Tier Transition: The Paragon Journey

Do you do anything special when your players enter the paragon tier? If not, consider making it an event in which your players can shine a light on their PCs and make the paragon path they choose into a meaningful game event.  Here is an idea that allows the journey to paragon path attainment be the focus of an entire session.

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Spotlighting the Paragon Path Journey:

This is a method that can be used when the PCs reach paragon tier and are at the end of a story arc.  Before they rush out and start a whole new adventure cycle, they should choose an appropriate Paragon Path to follow.  If the PCs in your game have mentors, they can suggest that the PC go forth and choose a calling.  If the PCs don’t really have mentor-like NPCs in the campaign, you can leave the onus on the players to determine why they decided to seek their particular calling.  Then, off-camera, the PCs will go their separate ways to follow their path, which is what I am calling the Paragon Journey.

Once the players have chosen which paragon paths they want their PCs to adopt, you should spend an entire session with them leading the narrative.  The players should be prepared to describe what their PC did when they separated.  This means that the player will be narrating the events, telling the rest of the group where they went, who they met, how they found the right people, and what they accomplished.

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Preparation:

For the DM, this session still requires a lot preparation.  It may seem like there isn’t anything to do, but this session will require a bit of improvisation and forethought on your part. Here is what you will have to prepare:

• Make sure that the players tell you which paragon path they chose so that you have an idea of what it may take for the PC to attain that path.
• Pre-generate some companion characters for the PC to interact with and fight alongside if necessary – if you run a combat of this the other players will play the pre-gen helpers to the main PC.
• A selection of monsters or monster templates that you can run with short notice.  Since you don’t know the details of each PC’s journey yet, this is the most nerve-wracking part of the prep for you. Remember to plan very short encounters since you will be addressing each players journey this session, time is at a premium.
  
• Also have at the ready a selection of skill challenge templates that you can use to run the PC’s through if it is necessary given the content of their story.
• A selection of terrain options for battle maps given the paths that were chosen.

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How to Run the Session:

In random order, pick a player to narrate the events of their Paragon Journey.  Take notes about what the player describes and when you get to an important encounter, run the PC through it with the help of the rest of the players (as companion characters).  While running this session, you will have to use your skills of improvisation and make decisions on the fly. Pacing may become an issue because it will be the players pacing the story and not the DM – just keep things moving along and be cognizant of the time you are spending on each Paragon Journey. Also remember to make your players do most of the work…

1. If they go to a certain place, make them tell you where it is and what its name is.
2. If they meet a certain person, make them tell you that person’s name and their basic background.
3. If they tell you about a particular encounter, make them describe it in enough detail to make it meaningful. If they can’t give you that, then make it an encounter during the session.
4. Make sure you allow enough spotlight time for all of the players to feel like they are important to the party.

Some questions to ask them when they are describing their paragon path journey (in no particular order):

1. What was the most difficult part of following the path?
2. Why did you choose this particular path? (from the PC’s perspective, not the player’s)
   
3. What was the biggest triumph during the journey?
4. What was the biggest failure during the journey?

I like #4 above because it makes them describe where they failed. If they don’t come up with something substantial, make it up for them, or guide them through it with the help of the other PCs. I am a big proponent of meaningful failure, after all, if the PCs can’t fail, they might as well be level 30 already and then ascend to the heavens as gods.

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Final Thoughts:

This can be a challenging, but very rewarding, way to run a session that highlights the transition between the heroic and paragon tiers.  One of the rewards is that the players get a chance to make their paragon path selection more than just a choice while building their PC – the Paragon Journey that the PC takes now can become part of the story of the character of which everyone in the game gets to be a part.

You should also make sure your players know that a whole session is going to be used to describe their paragon-path-choosing experience, that way they don’t show up with a mere 3 sentences and plan to have you run a regular session.

I plan on implementing this method when my next group gets to the paragon tier and I will report on how it went shortly after that happens.  Do you have any cool ideas to make the transition between tiers special? Leave a comment and let me know.

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I want to give a special shout out to Richard over at RPGGeek for the initial idea for this post!

Until next time, I wish you good gaming!