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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy E Grenemyer" data-source="post: 2574451" data-attributes="member: 12388">Dungeon Experiences and Play ExperiencesIn my experience, the claim that Epic is, “…all about Power, Power and more Power,” is just plain wrong.My Realms campaign has been going since 3.0 was first released (that’s years, folks), and just recently hit Epic Levels.You know what the Epic Characters (including one Psion) in my game did this last Monday during play?  They fretted over the proper dress and etiquette one adopts whilst at a Noble-Hosted Spring Revel at the Hawkwinter Villa in Waterdeep.  They didn’t blast the world to bits with spells, nor did they slay eight dragons and take over the City of Shade all before lunch, nor did they make any attack rolls or saving throws for the entirety of play.This from a group of gamers where only the DM is heavily into the Realms and one player reads the novels (and then to kill time as much as anything else).  Yes, there are non-Realms fans who know how to roleplay.  But I digress.More to the topic:  I waited a couple years to run the Storm Lords Keep (I even did the simple conversions necessary to update to 3.5 for the adventure), and found it was absolutely worth the wait.  Very well constructed, laughably easy to adapt to my Realms Campaign and certainly not something that suffered from the false notion of, “Epic is so hard to do.”  Sure this might be true for some, but if you actually run a campaign from level 1 onwards to Epic, or are familiar with your friends and their gaming styles, it’s no harder than running a non-Epic Game.Epic takes a solid DM to run, because so much of the burden of maintaining the balance factor in an Epic Game is carried by the Dungeon Master as opposed to the rules.I really don’t think any of us are so steeped in other people’s campaigns that we can say authoritatively what types of gamers use Epic Material, and in what ways.  But within my circle of friends and acquaintances I haven’t ever seen any vapid sort of, “Oooh, when I hit level 21, I will own all your weak assess!” behavior that some assume Epic brings out in people.I think it’s far more likely the game itself does this, than just Epic itself.I haven’t seen any Psionic-exclusive campaigns being run by my friends over the years.  The Psion character in my game is the only one I’m aware of that anyone that I know has run since at least 2001.  As a DM who very much disfavored the Psionics concept (since AD&D), I’ve had to work hard to distinguish it from ‘regular’ magic (in my players eyes) and find a proper place for it in the Realms.The plus side of this co-operative work with my players is that we enjoy the integration of the Psionics rules into our game.I can see why Epic might appeal more to most that Psionics, but not for the stereotyped reasons most would point to.Lastly, Dungoen could IMNSHO use a lot more Very High Level and Epic Adventures.  Sure they’ve got the three way breakdown going now (which I think is a superb way of doing things), but the top-end adventures just aren’t high enough in level methinks.Thanks to everyone at Dungeon for all your yard work and focus.  My campaign simply wouldn’t have had the success and longevity it enjoys without access to your fine publication.J. Grenemyer</blockquote>

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