Epic Challenges
- Thread starter styker
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Celebrim
Legend
NexH said:
He's the DM. If he says that its possible, then its possible. If the PC's wanted to be rules lawyerish about it, all he'd have to do is create a magic item called 'Thingymajig of the 596th: Spell casters with this item can overcome the normal restrictions of the Planeshift spell and travel directly to the 596th layer of the Abyss'. But, in my experience the PC's generally only get rules lawyerish about this sort of thing when they are trying to metagame thier way out of a problem rather than RP through it. This isn't something good for the PC's, so you'll get relatively few protests.
dungeon blaster
First Post
Besides, rods tend to have powers not duplicated by spells.
It's because in the spell said that you need a focus that is a specifically rod which take you to a specific plane, it's because i decided this. In the 596th layer i was thinking of a demon (NM) that was the old master of that layer "help" the pcs to destroy the new master and he gets the power back... after that... hehehehe
Whimsical
Explorer
I have posted this web link before, but I still recommend Design Secrets: High-Level Adventures by Monte Cook for anyone who is running higher level adventures. It's a different game at high levels and you need to be ready for it. And this is the article that had it all click for me in my head, and I learned how to stop worrying and love the bomb. The Epic book also has a good section on creating epic level scenarios.
Trainz
Explorer
Whimsical said:
Very insightful indeed.
I do many epic games. At first, it was little more than hack and slash, but as I made more games, I learned stuff, created rules, and understood things to make epic games better.
One thing that I did learn, is that it's ridiculous to hit your players with random encounters of their levels when travelling from town A to town B. The ecology of the world simply isn't that dangerous, or the whole plane would be full of epic characters/creatures. Instead, travel happens much faster, as I tell the players "on your way there, you meet a band of ogres and a few hellhounds. They learn at their expense that they simply are no match for your suprahuman abilities." without actually rolling the fights.
Trainz:
I think the same think, random encounters are !@#% in epic games, i think that epic enconunters just in situations chosen by the DM... for example: if you want the group to fight with that purple worm paragon then you put it in the adventure and made it not randomize the encounter by a table...
I think the same think, random encounters are !@#% in epic games, i think that epic enconunters just in situations chosen by the DM... for example: if you want the group to fight with that purple worm paragon then you put it in the adventure and made it not randomize the encounter by a table...
Celebrim
Legend
styker said:
I'll let you in on a secret. Random encounters are generally crap in games period. The only real advantage of a random table is as an aid to the imagination - and for that they can be quite excellent - but if you can help it you should always roll up 'random' encounters before the session so that you can shape and prepare them before hand, or if you need a random encounter from a table so as to spice up a journey don't let the dice overrule your good judgement. Better to have no encounter and hand wave a journey than to have uninteresting ones.
For that matter, you should roll up any random event before the session - whether it be the days whether or a random event table - and lay out an outline of the next few days before play. This is handy for several reasons. You can modify encounters as you need to. You will generally put more thought into the encounter if you do it before hand, which will let you flesh out details. And - and this is a particularly clever part - if a PC ever does any divination about the future, you'll already have a ready idea of what to say and it will be far easier to come up with a simple oracle or riddle about future events.
I think its a very good exercise for young DM's to roll up random encounters and events and regardless of the outcome force yourself to invent an appropriate and interesting encounter based on the premise that the party is going to meet a particular something - even if its something you would have never chosen yourself. Think of it as a simple sort of Iron DMing test. If the encounter would be too deadly, can you think of a motivation for the monster that would give it a reason to not kill the PC's? Or perhaps you can think of a way to put the PC's at an advantage against a monster they couldn't normally handle? If the monster would be too weak generally, is there a way to give it an advantage over the PC's? Think of ways to turn the encounter into an interesting RP oppurtunity. Think of unique lairs you could give to the monster. Think of unique reasons that the monster might have for travelling. Is the presence of the monster good for local color, even if the PC's don't fight it? And so forth.
Just don't wait to do that during a session unless you absolutely need to.
glass
(he, him)
Celebrim said:
That's not a secret, it's an opinion.
If I am DMing, I like to make (sparing) use of random encounters, because IMO they have a couple of advantages:
- They help keep things interesting for the DM. D&D is a game, after all, even for the DM.
- They reduce the predictability that can come when the players know their DM well.
- They make it more difficult for players to metagame to figure out the significance of an encounter or the power of an opponent.
IOW, they keep the players guessing, because they can result in encounters that they know you'd never plan as DM.
glass.
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