High level adventures are still too hard to design. I'm starting to think that, if the Star Wars films are our iconic vision of what a Star Wars campaign should feel like, then Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewie should all be 20th level characters at the end of Return of the Jedi. Their further adventures in the EU? I'm wondering if those just aren't, effectively, wholly different campaign...or if the idea of an ever-continuing story just isn't something the RPG should support.
I wouldn't bother writing a campaign for anyone whose demands do not coincide with a connoisseur of the Star Wars universe or anyone who thinks ewoks are midget humping balloon hucksters. Ewoks eat people...they are serious business...either on special occasions when their gods visit or to celebrate a bountiful harvest...yet mistake not it is definitive lore written within the holy trilogy that ewoks ritualistically consume the flesh of sentient life.
It's too big a universe beyond the Skywalker saga to have every campaign to end at level 20. I consider the average competent NPC in the galaxy to be around level five. So for the sake of immersion XP should be allocated appropriately. In my experience most groups won't last three weeks without breaking up so to solve that if each character received full XP per encounter they would level faster between sessions. P.248 in the Core Rulebook suggests total XP be divided by number of PCs when awarded so then I'd apply that after level 5 to give a sense of time and scale or years as experience between PCs and galactic heroes. Luke didn't kill Vader after all, he only wore down the Sith Lord's defense with a lightsaber feat and disarmed him with a destiny point.
The structure of DoD seems to be earning a level just before the boss fight at the end of the chapter and that's a cool idea if the group stays together long enough. I'll have to read more since I plan for some higher level application of Scout Troopers which occurs to me require a “Shadow Scout” mid-level rank before level 9 Imperial Commandos. Scouts are more than Biker Scouts after all if an Elite Rebel Trooper is only one level higher than a standard Rebel troop, and the same between Scouts and Stormtroopers, so Scouts could be effectively used like Army Rangers outside the main battlefield eliminating supply routes, heavy weapons or sniper support. When done right a Star Wars adventure should have all the gravitas of a Tom Clancy novel.
