Just keep a character sheet for every level - then you can "go back in time" and play all the adventures you like :)
Voila!
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Try playing a character through to level 15 first - it might even get to be hard work after a while (certainly for the DM!) The combats get more complicated, the options and combinations are myriad... that's when it's nice to take a break, roll up new characters and play something else for a while. Luckily there is plenty of choice :-)
Many groups also have two campaigns running with alternate DMs (for example, on alternate weeks) which means double the modules/ APs used. Plus, if a DM is ill, the other game can go on.
And - the hobby is one of longevity, people have played these games for 30 years and more. That's a lot of time and opportunity to play crazy fun modules with various characters.
Any time you all want to play a module that isn't level-appropriate, you can alter the challenges in the module, roll new characters, use old character sheets, a combination of these options and whatever I missed...
Take it as "the modules and APs got your back", not as "now they've spoiled it" - relax, there's plenty of time - if you've made a forum account you're probably hooked and in it for the long haul now :-)
Yep, what carborundum said - by the time you get though an AP, chances are pretty high your players will be ready for new PCs!
Generally I find that by the time you have completed an AP (for us over a year to get through all of it), everyone is tired of the PC. They usually want to start over with something completely different anyway.
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I played through all of Kingmaker with a Cavalier that I loved and I thought about "recreating" her to play with in Council of Thieves. But after thinking about where I was and what she may encounter, I decided that going with a Fighter (Tactician) would be a better solution.
Not all the AP are equal. A character that works in one will not always work in another. Players build character based off of the creatures they faced. I wouldn't want to be stated out to deal with demons and devils then be thrown some place that had trolls and orcs. Especially being a spell caster.
It would be better to have the AP run separately. It helps with continuity.
That being said, I'm in a Society legal campaign where we are running Rise of the Runelords and Shattered Star together. And to make sure that we are the correct level to move to the next section, we are running modules. That may be what your looking at.
You could also alter the encounters to suit a higher level party. Say you're running Rise of the Runelords with 10th level characters, all one needs to do is buff the encounters to a 10th APL equivalent.
Heya.
First of all I want to clarify that I am a very very new to tabletop RPGs (not RPGs though) and I have only had one session, where I was the Game Master.
I really like the experience the tabletop RPGs gives, and I have started to read more and more about Dungeon & Dragons, Pathfinder and the different ways to get hold of more adventures and stories.
From what I understand there are plenty of modules, which are more or less like stand-alone stories, which you can experience. Different modules are designed for different character level range. For example for level 1s, level 12s or level 16s, etc.
Then there are several Adventure Paths which (from what I understand) are designed if you start with a newly fresh level 1, and completing the whole storyline will usually end with the characters being level 15.
When I think about this, please forgive my out-burst, I get very annoyed.
As a Game Master, I just want to bring fun and new story experiences to my characters.
But I see a problem if there are 7 modules for level 1, that.. you won't be able to complete all until you have "out-leveled" the content?
Generally, groups dont stick with the same characters forever. They will run either some modules, or an adventure path, finish that, and then start over with new characters. The reason there are so many low level adventures are because MOST groups play at low levels more often then not.
And the same goes for Adventure Paths. If we start an Adventure Path, taking a character from level 1 to 15 - what then? Have we lost the opportunity to do any of the crazy fun level 1 modules??
Untill you move on to new characters, yes.
Might be harsh, but the more I think about it, the more discouraging it is.
What options do I have if my players are more than happy with their characters, but just want to play adventures after adventures? Are they literally forced to recreate new characters? :|
Well eventually yes. There is an ultimate cap at level 20. But the game gets rather hard to mange after about 14th level (hence why the adventure paths stop around there and there isnt much content beyond that point).
In reality, it takes about 3-6 4-5 hour sessions to complete most modules (depending on the pace your group follows). If you meet once a week, thats about 6-8 months you are playing one adventure path, assuming you actually meet that often without fail. That is a rather long time to play one set of characters.
That said, there are ways to extend that, and they have to do with slowing and stopping the leveling system.
1 You can use the slow xp track instead of medium with adventure paths, and squeeze modules or homemade adventures in the middle of the adventure path parts (where they can fit). This allows you to go through more material with the same characters.
2. You can use the Epic X concept. This is often refered to as E6 or E8. This essentially stops leveling at whatever level the number indicates (IE E6 stops at level 6) and you only gain feats after that. You then wont ever out level modules that are appropriate for whatever level you stop at and can play as many of those as you wish. Mind you this precludes using adventure paths, but it could work with a combination of modules.
3. The dm says when you level. You can just hold the players at a given level range untill you have gone through all the content you wish and can then move on to the next level, but I dont really recommend this. Mind you I dont use xp anymore in my home games, people just level when the AP says they should.
4. Do what most groups do, play for a while, through an AP or a couple modules, then move on to new characters and a new story.
I recall one acquaintance of mine many years ago who, it must be said, was a bit 'up himself'. He decided that experience points and leveling up was too 'competitive' and did away with it. All his adventures were 4th level because that was 'the best' and characters were 4th level with no intent or aim of advancement. I didn't play with him, but he had a regular playing group which seemed to enjoy the style.
Level 1 is a grand opportunity to imagine your character later on in life when he's all growed up and strong and powerful and the wee peon mites and kobolds you are fighting now are a nose-blow away from being dead.
Level 15 is a grand opportunity to look at your hero and think "man, this is awesome.. but.. I wonder what I'll be in the next campaign?".
I find it much like I did school vs summer.
All school year long I looked forward to the summer time. By the end of the summer I was really looking forward to being back in school.
The game is cyclical. There are so many character races, classes, builds and options that sticking with one just isn't how it was meant to be.
Playing one character forever would be like reading a novel that never, ever ended.
Enjoy the cycle.
-S
If you're playing an AP and your players (or most of them) want to stick with the same guys, you've got a few options.
1.) Full homebrew. Make an adventure that starts at level 15-16 and goes all the way to 20 (or beyond, if you wish).
2.) Guided homebrew. Most of the APs I've DMed have a section called "Continuing the Adventure" or something similar that gives plot hooks and such connected to the same adventure. You'd have to fill in the encounters and such on the way there, but it gives you a basic plot idea and a final boss to plan around.
3.) Bump other existing APs or modules up to a level where they met the challenge of your party. Takes a bit of work, but an be very interesting to see how the plot would need to shift in some of them to accommodate these decidedly more epic creatures and super powerful PCs (Skull and Shackles probably wouldn't work at all in Book 1, for example). Level them when they feel like being leveled/start to show boredom.
4.) Have the characters go on a long hiatus. They lose a bunch of levels of EXP because they haven't been adventuring in forever, or maybe have some super powerful end boss guy give them literally permanent negative levels through some dark ritual, or whatever. Point being they drop down to at least level 10. From here, you can enact any of the first 3 options as you see fit.
5.) As 4, but starting all the way back at level 1. Make up whatever explanation you wish for why they can't use their higher level abilities (magically locked, some kind of targeted Amnesia that leaves them their identities, but not classes, and so forth) Let them keep some things it would make sense for them to keep *Stat increases, perhaps, and gear) and bump the challenge accordingly. In essence they end up as tricked out level 1's and have to earn back/relearn/etc. a lot of their skills, Feats, and class abilities. Good way to allow full retraining for a character as well if they wanted to make tweaks in spells known or Feats. Enact 1-3 as desired, or run APs as written with more powerful characters at each given level.
That's all I got.
I'm not sure I recommend it, but what I have heard of is. Use a super slow progression. The run the first book of the first AP, the the first book of the second AP, then the first book of the third AP. Then go to the second book of the first AP...
I don't think I would enjoy it, but some certainly seem to.
Why would anyone want to STAY as a 1st level character? You can die with one sword-thrust or one unlucky critical hit. To me, it's more fun once you've gotten five or so levels so you're not completely vulnerable but also not at the point where the character is overly complex.
Just use the same characters at the appropriate level for that adventure. There is no reason you can't have the other adventures as part of your character background and just reset the levels to match what you're playing. It shouldn't be too difficult to think up a reason why they don't have the high end gear they did.
If it is the mechanics of high levels your players like, then you either have to seriously bump up those low level adventures or write your own. If it is simply the personalities of those characters you have a couple of options: have the characters retire for a set number of years, then start again at level 1 because they are "rusty" and slowly remembering how to do things, or have something happen that strips the characters of their abilities and they start over at 1st level. My old Forgotten Realms group had faced down the big bad and defeated him, then our characters retired. We took a short hiatus from playing, then when we started up again, we advanced the timeline 15 years. Some people created new PCs, and those of us who didn't brought our old characters out of retirement at level 1.
To reiterate: keep your character sheets from every level and simply zip backwards along the space/time continuum to play lower level adventures at the point where the characters were at lower levels. Any loot collected could then be retconned into their higher level incarnations.
I don't see why this doesn't completely fix the entire problem...
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It looks like you are getting a number of responses, but here's mine:
Each adventure path does go from 1-15, after that you can either run your own high level campaign (the last AP usually has a 'after the AP is finished, here's some storyhooks you can flesh out' sidebar at the end) , or one some high level modules. (the Moonscar actually has notes on how to incorporate it after many of the adventure paths)
alternately, you can create new characters. This allows you to build a new personality around a totally new character, or a similar character if you enjoyed the previous one. And you can start a brand new adventure path. Many adventure path(AP) books can take over 2 months to complete, so after a year+ of the character, many players are ready to start over fresh and explore new ideas. This allows you to start a new AP
As folks have mentioned, as much as you love your character, you'll probably want to try a new one out after a while -- there are lots of fun adventures, but there are also a ton of fun character options, and your players will want to mix it up and try some other options.
A few other options that haven't been mentioned:
* Ask one of your players to take a turn GMing! That way you might be running one Adventure Path with one set of characters, while you get to play in your friend's game in a different AP with a different set of characters. You get a chance to play (every GM should spend some time as a player, to see what they like on that side of the screen), and the rest of the group gets to mix it up, and have a little variety in their characters.
* Run an AP, but have a couple modules (or PFS scenarios) on hand for the days when some of your players can't make it: rather than cancelling the game that night, pull out the other module and play through it just for fun, without necessarily keeping any XP or treasure out of it.
You can extend one AP by running The Moonscar, an adventure for 16th level characters. I considered doing this after Rise of the Runelords, which would have been a very good fit in some ways, but I was fairly burned out by the time we'd finished (it was my first DMing chore in a long time, and I was running it for 6 PCs while converting from 3.5 to Pathfinder as we went.)
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Actually...I merged RoTRL and CoTCT (At least the parts I liked) so it can be done (those who have played both can probably guess the connection...)
The old 3.5 APs had less XP, so if you go slow progression and have a GM who is creative, you can make it work.
But if you have that, they can also homebrew things to beef out the adventure.
I was about to post a similar request for ideas, but noticed this one just in time.
Some really good suggestions here. I think personally though I'm going with some dramatic downscaling of opponent stats and the slow XP path to get my group to be able to do a number of APs in sequence with the same characters slowly rising in power as they go. I really want that "epic campaign" feel where the same characters are pretty much responsible for fixing every disaster in the game world over a period of 25 or more ingame years, eventually running into the issue of (and possible solutions to) their own mortality.
There may also be some diversions at points along the timeline where other parties deal with other APs, possibly even the descendants and/or heirs of the original party going out on their own adventures at some point.
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Actually...I merged RoTRL and CoTCT (At least the parts I liked) so it can be done (those who have played both can probably guess the connection...)
The old 3.5 APs had less XP, so if you go slow progression and have a GM who is creative, you can make it work.
But if you have that, they can also homebrew things to beef out the adventure.
Could you possibly share more about what you did? I'm intrigued :D