Recently I’ve been charged with the task of running the first epic level campaign for the Dungeon’s Master crew. This series of articles will outline my process and some of my ideas for creating that high level campaign you’ve always wanted to run. This first article is about trimming down the game of D&D so that it runs well at the epic tier.
Picking the Right Tools for the Job
The game of D&D is like any other device in that it’s designed with a purpose in mind, and as per the demands of the design it meets some needs and not others. I think of these things along the lines of automobiles, where a station wagon and a race car can both be very effective though not at all compatible. Likewise 4e D&D is very different at level 2 and level 22. Heroic tier D&D is like your mother’s station wagon, if you put another dent in the bumper there’s a good chance that she won’t notice, where epic D&D is like a fine Italian F1 land rocket, which you can destroy in an instant by using the wrong fuel and oil.
Heroic tier D&D has a lot of features that make play interesting at that level that don’t really translate well to later play. We’ll review some of them now and you can decide if you want to cut them or not in favour of a more high performance and race worthy game.