Now I'm gonna say right up front, cause I just woke up and the idea came to me in a dream, this might be really really dumb.
BUT,
If you can run a low magic game by shifting the gear bonuses into innate player bonuses at fixed levels, could you run a gritty realist campaign by removing the fixed progressions, while still allowing powers and hit points and magic item bonuses? will that break anything?
could you run a nongritty one by just listing the new cool things in reach at each tier? would it need more tiers to work? Could I just tell my players when they hit paragon, ok now anything that'd fall into the easier levels takes a -5 against you "cause they're still using tricks you figured out months ago, and powers you use to rinse your mouth", and still be able to use monsters as written?
This probably sounds trollish, because who doesn't like adding +1s to their character, but it got me thinking, becuase the numbers would stay nice and small. I imagine damage bonuses might have to stay, since materials don't really scale up, and players and monsters would both keep accumulating them. and I don't own any of the books yet (I'd sort of just given up on 4e, till I had this dream about being chased zombies and discussing dnd mechanics while fleeing), but this has me thinking... especially the idea of being able to toggle characters between a more "realistic" mode, and one with tier based bonuses to do the same, without changing the sheets (you could have REAL action points in a game like that, ones that turned on the awesome powers you'd have in a non-gritty campaign)... mixing in the "internalize your magic item into your characters as bonus", rules I saw discussed could even allow for some pretty cool characters in the a "realistic mode" too.
skills seem a little trickier now that this rolls through my head, but I guess if you layed out some benchmark bonuses or something? hmm..
would this work at all? or would powers bring it all crashing down, or would I be rewriting the monster manual, instead of just subtracting an amount based on their level?
BUT,
If you can run a low magic game by shifting the gear bonuses into innate player bonuses at fixed levels, could you run a gritty realist campaign by removing the fixed progressions, while still allowing powers and hit points and magic item bonuses? will that break anything?
could you run a nongritty one by just listing the new cool things in reach at each tier? would it need more tiers to work? Could I just tell my players when they hit paragon, ok now anything that'd fall into the easier levels takes a -5 against you "cause they're still using tricks you figured out months ago, and powers you use to rinse your mouth", and still be able to use monsters as written?
This probably sounds trollish, because who doesn't like adding +1s to their character, but it got me thinking, becuase the numbers would stay nice and small. I imagine damage bonuses might have to stay, since materials don't really scale up, and players and monsters would both keep accumulating them. and I don't own any of the books yet (I'd sort of just given up on 4e, till I had this dream about being chased zombies and discussing dnd mechanics while fleeing), but this has me thinking... especially the idea of being able to toggle characters between a more "realistic" mode, and one with tier based bonuses to do the same, without changing the sheets (you could have REAL action points in a game like that, ones that turned on the awesome powers you'd have in a non-gritty campaign)... mixing in the "internalize your magic item into your characters as bonus", rules I saw discussed could even allow for some pretty cool characters in the a "realistic mode" too.
skills seem a little trickier now that this rolls through my head, but I guess if you layed out some benchmark bonuses or something? hmm..
would this work at all? or would powers bring it all crashing down, or would I be rewriting the monster manual, instead of just subtracting an amount based on their level?
