Lost the Epic Feeling (not ELH)

[Mercule]

Okay, we've all read books like LotR, Shannara, Wheel of Time, etc. that start with inexperienced characters and take them through their paces until they are ready to defeat the Dark Overlord. How do we do the same thing in D&D?

Wheel of Time is the best example. Rand and the others start out so mundane. Yet, by the end of the series, I'm sure that Rand will be the most powerful person walking the land.

Has anyone run a campaign that has stayed focused on one enemy or ultimate goal that started at 1st level and run until the upper levels? How did you do it?

I'm looking for something more than RtToEE's uberdungeon that just sticks the big bad so deep in a megadungeon that you have no choice but to advance.

 

[Kyramus]

good vs evil or law vs chaos
1) the main enemy had done something the the character's past, family or otherwise that gave the character a hatred for him. Revenge is the tool here. with many possible moral problems if you want to put it in.

2) The character don't know the villian, but has foiled his plans too many times. The villian is now sending assassins to slowly take care of him, which in return makes him hunt down the villian to stop these incessant attacks.

3) The villian holds the key/info/something that allows the character to feel at peace/gain another item/find the location of where aspirants to divinity can supplicate themselves.

4) An ancient evil is slowly emerging and the only one that knows enough about it, is the villian. The problem is, where is he?

5) The side of Law has decided to eliminate chaos once and for all, the character on the other hand has no such inclination. the conflict occurs will throw the character into conflict with good and evil and possibly law and chaos agents. What if the character decides to stay neutral.... some faction aren't so keen on people standing on the sidelines to watch.

6) the character was from the surface but was shunted deep underground by the villian. The character's goal is to get back to the surface and reclaim his birthright. the villian took over the throne.

7) The dieties have waged war with each other, finally they have decided to let two mortals face each other to end an arguement that could cause a potential interdimensional war that could destroy the planet. The mortals don't know who are chosen, but there are 2 that walk the planet and they will eventually meet each other and battle to the death. One of them is the character, without his knowing.

8) The character knows the villian, knows his weaknesses, and is questing to get himself prepared to face the villian. Villian could be a sleeping dragon or other. It could be even a prophecy of a villian suspended in time until a hero would come to vanquish him.

9) weird things are happening in the world. graveyards have been looted of bodies, none were left. the character investigates to find that they have all risen as undead. with each undead they lay to rest the stronger the remaining undead become. In the end they will face up with the true incarnation of the undead, the avatar of the god of necromancy himself.

 

[Planetouched]

I've played in campain where we started out as soldiers in an army. We didn't get to fight the enemy directly. We where a small infiltrating group that had to preform several acts.(We carried a enormous amount of magical items from one camp to another, we saved the major of the capitol etc..) Around level 8 we got bored of the army so we left it and began building our own. We made an entire fortress, and stood up against the enemy. And guess what? We killed him. We did got very lucky by finding a artifact that helped us alot. But hey that didn't made it anyless fun. Imagine a battle of around 2.500 men, platoons of dragons(well we had 2 and he like 4)/spider eaters attacking each other. We used catapults and ballista's, ow and the meteor swarm spell came in handy too. It was great fun, to bad it ended after that session.

 

[blackshirt5]

It's a Top Gun Moment:

Your trying hard not to show it, but BABY, you know that you've lost it! You've lost, that Epic Feeling, whoa that Epic Feeling, you've lost that Epic Feeling now it's gone, gone, gone, whoa whoa whoa.

 

[Mercule]

It's a Top Gun Moment:

Your trying hard not to show it, but BABY, you know that you've lost it! You've lost, that Epic Feeling, whoa that Epic Feeling, you've lost that Epic Feeling now it's gone, gone, gone, whoa whoa whoa.

*Chuckle*

Glad you caught the reference.

 

[Bagpuss]

We were playing one adventure the the DM considered focus against one key villian, over several years of AD&D (on and off campaign) we have eventually got to the dizzy heights 11th level

We've the sort of DM for that campaign that you need to really try hard to get your character killed. I've been trying really hard.I'm on my fourth character, the other player that started the campaign with me and is still in the group is on his first.

Anyway the point is I've forgotten who the main villian was, and certainly he hasn't seemed that evil or effective recently. I'm not sure if its possible to sustain a single main villian for 20 levels without it getting dull and contrived.

 

[MEG Hal]

OT
*Really want to sing*

"You've lost that epic feeling,
whoa oh that epic felling,
you've lost that that epic feeling
and its gone, gone
whoa oh oh..."

 

[blackshirt5]

Yeah, been there, done that Hal.

 

[Ravellion]

You never roll those dice anymore
when we play these games
There's no epicness like before
in your characters
You're trying hard not to show it baby
but baby you know it

You've lost that epic feeling
whoa oh that epic felling,
you've lost that that epic feeling
and its gone, gone
whoa oh oh...

now there's no epicness
in your stats when I read your sheet
and girl you are starting to criticizes
Dm calls I make
It make me just feel like crying baby
'cause baby something's beautiful's dying

You've lost that epic feeling
whoa oh that epic felling,
you've lost that that epic feeling
and its gone, gone
whoa oh oh...

Baby baby I'd play 2nd edition for you
If you would only play epic like you used to do
We hade a game
a game, a game you don't find every day
So don't...don't...don't let it slip away

Bring back that epic feeling
Oh, that epic feeling
Bring back that epic feeling
Now it's gone...gone...gone...
And I can't go on...
No-oh-oh...

With thanks to the Righteous Brothers and THG Hal

Rav

 

[green slime]

I think the way to do it is to have the many major players of the planet known when the PCs start out, like bad evil Necromancer Lich, and Emperor X, and the Lord of Gnagga Forest...

Then have the players actions take place against a backdrop of events, until they are finally, inexorably drawn into the machinations of THE Evil Mastermind (tm). This method gives plenty of opportunity to whinge and cringe, deal with other matters, live lives, die fighting needless battles, and all sorts of events that are present in Epic stories.

I mean in the beginning of the WoT, Rand had no idea who he was, barely believed in Trollocs, and was planning on all sorts of other events for his life.

Of course it easier to railroad characters in a book, but nonetheless, with a bit of care, the same epic buildup can be applied to PC's.