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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5868977" data-attributes="member: 22424">I have a hard time unpicking that article, because I think there are two issues at work: firstly, a set of preferences about how campaign duration and levels; and secondly, how I thinkthe game as a whole should be structured.See, my experience has been that I generally get the best results running campaigns that last between six months and a year. And, similarly, that the ideal level range for this sees us starting somewhere between 1st and 5th level, and probably gaining about 8 levels in that time (so ending between 9th and 13th). Furthermore, over the course of the campaign, the game style is unlikely to change a great deal.However, I think it would be a really bad idea to design the game to suit those preferences exactly. And that applies even if the game was designed specifically for me (which, of course, it shouldn't be).The way I think the game should be structured is as follows:I'm going to assume a 30-level range. I'm also going to assume this is split into 4 tiers - the Beginner tier (levels 1-5, representing the low-level play of pre-4e versions), the Heroic tier (6-15), the Paragon tier (16-15) and the Epic tier (26-30). (Although the level ranges have changed, the HPE tiers basically map to the 4e equivalents.)The tiers should each be fairly distinct in character. The Beginner tier should be about being the farmboy off on his first adventure, at scrabbling about against dangerous monsters, about those first few battles, and so on. The Heroic tier should be about characters who are clearly "a cut above", but who are still distinctly mortal - PCs are the Three Musketeers or the Black Company. The Paragon tier makes the characters legendary heroes, and somewhat superhuman, but recognisably so - they're Lancelot, or Aragorn. Finally, in the Epic tier the characters are practically demigods, engaged in struggles for the fate of history itself - Achillies, or Leonidas, or Gandalf.The game should include easy-to-use rules for starting a campaign at the start of any of the tiers - it should support starting at 6th, 16th and 26th level just as it does at 1st level.However, finally, the game should include an E6-like mechanism for continuing play in a given tier indefinitely. Normally, when you level from 15th to 16th, you would move from the Heroic to Paragon tiers, and the character of the campaign would change. But for groups who are happy with their current campaign and characters, it should be possible to not change, and just carry on as before. Basically, you don't want to force people to stop having fun just because they've gained a certain number of XP!I think that probably hits all of the bases quite well - people can jump straight in to the game style they want without too much difficulty, the game 'natively' supports 10-level campaigns in a given style (which should probably be about 9-12 months weekly gaming), the game provides the option for the style to change over time, but the game also supports groups who don't want the game to change.Of course, it's also a tall order to deliver!</blockquote>

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