NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6285176" data-attributes="member: 4937">You keep insisting on 'characters' being only things that do things, not things that have stories.   If you don't want a story that involves the whole heroes journey, but instead starts only after Beowulf has gained renown and the throne and now must face the Dragon, then by all means start at that point.Ok, sure.  If you have zero interest in playing a campaign for more than about 2 years, figure out how much story you can fit into two years and actually enjoy the freaking story.  Stop rushing to get somewhere which will end up being no where and meaningless.   Instead of rushing through 20 levels of play in two years, start at 12th level as established legends in the world with suitable backstories and play through 6 or 8 levels in two years as high level characters.  Don't wait for the thing you actually want if you know what you want.  There is certainly nothing wrong with that.   If high level play is what you want, linger in it.  Luxuriate in it.   Take the time to tell a good story by all means.  But stop thinking to yourself that the destination is the goal; the journey is the goal.   There is no fun at all in the destination.  The destination is when you reluctantly lay that character you've built down and say, "It's finished.  We reached the end."  At that moment, any fun you are having will be looking back at the journey.  If you rushed through it, you are going to be bitterly disappointed.  The levels themselves are meaningless.  They exist only to provide appropriate scope to certain chapters of the story.   You can rush through the levels, but the story is not something you can rush through so easily.   If you rush through the story, I think you end up with a thinner story.  It takes time to play an RPG.  That is probably unavoidable.  There is probably a point where the pacing of a story can be too sluggish - Robert Jordan or GRR Martin come to mind.   But mostly that results from having PC parties of 20-30 characters.I honestly feel you gain nothing by a fast rate of leveling.  The only reason to level at all is to match up with the character's growth in their journey.  If I'd leveled my player's characters more quickly, it would have only meant that the NPCs were also leveling more quickly.  The PC's relative station in the world wouldn't have changed.  It would have meant that the Champion didn't become a Knight until 9th or 10th level instead of 5th or 6th, and it would have meant his peer knights were probably 9th or 10th as well.   I could have sped up the leveling, but I couldn't in doing so have sped up the story.  The story has taken as long as it has taken because its a lot of story - and there is a lot of story still to go, both that I want to tell, and that is implied in the PC's backstories.  That much has been seen when we brought a new player in to the game to replace someone who moved and tried to get him up to speed.  The absolute powers of the PC might have increased, but he really wouldn't have noticed because his relative power would be unchanged or even decreased.   If everyone is a superhero, then no one is.  You are only superior, above the norm, if you are actually superior and above the norm.  It's the difference between being a somebody at 4th level, and being a nobody at 10th (see Forgotten Realms).   When I played as a PC in 3e, I was frustrated by the fast rate of leveling - which is probably faster than any level of 1e except the first two or so.  I literally sometimes wouldn't even get to use my new feats and spells before leveling up again.   But if you really want to do it, no one is going to stop you.</blockquote>

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