Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Hasmead_Guy 01-08-06, 08:38 AM	From 1st to 2nd, and 2nd to 3rd, how much real world time does it take? The highest I've ever gotten was 4th, and that was playing once a week all summer. That's why it amazes me when someone says "wait till you get to be 8th level, cuz blah blah blah..." What, wait around for seven months? If so, you guys live and breath on a scale heretofore unknown to me, because I don't have that kind of pacience!
Cymraegmorgan 01-08-06, 08:55 AM	Most games, especially at early levels, tend to level every session or two. You should by normal standards be well up there. Refer to the DMG3.5, pages 37-38, to see how xp is normally awarded.
Teydyn 01-08-06, 10:29 AM	Most games, especially at early levels, tend to level every session or two. You should by normal standards be well up there. ANd i was under the impression that "normal standards" is roughly once every 13 encounters.. So leveling once a month (playing once a week with 3 encounters per day(edit:realtime)) is "normal", isnt it?
CipherTheory 01-08-06, 10:35 AM	Well, no, since multiple days worth of game-world time tend to happen each session. I've had a week of in-game time go by in about four hours of consecutive gaming. It all depends on the pace of your group, I guess.
ehrin 01-08-06, 12:15 PM	Hasmead... i agree with your comments about 8th and 12th and (heaven forbid) 20th level characters... The highest i ever achieved through playing was 9th, and the highest i ever played was 11th (but i started at 9th). I don't know if my experience is typical, but in all my years (since 1979), this is a pretty good rule of thumb for the time it takes between levels: One gaming session per every level to be achieved. That's not 1 session for 1 level, that's 2 sessions to get to 2nd level, 3 MORE sessions to make 3rd level, then about 4 sessions to get to 4th level, etc.. I will admit, around 4th or 5th level, things tend to stabilize, and we get to level up about every 4 to six sessions, give or take. This takes into account that folks come and go, some people miss a session each month, etc.. It also counts an average 4 hour game period each session, with the usual halts for food, latecomers, "what a week i had at work" stories, etc.. I always suspect that if we eliminate all the "when i had my elf mage and +13 bow" stories, we could play more and level faster, but telling stories seems half the reason these players come. So be it.
Tyler Do'Urden 01-08-06, 12:22 PM	My friday game group is at 16th and 17th level, having started at 1st level in character about three and a half years ago. That's a level every three months or so of nearly constant adventuring.
Necrosis 01-08-06, 07:12 PM	hmm we are similar but we spent 6-12 months at first level-we really appreciatte what our charaters can't and Can do-perosnally I prefer the long wait much better gameplay
TheMightyMcClaw 01-08-06, 07:35 PM	Basically, I work levels one of two ways: -The PC's level up after completing a certain point in the storyline, usually after one or two gaming sessions. I do not use XP, as I find it's a silly middleman for leveling and makes it harder to control the pace of power-growth in the game. -The PC's do not level. You make a character at level X, and the character's power level remains the same throughout the game. This is more typical of games starting at higher levels. I don't really do the whole random encounter thing (I find they detract from the storyline), so if I were to simply award XP, the players would never level up :P.
weasel fierce 01-09-06, 10:25 PM	This is AD&D, so keep that in mind, but I tend to have most characters hit level 2 after 3 sessions, then it flattens out to 5-6 sessions per level, give and take.
Morbid 01-09-06, 11:36 PM	First to second took my players about 4 hours, second to third too roughly 5 to 7 hours, and then from third to fourth, it took about 8. But I like characters to be at least 4th before we take longer to level. (Slight powergaming history)
Darkuwa 01-09-06, 11:48 PM	In my campaign I give experience as it is in the DMG. That being said, my players got to 3rd level after the first session of about 4 1/2 hours. They will most likely get to levle 5 in after the next session which is on saturday and it will be about the same legnth.
Jager Mage 01-09-06, 11:58 PM	I played in a power campaign this last summer where we went from 1st to 27th lvl in 2 1/2 months. This includes 5 lvls after one encounter. Normally this doesn't happen, I know, but we were trying to finish the campaign before everyone had to start going back to school. The final encounter the DM had set up required all 7 of the players to be about lvl 27. It was fun. We loved it. My group was a bunch of power gaming cheese weasels. It was a blast. And we'll never do it again.
Rathje 01-10-06, 01:39 AM	Well, I've only had one truly memorable D&D campaign. Ten thousand have fizzled, but one lasted a good six months. It ended up fizzling one session away from taking on the BBEG (argh). I was DMing it. They went from levels one to five. Considering all the set-backs we faced which made sessions difficult, I'd say it took about half a level each session, with levels one and two being one per session. That's with sessions running for ten to twelve hours long, with about two or three hours of breaks. The last session was ten hours with a total of one combat, which was one character picking a fight. I felt guilty for it, but they enjoyed going and getting an adult bronze dragon to fight in their stead. They still talk about that campaign in the following manner: "Man, we got a freaking dragon on our side!"
TheChilliGod 01-10-06, 03:07 AM	Hm... Lets see... In a campaign I DM, we've been playing for roughly 9 months, having 10 or 11 sessions in that time, and everyone has gained 2 levels from level 1. I should note, though, that only one of the PC's has been in the campaign since the first session, and one PC started at level 2, so that could have changed a few things. In one campaign I play in, it's lasted about 14 months (and as many sessions or slightly less, I'd guess), and we've leveled up 3 levels, all from level 5. In another campaign, it's been one session and we've leveled up once, from level 6. In four encounters. All of these campaigns last for 7 hours per session.
Lina_Inverse 01-10-06, 08:15 AM	About 1 level every session or two, because of the way levels work in 3e this shouldnt slow down at all.
digoraccoon 01-10-06, 08:20 AM	When we started my campaign, the players leveled up on average about once every 3-4 sessions. It's slowed down a bit after their 5th or 6th level to about every 5-6 sessions. After 10th level its about a level up every 6-7 sessions. Not all that bad really.
Traevanon 01-10-06, 08:38 AM	The campaign I am running now has gone on for a year and three months, the one character to last from the beginning to now, without a death, has attended all the sessions (around 50 of them) and is approaching 15th level. We run once a week for about 6 hours. In addition to the monster and trap XP I also give a generic session reward of 100 to 500 xp which depends on the level of the adventure they are completing (divide recommended level by 3) and I give some quest completion xp rewards as well.
The Phantom Flan Flinger 01-10-06, 09:12 AM	I would be disappointed if I levelled up every session or two. The campaign would be over too quickly. I personally don't like the idea of racing through the low levels to get on to the "fun" stuff. If your character didn't get slapped about and fined his last few silvers by a couple of Town Guards for looking at them the wrong way back when he had 6HP and second-hand leather armour, then how do you ever get any satisfaction from having them straighten up nervously when they see you coming - or from seeing their shining, grateful faces as you save their cruddy little burg from certain destruction by the BBEG a few levels beyond that? Level progression for us tends to be one level every three or four sessions. We just got to level five last night (w00t!1) after playing every week since, I think, late summer, and that was after starting at level two to reflect our backstory activities during the Last War. This is similar to previous groups I've played in, and like those I would expect it to slow over time.
Fargren 01-10-06, 09:23 AM	I've benn dDming for about half a motnth, starting at level 5. PCs level in 4 sessions.
strcpy 01-10-06, 09:25 AM	I have being DMing a party of eight. We only play once every two weeks so the leveling up would be to slow if we followed the every 13 encounters rule. Also you dont really want to have 13 encounters with 8 players. So I dish out a lot extra xp and am quite genereous when dishing out combat xp. It has taken me a year and a half to get them to level 10. Phew. They normally have about three big fights between levelling. The rest is all role playing xp.
devinmdp 01-10-06, 06:32 PM	I run once every two weeks. We play for about 6 hours a session. We are 3 years and 3 months into the campaign and the PCs are just hitting 9th level. I use standard DMG XP halved plus a small story bonus (usually about 50XP per PC level, so right now story bonuses are about 400-500 XP per adventure (not session but adventure). Basically, I like a rate of about 3 levels per year. I guess that comes out to roughly 8 sessions per level. Given 2 sessions to get used to your new level and 2 anticipating going up, that leaves 4 sessions of living in the level. Devin
Vangerdahast 01-10-06, 11:48 PM	In D&D 3e: a level every 13 encounters or so (less encounters with XP awards for ROLEplaying). In AD&D 2nd ed: a level every 3 to 6 sessions.
Gehenna 01-11-06, 04:12 AM	Here's something to think about: The system is balanced for 4 CR-appropriate encounters/day (in game time). The system is designed so that you level every 13 1/3 CR-appropriate encounters. Assuming your characters don't need a great deal of down-time (ie, they face the appropriate number of encounters every day) , the characters should be able to level every 3 1/3 days of game-time. This means, that by the way the rules are written, a character can go from level 1 to level 20 in 63 1/3 days, or a little over 2 months of game-time.
The Phantom Flan Flinger 01-11-06, 05:11 AM	As long as the paladin's Mum is a high-level wizard waiting outside each enounter to pick the party up and teleport them to the next one. "Muuuum - Rotan the Mighty's gone and ate all the Jaffa cake bars! It's not fair! They were meant to be for everyone!" "Never mind love. I think there might still be some Dairylea triangles in the glove compartment. Ooh, you've got a smudge on your cheek. *produces manky tissue from sleeve* Spit!" "Argh! Gerroff! I'm level TWELVE you know!" "Yes dear, that's very nice, but you can't go and fight Mind Flayers with a dirty face. Now, I'll be going into town this afternoon. Does anyone want me to pick anything up for them?" "Ooh, Mrs P, can you sell these sixteen leather armours and these sixteen crossbows for me please, and get me some Gauntlets of Ogre Power - but only if they've got them in black. And a packet of Spicy Nik-Naks."
Hasmead_Guy 01-11-06, 05:41 AM	So is there some sort of tremendous satisfaction I'm supposed to get from investing that much time into a game? Is it really worth the 14+ hours to gain a single level? It's almost life consuming.
The Phantom Flan Flinger 01-11-06, 07:06 AM	Well, D&D is a hobby. The idea is to play it because you enjoy "investing the time". If you're seeing it as X number of wasted hours with no reward then there's a problem. Many campaigns don't ever get near Epic levels. If you aren't finding the sessions fun then maybe it isn't the hobby for you, or it may be that you need to tweak your playing experience a little to suit your preferred style. What exactly is it that you don't like about low levels? What is it that makes you look forward to high levels? Discuss it with your DM and fellow players. With their agreement, perhaps some or all of these things be removed from/added to your campaign as it currently stands. Alternatively, it is possible to start a game with the characters above level 1. If everyone's up for it, give it a try.
Hasmead_Guy 01-11-06, 06:01 PM	I guess I was feeling a little left out in a sense, because everyone on these boards was talking about their 5th level this and 7th level that, and I was wondering why everyone was so high, and I've never gone above fourth level. I was wondering if my DMs advance too slowly, or what. I guess that much time is pretty typical. It's just tough to get everyone together and work around schedules. Part of the problem in my former campaigns was how we never kept our sheets past second level- we kept starting over for some retarded reason.
Darkuwa 01-11-06, 06:10 PM	13 encounters of equal to your level at level 5 in a 4 man group. 4 encounters at a dungeon every two sessions if your session is only 3 hours long. That about 8 1/2 sessions at 3 hours long. If you do 6 hour sessions it drops to somewhere around 4 or 5 sessions. That is without the exp for the roleplay of finding and being convinced to go to the dungeon and returning and receiving rewards. If you are seriously level 15 after 3 years of once a week gaming of more than 4 hours, theres something very very wrong with how exp is being given out in your group.
Lalkin 01-11-06, 06:40 PM	The groups I play in all level in about 3-4 sessions. Granted we play 6-8 hours a session so we can cram a bit more into them. I do feel we level a bit fast though. Mainly I don't think the DMs (I play in 2 games and will start in another one soon) make the mobs 'smart' enough. Now at low levels (1-3) we level faster. And the couple times we've made it to high leels (13+) the leveling started slowing down alot. Maybe one level every 6-7 sessions. The highest we've ever gotten was 18th. Around that time the campaign ends (DM's metastory has finished) and we start again.
ConfoundedReptile 01-12-06, 03:20 AM	yeah i've never gotten over 5th level. but then, i havent played every week for three years either. but that's ok. i like low levels fine. the monsters get tougher at higher levels too, you know.
6string 01-12-06, 05:43 PM	i run a game featuring two of my best friends who are experienced dnd players, my girlfriend who's new, one of my aforementioned friend's girlfriends who's also new and another friend who's got a modicum of experience in dnd. By virtue of this set up my senior players are obviously awesome, they know what feats to pick they know how to make a character that is powerful both in history and roleplaying as well as in combat. these players taught my new players how to be bad, combine that with a bard and the party is significantly more powerful than a party full of people who are not so aware of the publications. this allows me to throw a challenge at the players that is typically 2-3 ecl above what they should be able to handle. As a result they level up every 5-7 hour session. in 9 sessions they've become level 10 characters. And i play monsters savagely using every trick they have. so level advancement even using the dmg is really about what your players can handle and how sinister (very) your DM is in handling challenges. i like a game that moves along at a good swift clip. it allows for great and different challenges each session and the a game that never bogs down. and despite what you might guess we don't spend every session in combat, just two or three really stout challenges typically does the trick, already i'm seeing that things will start to slow, but i think the total session time of this whole campaign from one to twenty, will be about 25-30 sessions.