The Feeling of Epic

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:35 am

If we have the ability to perform non-epic actions minimally reduced when performing an epic action, then any kind of non-epic attack still needs to be essentially pointless and this creates a fairly hard line of seperation.

Hmm, what if attacks didn't get a level bonus to CAN? Once you reach level (18+highest CAN attack), you can only be touched by epic attacks, which will have a higher base CAN and a longer action frame. Unfortunately, this creates padded sumo like unto 4E, so it's likely not even that good of an idea.

I can't think of any stories/shows that show the progression of power for a single character from mortal to epic without a near instant quantum leap to the next tier; once in a great while, there's an actual passage of time from mortal to epic, but it's always been a "three months later..." kind of passage (and thus still narratively instant). So you might actually just have the game progress normally, and then once they hit that one level...BAM!...they operate on epic time and fight on giant squares and wholly ignore the lesser folk.

MartinHarper · Post by **MartinHarper** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:54 pm

What if the size of a square and the length of a round was level dependant?

At level 1, a square is 1m x 1m, and a round is five seconds.
At level 30, a square is 1km x 1km, and a round is an hour and a half.
Same powers, same stats, same rules.
If there are multiple levels present, use the average.

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 11:53 pm

Just out of curiosity, what RPGs cover epic in a manner beyond magic teaparty? Are any of them any good?

The 13 Wise Buttlords · Mon Jul 07, 2008 1:03 am

At level 30, a square is 1km x 1km, and a round is an hour and a half.
Same powers, same stats, same rules.
If there are multiple levels present, use the average.

DM: Okay, so after 6 days worth of searching the jungle, you stumble onto an orc village.
PC1: This sucks! We've spent all this time looking for the Mega-Ultra Excalibur Mk3 and bupkiss!
PC2: I am smoldering with generic rage. Those orcs are going DOWN!
PC3: Let's kick some ass! This will be fun, we've never killed an entire village of low-level orcs before!

DM: Sigh. Well, since you challenged the HELPLESS LOW-LEVEL ORCS to a life or death duel, let's get this over with. Knowing that he faces certain doom against your blinged-out sociopaths, an orc shaman nonetheless comes out of his hut and roars something unintelligible, before casting his spell. It immolates a patch of forest 2 kilometers in diameter.

PC4: WTF?! I thought these were low-level orcs?
PC2: Figures that the DM would insert a random grudge monster into the adventure to teach us a moral lesson about not killing--

DM: [rolling dice] It misses PC2, PC3, and PC1.
PC3: Whew.
DM: Unfortunately, he rolled a natural 20 on PC4. Damage is... [rolls dice] 1d6 plus 2 is 5 damage.
PC4: ........ you're kidding.
DM: No.
PC2: Man, whatever. Time to curbstomp some orc children. Lord knows they have it coming. Where's the nearest pre-teen orc?
DM: There aren't any in sight.
PC2: Damn, well, where's the nearest orc period?
DM: Aside from the orc shaman, there aren't any.
PC2: WHAT?! This place was teeming with them last round! Where did they all go?
DM: That was last round, man. 30 minutes have passed since then *GRRRKGH*
PC3: Don't crush his throat, dude. Just make sure he passes out long enough for me to set up Super Smash Bros.

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 3:31 am

Ah. Orc periods.
There's something I don't want to picture.

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:54 am

Come to think of it, using the original post as the guideline for what do with epic, duration of pugnation seems like the most difficult one. I can't see how to use it without the rules completely changing with jarring speed.

It's likely easier to just use Piles of Bodies & Oodles of Options as the basis for your epic.

Maybe one could use Duration of Pugnation along with Men in the Field, but I don't see how it would work without it being a sort of mini-game where you group things up into manageable groups of equivalent EL.

MartinHarper · Post by **MartinHarper** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:35 pm

MartinHarper wrote:If there are multiple levels present, use the average.

Plan B: If there are multiple levels present, use the lowest.
So high level folks are flexible enough to scale downwards for small irritating opposition, but low level folks can't scale upwards.

NoDot · Post by **NoDot** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:52 pm

I've been thinking that Epic should be one-on-one using the Mass Combat system..