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<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 7573786" data-attributes="member: 6801845">In general, stories move forward or maybe sideways but never backwards.&nbsp; However, since you brought it up, I did do a few sessions where the PCs had been effectively &quot;depowered&quot;.&nbsp; It was an unusual situation, taking the PCs from a 4E campaign where they had gotten to 30th level but then didn't &quot;ascend&quot; or any of the other things that were supposed to be part of their end story.Because of cosmological changes (Ragnarok had been averted, the realms of the gods was no longer as &quot;close&quot; and a lot of magic items were destroyed) along with the fact that we had switched over to 5E the PCs were depowered to 20th level.&nbsp; They basically came out of retirement one last time to clean up some loose ends.&nbsp; So ... yes I can see the PCs going backwards.&nbsp; Will probably never happen again, it was quite unusual circumstances between switching editions and story resulting in a mini-campaign.&nbsp; It was fun, but it's because it worked for my players.&nbsp; I also like [MENTION=6919838]5ekyu[/MENTION]'s idea of flashback session now and then.&nbsp; I may have to try it some time.As a general rule though, I never tell the players what their PCs are going to do.&nbsp; If they're 10th level and want to go wipe out that goblin bandit camp they ran away from at 1st level, I'd probably just hand-wave it off screen unless there's some kind of twist that would make it an interesting/fun/challenging encounter.&nbsp; But if they're doing that, other things will happen.&nbsp; I let events unfold in what I think is a natural fashion based on their actions.&nbsp; Even when they totally screw up what was supposed to be a long term nemesis and key player in a cataclysm and instead turned her into an ally. Dang players screwing up my rough sketch of what I thought the story arc would be.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f621.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":mad:" title="Mad&nbsp; &nbsp; :mad:"&nbsp; data-smilie="4"data-shortname=":mad:" />Different people play for a lot of different reasons, I don't think my way is &quot;better&quot;.&nbsp; Just different.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 7573786, member: 6801845"] In general, stories move forward or maybe sideways but never backwards. However, since you brought it up, I did do a few sessions where the PCs had been effectively "depowered". It was an unusual situation, taking the PCs from a 4E campaign where they had gotten to 30th level but then didn't "ascend" or any of the other things that were supposed to be part of their end story. Because of cosmological changes (Ragnarok had been averted, the realms of the gods was no longer as "close" and a lot of magic items were destroyed) along with the fact that we had switched over to 5E the PCs were depowered to 20th level. They basically came out of retirement one last time to clean up some loose ends. So ... yes I can see the PCs going backwards. Will probably never happen again, it was quite unusual circumstances between switching editions and story resulting in a mini-campaign. It was fun, but it's because it worked for my players. I also like [MENTION=6919838]5ekyu[/MENTION]'s idea of flashback session now and then. I may have to try it some time. As a general rule though, I never tell the players what their PCs are going to do. If they're 10th level and want to go wipe out that goblin bandit camp they ran away from at 1st level, I'd probably just hand-wave it off screen unless there's some kind of twist that would make it an interesting/fun/challenging encounter. But if they're doing that, other things will happen. I let events unfold in what I think is a natural fashion based on their actions. Even when they totally screw up what was supposed to be a long term nemesis and key player in a cataclysm and instead turned her into an ally. Dang players screwing up my rough sketch of what I thought the story arc would be. :mad: Different people play for a lot of different reasons, I don't think my way is "better". Just different. [/QUOTE]

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