Something to remember, though... just because you can do something, that doesn't mean you have to do it. Your game is no less fun, and no less valid, for choosing to get off the bus before the route terminates at the epic capstone showdown.
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| This is okay for some games... but not ALL games... |
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It's An Option. Not A Requirement.
Over the years I've met my share of Game Masters who lamented how frustrating it was to have to really crank up their math at higher levels of a campaign in order to keep their players challenged. I've also met my share of folks who wanted to try their hands at being a Game Master, but they were intimidated by the idea that they'd have to tell a full, complete story over such a huge stretch of levels in order to keep their players happy, and to be a "real" GM.
So, while a lot of us already know this, I'm going to repeat it. The scale of your story is entirely up to you, and your players. If you want to tell a grounded story that's going to take the PCs from level 1-5, that is your prerogative. If you want to have your punch up with the BBEG around level 10-11, because level 13 is where the math gets too frustrating for you, that is perfectly acceptable. Hell, if you just want to run a series of occasional one shots that are loosely strung together with hand-waved plot explanations where characters are only going to gain a level every 10 sessions and you're calling it quits at the end of level 3, there is nothing stopping you from doing that.
And, for the record, this applies to all RPGs... I'm just using level-based ones as an easy example. I made a video expounding on this for the World/Chronicles of Darkness a while back in case you missed it.
However, with this said, there are some caveats I'd throw into this.
First and foremost, ballpark where you plan to take your campaign so that your players know, and can set their expectations accordingly. If you show up to a game that you think is going to go to level 20, and you're excited to play an epic-level wizards with all the overpowered 9th-level spells you can handle, you might feel you were cheated if the campaign ends at level 6 because you had expected another 14 levels. Alternatively, if some of your players like to build a foundation for their end-game goals, then it might be good to know they should be going for something like the champion of a local town or small city, rather than a legendary paladin who went toe-to-toe with a great daemon lord for the fate of the world by the end of this game.
Secondly, if your players have concerns, make sure you address them. If you are comfortable with a game that runs in the 4-7 level range, but your players want that huge, epic finish, then you may not be able to give them what they want. That's all right, too. Just like how sometimes people don't want to play the particular RPG you want to run, sometimes they also don't want to play a story at the scale you want to run it at. Try to talk things out and find common ground so you can all have a good time, but don't sacrifice your fun and comfort level as a GM; it's better to have no game rather than a game that's burning you out, and you aren't enjoying.
Thirdly, examine the kind of scale, power level, whatever you want to call it of the game that you're running. If you want to run a game of Pathfinder, Dungeons and Dragons (most editions), or even some Savage Worlds that's relatively low on stakes and character power (a medieval murder mystery, a weird West gang dispute over a frontier town, so on and so forth), you can probably make that happen without too much bending and twisting. But if you're running a game that is meant to be a big, bombastic, high-powered thing (Scion, Exalted, and so on) they aren't really supposed to be small in scale or effect. Which is not to say you can't find a way to make it happen if you want to keep things smaller scale, but just be aware that some games are easy to do this with, and other games you're going to be swimming upstream to try to make it happen.
At the end of it all, though, I just wanted to remind all the GMs and prospective GMs out there... you don't have to go big or go home. You can run games that stop before they become rocket tag, or which keep the numbers at a lower level. You can run campaigns that can be wrapped up in 6-7 months, or even just 3 months if that's all the gas you have in your tank. You are allowed to do whatever the hell you want, as long as your players back you up, and everyone is willing to make this happen.
A Bit of Additional Reading
If this is the sort of advice that you (or someone you play with) needs to see, I'd actually recommend grabbing a copy of 100 Tips And Tricks For Being A Better Game Master, as it collects some of the best field-tested pieces of advice that have appeared on this blog over the past dozen years or so. And if you're feeling really frisky (or you just like to have both sides of the coin), consider grabbing the sister supplement 100 Tips And Tricks For Being A Better RPG Player while you're at it!
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