Epic characters brought back to beginning levels

[Altamont Ravenard]

Have you ever done something akin to this? How did you go about it? Was was the back story? Did the participants like it?

Here's an example of what I'm thinking of:

- A hero is put in temporal stasis because it was prophecized that his people would need him in the future. A thousand years later, his empire forgotten, the stasis, which had been corrupted by foul magic, ends, but the hero finds that his power and precious equipment are gone.

- An immortal is bound by evil gods who slowly sap his power. Once his immortality and strength stolen, his body is discarded, left for dead. But the immortal isn't dead. He wakes up, after millenias of torture, a normal man, bent on recovering his status.

Basically, heroes from long ago, greatly reduced in power (ie 1st-level characters) but with memories of their past, and in a world where bards tell of their legendary feats.

EDIT: The Epic part is pure back story. I don't plan on taking existing Epic PC's and making them 1st level again. My players would make me swallow a 2L worth of d4's if I did that...

AR

 

[kenobi65]

It could be interesting, but I'd advise handling it *very* delicately. IME, players *hate* it when DMs mess around with their characters, and taking away their stuff (as well as their XPs, effectively) highly qualifies as "messing around," even if you've got a seemingly-solid plot that explains it.

Many moons ago, our 1E AD&D campaign had gotten to the point where the characters were what would have been considered, at that time, "high level" (around 13th or so). Knowing that the players were attached to their characters, but feeling that I (as the DM) wasn't able to effectively challenge them anymore, I suggested doing a "restart", and taking the character levels back down. Oh, man, talk about an insurrection! That idea lasted about 5 minutes after I broached it to the group.

 

[Samuel Leming]

I knew one DM that reincarnated all the characters of our group a couple of centuries after a TPK. We saw that as railroading, particularly since the DM already had his low level setting prepared and started it's first scenario in the same session as the TPK. Ok, this was first edition AD&D and it happened in the third or fourth session. All the characters were all high-level imports from other games. Before the first game the DM let us vote on starting new firsties or bringing in existing characters. I voted for a fresh start, but I wasn't with the majority. Even though I was cool starting a NEW first level character, I didn't care much for the DM's method of veto. The game folded within two more sessions.

Your two examples are even more extreme. As Kenobi65 said, handle with care. I would suggest floating a trial balloon first. I would think that most players would see the kind of examples you gave as going past railroading into the realms of reaming.

Sam

 

[AuraSeer]

If you're going to start the PCs at 1st level with a cool backstory, it's a great idea. The pursuit of justice, or revenge. gives them a built-in reason to go out adventuring. There's a simple explanation why they gain levels so much faster than everyone else in the world. (They're just replenishing the powers that were stolen from them.)

On the other hand, if you plan to take existing epic-level PCs and strip them back down to newbie status, your players will skin you alive. Don't ever make drastic negative changes to a PC without the player's permission.

 

[Maerdwyn]

It worked very well in two video games, which I will name in spoiler tags so those who haven't played them don't yell at me. Suffice to say they both show up on most people's lists of the best CRPGs of the past five or six years:

Spoiler

Knights of the Old Republic

and

Spoiler

Planescape: Torment

. Had an absolute blast with them.

 

[Imperialus]

I've concidered doing that but it would be starting at first level with that as backstory rather than essentially pressing the rewind button on a campaign.

My plan was to basically have them wake up in an abandoned crypt with their legend all but forgotten and their prized equipment (minor artifacts) long since looted and dispersed around the world. Basically what I would do is tell everyone to create a 20th level character to play with and then scatter the gear they bought around the world while reverting everyone to first level. It would be interesting to see them with an overall goal in mind for where they want their characters to go while trying to recover a few key peices of equipment that they used to have that would enable them to save the world once again... Figured it would be an interesting twist on the hunt the mcguffern save the world.

Biggest problem I see is trying to create two entiarly distinct worlds for the characters one of which would only exist in backstory. Though I was also concidering having one set in a high magic world that was set in a sort of dark age europe while the other would be more high fantasy gothic medeval but much lower magic with mages and sorcerers being distrusted and feared. Of course the PC's would still have their abilities

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Handling it as backstory is the best way. Encourage the characters to come up with epic deeds that they can do their best to emulate. It's not necessary, but the players will almost certainly generate epic-level versions of their characters to shoot for.

Knowing what the players say their characters had can also give you clues about what they want. If the paladin spent loving detail on his artifact sword, maybe that's still around, waiting for its former wielder to find it...

Brad

 

[jester47]

I was going to do that in the RPGA Living Greyhawk Campaign. I was going to have a bard who used to be this 18th level multiclassed baddass that lived in Sigil and hopped around the outerplanes. But he pissed off a god and the god shot him to Oerth without stuff, clear memories as a bard. He keeps insisting that there was a one handed god in his apratment ala the fugitive. His goal is to get back to his former self and go kick that one-eyd freak's butt! Slowly he would rediscover his memories along the way. But I never got around to it.

Aaron.

 

[Salad Shooter]

I'm plotting a game where the characters are some sort of Elder Gods, whose power has been stripped by their successors. They are now, after millenia of entrapment, seeking to restore their powers and whup on the new gods. Plotting around a 5th level start, with maybe a trixy cool ability to use, seeing as they ARE gods, if not really all that powerful ones at the moment.

 

[pogre]

It's a cool idea, but I would ask for player input as your crafting the background, Give them some ownership in it and I think it has big potential.