20 levels in 3 months? NOT THIS TIME!

[Halivar]

I've got HoB at home, and I just realized that I have never, in the years I've had it, cracked it open. Maybe I should go home and do that.

In 3.x, I was a level-whore. I simply couldn't get enough levels. What I really wanted, I think, was to break into the "sweet spot" and stay there, since after that I didn't care too much about leveling.

We've been playing 4E since release and I just got to level 6. I can't say that I've been nearly as antsy about leveling as I was before. I could easily see dragging my current character out across several campaigns for a couple years.

 

[kitsune9]

I've always found one of the biggest strains that dnd puts on my credulity is the whole "I was a peasant a couple of months ago, and now I'm the Most Powerful Wizard Alive!!!" thing.

Well, I'm very pleased to announce that I've beaten that problem, at least for my current 4e campaign. Last night we finished playing out a siege that had been going on for about five sessions or so. I used a 'victory points' system to determine, in the end, how much time passed during the siege- if the pcs had gotten the highest level of victory, it could have been only months. (See the 3e Heroes of Battle book for the base that I used for the VP system in play.) The length of the siege was determined by how much ass the pcs kicked, in other words.

We passed just under six years in the last few sessions!

I'm very happy at how it is working out- the events of the siege that we played out were representative of the party's overall ability to hold the wall for the entire siege, or representative of how effective they were at defending the approach to the city, etc. They were abstracted and then stretched to fit the length of the siege once the victory point tally was compiled at the end.

It was awesome, and it means that even if the rest of the campaign flashes by in a few months, my pcs will have a background that makes them believeable kick-ass stud heroes.

Instead of being, you know, a 19-year-old archmage.

Interesting take. I thought that was an annoyance too when I ran my FR campaigns. I borrowed a something similar from the RPGA though for my games. My adventures usually are considered "one month" with half the month actually spent on adventuring and the other half can be used by the player characters to do off-game stuff like magic item creation, shopping, and profession and craft skill checks to earn side money. I keep the time keeping fairly abstract so that players can decide when and how they use up their "free time" while also participating in the adventure at hand. If they've used up their "free time" during the adventure, then they cannot do anything else except finish the adventure and wait until the next adventure.

Of course, it's not too realistic, but it works in that it takes advantage of the other neglected skills and feats that my players typically didn't take in the past.

Overall, if we play about 30 adventures, then we're close to 3 years of game time which is about the level I'm comfortable with. I know if I wanted to run a more gritty campaign, then I could set each adventure at 2 to 3 months.

 

[Glyfair]

Interesting take. I thought that was an annoyance too when I ran my FR campaigns. I borrowed a something similar from the RPGA though for my games. My adventures usually are considered "one month" with half the month actually spent on adventuring and the other half can be used by the player characters to do off-game stuff like magic item creation, shopping, and profession and craft skill checks to earn side money. I keep the time keeping fairly abstract so that players can decide when and how they use up their "free time" while also participating in the adventure at hand. If they've used up their "free time" during the adventure, then they cannot do anything else except finish the adventure and wait until the next adventure.

Of course, it's not too realistic, but it works in that it takes advantage of the other neglected skills and feats that my players typically didn't take in the past.

Overall, if we play about 30 adventures, then we're close to 3 years of game time which is about the level I'm comfortable with. I know if I wanted to run a more gritty campaign, then I could set each adventure at 2 to 3 months.

I have considered doing a campaign using an idea taken from Pendragon and Birthright. Players will be nobles, possibly rulers. Each year will only have only one adventure, although that adventure might take multiple sessions.

There would likely be lots of between adventure campaign bits (especially if the PCs are rulers). If the campaign lasts for a while the players will eventually be playing their descendants. I would need to find a way to reward their descendants in some way.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Pendragon and Ars Magica have been doing that for a very long time. Both have Winter Phases where the characters do nonadventuring things. Pendragon assumes an adventure a year, while Ars Magica assumes it will be an adventure a season except for winter.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I've been a fan of the Pendragon and Ars MAgic takes on downtime for a long time now. My current campaign is into it's 11th campaign year, the PCs are 14th level ( in a 3.5 game.)

And the down time is discussed heavily in email and they do all the cool stuff there. Well, not all the cool stuff. Much of the cool stuff. Cool stuff definitely happens in the adventures too.

The game has developed a very strong background and the players are interacting heavily with the campaign world. It's very gratifying.

I limit over-fast levelling by taking the accounting light version of XP: I don't give out any. Every now and then someone nags me enough that I say, 'OK, it's time to level.'

I like the VP idea for a siege. Because my campaign is going to end with one enormous siege that I intend to have take years of game time. The VP iea is GREAT. It'll save me a lot of F***-ing about and getting bogged down in minutiae. So, yoink.

 

[pawsplay]

If you want to slow down leveling, virtually every version of D&D has optional rules for training. Plus, it's up to the GM to control the supply of encounters.

 

[jmucchiello]

The length of the siege was determined by how much ass the pcs kicked, in other words.

We passed just under six years in the last few sessions!

I realize this is a bit of a tangent. But a 6 year siege??? How?

 

[Jeff Wilder]

In my game, PCs have to take downtime in order to "absorb" the knowledge they've gained. I call it "training," but it isn't, really. There's no cost, and the time is free to spend in other pursuits ... just no adventuring, or it doesn't count as downtime.

If they gain one level, required downtime is one month. If they gain two, required downtime is four months. They can't gain more than two levels without taking some downtime ... their XP totals freeze just before that third level. You could extend it to three levels -- nine months downtime required -- without too much effect (because most of the time the players will take the downtime at the one month or four month point), but I wouldn't go beyond that.

(I do charge a lifestyle cost for downtime equal to 10 gp per level per month, adjusted up or down depending on how luxuriously you want to live. My PCs generally take the default.)

It works pretty well. My PCs are now 11th and 12th level, and three years have passed in Eberron. Without this mechanism, they could easily have made 11th or 12th level in three months of game time, which annoys the hell out of me.

I've toyed with the idea of a tightly-linked episodic game in which the PCs gain a level, then go back to their lives for a year or more, then gain a level, then go back to their lives, and so on. Theoretically, 30 years or more could pass.

This would be kinda cool because it would definitely emphasize things like Craft and Profession skills, stronghold building, running businesses, politics, and even romance and marriage. If the time between episodes was long enough, the effects of aging would actually be a factor in the campaign. I'll probably end up doing it one of these days.

 

[Jack99]

I have a much easier solution. Not care and kill them before they become arch-mages. Has worked in every campaign so far

 

[the Jester]

I realize this is a bit of a tangent. But a 6 year siege??? How?

We significantly abstracted things. The battle for the walls that we played out represented how well the city defended its walls the whole time, for instance.

If your question is "How did the defenders hold out for six years??", the answer has several aspects:

1. An incredible general, on the level of Saladin.
2. Incredible walls, boosted by ritual magic.
3. The ability to grow significant amounts of food within the city's defended areas.
4. Kick ass pcs.