D and D rules seem unsuited for a Tolkein style epic because they focus on squad level combat whereas epic fantasy is usually concerned with world-shaking events, the clash of armies and powers beyond your understanding.
I guess your rules make sense if you want to capture the feel of a character going from zero to hero in one game. The problem is there would be no repeatability... run them through that questline and they're heroes, so where do you go then? D and D levelling is slow for a reason, because character progression feels "earned". The character takes years even in regular play to level from novice to godlike -- the levels going to level 36 and then the "immortals" ruleset kicking in. (Never played that and it surely sounds really very weird.) If you run that in one adventure players might feel it's all a bit easy and there's no opportunity for a second game. Then again, that's epic fantasy isn't it? Unless you're David Eddings in which case the universe can be threatened a second time by a near identical prophecy.
I always preferred the low fantasy so when I was playing D and D I was thinking of Leiber's Fafhrd and the Mouser rather than Gandalf and Frodo.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2013-12-02 02:53 pm (UTC)I guess your rules make sense if you want to capture the feel of a character going from zero to hero in one game. The problem is there would be no repeatability... run them through that questline and they're heroes, so where do you go then? D and D levelling is slow for a reason, because character progression feels "earned". The character takes years even in regular play to level from novice to godlike -- the levels going to level 36 and then the "immortals" ruleset kicking in. (Never played that and it surely sounds really very weird.) If you run that in one adventure players might feel it's all a bit easy and there's no opportunity for a second game. Then again, that's epic fantasy isn't it? Unless you're David Eddings in which case the universe can be threatened a second time by a near identical prophecy.
I always preferred the low fantasy so when I was playing D and D I was thinking of Leiber's Fafhrd and the Mouser rather than Gandalf and Frodo.