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<blockquote data-quote="Jer" data-source="post: 8698912" data-attributes="member: 19857">This is IMO the key takeway. Except I'd phrase it as that many people - perhaps most - do not want to run or play high level games.&nbsp; They want to have the same game experience they've been having for 10-12 levels just scaled with more power.&nbsp; And while you can do that ooh boy is it going to be hard.High level games in D&amp;D - even back in the BECMI days but definitely from 3e on - are a different game from low and mid level games.&nbsp; High level games are superhero games - and as someone who moves back and forth between superhero games and fantasy games, I like that and my group likes that. In a superhero game[*] you don't generally assume that when you have a threat in LA and the characters are in New York that you're going to to make their travel across the US from one coast to another a central part of the game - it's not actually a problem to solve nor is it usually a part of the narrative.&nbsp; They have resources, they tell you how they're using them, and you either narrate that bit or let them narrate it and move on to the next part. High level D&amp;D is a lot like that - if the adventure is on the moon then you ask the players &quot;how are you getting to the moon?&quot; and they'll usually have an answer. If they don't, well, you probably already know that they don't and you've got an adventure planned to get them there - because one thing that is very different in high level play than in lower level play in D&amp;D is that if you don't know your PC's capabilities they can surprise you with an adventure ending ability/magic item that you didn't know they had and now you've got 4 hours of gaming time and nothing prepped for it.&nbsp; (High level improv is fun for me, but I understand why lots of folks do not like it.)In a lot of ways high level play is liberating IMO - I can come up with whatever nonsense I want and the PCs have the resources to bat it back at me.&nbsp; But again, that's because I also like to play and run superhero games, and running fantasy superheroes can be quite fun, even with the 5e ruleset (which isn't what I'd go to for a more traditional supers game by any means).[*] I mean, unless you're into that particular flavor of low level superhero game.&nbsp; Or it's the 90s and you're playing Heroes Unlimited.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jer, post: 8698912, member: 19857"] This is IMO the key takeway. Except I'd phrase it as that many people - perhaps most - do not want to run or play high level games. They want to have the same game experience they've been having for 10-12 levels just scaled with more power. And while you can do that ooh boy is it going to be hard. High level games in D&D - even back in the BECMI days but definitely from 3e on - are a different game from low and mid level games. High level games are superhero games - and as someone who moves back and forth between superhero games and fantasy games, I like that and my group likes that. In a superhero game[*] you don't generally assume that when you have a threat in LA and the characters are in New York that you're going to to make their travel across the US from one coast to another a central part of the game - it's not actually a problem to solve nor is it usually a part of the narrative. They have resources, they tell you how they're using them, and you either narrate that bit or let them narrate it and move on to the next part. High level D&D is a lot like that - if the adventure is on the moon then you ask the players "how are you getting to the moon?" and they'll usually have an answer. If they don't, well, you probably already know that they don't and you've got an adventure planned to get them there - because one thing that is very different in high level play than in lower level play in D&D is that if you don't know your PC's capabilities they can surprise you with an adventure ending ability/magic item that you didn't know they had and now you've got 4 hours of gaming time and nothing prepped for it. (High level improv is fun for me, but I understand why lots of folks do not like it.) In a lot of ways high level play is liberating IMO - I can come up with whatever nonsense I want and the PCs have the resources to bat it back at me. But again, that's because I also like to play and run superhero games, and running fantasy superheroes can be quite fun, even with the 5e ruleset (which isn't what I'd go to for a more traditional supers game by any means). [*] I mean, unless you're into that particular flavor of low level superhero game. Or it's the 90s and you're playing Heroes Unlimited. [/QUOTE]

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