Do you ever do you PC's a favor?

[palleomortis]

Naw, they all start equally, or close (Level twenty, and two. Same number, just backwards.)

Seems more common than I thought. K, that's good.

 

[Wombat]

I've done all sorts of favours for my characters.

Why?

Because the story is about them, not the monsters.

Sometimes dice rolls get fudged in their favour. If the campaign should be set to a higher level, the characters start out more powerful. Sometimes I give them extra hints and clues.

In the end, it is better to emphsize the characters over the NPCs, the players over the rules, the heroes over the monsters. Yeah, I kill PCs -- just ask 'em! But I don't kill them every session and when they die they feel like something happened, that it was a true event, rather than a few dice just happening to roll the wrong way or the GM having something against them.

Do I do my players favours?

Always.

That's why we keep playing the game.

 

[diaglo]

i do party favors all the time.

you should see me do a number 8.


as for D&D. all PCs start at lvl 1 in the campaign.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Naw, they all start equally, or close (Level twenty, and two. Same number, just backwards.)

I really hope you're joking...

 

[TerraDave]

The question though, is it a favour? Higher level charecters tend to be more involved and hence can be harder to play, leveling up gives you a chance to learn your PCs capabilities through time. If the players are very familiar with the PCs capabilities already for some reason, then it shouldn't be such a problem.

As an aside, you see a lot of emphasis on higher level play in 3rd edition, but it also works well at low levels: charecters are more survivable and can do more then in earlier editions, and some things, like the skills and basic feats, seem more relevant then at higher levels. And of course, they don't have to stay at low levels that long.

 

[D-rock]

Not to worry. The only cardinal sin in D&D is to not have fun playing the game.

I agree with this, if its not fun anymore its probably for the best to mix something up.

 

[palleomortis]

I really hope you're joking...

Well duh, The ones I like start hight, and the ones I dislike start low. This is how it works.

 

[Shemeska]

Well, my last two campaigns have both started out, or moved quickly, to some very hostile spots on the planes, and so I've started out the PCs at level 10 and level 8 each time respectively.

Given that the first campaign ended at around level 27 after two and a half years, I feel that the players had the time to fully develop the characters. They didn't feel as if anything was just given to them; they worked for what they had and didn't take anything for granted. I oftentimes suspect that folks starting games at 'epic' level do take things for granted in many ways and you end up with a very shallow gaming experience. But that's just my opinion.

 

[DragonSword]

We generaly play long running games, interspersed by shorter 1-3 session games - so for the shorter games I tend to let my players start out higher. For the long campaigns, though, its almost always level 1.