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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Volaran" data-source="post: 232849" data-attributes="member: 592">Well, I would like to present one possible alternative to the Shark norm, if I may be so bold.You've suggested that by the time epic play is introduced, the characters are massivly influencial, and have almost certainly access to numerous followers and what not.That does work well, and in the previous campaign in the world we've played, that is how it worked.  It was our DM's attempt to create a mythology for his world and thus, everything was big.  We refounded and empire, unified a continent, and generaled and fought in the largest battles and wars every seen on his world.  In the end, the was sacrifice, sadness, and ascension.  Some PCs and important NPCs arose to take their places in the halls of the god, some fulfilled a potential planted long ago and became the dragons of the world, enabling the dragons old to leave, and some were allowed to rest.Now, in the future when those events are myths, the world still has conflict, but never on that scale.  Recently my DM confided in me that he really didn't want to do the same thing again, as it tends to get stale and though we were involved in the politics of that same empire again, he didn't want a simple repeat.I gave him an example of a more personal version of Epic.So, I suggested to him that the characters gain influence and put forth their own goals, there should be a point (in this case, 20th level) where they have to part and go their own ways.Flash forward ten or fifteen years.  Some of the heros have been passing information back and forth.  A threat arises (the example I used was the opening of portals from the Far Realms) that had been encountered early in the campaign, but ignored.  The problem has grown worse, and in all probablilities, the world has only so much time left.  Magic had never been able to deal with these kinds of problems and its far too late to begin research now.  The various people the PCs answer to won't see any threat because it seems so isolated and cooincidental.  In addition, political problems in the empire have brought about talk of civil war, and the PCs, as people with influence within it, must make a difficult choice.  Their continued influence might prevent their homeland from being torn apart, but there are far worse problems that noone else seems to understand.  At this point, the characters must divorce themself from their concerns, from their very lives, and persue ancient knowledge.After this, I wove him a plot involving the introduction of epic magic, personal attention of the gods, trips through the realms of shadow and the halls of the dead, and a desperate quest to find the ancients who left the world for other planes long ago.The characters will be cut off from their lives by a problem that can't be solved by throwing armies at it, and thus it becomes very personal.   The very nature of the journey they take will warrent their continued advance, and once they've finished...hopefully on a positive note...they have to face the fact that they might not have homes to return to.Now, it was just something I plucked out of my mind, but my DM was grinning when I finished, and he tells me he's sure it won't be stale. ^_^</blockquote>

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