I'm curious how long it takes the PCs in your game to level up, on average, based on hours of play - a better guide than sessions, I think. The DMG suggests 13 encounters to level and implies 4 encounters/session, so about 3 sessions/level, typically of about 4 hours each. Many people play longer sessions, of course. How close does your game fit this? Also, do you think it's too quick? Too slow? Is there a big change in frequency between low and high level play?
How many hours of play to level up?
- Thread starter S'mon
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nsruf said:
IMC, playing from levels 4-9 it's taken the PCs around 2.5 Sunday sessions averaging about 6 hours each, about 13-15 hours' playing time, to level up. Now that the level 9 PCs aren't getting XP for CR 1 challenges I expect things to slow down, which is fine by me.
So far on the poll there seems to be quite a split between a group of ultra-fast levellers and a larger group of slowish levellers, with little in between.
Interesting...
arwink
Clockwork Golem
Usually people tend to level up once ever two games, playing about seven to eight hours at a stretch every game.
This is working on an average though. The lower levels tend to fly by fast, and things slow down to once every three or four sessions once they hit thirteen to fourteenth level.
This is working on an average though. The lower levels tend to fly by fast, and things slow down to once every three or four sessions once they hit thirteen to fourteenth level.
I'd be interested how those with faster levelling dole out XP - by the book (which seems hardly possible if you level up in less than 8 h) or more generously?
For the record, I don't give XP by the book, but designed my home-brew system to follow the guidelines in the DMG (about 300 XP times party level per PC and session, a little more for beginners and less for higher levels).
For the record, I don't give XP by the book, but designed my home-brew system to follow the guidelines in the DMG (about 300 XP times party level per PC and session, a little more for beginners and less for higher levels).
KDLadage
Explorer
Let me think...
...I started the last big campaign shortly after the Player's Handbook was released.... it ran for just over 2 years, with a couple of missed weeks. For sake of argument, let us call it 100 weeks.
We played one session per week, each session was between 4 and 6 hours. Again, for sake of argument, we will call it 5 hours per session.
So, the last big campaign I ran was 500 hours of game-play. In the end, I had eleven players, and a total of 14 characters (if you count Cohorts). The characters were, between 7th and 11th level. The 11th level character was one of two characters that managed to survive from the first adventure to the last (very climactic) adventure. This accounts for 10 leveling-ups.
So.. based upon this, 500 hours of play, 10 times leveling up = 50 hours per leveling up, on average.
Now... the typical adventuring party, according to WotC is 4 characters, I had about three times this. Thus, 50/3 = 17 hours. So that would be my answer...
...I started the last big campaign shortly after the Player's Handbook was released.... it ran for just over 2 years, with a couple of missed weeks. For sake of argument, let us call it 100 weeks.
We played one session per week, each session was between 4 and 6 hours. Again, for sake of argument, we will call it 5 hours per session.
So, the last big campaign I ran was 500 hours of game-play. In the end, I had eleven players, and a total of 14 characters (if you count Cohorts). The characters were, between 7th and 11th level. The 11th level character was one of two characters that managed to survive from the first adventure to the last (very climactic) adventure. This accounts for 10 leveling-ups.
So.. based upon this, 500 hours of play, 10 times leveling up = 50 hours per leveling up, on average.
Now... the typical adventuring party, according to WotC is 4 characters, I had about three times this. Thus, 50/3 = 17 hours. So that would be my answer...
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Kugar
First Post
I think it has to do with two things: the use of story awards and the type of opponents you throw at the party.
I like my group to be in over their head. Fights at CR are just boring for me and the players. My scale goes from CR +2 to CR +4 for main bad guys. I cut the experience by half for defeting mosters and use the other half for story awards/game help awards. The players like the fast advancement of about 9 - 10 hours of play and they get to sowcase their abilities in at least one battle a level. The division of exp also serves as a way to slow down the advancement at higher levels.
I like my group to be in over their head. Fights at CR are just boring for me and the players. My scale goes from CR +2 to CR +4 for main bad guys. I cut the experience by half for defeting mosters and use the other half for story awards/game help awards. The players like the fast advancement of about 9 - 10 hours of play and they get to sowcase their abilities in at least one battle a level. The division of exp also serves as a way to slow down the advancement at higher levels.
Leopold
NKL4LYFE
when you start running into sessionly leveling is when you have PC's with different levels. I have pc's ranging from levels 2-5 and they play for 8-10hrs at a pop. Mostly the lower levels level once per session but now it's slowed down quite a bit since the levels are now catching up to each other. So my avg is around 12hrs to level up which is fine. The higher level you go the more difficult the encounters can be and the longer it takes for pc's to level up.
Psion
Adventurer
The "13.33 encounters" has always been to swift to me. I don't use the CR method for xp but use a variant of the time-based awards. I generally award 50 xp/hour/level, plus the possibility of bonus XP for especially good gaming (usually marked by cleverness or good rolplaying) or a difficult adventure.
Based on 50 xp per hour, it takes about 20 hours to level up (I'll let the reader do the math), a little less considering that the players probably average 10% in bonuses.
Based on 50 xp per hour, it takes about 20 hours to level up (I'll let the reader do the math), a little less considering that the players probably average 10% in bonuses.
in my last campaign, the PCs made it to about 8th level, leveling on average every other session.
we'd play on average 5-1/2 hours per session, so that's 10 hours per level.
we hadn't hit the point where leveling slows down, apparently.
i was giving them XP straight out of the DMG -- for encounters only, based on CR. no story awards.
one thing i did notice, though, was that the CRs for class levels feels a bit off. (CR = PC class levels, or NPC class levels - 1). it feels too high. a 4th-level warrior doesn't really feel like a CR 3 encounter to me, for example.
by the time the party was 8th level, they could routinely handle hordes of 2nd-5th level NPCs, even though the EL of the encounter should've been over their heads.
since the campaign was mostly about fighting other people and not "monsters" per se, i think this inflated their XP gain.
we'd play on average 5-1/2 hours per session, so that's 10 hours per level.
we hadn't hit the point where leveling slows down, apparently.
i was giving them XP straight out of the DMG -- for encounters only, based on CR. no story awards.
one thing i did notice, though, was that the CRs for class levels feels a bit off. (CR = PC class levels, or NPC class levels - 1). it feels too high. a 4th-level warrior doesn't really feel like a CR 3 encounter to me, for example.
by the time the party was 8th level, they could routinely handle hordes of 2nd-5th level NPCs, even though the EL of the encounter should've been over their heads.
since the campaign was mostly about fighting other people and not "monsters" per se, i think this inflated their XP gain.
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