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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 5407249" data-attributes="member: 8461">What makes E6 "gritty" isn't the level cap itself, but rather the expectations for the game world that people have.I've always thought of a "grim 'n' gritty" campaign as one where death is a strong possibility for the PCs, and resurrections are extremely rare, if they're available at all. If the PCs aren't smart, tough, and lucky, then they have an excellent chance of ending up dead, permanently, during a given adventure. The underlying assumption here, that I've discovered at least, is that this style of game-play doesn't work under the (apparently more modern) idea that a campaign is a collaborative story told between the GM and the players, where PC death is an aberration that only happens during stints of very bad luck and/or extremely stupid decisions (or a punitive GM).Hence, E6 unto itself isn't necessarily a gritty way to play. But it makes it easier for people who want to play that way.The reason that E6 is so much easier for this is that it ties the PCs more firmly to "realistic" ideas of what a person could do (insofar as they live in a magical world) when compared against real people, both in the game world and in the real world. There's a great article over at <a href="http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/d&d-calibrating.html" target="_blank">The Alexandrian</a> talking about how the people who're the best of the best in real life are 5th level at most. The Fellowship of the Ring? For the most part they're <a href="http://ruscumag.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/the-fellowship-of-the-ring-d20/" target="_blank">about 4th level</a>. Capping characters at 6th level (presumably) keeps players feeling like they're playing exceptionally talented people, rather than individuals with super powers.The rest of it, though, is all how the GM presents the world. If they throw weak/stupid adversaries at the PCs, then the PCs will still be able to get away with charging in and hack 'n' slashing everything in sight. If they keep magic-marts in villages, then (low-level) magic items will still be bought and sold without fanfare, etc.E6 is an idea to make it easier to play low-magic, easier-to-get-killed, PCs-not-THAT-much-better-than-ordinary-people games, but executing the idea still takes good GMing.</blockquote>

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