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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 1519766" data-attributes="member: 99">I'll chime in from the perspective of a DM who (thus far) doesn't really enjoy running high level campaigns.I've just finished running a game the saw the characters rise to about 12th level before it reached the pre determined end of the campaign (I didn't just yank the rug out from under them when they hit 12th, it was the end of the major plot arc).  Prior to that most of our campaigns ended when the characters were no higher than 8th level, though we give out XP at a reduced rated from the core rules so these previous campaigns lasted 6-9 months each.The combat powers of the PC's and critters at high levels start to pile up quite a bit and this has the potential to slow things down considerably.  But I can roll with that pretty well.  One always has the option to throw large groups of mooks at them who have relatively simple powers and whose main challenge is in their numbers.  The problem I have is the campaign building aspect.If you play more or less by the rules as written, the magic starts to get a bit over the top for my tastes.  And I'm not just talking about the PC's.  I try to create bad guys who are smart and use their abilities to best achieve their goals.  When they have access to spells up to 7th level and beyond, they have got tons of options for how to execute their plans and many of them are VERY powerful.  I also like to have a lot of power players (I don't mean PC's, I mean VIPs) in the world so that it is more interesting than just the PC's vs. One Big Bad Guy.So throw all these powerful individuals, all with different agendas, all with different but powerful and varied magical capabilities into the mix and it winds up being a hell of a lot to juggle.  I enjoy spending time on my D&D campaign, but I've got a job, wife and child to attend to.  Also consider that I think I'm a pretty smart guy, but I'm probably not any smarter than my players.  I'm definately not smarter than the group of them working in concert.  They are expert at finding little loopholes in the plans of my villians (which I enjoy to a certain extent).The net result is that I start to feel overwhelmed at the upper levels.  Everybody is scrying, teleporting all over the place, communing with the gods, planar travelling, raising big armies, summoning demons and devils by the dozens and generally wreaking mahem of various sorts.  I reach a point where I feel like I'm managing to scramble to keep up, but it stops being fun for me.  And "no fun for the GM" = "End of Campaign".All of that said, I think I could run a high level campaign (at least for a while) if I set up the world to limit some of the stuff that drives me the most crazy.  Scrying and Teleport are two of the biggies because with them in play, you can never be sure of where any of the high level individuals in the world will be at any given moment.  I guess I feel like that no matter what direction the PC's take, if they have to travel to get there it gives me a little breathing room and time to plan.But that might be another reason why I shy away from high level gaming.  If I have to nerf the abilities of the players and bad guys in order to keep it fun, why not just play at levels where I don't have to nerf them at all?</blockquote>

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