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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Monster" data-source="post: 5535825" data-attributes="member: 69516">Very nice article! In planning my own campaign (just about to get rolling in a few weeks), I'm trying to have an idea of where it's all going in advance, and I've been having the most trouble with epic tier. I'm starting with a huge war where the PCs have to help defend the Empire, and going from there (WW2 eastern front is fine inspiration material); and I realized that, in my setup, even becoming Emperor really boils down to, at most, a low-Epic thing (much like LotR). After reading the fine 'Running Epic Tier' booklet and some other stuff (like your article), I'm getting more into the idea (and hoping the campaign actually lasts long enough to see it happen!).  As a quickie bit to remind myself how to think of thingsIn Heroic tier, the heroes change history;In Paragon tier, the heroes make history;In Epic tier, the heroes break history.  And, while anime weapons and planet-sized bad guys aren't really my cup of tea (but I won't exclude them absolutely <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> - a city-sized monster has some interesting possiblities (I'm very amused and intrigued by the adventure in Open Grave(IIRC?) where the whole adventure takes place in and on the body of a dead god/primordial)), I can see and appreciate the flavor. I also agree with the observation that many GMs aren't comfortable with large-scale changes in the game world - I include myself in that category, and am deliberately planning to break that barrier in this campaign. (Basically, whether the Empire stands, or falls, is restored, or is replaced, will be up to the PCs when they reshape the world during Epic tier.)  One observation on big battles: what I've done in the past is to run most of the battle as narration, with the tactical play done for moments of scene-setting, drama, or crisis (the breach of the wall, defense of the hospital, etc.). For 4e, I'll use skill challenge mechanics to cover a lot of the general action, rather than trying to map it all out. It also occurs to me that Star Wars Saga has some rules for creating squads - groups of critters operating as a single higher-level critter - and for large-scale battles, which I'll have to peruse thoroughly to see if they fit.   Anyway, good stuff!</blockquote>

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