Session time and level advancement (ie, how many hours gametime for a level)

Ancalagon · Jul 7, 2018

I read [MENTION=1003]Irda Ranger[/MENTION] 's interesting thread about "in game time" and level advancement, and I realized I had a different question

What about *session time* and level advancement?

In the game I'm running, I did an approximate calculation and it seems that we are gaining one level per 25 hours of play. Given our gaming schedule, this also corresponds to a level every 4 months - not of time in game, but time in the real world.

I have *no* idea how this corresponds to other people's experience, so I thought I would ask!

cheers,

Ancalagon

ccs · Jul 7, 2018

Hmm. I'm not sure, I haven't actually been keeping track in the ToA game I'm running down at the shop. Let's see:
We started it back in Oct. So 10 months now. There's been roughly about 6 weeks where we haven't played, so effective about 8.5 months....
They started at 4th lv & are now nearly 8th (next week should do it).

So time wise it looks like about a lv/every 2.some months. I don't think this average is meaningful though as there's been long stretches of very little xp (fun, but really just RP & farting around in the jungle - essentially dead weeks pt wise) & then sessions chock full of action, plot advancement, etc (wich provides the bulk of the XP - for ex; this past week everyone earned 9k xp....). And like I said, I haven't been tracking it.

Elapsed time in game? About 3 months. So about 3 weeks per lv from the characters PoV.

neogod22 · Jul 7, 2018

When I play in Adventures League, I think every 4 or 5 adventures in tier 2 you level up. It's usually 4000-6000xp per adventure, 12000-15000 in tier 3. In my other groups, we pretty much went to milestone leveling. Mainly because of how the campaigns get sidetracked.

TheSword · Jul 7, 2018

Regarding in game time, how long is a piece of string, depends on how long stuff takes. When people can rest a day or a year in 1min of game time the clock ticks however it ticks.

In session time I like quick progression as a player and as a DM. I would say level up in 4-8 hours of playing. 5e with it’s flattened progression benefits from this as some levels barely take a minute to level up and whether to roll for your Hp it take the average is the only decision you’ll make.

Tallifer · Jul 7, 2018

I adjusted the experience so that progress is much slower as the characters increase in power. It took my players about 40 hours to get from 7th to 8th. There is enough story and novelty to keep them playing, but I don't have to deal with a plethora of high level spells.

schnee · Jul 7, 2018

Ancalagon said:
In the game I'm running, I did an approximate calculation and it seems that we are gaining one level per 25 hours of play. Given our gaming schedule, this also corresponds to a level every 4 months - not of time in game, but time in the real world.

I have *no* idea how this corresponds to other people's experience, so I thought I would ask!

That's close enough to my experience, even with us using Milestone.

Lower levels were faster - 3 sessions x 5-6 hours a piece - because they were simpler to master.

Now that we're level 5+, where the characters have more complexity, it's about 4-5 session per, which averages to 25 hours.

pming · Jul 7, 2018

Hiya!

364 hours to get to 9th level. Roughly (I suppose a range of 312 to 416 is probably more accurate).

^_^

Paul L. Ming

Oofta · Jul 7, 2018

For me it depends on the campaign. For example, I had a group that wanted fairly quick advancement so I had them level after every 2 sessions. So around 10 hours of play per level.

Other groups we've spent more time than that at level 0. Starting out as pre-adventurer level children, gaining a little bit of knowledge and after a few sessions finally hitting level 1. Getting to level 3 (and out of "school") took 6 months of 1-2 times per month game play. It was an RP heavy game (especially at the beginning) and a lot of fun. After that we started leveling a little more quickly.

I would say based on my experience I would say 25 hours per level likely longer than average which is not necessarily a bad thing.

AriochQ · Jul 7, 2018

I have one group that plays monthly, each session 6-8 hours. Given how infrequently we play, I have essentially gone to a milestone'ish system. Each adventure they get 1/3-1/2 of the experience needed for the next level. Given how infrequently we play, I wanted the PC's to be able to advance and eventually get to level 20 (which would take about 50 sessions/months. i.e. 4 years in real time).

Ironically, in my bi-weekly game, I also prefer for characters to level about every two months.

I have come to the conclusion, that I don't really care how many hours a PC has played, or how many monsters they have killed. I find it more satisfying for both players and DM if there is gradual growth. It lets the players mess around with new abilities/spells and me, as DM, mess around with different monsters and challenges. If we played more frequently, a weekly game for instance, I would probably adhere more to the RAW for experience/level gain.

If I am not mistaken, Adventurer's League will be adopting the checkpoint system from XGtE. 1-4 level each 4-hour adventure, 5-9 level every two 4-hour adventures, etc.

Draegn · Jul 7, 2018

I recall a letter in Dragon magazine (Leomond's Tiny Hut) where it was mentioned it should take two years of real time to reach seventh level assuming playing 8-12 hours one weekend a month.