There is a Japanese manga from the 80s called Bastard!!.It is a DND-fantasy shounen (later seinen) manga following the adventures of an evil wizard called Dark Schneider.

The series is notable for going through an insane amount of power creep. The main character can fire off spells that can destroy mountains, and during the later parts of the story (involving demons, angels and mecha) the characters gain the power to destroy planets, stars, and even galaxies, flying around the battlefield and launching attacks millions of times faster than the speed of light.

Despite all of this, it is still based off of DND (and JRPGs inspired by DND). As such, I am interested in seeing how one could expand DND (any edition) to include such ludicrous power levels.

See BECMI - Immortals set.

https://youtu.be/G723x1KDx4Y?si=yrLmfyUT4lN9D6hz

Just add a "Scale" value. Apply the difference between two beings Scale values as a multiplier (or even a factor of 10 if you like) to all values. So if the PC is of a lower Scale, they can barely touch the opponent, if they are of a higher Scale they can dominate the encounter, and if the Scale is the same (or close, depending on the multiplier you use) then the fight happens as normal.

It's similar to the inflation effect that some video games use, but it's obviously a bit more complex when you have to do the maths by hand.

I wouldn't know where to begin with trying to emulate that particular scale. It seems to automatically partition itself immediately into people who can launch attacks at millions the times speed of light and people who can't, with the later being no more a challenge to the former than opening a tavern door in a regular game.

Which means that any meaningful foe to contest with must also be able to attack at said speed...given that no one wants to roll that many dice, a level of abstraction is called for, which can bring you back full circle to the normal dnd attack procedure and some sort of mook rule for non-supers. There would probably be little reason to stat non-supers in this paradigm.

das muh knee jerk a jerkin'.

I feel like Amber diceless could handle this, though I have little experience actually playing the game

Quote from: Captain_Pazuzu on August 20, 2024, 03:02:40 AMSee BECMI - Immortals set.

https://youtu.be/G723x1KDx4Y?si=yrLmfyUT4lN9D6hz

Yeah BECMI has god level play.

I think for this kind of power-level, while BECMI could do it... you may as well just get a cool Supers system and go hog-wild with it.

Mayfair's DC Heroes or MSH (which is free), would be my first recommendations.

But if you're definitely set on sticking with a d20 based system, BECMI is really the only way to go.

Check out my friend Upper_Krust's Immortals Handbook stuff. He has a forum on EN World. Hopefully he'll be releasing his 5e version one of these years if his beautiful glamorous Asian girlfriend I got him doesn't distract him too much...

Quote from: tenbones on August 20, 2024, 10:31:26 AMI think for this kind of power-level, while BECMI could do it... you may as well just get a cool Supers system and go hog-wild with it.

Mayfair's DC Heroes or MSH (which is free), would be my first recommendations.

But if you're definitely set on sticking with a d20 based system, BECMI is really the only way to go.

Exactly. Even the Immortal rules 'aint touching a superhero rpg like Champions.

3E/d20 was designed to go for levels 1-20, but if I recall correctly they put out an "Epic Level" book that took characters from 21-30. (2E's Dark Sun had a sourcebook that did something similar. 2E also had a High Level Campaigns book.) The power level for those materials may or may not fit what you are looking for.