Bront said:
They all involve places where you can stick the epic rules (I really detest them).
The epic rules only work (and you can get them to work) if you follow some safety precautions beforehand.
Precaution #1: Don't let it get too high
The epic rules claim that they can handle any level, but they totally disintegrate around 40 or so, so set a cap in advance. If a character reaches that cap, I give them a few other interesting options (other than adding a new level) that they can use for their new XP.
Precaution #2: NEVER start a campaign epic
Allowing your players to create epic characters from scratch is a recipe for doom. Epic characters vary so much in power level and capabilities that you have to play it up from low levels to get to know the characters if you want a shot in hell of running appropriate challenges (this worked for my current tabletop group, which has gone epic just barely and started at level 1).
Precaution #3: DO NOT ALLOW NON-EPIC ITEMS THAT BOOST SPELLCRAFT (and for that matter, it is probably a good idea to cap all skill-boosting non-epic items to the ones in the DMG)
The skill-boosting items ruin the dynamics of a number of unopposed skills, but Spellcraft, which controls epic spellcasting, is by far the most dangerous.
Precaution #4: Read the epic rules carefully
Many problems with the epic rules come from players who read the rules unthoroughly or else read them fine but wish to hoodwink an unwary GM. For example, dealing massive backlash damage to cast a powerful epic spell that will give them some huge permanent benefit, then healing off the damage (if you look carefully, the backlash damage actually applies for each round of the spell's duration, so this will not work).
I'll think of more eventually