D&D 5E What Exactly is Bounded Accuracy?

[Grazzt]

All of a sudden, I just got giddy. Anyone else have those 1st edition experiences where when your 7th level character died, the DM made you start over as a 1st level PC? You gained levels at a much faster rate, but the first 4 or 5 levels you were cowering in the back and hoping to get a lucky shot to say you contributed in the combat, and could get a full share of XP.

Now, it's not that far-fetched! It might still be cruel, but you won't stay there for long, AND you might be able to participate on an even keel!

Yep. I definitely remember those days. Much fun to be had.

 

[MerricB]

All of a sudden, I just got giddy. Anyone else have those 1st edition experiences where when your 7th level character died, the DM made you start over as a 1st level PC?

I am that DM! It's how I've been running my Saturday night FLGS AD&D game for the past three years! New characters come in at first level!

At the table, we can have characters from level 1 to 10. It generally only takes the new characters 2 or 3 sessions to reach level 4 and really start to contribute. New fighters tend to have plate armour bought for them by the more wealthy characters so they can dodge most of the hits.

Of course, as the game mostly takes place in megadungeons (three separate ones so far - Rappan Athuk, Castle of the Mad Archmages and Caverns of the Oracle), it allows the group to find their own best level of difficulty...

I'm looking forward to seeing how it works with 5E. Late products in AD&D (1E and 2E) tended to break the bounded accuracy of AC that they used to have.

Cheers!

 

[mach1.9pants]

[MENTION=3586]MerricB[/MENTION], I am familiar (and have) RA and Mad Archmage. But what is Caverns of the Oracle? Thanks.

 

[MerricB]

[MENTION=3586]MerricB[/MENTION], I am familiar (and have) RA and Mad Archmage. But what is Caverns of the Oracle? Thanks.

That's my private megadungeon.

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

[MENTION=3586]MerricB[/MENTION], I am familiar (and have) RA and Mad Archmage. But what is Caverns of the Oracle? Thanks.

I've written one or two words about it here: http://merricb.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/caverns-of-the-oracle-one-of-my-personal-megadungeons/

Cheers!

 

[jadrax]

All of a sudden, I just got giddy. Anyone else have those 1st edition experiences where when your 7th level character died, the DM made you start over as a 1st level PC? You gained levels at a much faster rate, but the first 4 or 5 levels you were cowering in the back and hoping to get a lucky shot to say you contributed in the combat, and could get a full share of XP.

I joined a game where I was first level and all the established PCs were about 8th. They were all riding about on Dragons and I was stuck carrying the groups standard hoping not to die!

One the plus side, they did give me their cast off gear; so I had a +2 Axe and +2 chain at first level.

 

[MortalPlague]

I guess that once you get large level discrepancy the extra 'cost' of being outnumbered is not so relevant.

I can say from alpha playtesting that this is definitely the case.

 

[Dausuul]

All of a sudden, I just got giddy. Anyone else have those 1st edition experiences where when your 7th level character died, the DM made you start over as a 1st level PC? You gained levels at a much faster rate, but the first 4 or 5 levels you were cowering in the back and hoping to get a lucky shot to say you contributed in the combat, and could get a full share of XP.

Now, it's not that far-fetched! It might still be cruel, but you won't stay there for long, AND you might be able to participate on an even keel!

Hmm, let's see how this would actually play out! Let's say you've got a party of four 7th-level veterans and one 1st-level newbie, facing a series of "Challenging" encounters for their level. How many encounters will it take for the newbie to catch up? The milestones:

Encounter #1: The newbie reaches level 2.
Encounter #2: The newbie reaches level 3.
Encounter #6: The newbie reaches level 4.
Encounter #13: The newbie reaches level 5. For the first time, she is within 2 levels of the veterans.
Encounter #21: The veterans reach level 8.
Encounter #26: The newbie reaches level 6.
Encounter #39: The newbie reaches level 7. For the first time, she is within 1 level of the veterans.
(Series of intervening milestones omitted because they're boring. The newbie spends a very, very long time being 1-2 levels behind.)
Encounter #151: The newbie reaches level 14. For the first time, she is on par with the veterans.

Of course, the newbie never *fully* closes the gap; the veterans will always hit the next level before the newbie does.

One thing I do find is that the length of time to close the gap is very sensitive to the size of the initial gap. If the veterans are at level 7, the newbie gets within two levels of them after a mere 13 encounters; but if they're level 8, it takes 35 encounters. At level 10, it takes 95 encounters! Even so, the way 5E scales means that you can have a substantial level gap between PCs and it's not the end of the world.

 

[FireLance]

This is probably an uncharitable description, but to me, bounded accuracy means that if, at 1st level, you have a 50% chance of success (1-2 on a d4), at 20th level, your chance of success will have increased by half (1-3 on a d4).