Summary
One of the consistently difficult to rationalize aspects ofDungeons & Dragonsis the disconnect between mechanics and fiction on what it means to level up as an adventurer, and this isexacerbated by the fact the heroes can go from level 1 to 20 in about a monthaccording to the 5eDnDrules. Older editions ofDnDhave paced character levels differently, and prior to 3e each class leveled at a different rate. Some campaigns are full of high-level characters bearing the power of demigods, likeForgotten Realms, whileEberronrarely sees an NPC above character level 10.
SomeDungeons & Dragons5e third-party variant systems have a lower maximum level, likeBrancaloniaandEveryday Heroes. DMs still need to ensure character level means something coherent in the game world.
Whether a game is inaDnDorPathfindercampaign world, or a homebrew setting, Dungeon Masters do need to be aware of whether they are running a high-magic world or one where spellcasters and relics are rare. They alsoneed to determine how commonplace truly high-level characters are in the world and the roles they play. I could runEberron, a setting where magic is commonplace and commodified but where high-level characters are outliers. Alternatively, I could decide thatPrimeval Thule, a low magic setting, actually has amultitude of Tier 4 Fighters and Barbarians acting as near-mythological heroes.
In D&D, I’ve Learned How To Kill A Party’s Interest In The Game - Here’s How To Avoid My Mistakes
Dungeons & Dragons required collaboration between the players and the Dungeon Master, but the players’ investment is capped by the DM’s enthusiasm.
Character Level Has Meaning In D&D’s Narrative
5e D&D Provides Guidance On Encounters Per Day, But Not Pacing Those Days
ThoughDMing for high-levelDnDpartiesrequires effort to balance encounters and other challenges, part of that effort needs to go into defining the role of a high-level hero in the campaign setting.A level 17 Wizard with access to the Wish spell occupies a different role in the world than a low-level student of the arcane. Ideally, the mechanics of a tabletop RPG aid immersion in the fiction of the game I am running. While many DMs deviate from the guidance in theDungeon Master’s Guide, if I am runningDnD, I aim to run it fully asDnD.
I have adapted torunningDungeons & Dragonswith urgencyin my narratives, where a ticking clock gives the heroes a reason to push through multiple encounters within the same adventuring day. Thislets me adhere to theDMG’s suggestion of 6 to 8 medium encounters per day(or less if those are Deadly encounters). Multiple encounters challenge a party through attrition, encouraging judicious resource use, so the game is holistically challenging without favoring classes that have daily resources instead of renewable short rest abilities.Ensuring narratives and mechanics have harmony can be difficultwith 5eDungeons & Dragons,however.
The addition of Backgrounds to the character creation process is an example of 5eDnDmerging mechanics and narrative elegantly, but the same cannot be said for other systems.
SomeDMs thinkDnDrests are problematic, but narrative stakes provide an easy solution, for me. My bigger concern isnot daily challenges, but overall narrative pacing, based on the 5eDnDexperience chart. If I follow theDMG’s recommended encounters per day, one adventuring day with the requisite number of battles takes a level 1 character to level 2. This is fine, since the early levels of the game should breeze by, particularly since many classes do not reach the subclasses that give them distinctiveness until level 3. Thepacing problem compounds over the course of 20 levels, unfortunately.
One Arduous Month Can Max Out D&D Characters
Some Aspects Of Character Growth Only Make Sense With Downtime
AtypicalD&DFighter’s backstory can vary, but they usually establish where they obtained their martial training, and what their current goals are in the world. This provides a synthesis of mechanics and fiction, rationalizing their starting proficiencies and class features. Shooting through the early levels does not bother me, asrunning for low-level characters is largely tedious anyway. Based on analysis of the experience table, assuming I ran about 6 Medium difficulty encounters every day, back-to-back, acharacter would reach level 20 in roughly 34 days. Running 34 full, challenging adventuring days is absolutely fine for a campaign’s length.
Why I Actually Prefer D&D Powergamers & Optimizers At My Dungeons & Dragons Table
Some D&D Dungeon Masters still dislike character optimization, or “powergaming,” at their tables, but these are the kinds of players that excite me.
The way this impacts the narrative is the bigger problem. I can obviously pace my games to include days of less eventful exploration, social encounters, or downtime in between proper adventuring days when the party endures multiple level-appropriate combats. On the flip side, if I wanted to run a game of one hellish month, reflecting a scenario like frontline soldiers in a war, or a large-scale demonic invasion, the result would be very different. As a DM, IwantDnDplayers to feel powerful, butseeing them reach the peak of their potential after one harrowing month creates narrative problems.
It is aDungeons & Dragonsflaw, that basic campaign structure is implied, at best, instead of clearly mandated.
I could try to rationalize this as a brutal crucible that forced heroes to push their personal limits to survive. This still leaves questions on how the experience alsoled to a lifetime of learning in fields like Arcana or History, for characters with proficiency in those skills. A party Rogue goes from having two skills they specialize in, to having Reliable Talent and multiple Expertise skills, reflecting years of experience compressed into a month. Thinking of aDnD5e campaign as “34 hard days” is not the problem, butit is up to me to pace those days believably.
5e D&D Has A Problem With Ambiguous Rules
The Dungeon Masters Guide Needed To Give Clearer Pacing Advice
I canread between the lines of theDMGAdventuring Day rules to discern what the designers were going for. Similar to the5e DnD spells needing 5.5 fixes, there are a lot of ambiguities in the rules of 5eDMGrelative to its 4e predecessor. My bigger issue is that these rules should not be between the lines, theyshould be bolded and impossible to ignore. Many 5e DMs miss the 6 to 8 encounter recommendation altogether, since it isnot highlighted in thePlayer’s Handbookas a player-facing expectation. Campaign pacing recommendationsneed similar transparency in theDMG.
The 5eDungeon Master’s Guideleans towards ambiguity over clear instruction much more than the preceding editions ofDungeons & Dragons, which provided strict and specific wealth-by-level guidelines, not loose suggestions.
A well-designed tabletop RPG gives the Game Master all the tools and guidance needed to run it. Creative storytellers will still find ways to make a system their own, but agame should cleanly function, out of the box, and not require leaps of intuition on my part to make it coherent. I understand that multiple encounters per adventuring day provides challenge by attrition, and spacing those encounters over a series of months, or years, in-fiction, providessome verisimilitude to campaigns. It is aDungeons & Dragonsflaw, that basic campaign structure is implied, at best, instead of clearly mandated.
