Campaign Pacing

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

AndrewJO

Aug 27, 2015 22:59:13		Hey guys, I've been playing D&D for almost 6 months now, and I'm planning on making a lvl 1-20 campaign to run for my group. I'm new to DMing, I've only run a few episodes so far, so I'll probably be asking you guys for a lot of help over the next few weeks while I flesh out the details on my campaign. My first question for you guys is, how long should it take for my group to go from 1-20? I absolutely don't want this campaign to run for longer than a year (one session per week, 52 total sessions), but I don't know anything about DMing a long campaign like this. Can I get some advice from people who have run 1-20 campaigns?
#2

AaronOfBarbaria

Aug 27, 2015 23:18:09 		Pacing is a thing which players have different preferences for, so the best way to get it right is to ask the players that will be involved what pace they would like.
#3

Rya.Reisender

Aug 28, 2015 3:00:07

If I play the official modules completely by the book, the first two levels can usually be raised in one 4-6 hour session each. Getting to 4th level takes two sessions. Getting to 5th level takes three sessions. Then usually 4 sessions per level until level 11. After level 11 you suddenly need less XP per level, so it's faster.

 

So if I estimate it and made a graph I'd get the following:

 

(Level) - (Number of Sessions Needed) - (Exp per session needed)

1st - 0 - 0

2nd - 1 - 300

3rd - 2 - 600

4th - 4 - 900

5th - 7 - 1266

6th - 11 - 1875

7th - 15 - 2250

8th - 19 - 2750

9th - 23 - 3500

10th - 27 - 4000

11th - 31 - 5250

12th - 33 - 7500

13th - 35 - 10000

14th - 37 - 10000

15th - 39 - 12500

16th - 41 - 15000

17th - 43 - 15000

18th - 45 - 20000

19th - 47 - 20000

20th - 49 - 25000

 

So yeah I guess it's is possible to reach level 20 within 52 sessions.

 

But as Aaron said, it strongly depends on the group.

 

 

Edit: Added XP per session for convenience.

Edit2: Slighlty adjusted estimation, so you will have a table that makes them reach level 20 within 52 sessions.

#4

AndrewJO

Aug 28, 2015 2:22:32 		Thanks, that's exactly the kind of info I was looking for.
#5

Rya.Reisender

Aug 28, 2015 3:05:25

Actually I just checked the DMG and it offers quite a bit higher exp per session for higher levels than I estimated (my group is usually not that fast).

 

It's even included in the free DM basic rules: DM Basic Rules (p.57)

 

Going by those, we would get the following table:

 

(Level) - (Exp per day according to DMG) - (Sessions needed from last level) - (Sessions total)

1st - 0 - 0 - 0

2nd - 300 - 1 - 1

3rd - 600 - 1 - 2

4th - 1200 - 1.5 - 3.5

5th - 1700 - 2.2 - 5.7

6th - 3500 - 2.1 - 7.8

7th - 4000 - 2.3 - 10.1

8th - 5000 - 2.2 - 12.3

9th - 6000 - 2.3 - 14.6

10th - 7500 - 2.1 - 16.7

11th - 9000 - 2.3 - 19

12th - 10500 - 1.4 - 20.4

13th - 11500 - 1.7 - 22.1

14th - 13500 - 1.5 - 23.6

15th - 15000 - 1.7 - 25.3

16th - 18000 - 1.7 - 27

17th - 20000 - 1.5 - 28.5

18th - 25000 - 1.6 - 30.1

19th - 27000 - 1.5 - 31.6

20th - 30000 - 1.7 - 33.3

 

Meaning according to the DMG getting from level 1 to level 20 should take exactly 33.3 sessions.

 

 

Edit: Note I edited my table above slightly, to what I think you could use as guideline if you wanted them to reach level 20 close before the 52th session.

#6

AndrewJO

Aug 28, 2015 5:06:22 		I think I'm going to use the milestone system, 1 lvl per session for 1-4, 1 lvl per 2 sessions for 5-20. Should last for 36 sessions, ~9 months. Now I need to come up with a setting, BBEG, and enough content to entertain a group of people for 144-216 hours. Wish me luck :P
#7

BRJN

Aug 28, 2015 18:02:47

My Tiamat group is taking about one IRL month per chapter.  With milestone level-ups at the end of each chapter (so far) ...

But we goof off some at table (I'm not innocent here, alas) and I like to add Realmslore / color scenes, so we took 6 weeks to work through Diderius's Tomb.

 

I will have to talk to the group about faster pacing.  Nobody has complained to date but nobody has asked either.  I wonder if I shouldn't just narrrate some of the travel time, or roll Random Encounters during the week, rather than at-table, and describe what you see as you pass by - rather than offering the chance to get tangled in a side-quest.

 

#8

AndrewJO

Aug 28, 2015 21:30:06 		My group wouldn't go for that, when we were doing Tyranny, we ran through the first 3 episodes in a single day. The longest we took was a day and a half for one of the chapters.
#9

DM_HEEGZ

Aug 29, 2015 4:07:29

AndrewJO wrote:
#10

AndrewJO

Aug 29, 2015 6:09:59 		I think I'm going to start bringing a timer to games that I DM. The rogues and fighters take their turns quickly, but the casters in my group take FOREVER. Just last night our wizard took a minute deciding which spell to cast on 2 kobolds :P I don't mind if players talk or whatever, as long as they know what to do on their turn. Thanks for the encouragement, I'm really looking forward to running a long term campaign.
#11

iserith

Aug 29, 2015 6:55:21

AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
#12

AndrewJO

Aug 29, 2015 11:54:49 		I meant to say I'd tie the milestones to "episodes", not sessions, with each "episode" taking 4-8 hours. I want to follow the style of Supernatural. In the early seasons each episode was it's own story, barely connected by their search for their father. I figured I'd write episodes similar to that style, put them in a sand box and let my players go wild.
#13

sirkaikillah11

Aug 29, 2015 12:00:32

Where on session 32 and my players are about to make 6th level. But we have a group of 12.

(Reply to #13)

AndrewJO

sirkaikillah11 wrote:
(Reply to #14)

sirkaikillah11

AndrewJO wrote:
#16

AndrewJO

Aug 30, 2015 23:01:12 		If I was just getting a bunch of friends together for just a social gathering, I'd much rather just play a board game. DnD gets boring if you're spending 6 hours playing and not making any progress.
(Reply to #16)

sirkaikillah11

AndrewJO wrote:
#18

AndrewJO

Aug 31, 2015 20:41:55 		Fair enough, it was wrong of me to assume you guys weren't making progress or having fun. How do you balance having a 13 person group? I imagine they'd just steam roll anything you throw at them.
#19

Jimjams

Sep 03, 2015 12:03:28

I am currently in the middle of Dm'ing one of these campaign "Crawls" and I have seen alot of posts about game "pacing" and how quickly levels should be achieved, and I think this is largly determined by your group of players. If they are still excited by the words "you are now level x" then I think your progressing at the right pace for them. This, of course, may change if your group changes. 

(Reply to #18)

sirkaikillah11

AndrewJO wrote:
(Reply to #6)

DMSage

AndrewJO wrote:
(Reply to #21)

AndrewJO

DMSage wrote: