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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 7565795" data-attributes="member: 32740">Back in the day a few 1E/2E games reached teen levels and one very long running 1E game reached upper teens with one PC even crossing to 20/21st, but most of the campaigns tended to fizzle out well before teen levels when players wanted to spend summer weekends doing stuff other than D&D.  They were not too bad at the upper levels but definitely not as satisfying as the mid-to-upper single digit levels.  At that time we were heavy on the combat side of things but were not "powergamers" as such.  Nobody was TRYING to break the game, and the things we exploited weren't all that clever.  And if things did get a bit out of hand the DM would simply put an end to it and we'd move on.Had one 3E campaign that I deliberately ran up to 20th level with the intent at the outset being to end it when it got there.  I suspected it would get somewhat out of control because I'd read enough online to grasp the big picture but I said, "I want to see it unfold the way it was actually written before I start to houserule it a lot."  It was a real mess once levels got into the teens.  The players were so overwhelmed with choices that they never even used.  They couldn't maintain their characters or level them up without software to prompt them and track everything.  They COULD have done it themselves but it was so tedious and they lost interest in ensuring their PC's were "being all they could be".  So they stuck to the simple and reliable tactics and abilities that they'd established early on and mostly ignored all the extraneous options.  They mostly ran through the AP modules with a few side jaunts I cooked up.  I had some challenges keeping them challenged and engaged.  It was quite the eye-opener for me as DM.  Never really looked at the game the same way since and certainly haven't approached any edition as cavalierly.Depends on how you structure a campaign and how the players approach things, but with 3E requiring only 13.5 encounters on average to level up, you can hit 20th in a blink.  My big 3E game took 1 year of weekly play to finish.  There hardly seemed time for PC's to breathe much less kick around for a while at a given power level.  It was a downhill run towards 20th level and continually picked up speed the whole way and I REALLY disliked that.  The players didn't care for it much either.  Like getting on a merry-go-round and realizing at some point you can't get off without getting hurt.Played just a little bit of 5E but I don't think I'll ever run it as DM.  1E/2E I have so many house rules for even I don't like it no matter how much I try to trim them down.  What I really want to try at this point is E6 for 3E.  I really think that might be what best fits what I at least am looking for from D&D as a DM.  My players seem not overly interested or enthusiastic though.  Whatever.For ME, beyond "title" level, say 13th and up, is just not where I want to run a game at anymore, or even play at as a player.  Mechanics just break down and get out of control.  That applies to pretty much every version of D&D IME.  The only version I don't know about and don't care about AT ALL is 4th.  I could be convinced to try playing it I suppose but I'll never run it and it will never be a version of the rules I prefer.</blockquote>

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