Running Adventures for Differently Powered Characters

So you sit down to start running your massive Holy War campaign.  Three of the players are using characters that were in a previous campaign and their pretty super powered by now.  One joined later and is a bit behind, but not so far that he outright stinks.  But then your buddies brought over their new girlfriends and not only are they new players, but they have new characters.  Oh my freaking god!!!  This will never work!!

But it will.  Notice the lack of “!” there.  That’s calm.  You as a GM need calm.  Not every second, because too much calm is boring, but quite often you need calm.  Take some of that calm when this situation hits your gaming table, because this is how you’re going to handle it:

First, we assume you are playing a role-playing game and not a first person shooter.  If you are playing a first person shooter, this won’t work.  If you’re playing one, go find a different blog.  I may play them, but I don’t write about them.

OK, so this is a role-playing game, let’s focus on that.  It is always best if you have some little background story that justifies putting less powerful characters with more powerful characters.  Maybe they know something the more powerful characters don’t, like the location / setting - like they grew up here or something.  Perhaps they have a specialized skill that the more powerful characters do not, such as tracking, healing, or interrogating.

Why would skills or knowledge like this be good?  Because it gives them a reason to be in the party that does not revolve around killing folks.  Most aspects of game balance involve killing or being killed.  If the lower powered characters don’t need to be the big bruisers in combat, then they can still be of assistance without having to change the types of adversaries that the party as a whole is facing.

But, OK, there still needs to be some fighting, right?  Our war scenario actually works pretty well here, because in all likelihood, the party will be facing a large number of lower powered enemies.  Soldiers may be able to kill you, but they aren’t dragons and giants who will smash you in a single attack.  This allows the under-powered characters to fight enemies one at a time, while the more powerful might be plowing through three.

But let’s think about stories we watch on screens.  How many times has the hero told the damsel in distress to wait for him somewhere only to have her follow when she’s not supposed to, but she winds up smashing a flower pot over the villain’s head, saving the hero.  That stuff happens all the time!  Whether it is actually in the battle or during the battle (doing other important things), less powerful characters can be of help to the heroic folks.  Sometimes just serving as a distraction at the right moment gives the more powerful guy the chance he needs to win the fight.  But the low powered folks do need to be thinking outside the box.

But let’s think about like it were a video game, like an MMO.  What happens when a high level character wants to run a low leveled character through a mission or two?  Well, normally, the high level character needs to go down to the lower “zone” to help out.  That’s a good point of reference here.  Even if a higher level character needs to dominate the enemies, this can still be a fun adventuring style.  It is especially useful if while the big guys are easily handling lesser opponents, they can then concentrate more on helping newer players learn the rules.  Important note:  Don’t teach them by showing them what your super powered guy can do!  Show them by teaching them what their character can do!

Most role-playing games have some manner of geometric progression built into them.  This means that by the time the high level characters get their next “level” or two, the lower powered ones might be nipping at their heels.  So off-powered parties normally won’t stay that way for long.  A little bit of planning from you as the GM and a little bit of patience and the party should be in the same ballpark, plus have some pretty cool stories to tell.

This post was written as part of the soon to be released Paladin vs. Paladin aka All About Holy Wars, the latest in our Small Bites editions.  Each Small Bites book looks deeply at one subject, a character archetype, a race/monster, a style of questing, or some other role-playing/world building subject.  This one details everything having to do with paladins aka holy knights as well as the holy wars they fight in, even if those wars are against other paladins (which is when they are the most fun!).

To get the full Game Masters’ edition when it is published, you will need to be a part of our Patreon project.  There will be no free version of this edition.  Seeing as this is a double sized edition (at least over 80 pages) and the culmination of most of the last year (plus) of Small Bites editions, anyone who has been getting involved in our Small Bites project is going to want to have this edition.  Interested?  Click the link here.