Anatomy of a 20 Level campaign

The Big BZ said:

We are medium RP and play quite quickly cause that's the playstyle we enjoy and because we kinda feel that campaigns lose momentum after a certain point. I do doff my cap to anyone who played 5 sessions of being trapped in a Drow prison at the start of OotA

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Checking my blogs, as GM I've had 2 5e PCs reach level 20 (I mostly do individual XP); only one from 1st - in my Wilderlands 5e game Hakeem the Barbarian got from level 1 (March 20th 2015) to level 20 (September 15th 2017) in 132 online sessions, about the same as 66 offline sessions, over two and a half years. Played on a bit after that with Epic Boons.

In my tabletop 5e Runelords game Quillax the Druid got from level 1 (November 2015) to 18 (end October 2017) in 2 years and 64 tabletop sessions each of around 4-5 hours; we recently restarted as an online game now Quillax's player is a globetrotter - http://smonscurseofthecrimsonthrone.blogspot.com/ - so could make 20 yet!

But I've also had 60-80 session campaigns with no PCs getting over level 10. In my 4e Loudwater game http://frloudwater.blogspot.com/ Lirael the Ranger went 1st (ca April 2011) to 30th (August 2016) in 103 tabletop sessions and something over 5 years of play; she reached level 20 in session 71 - http://frloudwater.blogspot.com/2014/07/session-71-17-1811483-remorhaz-tower.html - July 2014 so a bit over 3 years. That was a 'party XP' game.

Just to update this, we recently finished with one Level 20 session and a Session Zero for our new campaign. So the entire campaign took 11 months from Level 1 to 20 and looked like this:

Level 1 - 4: Started in the Nether Mountains (Goodman Games The Keep on the Borderlands Update)
Travelled to Avernus (Random Planescape module from the Well of the Worlds)
Explored the North (random third party stuff and bits of Storm King's Thunder)

Level 5 - 6: Moved to Everlund (Bard's Gate from Midgard)
Journied south to the Cormantyr Forest (Lost Tales of Myth Drannor)
Foiled the machinations of the Cult of Vecna in the Shadowfell (Riddle of the Raven Queen)

Level 7: Retrieved a McGuffin from a vault under Castle Greyhawk (Random Greyhawk module from one of the City of Greyhawk box)
Foiled an Infernal plot in Waterdeep (Dragon Heist)

Level 8: Fought the Githyanki on the Astral Plane (The Lich Queen's Begotten)

Level 9 - 14: Entered Undermountain to disrupt a Githyanki Stronghold (Dungeon of the Mad Mage)

Level 15: Journied along the River Styx to Stygia to Destroy a Demonic Ship (To Wake the Leviathan)

Level 16: Entered the Demon Web pits via Sigil (Queen of the Demonweb Pits/Expedition to the Demonweb Pits mash up)

Level 17: Saved an Elven Village that had become trapped in the Demonweb (Lost Tales of Myth Drannor)

Level 18: Confronted Big Bad Guy (Those that came before AL module/Tomb of Horrors mash up)

Level 19: Journied to Menzoberranzan to rescue an old PC (Assault on Maerimydra AL Module/Out of the Abyss mash up)

Level 20: Entered Undermountain via Neverlight Grove (Terminus Level of Dungeon of the Mad Mage)

The campaign took 11 months to play and was a lot of fun. The last few levels were pretty gonzo with True Polymorph and Anti Magic Field etc and were good craic but overall I would say high level play is quite hard work on the DM because of the serious lack of published material.

So on to our next campaign which is a Baldman Games Moonshae/Ghosts of Saltmarsh/Against the Slaves Lords Mashup in which I will be playing a Glamour Bard!

The Big BZ said:

Just to update this, we recently finished with one Level 20 session and a Session Zero for our new campaign. So the entire campaign took 11 months from Level 1 to 20 and looked like this:

The campaign took 11 months to play and was a lot of fun. The last few levels were pretty gonzo with True Polymorph and Anti Magic Field etc and were good craic but overall I would say high level play is quite hard work on the DM because of the serious lack of published material.

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Thanks for this. Doing calculations for my new weekly Primeval Thule campaign, which uses about the DMG-standard levelling rate of 1 session each 1st to 3rd then 2-3 thereafter, I calculated the highest level PCs should reach 20th from 1st level in about 11 months of play, which fits with your account.

I just today had my second player get a 5e PC all the way from 1st level to 20th - http://simonyrpgs.blogspot.com/2019/02/going-all-way.html - nothing too dramatic, the player finally calculated her XP and found she should have hit 20 before the epic battle with the Astral Dreadnought last session! Battle log at
http://smonscurseofthecrimsonthrone.blogspot.com/2019/04/ep-76.html

I'm finding that using the Paizo AP stuff works well for high level 5e gaming - stuff like the late part of Rise of the Runelords for levels 15-18 in 3e/PF suits 5e levels 17-20.

For my Primeval Thule game the lack of Tier III-IV material is definitely a concern. For Tier III 11-16 I can uplevel some published adventures, but for Tier IV I expect it'll be mostly politics, war and Great Old Ones.

The Big BZ said:

Just to update this, ...

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Thanks for the update!

I enjoy reading about campaigns that reach into the higher levels. We're still going through Dungeon of the Mad Mage and having a good time. My players enjoy dungeon delving, so it is a good match for my group.

I have a plan for an epic scenario after they finish the DoMM. Probably will be time to move on to another campaign after that.

We play weekly for four hours, so about the same amount of time as your group and our progression speed seems very similar.