher level, but everything they did would have meant nothing if Frodo and Sam hadn't succeeded.)
Similarly, you can play a non-epic game at 40th level if you want, because you can be doing exactly the same thing as you did for the first 39 levels: go into a dungeon, beat up what's there, and take its stuff.
I think that much of the nervousness about running an "epic" campaign is just that: nerves. Really, the questions aren't that different from the ones you'd have to ask yourself at lower levels. "Where were all these 10th level guys when we had to save the town back at fifth level?" is the same question as "Where were all these 30th level guys when we had to save the world back at 15th level?" Once your PCs have saved the world, where do you go from there? It's the same question if you ask it at 5th level, 15th level, or 50th level.
So in a way, SHARK is right - you do have to plan your games if you want them to go epic. The planning you need to do, though, is more along the lines of planning what sort of story you want to tell, and matching your pacing with that plan.
J
My players certainly enjoy epic campaigns.
