Humor, jokes, memes about TTRPGs
As DM, here's my advice: when starting a new campaign/table, and you're recruiting your players, be very upfront about a set schedule. "We will meet every Friday night at 9pm provided I have between three and six available players. Anyone joining this table should have this time available on a regular basis to be considered." And you'll get through a few years without issues before people's lives change their schedules too much.
I've played 2 campaigns that went from 1 to 20, both became a chore late game just trying to keep track of all the items and threads. IMO, a game should stay bound to 2 tiers at most (the tiers being 1-4, 5-10, 11-16, and 17-20), going from peasant to world ender is just too much baggage. Maybe 3 tiers if you do want a complex and difficult to manage, but still possible to manage end game.
Extra credit here being that you are a shit load more likely to actually complete the story you want to tell
I just like starting at level 20 and using the epic level handbook because I love planar exploration, and the lore of the game generally requires being massively powerful to do shit like that or even explore space (which is way cooler than space IRL).
So many other DMs I talk to don't even want to deal with groups above level 12 or 13 because they get too powerful and they start having trouble balancing things against all the options the party has available to them.
Which edition are you playing? From what I can find, the Epic Level Handbook was 3e.
For people playing 5e, yeah, the game just breaks down around level 13-15. One of the funny things is that WotC has clearly recognized this is a problem, because they've implemented a solution... which is to just not publish high-level material. They just gave up on it.
3/3.5e is the only one with epic leveling that I'm aware of. Even back before 4e, it was pretty common to not go very far above level 12 or 13. I've seen articles in Dungeon magazine that discuss this problem as far back as AD&D. That's where we get things like Tucker's Kobolds.
Yeah, that's what I was wondering. Most of the criticisms of high-level play come from 5e players, which is fair, since it's pretty much not supported. But I also remember the high-level books from my 3e days!
I haven't had personal experience with it, but I know BECMI D&D supported it. I think the lower tiers (Basic and Expert) are more popular than the latter (Companion, Master, Immortal), but still.
If it were me, I'd find it easier to change the lore so you can do planar exploration at lower levels than to deal with all the mechanics and balancing of level 20 characters
Silver
That little girl be actin' hella sus
I've been on one campaign for Like 4 years and we're level... 10? it's the DM and 5 players, initially 4