Next month will bring the next round of pitch submissions to Dragon and Dungeon magazine. I hope that you will give serious consideration to accepting more pitches that support paragon and epic tier. In the past you have stated that your research has shown most people play in heroic tier and therefore you support heroic tier more than the other tiers. I would counter that many DM's would play in paragon or epic if they felt they had more support, in particular more adventures.
Most DM's are comfortable writing their own material for heroic. A typical heroic tier adventure is not hard to conceive and develop as we have countless sources of inspiration for typical low level fantasy quests. The problem with writing your own adventures comes as you get into paragon and epic tier. These tiers are supposed to involve the characters in battles and events that are global in nature and more "epic" in their scope and complexity. Following the advice from the DMG (or DMKit) the players in such campaigns should feel like their characters are the key players in their world, changing its power structures and its very survival. It's a lot harder for a busy DM to craft a complex campaign of such magnitude. Most of us are comfortable kicking down dungeon doors or running a bar brawl, but managing an empire and saving the universe require a degree of DM sophistication that is intimidating to many busy DM's. If it's not done right, it comes off feeling forced and strange.
In short, I would argue that by their very nature, paragon and epic tier games are harder to run than heroic tier games and therefore should recieve more support from WotC. We have 3 years of heroic tier adventures to work through, more than enough for any campaign. So Mr. Editor, when you are sifting through the next round of submissions for Dragon and Dungeon, please consider choosing more material for paragon and epic tier. It's time to take this edition to the next level. To borrow a line from an old movie, I'll finish with "If you build it, they will come". Thank you for considering this.
they did announce some more support but when it comes out who knows
"Soon"
We do know beyond question that play falls off as levels increase, so there's less demand for epic material than for paragon and less for paragon than for heroic. DMs running high-level campaigns tend to be the most experienced, which means they're the least likely to need or even want pre-packed adventures. Finally, epic-level adventures tend by definition to revolve around world-shattering events. What shakes my world to its foundation might be completely unsuited to yours.
Those aren't reasons why we won't run more epic support, but they're factors that make it difficult to select good epic material. It's absolutely something that we'll have our eyes on when the next round of proposal evaluation begins in October.
Steve
Some folks may not know this, but Living Forgotten Realms has an excellent Epic series, as well as a ton of Paragon adventures. They can all be downloaded free and you always have the option of using them in a home campaign if you aren't playing them as part of organized play.
Nice mention, Teos. LFR is definitely a great way to get your paragon and epic fix. Another 3-round epic adventure is due out in October and a trilogy of paragon tier adventures set in Returned Abeir is due out in the coming months as well.
I don't want to fall back on the old "if you want more high-level material, write and submit some" saw, because we all know how worn out it is. But good high-level submissions are few and far between. So if you have one, send it in.
We do know beyond question that play falls off as levels increase, so there's less demand for epic material than for paragon and less for paragon than for heroic. DMs running high-level campaigns tend to be the most experienced, which means they're the least likely to need or even want pre-packed adventures. Finally, epic-level adventures tend by definition to revolve around world-shattering events. What shakes my world to its foundation might be completely unsuited to yours.
Those aren't reasons why we won't run more epic support, but they're factors that make it difficult to select good epic material. It's absolutely something that we'll have our eyes on when the next round of proposal evaluation begins in October.
Steve
I do understand the reasoning here on this point, though I still hope to see more epic adventure support.
However, it doesn't fully address the problem of a dearth of epic level creatuers to use. Sure, I'll probably be homebrewing most of epic level adventures. But it would sure be handy to have a larger stable of epic level threats to use without having to constantly design my own.
AD
I still believe that if WotC publishes more paragon and epic material more people will play at those tiers. People will see how interesting it is and how much fun it can be and say "That looks cool, I want to take my campaign there."
There's also an optics issue here; if people feel that WotC is abandoning these tiers they'll be reluctant to bring their campaigns there, regardless of how much material LFR and third parties put out. DM's and players want to play in a game they know is being cared for by the parent company. When people sense a game (or tier of game) is being abandoned they will stay away.
One of the things that really attracted me to 4e on launch is that the game is playable all the way up to level 30. This is the first edition that I can really say that is the case. I've tried epic level play in all previous editions and they always fell apart, usually due to horrible mechanical problems. Sure 4e epic has a few issues (monsters are weak, minions become useless) but the mechanics are sound and the tier is definitely playable all the way to 30. It bugs me that this tier is being ignored because there is so much potential here to finally allow D&D to be played well at the highest levels, something I've dreamed of since I was 9 years old and cracked open the red box for the first time.
Who doesn't want to kill Tiamat and become a demi-god?
I don't want to fall back on the old "if you want more high-level material, write and submit some" saw, because we all know how worn out it is. But good high-level submissions are few and far between. So if you have one, send it in.
We do know beyond question that play falls off as levels increase, so there's less demand for epic material than for paragon and less for paragon than for heroic. DMs running high-level campaigns tend to be the most experienced, which means they're the least likely to need or even want pre-packed adventures. Finally, epic-level adventures tend by definition to revolve around world-shattering events. What shakes my world to its foundation might be completely unsuited to yours.
Those aren't reasons why we won't run more epic support, but they're factors that make it difficult to select good epic material. It's absolutely something that we'll have our eyes on when the next round of proposal evaluation begins in October.
Steve
I pay for this service so that I don't have to make it myself. I really don't want to be paying for my own work just because wotc is seeming unable to do it. Some people dont have the time or the skill to create adventures and seeing as though wotc doesnt seem to be selling adventures over the counter anymore, DDI is the only other recourse.
That said, the reason people don't play epic tier is a lack of support.
Anyone else submitting paragon and/or epic pitches? The more we submit, the more likely we are to see at least one get picked. The continuing stream of heroic tier only adventures is starting to grate on my nerves. Don't get me wrong, I like all of the recent adventures, a lot, I just want to have more paragon and epic tier stories.