I was recently asked to create a max level game for my players. A one-shot at level 20 so my friends can try out max-level D&D and gain all of their class abilities to see how cool their abilities are.
I've never ran a game at this level before, so it definitely feels daunting, but it's also going to be a blast for my players to experience what their favourite class has to offer as they progress through our main campaign.
So where do we even start when planning something this big? Here's the steps I'm going to take to prepare and run this game.
Creating the hook
The first thing I do with many of my games is get the hook into the scenario first. Coming from a Call of Cthulhu background - the hook can be a major all for the players to get really interested in your game.
I've found this less of an issue with games like D&D, as people often like to try out a wealth of new abilities depending on what level they start at. Often roleplaying between players can create easy buy in as well. However, for a one night one-shot, a hook might be absolutely necessary to get people into the game, interested in it, and to get them straight into combat as son as I can. At level 20, combat is going to take all night, so I should get them into the swing of it as quick as possible.
I've seen many GMs try to squeeze in fancy character hooks that are linked to the narrative. They've usually been very beautifully done, but I don't think as a GM you have to lock yourself into something that is always from the characters' perspective.
Often I run my games like films, especially as I've been involved in filmmaking), and in movies or theatre, there are story beats that we as an audience are shown, but characters are not. I feel giving a player story-setting scenes, events and hooks can be a very effective way to grab player interest quickly before dropping into a scene that they can control their characters.
For example, The Witch shows a witch (surprising!) at the very start of the film to show the audience there's an evil presence in the woods, before moving onto the perspective of the family. I've similar shown scenes in Cthulhu or Kult games were a brutal murder is shown (killer obvious hidden), that grabs the players' attention, shows/ describes to them their goal (e.g. find the killer), then cut to their characters hearing about a murder. The hook is delivered in a more 'cinematic' scene that is intended for the players enjoyment, which gets them up to speed with the game and hopefully warms people up before before them dropping into RP.
This is something I'll be doing for this big one-shot.
Should there be a story for a fight-focussed game?
Short answer yes. Long answer yes but it should be nice and simple. Additional lore or layers can be discovered or discussed liberally without forcing significant investigation. For games like this, especially one shots, I encourage GMs to find a movie, picture, music, story or anything they like and base a one-shot on it. There's no harm in borrowing themes for a game that's going to be done in less than 5 hours.
I'm thinking of basing this game on something Norse, maybe Ragnarok or equivalent theme. I am big into Norse mythology and having this an an influence is a very effective way for me to hit the ground running with a story and be able to add depth to the world at very little time-cost.
Picking the opponents
Opponents can be tricky to pick, but because I have set on a theme/ influence (Ragnarok), picking mythology-based monsters will give me a huge stepping stone. Naturally for level 20, Lichs will be a good base I can use, then tweak as required to fit the Norsk theme. Lich's for the spell casters (maybe with a few unique abilities thrown in), giants for the giants (maybe boosted to fit a higher CR).
There is also plenty of home-brew creatures that would fit perfectly in this environment, so make sure you don't sleep on these if you're making your own game. We've featured several very talented stat block creatures on the Monster of the Week posts, so make sure to check those out to see where you could get amazing influence.
One thing I will make sure the enemies that players will face is that they have the ability to do things the players can. If players have Legendary items, so will the monsters. If players can Banish others, so will some of the enemies. This keeps players on their toes and unsure what to expect next.
Balancing
Balancing the game can be really hard when you're not too familiar with the system, the types of characters or, in my case, the level of the game.
To help balance this for myself in this level 20 game, I'll opt to have some backup abilities for my enemies that I can hold onto until it is needed. For example, a bad guy who can teleport at will or as a legendary action might be a great ability to get away from players. I might not reveal something like this unless the players are wailing on my NPC and think they have no way out. It's always good to reveal abilities when they are necessary, instead of all at once.
Having high damage effects (especially crowd control ones) can also helps swing the pendulum of a fight if you find yourself in a tough spot. I never make fights with PC death as a goal, but having a seriously damaging (maybe not instantly lethal) ability can help deal the damage to players they are dealing to you. Similar to what was mentioned earlier, anything players have, I might also have. That helps me pick unique abilities for my characters easily in ways that are somewhat balanced.
The main thing I do is make sure that my NPCs are not overwhlemingly surrounding the players - action economy is real, and can easily overpower players - even if they are higher level than the enemies they are fighting.
Utimlately though, it can be very easy to make unbalanced encounters if you are new to something about the game, environment or level. But my main piece of advice here is to make sure you are thinking about the players' fun and how it might be impacted by the encounter you are creating. If you feel players would enjoy it (even if you make the balance in their favour), then you'll likely have a fun game.
Lastly, if the balance of an encounter is accidentally way too difficult for your players - remember you can pull in narrative reasons to tip the scales back into the players favour. This could be in the form as reinforcements for the players, a surprising exploitation of a bad guys' weakness, or anything else like that.
Relax
The last thing to remember is to relax for you game. While it may be high level, ask yourself why are you running something at that level? In my opinion, level 10+ in D&D starts to become a slog, but if the reason for the high level play is to just have fun with class features - run your game with that in mind.
The bottom line is that if you are running a max level game, everyone likely wants to play to the power fantasy that D&D does so well. Let your players indulge in it, and if you mess anything up because max level games have much more things to remember, don't sweat it. Sit back, let your players enjoy their ultra power, and enjoy yourself!
Thanks for reading, and if you have anything to add please let us know! Until the next post, good gaming, everyone!
-KJ
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