E6 for BFRPG

[jcm]

I'm thinking of doing an E6-like campaign with BFRPG rules.

Description of E6 and link to the E6 PDF:

In E6, the stats of an average person are the stats of a 1st-level commoner. Like their medieval counterparts, this person has never travelled more than a mile from their home. Imagine a 6th-level Wizard
or 6th-level Fighter from the commoner’s perspective. The wizard could kill everyone in your village with a few words. The fighter could duel with ten armed guards in a row and kill every one of them. If you spot a manticore, everyone you know is in terrible, terrible danger. Against such a creature, the wizard or fighter
may be your only hope. E6 recognizes that 6th level characters are mortal, while providing a context where they are epic heroes.

http://esix.pbwiki.com/f/E6v041.pdf

How can this be best achieved in BFRPG? I was thinking capping PCs' HP at a certain level, but still allowing other abilities to progress. That way, they would be capable of heroic feats, but would not be invincible. Ideas?

[Joe the Rat]

One place to start is to look and see how 7+ play looks in d20 vs. BFRPG. Beyond magic and hit points (and the HD cap at 9), do we see the same exponential insanity?

That said, I can easily see the rationale here - there is a certain feel of play in the early tiers - even harkening back to a simpler time. I think 90% of my Chainmail descendant game experience was somewhere between 2nd and 8th level.


So where to begin? Given the lack of feats...

The trick is going to be in exactly what everyone gets above and beyond 6, and how you want to work said advancement.

Thief abilities and Cleric Turning are the two most immediate items that can be looked at. If you want to let them keep progressing up the ability table, how many XP does that take per level? is 5000 per too much? to little?

So what of the rest? Can MUs (and Clerics) "buy" more spell slots? Can they "buy" the next level of spells? Can fighters raise their BAB? Can anyone else raise BAB past level 6? What about saves?

Does the fact that classes do not share a common advancement table become an issue? Do different "classes" of add-ons cost different amounts? Can you pick up "add-ons" from other classes?

A little grist for the mill.

[SmootRK]

The E6 game mods try to eliminate that ever growing curve of power that comes in later editions. The old school games already do this with only 8 or 9 levels where hd are assigned. The combat charts already cap as well. The main thing that continues to grow is spell use, although with bfrpg the curve stops at 6th or optionally 7th level spells, and is generally stingy with spells.

So basically I don't think it is necessary with bfrpg, LL, Osric, or originals. The E6 model is/was designed to make those newer games function more like the old school ones.

[jcm]

Ahh, my lack of experience is showing. So does that mean in old school games a high-level party won't be able to go Rambo on an army of orcs? Also, that would mean a DM need not over-use (supposedly rare) powerful monsters to challenge a high-level party?

[MedievalMan]

Pretty much. Power bloat in BF isn't as bad as later editions. Though give one point to 4E it did get rid of wild out of control character power growth.

[SmootRK]

Ahh, my lack of experience is showing. So does that mean in old school games a high-level party won't be able to go Rambo on an army of orcs? Also, that would mean a DM need not over-use (supposedly rare) powerful monsters to challenge a high-level party?

Higher level characters still have a great advantage over the lowest level foes (orcs as you mention), but a sword blow from a 1hd orc can still be a substantial problem when the average HP for a Fighter is about 5 per level; a 12th level fighter having on average 46 HP (based on (9*5hp) + (3*2hp) = 46). Longsword dealing 4.5 damage average means only 10 such hits can be withstood before going down... so an "army" of orcs will eventually overcome any such character.... even worse for the other non-fighters caught in combat.

Even a squad of kobolds can eventually prevail, especially if played reasonably intelligently by the GM. Several ranged attacks, spears, traps, poison? (certainly an option to use against higher level characters), magic. Then again, when designing scenarios for higher level characters, one would see combinations of creatures. Perhaps Kobolds are the main focus, but they have Carrion Crawlers as pets and waste disposal... perhaps these same Kobolds have an NPC MU working with them, or a young dragon that they worship.

All so easy to make adventures where even low level creatures still have playability, even against mid-to-high level characters.

[Joe the Rat]

Pet rust monsters. Keep them caged up, feed 'em trinkets, set it loose on shiny metal adventurers.

[SmootRK]

Pet rust monsters. Keep them caged up, feed 'em trinkets, set it loose on shiny metal adventurers.

indeed

[jcm]

Pet rust monsters. Keep them caged up, feed 'em trinkets, set it loose on shiny metal adventurers.

Mental note taken.