Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5870925" data-attributes="member: 2067">Genre expectations: Stories are filled to the brimmy-brim-brim with tales of those mere mortal kings can not simply do away with. Best known one I can think of is the friggin' Bible. For more fantasy goodness, The LotR stories had Gandalf (possibly Epic-tier) adventuring alongside Samwise (possibly Commoner-tier).Narrative Device: Ted has always been a bit more than just a farmer. A bit stronger. Maybe a bit cleverer. Some folks whispered stories about how his momma was once a priestess, and how maybe he ain't his father's child after all, but in a small village, tongues will wag.Gameplay: Now, a DM can control the point at which the tone of the game switches from "Killing Orcs" to "Killing Dragons" to "Killing Balors" to "Killing Asmodeus," rather than having it imposed on them by the level system.World-Building: Every normal human in the world is Commoner-tier. There's a few special heroes and villains perhaps that are Heroic Tier. There may have once been a legendary king who was Champion Tier. The gods are Epic Tier. Help at all?Possibly to Ted trying to figure out why he's so special that he can take on a dozen normal men who are looking for his father's sword. In other words, to a VERY genre-appropriate Adventure!Neither of those have to be true. If nearly everyone in the world is basically Common-tier, all a king needs to be able to do is boss around folks. He's Common-tier, his stewards are, and so are his guards. Stories and histories are filled with kings and emperors who may be invested with a lot of political power who turn out to be normal people, with perhaps a powerful ancestor, or a knack for leadership. He doesn't need to be above Common Tier, because being more than a normal person isn't required for leadership. He doesn't need to be able to command folks above Common Tier, because there just aren't any. That's the thing about heroes and the like -- not everyone gets to be one. ...and he didn't pull the Sword from the Stone because he was higher level than anyone. He pulled it from the stone because he was destined to be king. He was not a normal person, like the former king. He was something greater. So use Common Tier, and don't leave it until you're ready.That's what it's there for. Heroic Tier isn't the bottom. Having a magic weapon already implies that you're something more than most people will ever be. And demons, dragons, beholders, dopplegangers, etc., are creatures of legend and myth. They're not common wildlife that people live with. If a dragon shows up to a normal town, it will burn. If a beholder pops up in a typical throne room, everyone dies. They're a different tier of creature. Ted might be able to slay a dragon if he's, say, Heroic Tier. But if he's a common farmer, he's gonna burn like the king will. It's possible to slide that assumption around -- a world where dragons are common and a militia can fight them off might feature Common-tier dragons, or Hero-tier peasants. Or whatever. The basic concept of tiers (and applying them via DM awards) doesn't invalidate a world where a king can steal something they want. It just lets you as a DM control what kind of world you want in precise terms. Do you want Ted to be a dragon-slaying hero destined for greatness the moment he's born? Or do you want him to start off as a normal farmer, and then, perhaps at some later date, enable him to slay dragons, as he has gained heroism through his deeds? Or, heck, do you want to take a page from Greek myth and have him strangling serpents in his crib because he's a born godling and he's Epic Tier before he speaks his first word?A fluid Tiers concept like this enables all these kinds of games and more, just by letting the DM decide when and if to throw that switch. Which seems to be exactly what a lot of folks are asking for: The ability to determine for themselves when the game changes, rather than hard-coding it to change with level.</blockquote>

Verification