Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 1690618" data-attributes="member: 20741">In addition to many of the above good points, I'll add a few more:1 - Been there, done that : I've gamed for 25 years. I've done the power gamer thing and seen campagin after campaign end in boring *nothingness* as the whole challenge and wonder of magic become de rigeur.  So while you may not have played  "low power" right, I've done high power to death - and often enough to know that it's ultimately boring.  Been there, done that.2 - Low to mid level power is like foreplay; high power is a fleeting orgasm.  There is nothing wrong in preserving the foreplay for a long time to enrich the experience for all.  It's not that I LOVE 2nd level. I don't.  My players don't either. But I REALLY love 5th to 10th.  Mid level is where the game really lives, where the most options are open for challenges. The aim of my low power campaigns is to preserve this "sweet spot" in the campaign for as long as I can while still making it challenging AND providing perceptible progress to players.The best way to do this is to limit magic loot and power to the party.3 - Magic loses its thrill when its common.  Look at Peter Jackson.  He, like Tolkien saw that magic loses its ability to cause wonder when its so common its run on the mill.So I just don't give it out very often. The bad guys don't have it very often either. There is no raise dead - no resurrection.  A +2 sword becomes a PRIZED magic item - especially when you don't CALL it a +2 Sword but give it an appropriate lengendary history and all sorts of rumored powers and deeds, and identify never works 100% reliably.It reintroduces mystery into the game and minimizes the effect of just *looking it up in a book*. This, in turn, reduces metagaming.Magic is so much more of a carrot and a reward when it is truly rare, mysterious and you can never really be sure how it works, what it is or what it can do. It's...more magical.The contrary practice, like a high power Forgotten Realms setting, reduces magic to run of the mill pseudo-tech. There are whole guilds and orders of Wizads, archmages in every town and MULTIPLE magic shops in large cities. Gold becomes magic and magic gold. Magic is not legendary - it's just equipment, with magic substituting for technology.  Want a magic item? Go make one.There is no such thing as the legendary Stormblade of Rhylieh reputed to have demon slaying powers  - and its just a +2 short sword that glows only sometimes and people don't know why.  Instead it's all a commodity. Just another piece of equipment whose powers are precisely known and whose value you can find in a column in the DMG.*MEH*4 - Old Gamers tend to  bore easiily of High Power: While not universally true by any means, I do suggest there is a correlation between length of time playing RPGs and a preference for power gaming. IF this style of play entertains you it doesn't mean your taste is bad and mine good.  But I do suggest it is prevalent in newer gamers as opposed to gamers who have been playing a long while. The wonder of it for newer gamers has not worn off; for the grognards, its a road we've been down before and know exactly where it ends.Sorry. I've tried your way and done it for years. It does satisfy for a time, but ultimatley, its empty, hollow and unfulfilling; it's empty calories, for *ME*. Give me low power, low magic and high medieval fanstasy any day.</blockquote>

Verification