In Praise of Low-Level Campaigns

[molonel]

If my life has been spent levels 1-6 masterminding plots, where are the fruits of my labor? That's the plot I feel being dropped. You can craft an interesting back-story, but the DM needs to give you bonuses for the effort you would have spent in-game that has been hand-waived to start you at 5th level plus. Treasure just doesn't cut it for me.

I started a campaign at level 10 about a year ago. Characters wrote their backstories, and submitted them to me. I then wrote back to THEM and told them how their backstories fit into the larger plot. We had an elven monk/shadowdancer, a human barbarian/fighter/rogue, an elven rogue and a half-orc barbarian. The context of the story was the beginnings of a civil war throughout a large city. The monk learned that his order sent him into the city to aid the elves as a scout and mage-killer if war started. The human fighter came into the city as a caravan guard after winning his freedom in a death match against a famous minotaur gladiator, the rogue was simply a confidence man and profiteer making his money selling goods to all sides of the conflict and the barbarian had started as a mercenary on the evil side of the fight before being ousted in a power struggle. None of my players had any problems at all writing imaginative backstories, nor did they feel any plot had been dropped. In fact, all of them were thrilled to step into the shoes of heroes who were on the forefront of the civil war that broke out. All of them told me what they had been doing in the ten levels prior to play, and I worked those details into the story, including contacts, allies and foes.

Again, I see where you're coming from, but I respectfully disagree. I don't think there is anything more "real" about a fantasy game where you start as a 1st level nothing, than a game where you start at 10th or even 20th level.

I have found, in fact, that my players are MORE bold in their roleplaying, more interested and, in fact, the story moves more quickly because they can make bold character choices that would simply be impossible for a lower level character.

 

[DamionW]

Again, I see where you're coming from, but I respectfully disagree. I don't think there is anything more "real" about a fantasy game where you start as a 1st level nothing, than a game where you start at 10th or even 20th level.

I have found, in fact, that my players are MORE bold in their roleplaying, more interested and, in fact, the story moves more quickly because they can make bold character choices that would simply be impossible for a lower level character.

Fair points, but they only work if you provide that monk with the members of his order that he trusts and will point him to the nearest monastary safehouse without question, you give that rogue some easy marks that'll buy his crap at whatever price he sets because he's been working them, etc. If you just as a DM say, i want you guys to start at 6th level so you can make bolder choices without giving them the "off character sheet" resources that should've come with character development through those levels, I find that unfair and would rather back up and start from scratch to get what my character deserves the hard way.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I just personally feel that if you have a strong character concept and know what you're character has been working on for in the time it's taken to get him up to the starting level of 5th, 10th, etc. it's hard to statistically represent the advantages one would gain socially. Take my manipulator post on page 2, where I rolled up a Rasputin mage from 6th level, but was given no individuals swayed by his influence after 5 levels of advancement and constant trying. All I had on paper to represent that advancement was the magic items granted to me and the abilities from my XP. If my life has been spent levels 1-6 masterminding plots, where are the fruits of my labor? That's the plot I feel being dropped. You can craft an interesting back-story, but the DM needs to give you bonuses for the effort you would have spent in-game that has been hand-waived to start you at 5th level plus. Treasure just doesn't cut it for me.

OK, you have given an excellent example of a character concept that is hard to implement at higher levels. A character who has been trained in isolation and sent on her first mission with little knowlege of the outside world, the greatest warrior of a small tribe sent on a quest to find a tribal relic, a child of prophecy with unexplained sorcerous talents are all character concepts which suffer no such problems and in fact are much better suited to begining at higher levels. I'm not seeing the argument for a low level start being intrinsicly better.

 

[molonel]

Fair points, but they only work if you provide that monk with the members of his order that he trusts and will point him to the nearest monastary safehouse without question, you give that rogue some easy marks that'll buy his crap at whatever price he sets because he's been working them, etc. If you just as a DM say, i want you guys to start at 6th level so you can make bolder choices without giving them the "off character sheet" resources that should've come with character development through those levels, I find that unfair and would rather back up and start from scratch to get what my character deserves the hard way.

Character decisions only work if the DM lets them work, no matter how you play the game. And character accomplishments are character accomplishments, in-game. Nobody in my game felt cheated for not getting anything "the hard way."

If a DM deliberately thwarts you, or doesn't give you what you need as a player, that sucks no matter what level you're playing at.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I prefer running lower level games, myself. Before 3e, the highest level games I ever ran saw the players reaching about 10th level, and that was a nearly 10 year long campaign. 13th to 14th level was the highest I've run in 3.x, and that only took two years.

In my upcoming swashbuckling style thingy, I've been asked by more than one player to slow advancement down so they can stay at lower levels longer. I reckon they like 'em, too.

 

[DamionW]

If a DM deliberately thwarts you, or doesn't give you what you need as a player, that sucks no matter what level you're playing at.

Amen. I wasn't necessarily defending low-levels being better as the OP was, just that DMs shouldn't thwart the players in the process of skipping to higher levels because they want more options. That doesn't happen by default, but I think it's easier to do by skipping levels then letting things progress start to finish. I end up feeling less connected to my characters if I haven't seen who they are at low levels and the definitive conflicts they had to struggle to survive through to gain competent adventurer status. Again, just one gamer's preferences.

 

[interwyrm]

I recently ran a game starting at 6th level and found myself irritated that they had no enemies/contacts/allies etc. By that level, you sort of need to have concrete ties to the world. I think that's what the real value of starting at the beginning is. That said... I really prefer 2nd level to 1st. Mostly because it is so easy to be unlucky at 1st and get dropped in one hit.

 

[kigmatzomat]

If you're the GM, give them some! My game's had new characters introduced at various levels (5, 7, 11, 14, 17) and I try to give the new players some contacts and support. It's usually not quite as good as the long-standing players, mainly due to the lack of roleplaying history.

Unless the plot starts off "you claw your way ashore, you few survivors of a doomed ship....." characters should have some ties to the world.

 

[molonel]

I think that's what the real value of starting at the beginning is.

But you see, you are NOT beginning at the beginning. Some 1st level characters are over a century old. Even having a single level in a PC class sets you apart from 0-levels and NPCs.

The "beginning" is completely arbitrary.

I will agree with one thing being asserted here: ties made in-game matter more than those composed before-hand. But it really doesn't matter whether you make those ties as a 10th level character or a 0-level peon.