I'm an incompetent normal-magic DM--how do I fix it?

[WizarDru]

Are there any campaign settings, city books, high-level adventures, or even story hours here on the boards that would serve as good examples on how to make normal-magic game work well once the characters hit level 11-20? I hear that Eberron does a good job of incorporating magic into the setting, but not so much with high level characters. FR is fairly high-magic, but as far as I can tell from the FRCS the "big guns" of the setting seem to stay in the background in a cold war of sorts.

Well, there are several story hours that are highly recommended. Piratecat's Story Hour, Sepulchrave's Tales of Wyre, Sagiro's Story Hour and, if you'll pardon my self-appreciation, MY/Zad's Story Hour are all examples of how high-level and indeed Epic Level play can work within a normal D&D framework, without sacrificing story or character interaction.

For a good high level module, I'd recommend "Lich Queen's Beloved" from Dungeon #100 as an example of a module written with high-level powers in mind, as well as both the Shackled City and Age of Worms adventure paths.

Eberron doesn't include high-level NPCs as core parts of the setting, but supports high-level play just fine. The FRCS takes a different approach, with the high-level NPCs being chessmasters, as opposed to direct engagers.

The question you're asking is a tad more complicated than just "how do I run a high-level game" because we don't know as much about your specific game. For example, in Piratecat's Story Hour, even though the Defenders of Daybreak are incredibly powerful, they still submit to a king who is far less powerful than they are...that's a function of the setting and the players. In my game, the PCs respect national leaders...but aren't above intimidating a whole nation when they think it's in the interest of the greater good. One important rule is that there's always someone more powerful than you, and they've probably made plans before you have.

If you'd like more specific references, I can do a search to some of the excellent threads of the past where we discuss some of our high-level strategies at length.