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Do you Expect to hit Epic tier?
- Thread starter Rechan
- Start date
I feel bad for you. Is this experience due to groups folding or campaigns failing?
My main current group has three of us who have gamed together since ~90, two others who came in together last year (but one of them I gamed with on and off for about 15 years and met through a guy I've gamed with about 20). The 'new guy' joined about '97.
As to the subject at hand, I've only been involved in three 4e games (dnd has never been my primary system), one went 1-20 intentionally, one went 21-28, and the only one I've run just started. It's Burning Sky so is slated to go from 1-30. OTOH, I am paring it down to story-advancing combats and 'dramatic leveling' so I don't feel I need to pad the game with combat just to grant xp.
Most of my experience is with games that don't have 'level caps' (gurps, hero, savage worlds, feng shui, besm) so I can't speak to 'maxxing out' characters. However, I can say that I tend to run games with a beginning and an end so they probably wouldn't run to 30 if I was using dnd. My group generally prefers a more focused story rather than a group of adventures tied together by setting and characters.
Tequila Sunrise
Adventurer
Part of it is that I haven't lived in any one place for more than a couple years since high school. The rest is DM burnout and groups folding.
My current group is the longest-lasting I've ever gathered or been part of; we're going on three years now. We play pretty regularly once a week; none of us has gotten burnout in a while, but that's because we rotate GMs. (None of us can handle DMing full-time, and one guy prefers Blue Planet to D&D.) The result is that everyone's happy, but usually as soon as we level up, we rotate to a different campaign. If this group lasts another few years, the others might see epic play, but I'll probably be going to a four-year school next September.
I'd love to play in Epic, but my DM thinks Epic is just goofy and has no interest in it. I think my Halfling Daggermaster Rogue would be really nasty in Epic too, but we created this party at L12 for Revenge of the Giants and I honestly figure once this campaign finishes he will start us w/a new group. Of course, we aren't even to 14 yet, so we have a ways to go still 
I would say a definite no for me.
Polls aside, I think if you were to look at the numbers, I doubt very many groups play epic....except for maybe the occasional epic one shot or mini campaign.
It takes a lot of adventures to get to epic, and you have to overcome many factors to do it.
1) Not have a TPK. While some campaigns can survive a TPK, many stop right there.
2) End of the campaign. A lot of campaigns simply end before epic, either due to lack of desire to continue or simply because the story is over.
3) Desire for a new gaming system. Whether its the next Dnd or a different system, the desire to try something new can end games.
4) End of the gaming group. Real life happens, and sometimes it can end a game.
While there are always exceptions (Pcat, how long did your campaign go again?), I would say most campaigns just don't last long enough to go epic.
Polls aside, I think if you were to look at the numbers, I doubt very many groups play epic....except for maybe the occasional epic one shot or mini campaign.
It takes a lot of adventures to get to epic, and you have to overcome many factors to do it.
1) Not have a TPK. While some campaigns can survive a TPK, many stop right there.
2) End of the campaign. A lot of campaigns simply end before epic, either due to lack of desire to continue or simply because the story is over.
3) Desire for a new gaming system. Whether its the next Dnd or a different system, the desire to try something new can end games.
4) End of the gaming group. Real life happens, and sometimes it can end a game.
While there are always exceptions (Pcat, how long did your campaign go again?), I would say most campaigns just don't last long enough to go epic.
Quickleaf
Legend
Interesting. Could you clarify what you did with your monsters?
I ran 3 - 3.5 hour sessions fortnightly and the 6-person party advanced a level per 2 sessions. True we didn't technically track XP. But I religiously followed the encounter budget design guidelines cross-referenced with the PC level advancement chart. I ran hard fights, made ample use of quest XP awards, and also awarded XP for puzzles and roleplaying.
DarkLord Of DForce
First Post
Well, our 8 man party is lev23, and we're facing Acererak in the Tomb Of Horrors *tonight*. Our DM has already stated it will be an mega fight and he expects some people to go down. He says he's pulling out all the stops. But he also said he expects our group to prevail before its over, so we'll see. It looks like we will be down 1 player (a monk), but the other 7 should be there.
We've been playing about 2.5 years, 8-9 hour sessions, once every 2 weeks.
I'll post results afterwards... wish us luck and great rolls!
We've been playing about 2.5 years, 8-9 hour sessions, once every 2 weeks.
I'll post results afterwards... wish us luck and great rolls!
Barastrondo
First Post
Not really. Admittedly, I enjoy heroic and paragon play just the way they are, but also I've run Champions set in a fantasy world. That's where I scratch my epic itch; it feels more like superheroes than D&D, but that works better for me, I think. The world starts presuming epic, goes from there. I'm not as fond of the tonal shifts in a world that supports meaningful heroic and meaningful epic at the same time, or in siloing off epic by heading to other planes.
Of course, my D&D is usually culturally informed, and not very generic. When it is, it's in campaigns I've been running since 2nd edition... and those tend to follow the same assumed concepts of "double digits is where you move into more of a stronghold phase, with plenty of roleplay and intrigue but fewer 'adventures' per capita."
Of course, my D&D is usually culturally informed, and not very generic. When it is, it's in campaigns I've been running since 2nd edition... and those tend to follow the same assumed concepts of "double digits is where you move into more of a stronghold phase, with plenty of roleplay and intrigue but fewer 'adventures' per capita."
Grand_Director
Explorer
My group is starting our epic game this week. The players started at 1st and took a break at the end of each tier as I had made each tier a mini campaign. So the over arching storyline remains constant but it is almost like a fresh start as there are no loose ends dangling from the prior tier.
In between each tier another player took over as DM and ran a mini game that lasted for about six levels.
I'm really looking forward to epic. The difficulty I'm finding altering the damage of MM 1 and 2 monsters. It's not hard...just time consuming. But the monster as they stand are just a joke and offer no challenge what so ever.
Also combat is the longest it has ever been. After this game it is going to be a shock to go back to 1st level...and a breath of fresh air.
In between each tier another player took over as DM and ran a mini game that lasted for about six levels.
I'm really looking forward to epic. The difficulty I'm finding altering the damage of MM 1 and 2 monsters. It's not hard...just time consuming. But the monster as they stand are just a joke and offer no challenge what so ever.
Also combat is the longest it has ever been. After this game it is going to be a shock to go back to 1st level...and a breath of fresh air.
I halve all monster hp, otherwise they are as per current RAW - I'll eg upgrade damage output on older monsters. Did you mean how I use them? I pretty much follow 4e DM advice, but 'Spike' encounters are quite common IMCs; players love the feeling of really going all-out for death or glory, especially if they get the glory.
