How long, in real time, would you expect a campaign from 1-30 to take?

[marelion]

In my current campaign we`re playing every forthnight and I let the player`s level up after roundabout every second session. I`m aiming to bring them to Mid-Paragon over the course of the next ten months (a lot of sessions get cancelled spontaniously due to the fact that one of the players works as a medic with all the schedule implications thereof) until a friend of mine returns from abroad to continue our SR-campaign.

In my other 4E-group the GM lets us level up after roughly every third seession since he prefers to introduce us thoroughly to all our characters`possibilities. I`m expecting this campaign, which has so far taken us to Level 14 over the course of a college year to finish within the next 12 months when we will be Level 30 characters. We`re playing twice per week with some longer stops due to exams and holidays.

An average DnD-session in my gaiming groups is about eight hours long, so there is noi need to hurry through the encounters

 

[ForeverSlayer]

However long it takes to remain fun is all I can say.

 

[MerricB]

Okay, I've gone through my diary, and here's how our campaign has progressed. We began in June 2008, with Keep on the Shadowfell:

HEROIC LEVEL: 25 sessions (Jun 2008-Jun 2009)
Keep on the Shadowfell - 8 sessions (2008: Jun 8, Jun 22, Jul 6, Jul 20, Aug 3, Aug 17, Aug 31, Sep 14)
Thunderspire Labyrinth - 7 sessions (Oct 12, Oct 26, Nov 9, Nov 23, Dec 7, Dec 21, Jan 4, 2009)
Pyramid of Shadows - 8 sessions (Jan 18, Feb 15, Mar 1, Mar 15, Mar 29, Apr 12, Apr 26, May 10)
Interim adventure - 2 sessions (May 14, Jun 7)

PARAGON LEVEL: 23 sessions (Jun 2009-Aug 2010)
King of the Trollhaunt Warrens - 7 sessions (Jun 21, Jul 5, Aug 2, Aug 16, Aug 30, Sep 27, Oct 11)
Demon Queen's Enclave - 8 sessions, (Oct 25, Nov 8, Nov 22, Dec 6, 2010: Jan 31, Feb 14, Feb 28, Mar 14)
Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress - 8 sessions (Apr 25, Apr 11, Jun 6, Jun 20, Jul 4, Jul 18, Aug 1, Aug 15)

EPIC LEVEL: 17-21 sessions (Jan 2011-Oct 2011)
Death's Reach: 8 sessions (Jan 9, Jan 30, Feb 20, Mar 6, Mar 20, Apr 3, May 1, May 19)
Kingdom of the Ghouls: 6 sessions (Jun 12, Jun 26, Jul 10, Aug 21, Sep 4, Sep 18)
Prince of Undeath - 3 sessions so far... expect 6 or 7 (Oct 2, Oct 9, Oct 16...)

So, this campaign played mostly fortnightly in 4 hour sessions has taken a bit over three years to reach level 28, and should conclude this November, 3-1/2 years after it began. We had a four-month break at the end of 2010 as some players were away. The last few sessions have run faster due to fewer players as well - the group is now 3 players + 1 DM.

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

Meanwhile, my Greyhawk campaign has been hit by many cancellations and so the characters are only at 14th level after the same length of time. Sessionwise, though, it goes:


GREYHAWK CAMPAIGN:

Heroic Tier - 31 sessions (approx).
Castle Greyhawk...
2008: Jun 20, Jul 4, Jul 18, Aug 1, Aug 15, Aug 29, Sep 12,

Dark Chateau
Oct 10, Oct 24, Nov 7, Nov 21

Hall of Many Panes
Dec 19, 2009: Jan 16,

Archibald Causes Trouble in the Free city
Jan 30, Feb 13, Feb 27,

Trouble in Diamond Lake/The Tomb of Riflis
Mar 13, Mar 27, May 8, May 22

The Trip to Farika
Jun 15, Jul 3, Aug 28, Sep 11

Fun in Greyhawk
Sep 25, Oct 9, Nov 6, Nov 20,

Castle Greyhawk... again!
Dec 4, 2010: Jan 1, Jan 15

PARAGON TIER: (21 sessions so far...)
The Necromancers of the Shadowleaf Forest
Feb 12, Feb 26, Mar 26, Apr 9, Apr 23, Apr 30, Jun 24

Tomb of Horrors
2011: Feb 8, Feb 25, Mar 11, Mar 25,

Castle Zagyg
Apr 22, May 6, Jun 3

Tomb of Horrors
Jun 17, Jul 1, Jul 15, Sep 9

Lost City
Sep 23, Oct 7, Oct 21

Cheers!

 

[corwyn77]

This probably won't be statistically valid at all but I felt like putting in my two cents.

I'm running an extremely accelerated War of the Burning Sky campaign for about 5 weeks now. I've removed any encounters which seem to have been added strictly as xp filler and level PCs when dramatically appropriate (roughly as the adventures expect). The first adventure took 3 session to complete (8 combat encounters, ~4 non-combat encounters) and is assumed to level the PCs to level 4.

So that makes one level/5 hour session.

The second adventure will probably take 4 sessions. Assuming these are typical of the rest of the campaign, I estimate level 30 in 36-48 weeks. So most likely 10 to 12 months.

As you can see, I prefer pushing along the plot (or at least campaign events) rather than grinding out combat just for xp. Usually that isn't an issue, level wise, though it has its idiosyncrasies in this case.

 

[Dragon Sin-Camealot]

A question I can't come close to answering. One idea is to create your own challenges with other games. There's low level runs and speed runs with console games.

With DnD, I'd study the minimum necessary to complete a high level encounter. Isn't there a level 20 death by dragon scenario you could jump into?

 

[Mrbongos]

Well, the group I run with, we finished our first 4E campaign around July... from 1 to 30 and a couple of level 30 sessions, all in all about 1 1/2 years.

 

[Delgar]

I'm two years into my online eberron campaign, we play once every three weeks. We had a several month break earlier this year. The players just turned level 8

At this pace we'll be level 30 in another 4 to 5 years. However, I am hoping to get all the players together for a 4 day weekend of DnD which would hopefully push us through 4-6 levels.

In a 3-4 hour online session we usually only get through two encounters, and we tend to do much of the role-playing in between sessions via e-mail. I'm WAY behind in compiling all the in character threads, I need to sit down and get those all put up on my obsidian portal.

 

[Randomthoughts]

The players of my Dark Sun campaign seem committed to reaching level 30, so we're trying to hit that in roughly 4 years (the campaign just hit its one year anniversary with PCs at level 6 but we're currently on a break).

I'm accelerating their levelling, roughly 1/level a session (once every 3-4 weeks). Each session is around 8 hours and have a mix of 2-3 combats, 1-3 skill challenges and the rest role-playing scenes (usually exploring backstory or a PC story-arc). I don't track XP per se, but I try to design adventures where 5-6 encounters would level a PC. I count role-playing scenes as encounters and estimate XP like they are minor or major quests (but doubling or tripling the value).

At Paragon tier, we'll slow down a bit, maybe 1 lvl every 2 sessions. At Epic, I've planted the seeds to accelerate levelling, maybe explore the lower Epic levels slowly but then quickly accelerate through the rest until we hit 30 (as the campaign reaches its climax).

Despite this, the chances are still 30-40% that we will. Like others have mentioned, a year into the campaign, two of my players had to leave. But the remaining 4 players still want to continue while we look for new blood.

Doesn't hurt to try though

 

[Hussar]

/snip

By contrast 3e was designed as 1st-20th in a year of weekly sessions, 2 years fortnightly, and actually the early levels tended to go by a lot quicker than that - you'd go up pretty fast by RAW, then hit the balance problems with high level 3e. I find 4e RAW has a slower initial advancement rate, though it's possible to increase it later by use of minions and lower level monsters, which are generously XPV'd.

I know that was the claim for 3e, but, honestly, I don't think that it was all that achievable. I think it was a lot closer to about 2 years to go 1-20 (and possibly 3 years) in 3e.