I'm a novice - - couldn't see in the rules what happens after level 14 in terms of xp and improvements; do you just end the game??
Thanks...
No, you continue playing, you just dont level up any longer. (unless you turn undead)
You can still became more powerfull by incresing your army, reaserching better spells, geting better magic gear, etc.
Indeed.
You've reached the peak of human ability; so; either go wide (temporal power via armies, empires, etc.) or go deep and become something other than human. Transmogrify yourself into something else, undead, brain-in-a-jar-on-a-golem, etc. - Dwimmermount has guidelines on becoming immortal and transceding 14th level.
Also, you can continue to increase your reserve XP by spending gold (as per the normal rules for reserve XP). Because by fate even the strongest are cast down; any campaign that lasts long enough, eventually, all PCs die.
If our group ever gets that high, yeah we'll retire the the PCs (which will become NPCs) and start anew. I'm not sure we'll get that high though.
[quote="Aryxymaraki"] Also, you can continue to increase your reserve XP by spending gold (as per the normal rules for reserve XP). Because by fate even the strongest are cast down; any campaign that lasts long enough, eventually, all PCs die. [/quote]
Valar morghulis; Aeksion dohaeris.
Also, that's a really good point - I expect one could get a pretty fly reboot PC once you've puttered around at 14th for a while.
Thanks everyone. I felt like 14 levels (or even less) might be too little; I'm pleased with the persumable power of the characters at their highest level (NOT GODS - - not even close), but it seems to me that the party (I want to GM) will get there too quickly, if we play once a week or so...
You’re probably thinking of leveling speeds from newer games. ACKS (and other older-inspired games) can take quite a while to gain levels. (In fact, people often complain that leveling takes too long.)
Playing once a week for a reasonable amount of hours, the time to 14th level is expected to be measured in years, not weeks or months.
I have had similar experiences. First, I'll acknowledge that play-by-post is one of the slowest ways possible to play. That being said, I often fudged treasure rolls a bit to make sure there were rarely treasure parcels disappointing for their type. Even with that fudging, after 2.5 years of play we capped out at level 4 before everyone stopped posting regularly.
Trust me, you'll keep yourself occupied longer than you think.
I have a group of acks for about one year and they only got to level 7 thanks to agresive play and lots of luck
I think my group averaged 2-3 levels in the year we played meeting twice a month.