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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack Daniel" data-source="post: 5259664" data-attributes="member: 694">Yesterday, I just finished my first E6 campaign... using the Basic/Expert rules.  My take on E6 is very simple.  I took the framework of the Basic D&D character classes, and then I limited all of them to 6th level.  A few tweaks are needed here and there (particularly a slight acceleration in the combat and saving throw advancement tables), but otherwise very few changes need to be made to the game.Once characters actually reach 6th level, they gain all the benefits normally accorded to 9th (name) level characters in the regular rules (i.e. a title, stronghold, followers).  Beyond that, every time a character re-earns the same amount of XP normally needed to go from 5th level to 6th (e.g. 16K for a fighter, 20K for a magic-user, 32K for an elf), the character gains an "epic advancement."  Since there are no feats in Ye Auld Game, an epic advancement grants two boons.  First, the player increases any one of his character's ability scores by one point.  Second, the player re-rolls all of his character's hit dice, adjusts for constitution, and takes the new total if it's higher.  In the event that maximum hp are ever rolled, future epic advancements grant only the ability score raise.This particular campaign was fairly spell-heavy, since it starred a magic-user, a cleric, and an elf.  The plot consisted of an alternate 19th century Earth where magic is real, set against the backdrop of 1860s Ireland, during the Fenian raids.  The player characters were Irish-born adventurers with rebel sympathies, but they became chiefly concerned with hunting down a number of evil magical artifacts before they fell into the hands of a cultist sorcerer.  The sorcerer was nominally working for the British army, but really he was just manipulating everybody to his own ends, namely to use said evil artifacts to revive a Mesopotamian demon to do his nefarious bidding.  Last night, the campaign came to an end when the player characters confronted, fought, and defeated the sorcerer in an explosive battle on the streets of downtown Dublin.Speaking in terms of game mechanics, the campaign couldn't have gone better.  Capping all experience levels at 6th has proven to be the ideal way to both keep the action realistically "heroic" and make everything run smoother for the DM.  Low level monsters, spells, and items are easy to remember off the cuff; the player characters never have any game-breaking super-powers; in short, zero headaches for me.  And the players still have that sense of advancement past 6th, when they earn the "epic *ding*" and get to raise an ability score.  Capital idea, this E6!==========One of the curious things I was able to do with this game, though, was to make all of the numbers "mean something" in fairly concrete terms.  This allowed me to place adjectives, rather than numbers, on the players' character sheets.  As the DM, I had all of the characters' stats in "stat black" form, like so:Maldinar, L Mag3, Str 9 Dex 12 Con 13 Int 16 Wis 8 Cha 10, AC 5, HP 12, THAC0 19, Saving Throw 14, etc...But the character sheet looked something like this:Name - MaldinarAlignment - LawfulClass - Magic-UserLevel - ConjurerStrength - AverageDexterity -AverageConstitution - Above AverageIntelligence - HighWisdom - Below AverageCharisma - AverageArmor Class - Bracers of Armor (Chainmail)Combat Skill - Basic TrainingSaving Throw - Seasoned Adventurer (Wisdom Penalty)Current Health - (*) Hale; ( ) Winded; ( ) Exhausted; ( ) Injured===========As the DM, I rolled all of the dice.  The players never saw a single number.  It was that fact, I think, coupled with the "heroic realism" of the E6 power scale, that greatly improved the immersive experience for the players.</blockquote>

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