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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GrumpyOldMan" data-source="post: 1357410" data-attributes="member: 16469">There have been a number of interesting posts here. Though, in my opinion, none satisfactorily answer the original question. The answers given seem to boil down to:the simple: change the level of the patronthe complicated: the patron is too busy doing something much more important (like saving the world)and, the fatuous: maybe he can’t be bothered.Everyone refers to npc’s by their level, he’s a 20th level King or a 12th level General. The key to a good game, for me, is a consistent background, where a king is a king, a general is a general. Levels are an artificial construct. Even if you use them (and it’s your choice after all) how can bloke #1 determine the level of bloke #2. Does he wear a hat with his level written on it? No! Two warriors size each other up. Is the one with better armour the higher level, or is he simply richer, or luckier. The fact is that almost everyone here refers to npc’s and pc’s by level and class, these are artificial constructs which cannot be judged by looking at someone.The level based system with its massive disparities in abilities between even first and fifth level characters skews everything into the realms of unreality. (I know, it’s a fantasy game, whet should I expect?) I’ll hold up my hand here, I got bored with DnD 15 or more years ago, I’ve glanced at the system since but it doesn’t engage me. I only ever ran two long campaigns. One finished when the pc’s were 5th level, the second got them up to tenth. It was a long hard slog, but I’d bought the Giant & Drow modules when they first came out (’77?) (amazing that the first ever published modules were for high level, not beginning characters). But when we got them past the fire giants the threat escalation factor had got to us all. We were bored with simply killing bigger monsters. I had discovered that characters above about 7th level bored me, so I switched to the bizarre and wonderful world of Glorantha & RuneQuest. Any system where hit points don’t improve (or in the case of HârnMaster, don’t exist) completely changes the way you game. Tsunami is right, either accept DnD for what it is (a system where you go from wimp to demi-god in 30 levels) or (and I know that it’s not for everyone) if npc levels bother you, and are getting in the way of the type of campaign you want to run, why not look at a system where they don’t exist?</blockquote>

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