Having Fun at High Levels

© 1999 by Steven W. Semler. All rights reserved.

It often seems that campaigns falter just when they should be building up momentum. Players whose characters reach higher levels retire them or just let them drift off into obscurity as they turn their attention to new characters. Once the new characters work their way up to double digit levels, they are retired as the cycle begins again. Low- and middle-level adventuring provides many hours of fun for the players and referees of most roleplaying games. High-level adventuring doesn't seem to have the same attraction. While some of the responsibility for this is properly placed on the shoulders of the gamemaster, the players actually have to take a bigger role if they are going to have fun at high levels.

While it many not be obvious at first glance, play at high levels is dramatically different from low- and mid-level adventuring in almost any roleplaying game. As Skip Williams notes in the DM's Option: High Level Campaigns book, what constitutes "high-level" differs from campaign to campaign. In general, however, the switch from mid- to high-level adventuring takes place when the characters reach a level of power, wealth, and mastery of their professions that places them beyond the vast majority of challenges that the campaign world could throw at them. Their combat skills, experience, and possessions (magical or technological) make it difficult for gamemasters to create the sort of encounter that the players worry about. They frequently have means to travel in power, speed, and style wherever they want to go, avoiding many encounters. The characters can even buy their way out of trouble with their accumulated wealth. In short, they are powerful enough that the kind of adventuring they have been doing up to this point can't offer them a challenge any more.

This is also the level where characters may stop gaining significant new powers. This happens to the fighter and rogue classes in AD&D at 13^th level, where the fighter gains the last additional attack and the rogue gains the last increase in backstab damage and both have long since received their last hit die. Spellcasters and other professions that can continually develop new powers have less difficulty, but face the same lack of challenge as their special powers increase. In skill-based games, characters' skill portfolios eventually fill out with exceptional abilities. When a skill rank of 6 virtually assures success, what's the real difference between rank 9 and rank 10?

Often, the dangers become all-or-nothing in nature. Life or death depends upon a single saving throw, enemies' weapons and powers can deal instant destruction, and the stakes of the adventures themselves are high for the characters and their allies. The opposing monsters and villains have to be incredibly powerful to challenge the heroes. This level of threat and scope often gets overdone. Players tend to become fatigued with the game when every adventure has the fate of a nation or a world at stake.

The complexity of the game often increases dramatically at high levels. When characters establish themselves as rulers or leaders, they have whole new sets of statistics to track. The adventure plots become more complex to take advantage of this type of political power. Many campaigns automatically involve the characters in politics as their fame increases. Strategy and bookkeeping takes on a greater role than heroic roleplaying. Often, this sort of complexity just isn't fun for the players; it isn't why they play the game. Interest drops off, as a result.

Motivation is another problem at high levels. The player characters have accomplished their low-level goals of survival and improvement. They have mastered the mid-level goals of accumulating wealth, power, and position. What remains? Why should a character risk adventuring when he or she already has a very comfortable position, numerous possessions, a castle or similar home, and wealth and friends to last for the rest of his or her life? What is left for the hero to achieve?

Taken together, these characteristics often make it much more attractive to start new characters and return to "the simple life" of the neophyte adventurer rather than to continue play at high levels. This is always a route players and gamemasters can take, but the rest of this article offers suggestions about how players can revitalize high-level adventuring and continue to enjoy the characters they have worked so long and hard to develop.

The best single piece of advice for players in high-level campaigns is to take more control over the game. At lower levels of play, it can be rewarding and fun to react to the events and adventure ideas the gamemaster develops. At higher levels, the players have to take more of an active role in setting the direction of the campaign and the development of their characters.

The job of running a high-level campaign becomes too big for the gamemaster to do alone. There are too many possibilities and the gamemaster can't know which will be most appealing to the players. To maintain interest in their characters, the players also have to share their own ideas with the gamemaster. What kinds of adventures does the group want to pursue? Who are the big campaign villains that will keep the player characters engaged? What kinds of values or ideals will keep the players interested? What kind of rewards should the gamemaster be giving at this point? How should combat, roleplaying, and problem solving be balanced? How can the gamemaster help the players reach their long-term goals? Questions like these make good food for thought and discussion. The answers can help the gamemaster narrow down the range of possibilities to the ones that will keep the players enthusiastic about the campaign.

Player characters drive any roleplaying campaign, especially at high levels. What does your character do when he or she no longer needs to go adventuring? This is the perfect time to set long-term goals! Now that your character has a stable base of power and influence, he or she can really make a mark on the game world.

Ask yourself these questions, from the character's perspective:

• What do I want to be known for?
• What do my ideals tell me is important?
• What great deeds am I uniquely suited to accomplish?
• What kind of legacy do I want to leave the world?

The answers to these questions can help you decide what you want your character to accomplish, beyond the accumulation of wealth, power, and fame. The goal you set should be one that will take your character quite a while to accomplish. If it is dangerous, or you cannot be certain of success, that is even better. In order for the goal to be worthwhile, the character must have something at risk.

One special note about goals and your preferred style of play: If you don't like politics, bookkeeping, or strategic conflict, do not allow your character to get involved in positions of rulership or leadership. If you want to roleplay a leader, you will have to be willing to take on the administrative burden that goes along with the job. It isn't fair to your gamemaster to set up your own domain, guild, or fleet and then expect to avoid any threats to your newly created empire. It is unrealistic and unbelievable from a campaign perspective. Leadership of an organization gives you power, and with the power comes the responsibilities. Too many campaigns bog down when players characters acquire leadership responsibilities that aren't fun for their players. If your own personal style of play is to be a roaming hero, do yourself and the campaign a favor and refuse lands, titles, and followers that will tie your character to burdensome responsibilities.

So what if you have already gotten into a situation that isn't fun to play? If your character has acquired a lot of powerful possessions that make the game too easy, or is headed in a direction that you want to avoid, you may want to work with your gamemaster to plan a major personal setback. Although it may seem to go against the spirit of the game, planning your own setback is an important way that you can take more control of the game as a player. If you have become burdened with rulership of a domain, and this has turned out to be less fun than you expected, think of a couple of ways that your character could be relieved of that responsibility. Personal setbacks happen all the time in novels and television series. They can re-energize the story line by giving the hero a new goal to shoot for, or a new freedom to explore.

This may also be a way for you and the gamemaster to strip away many items of lesser power in order to present a later opportunity to gain a major item of power that fits better with your character conception and goals. Work with your gamemaster (and possibly the other players) to come up with a few suggestions about how to bring about your setback.

At higher levels, it usually takes longer to gain additional skills and powers. Take advantage of this opportunity to focus more of your effort on roleplaying and less on advancement. Use your long-term goal as a focus. Seek out the people in the campaign world that you have not had the chance to meet. There are many NPCs who might be able to provide information or assistance to help you reach your goal. As you encounter more of the non-player characters of your world, think about how your character's personality might change and grow with the realization of how much people look up to him or her.

By the time your character ventures into high-level play, he or she has already developed a network of NPC allies and friends. With a long-term goal in mind, you may find it useful to expand this network. You might use some of your wealth to support novice adventurers or causes that you find important. If public opinion is important to you, you can do things to sway it to your favor.

You may take advantage of the opportunity to undertake minor adventures that have little reward or challenge if they further your goals. At high levels, driving out a band of local bandits might be a trivial exercise for your party. If it would solidify the friendship of the mayor of a town you find important, however, it may end up being a good adventure. The paltry treasure and experience that the bandits offer would mean little in comparison to the roleplaying reward of the mayor's good will.

Remember that your character is going to be well-known by the time he or she reaches the higher levels. Consider what sort of reputation you want your character to have, and use it to deepen your roleplaying. If you want to portray a mysterious wizard, then act in ways that reinforce that impression among the townspeople and other NPCs you encounter. If you want to play the bold knight, play that role in encounter situations. Take adventures that give you opportunities to build and maintain the kind of reputation that you would like to have. This can give your character more "life" and help you leave a legacy that the denizens of the campaign world will remember as strongly as you and your gaming group do.

Part of the fun of roleplaying games is the opportunity to do what has never been done. At high levels, this becomes a real possibility. Not only can you perform amazing feats because of the fantasy or science fiction game rules, but you can even do things that no one else in your campaign world has ever done before! Now that you've reached a special level of power, you can contemplate undertaking the great quests or missions that change your game world forever. If you want to build a skycastle and set up jousting tournaments with other skycastles, that may be a possibility. If you want to establish a black market network that spans all fifty star systems in your sci-fi campaign, work out a plan with your gamemaster and fellow players. Depending upon your power relative to others in your campaign, you may even be able to (eventually, over a long time) create an artifact of power! These great deeds are the methods that high-level characters use to achieve their long-term goals.

In the course of such quests, you can take advantage of the opportunity to explore uncharted elements of your campaign world. Some of these elements might be geographical, representing lands and civilizations beyond the edge of your present maps. Others might be conceptual, like certain obscure schools of magic and philosophy. Others might be social, like how you can rally the people of a neutral country to the aid of a nearby nation imperiled by an advancing evil. In many cases, you can work with your gamemaster to suggest or flesh out these campaign features. Through your interest and ideas, your gamemaster can make the campaign world even richer with detail.

Depending upon your interests and game system, you may take on the challenge of developing a new style of fighting, school or tradition of magic, or institution of technical or artistic learning. A warrior may experiment with different fighting styles, creating new techniques to pass on to others. Each technique should have a minor game effect and a great deal of flavor description and rationale. A rogue might develop new tools, techniques, or blends of skills to create a new skill package or kit. A wizard might research a new specialty school and spells. A priest might develop a new understanding of his or her faith or a new form of worship. Over time, the character will probably become well-known and respected (or feared) for the new methods he or she has created. The game world is enriched by these never-seen-before creations and the character's legacy is assured.

Eventually, your characters will accomplish their long-term goals, changing the shape of the campaign along the way. Their deeds will become part of the history and legend of the campaign world, told to new characters, and players, as well. The after-effects of your play at high levels may form the basis of the adventures of many other characters to follow. Having finally accomplished all that you set out to do, your group can retire their characters and generate new characters to follow in their footsteps. Or, perhaps, after this grand adventure is done you can start to work on a sequel.