Wanted to share an idea with you all. I have created an epic level game that starts the characters at 0 level and goes all the way up to 20th.
I encountered a few problems while play testing in order to test the game.
The first problem I encountered was character death. It is hard to get around if the characters make foolish mistakes or if random encounters come to hard and fast.
I came up with a new rule in order to have the player keep his character in order to keep story continuety. The characters are set on an epic quest and only they have a reason and the loyalities to progress on it.
If the character reaches -9 hp or more they are left for dead similiar to before and stable but they have no weapons armor or equipment and is usually abandoned in the wilds or banished outside of the area of death or enslaved. This adds an element to the game for they have to get back on track in order to finish the quest.
They also suffer -1d2 loss to attribute(s) and -d3 loss to skills(character choice). The attribute(s) that suffers loss is randomly selected with a die roll. This makes a high level character who is weaker and will have to play smarter at higher levels in order to accomplish tasks. The players get to choose 1 attribute that will never be reduced by a near death only in game. This limits the character and the player has to work harder to make it less then 1 dimensional.
Near death can occur as many times as possible but eventual a high level character will not have the benefit of their high level due to the attribute losses.
The player has to start playing better in order to survive and will be frustrated with the characters progression but more involved with it.
The second thing I encountered was encounters any npc encounter with the characters had to be difficult but not brutual.
From 1-3 character level the character only battled beasts and commoners level 1 or -1 level below character level. (example 4 commoners useing assist other and flanking character removing dv is as major a threat as a character of a higher level.)
At level 4-5 most of the encounters were multiple encounters and level 1-3 pc's.
I found if you use an npc of the same level the encounter was hard and the pc had to heal for a day or more and was suseptible to any planned or random encounter. The reason if you use the npc feats like a pc then the characters had a long battle at hand.
Most of the encounters at later levels were easier if they were 2 to 3 levels before the pc and in multiples.
I encountered a few problems while play testing in order to test the game.
The first problem I encountered was character death. It is hard to get around if the characters make foolish mistakes or if random encounters come to hard and fast.
I came up with a new rule in order to have the player keep his character in order to keep story continuety. The characters are set on an epic quest and only they have a reason and the loyalities to progress on it.
If the character reaches -9 hp or more they are left for dead similiar to before and stable but they have no weapons armor or equipment and is usually abandoned in the wilds or banished outside of the area of death or enslaved. This adds an element to the game for they have to get back on track in order to finish the quest.
They also suffer -1d2 loss to attribute(s) and -d3 loss to skills(character choice). The attribute(s) that suffers loss is randomly selected with a die roll. This makes a high level character who is weaker and will have to play smarter at higher levels in order to accomplish tasks. The players get to choose 1 attribute that will never be reduced by a near death only in game. This limits the character and the player has to work harder to make it less then 1 dimensional.
Near death can occur as many times as possible but eventual a high level character will not have the benefit of their high level due to the attribute losses.
The player has to start playing better in order to survive and will be frustrated with the characters progression but more involved with it.
The second thing I encountered was encounters any npc encounter with the characters had to be difficult but not brutual.
From 1-3 character level the character only battled beasts and commoners level 1 or -1 level below character level. (example 4 commoners useing assist other and flanking character removing dv is as major a threat as a character of a higher level.)
At level 4-5 most of the encounters were multiple encounters and level 1-3 pc's.
I found if you use an npc of the same level the encounter was hard and the pc had to heal for a day or more and was suseptible to any planned or random encounter. The reason if you use the npc feats like a pc then the characters had a long battle at hand.
Most of the encounters at later levels were easier if they were 2 to 3 levels before the pc and in multiples.
