Reply To: RPG's and… the end times…

[evilstu 15298xp 0]

@pagan8th the onl campaign I played to epic level (ie our characters got to level 20) ws a D&D 3.5 setting. We won the campaign shortly thereafter against nigh-on impossible odds and all the characters were retired thereafter. They had achieved their objective of defeating the evil which the party had been formed to stop. had we kept progressing it would have required much more challenging opponents to keep things interesting and this would not have sat well with the narrative that the DM had woven for the world. Consequently once the objective had been achieved he did the sensible thing and drew a line under the campaign. The following week we kicked off a campaign in a different setting (post apocalyptic rather than high-fantasy).

I’m not sure how 5th ed handles levels above 20 but 3rd ed/3.5had epic levels so you could push on for another 10 levels or so (if you could survive the dimension-hopping and overpowered gribblies that would end up assailing you).

Your point is well made though – once you have reached a point where your experience has plateaued and you have achieved all you can then unless there is a specific unfulfilled obligation or quest that the character has yet to achieve then they may wish to ‘retire’ or the DM might seek to conclude the campaign. That way everybody can get the opportunity of playing a different character type (even characters that are initially fun to play can become a bit stale after playing them for months at a time). You may find that your DM ends up weaving notable past heroes into the narrative fabric of the campaign – having them as rulers of nearby kingdoms, merchant lords, high priestesses or eccentric arcane researchers.