Experience Points? Who Needs 'Em? My 4E Eberron Campaign

[Iron Sky]

My last campaign was supposed to be five years and ended up going for sixteen, from '92 to '08, same players (mostly), PCs and storyline. Really, limiting myself seems like a good idea.

That's almost inconceivable to me. Our longest campaign was our very 2e campaign that lasted about 3 years(ended up with people in the level 8-11 range). I don't think anyone's had a game since then that lasted longer than a year-and-a-half.

 

[Tale]

My last campaign was supposed to be five years and ended up going for sixteen, from '92 to '08, same players (mostly), PCs and storyline. Really, limiting myself seems like a good idea.

I'd never be able to do that. That's just flabbergasting. I usually run out of jokes after a year and it's only a few months later that they get tired of me asking for their sister's phone number.

 

[S'mon]

I'm thinking about going to "10 achievement-ticks to level" for my next 4e campaign. Not telling my players how close they are to levelling may be a step too far for me, and levelling at a fixed rate wouldn't work with the sandbox play I like.

 

[Kimyou]

I really like the "Achievement tick" plan. I think it's a great idea and might not be too quick in the end, depending on what you consider an achievement, of course.

 

[drscott46]

I'm thinking about going to "10 achievement-ticks to level" for my next 4e campaign. Not telling my players how close they are to levelling may be a step too far for me, and levelling at a fixed rate wouldn't work with the sandbox play I like.

I never told my players this, but my original intended benchmark for when to level the PCs up was simply to fit the expectations of what adventure I was running at the time. It just turned out to be roughly once every two sessions.

My players don't really seem to have an issue with the "how close are we?" thing. I guess as long as they get a fairly steady stream of new toys- whether those be powers, items, whatever- I don't tend to hear much complaint.

I also encourage them to make their own items and trade stuff around to help satisfy the toys jones (since the outright purchase of non-consumable magic items has been quite rightfully hobbled in 4E- I dislike the idea of a magic shop selling things much more powerful than heroic tier-level stuff).

 

[coyote6]

That's almost inconceivable to me. Our longest campaign was our very 2e campaign that lasted about 3 years(ended up with people in the level 8-11 range). I don't think anyone's had a game since then that lasted longer than a year-and-a-half.

FWIW, the characters I GM'd for this past Saturday started ~20 years ago.

Of course, the game hasn't been ran continuously (though I'm pretty sure there was never a full year between adventures), one of the players was the GM of the original campaign, and it was a GURPS game* then rather than an M&M game. But it's the same characters, and it's only temporarily an M&M game (the PCs are parachronic special/covert ops with powers, who are undercover in Freedom City; hence, temporarily superheroes).

*Technically, it was a Twilight: 2000 game for one session, but neither of the PCs from that game were present Saturday.

My favorite campaign that I GM'd ran for a decade or so.

 

[Jarrod]

I don't bother tracking XP any more. We play for 3 hours a week (more like 2 *sigh*) and I have several players that enjoy levelling - so we level on average every 3 weeks.

 

[delericho]

For 3.5e, because characters can spend XP on spells and crafting magic items, I tend not to monkey around with those rules too much.

For pretty much any other game, I generally ditch XP entirely and use a fixed levelling rate. For my recent Star Wars Saga campaign, for example, characters levelled every one-and-a-half sessions (we have a fairly long break for food at the halfway mark, so it's a good time). If and when I run the "second season" of that campaign, though, I'm probably going to reduce the rate to every two, or even two-and-a-half, sessions, as the PCs are getting a little powerful for my tastes.

 

[guivre]

XP is a relic. We quit using it with Eberron too coincidentally.

 

[Crothian]

I think we stopped using XP back in 04 or 05. It is just easier to let the PCs all gain at the same time. I usually have them gain once every three or for sessions. I have added in a rule that no one can gain a level unless everyone is there. So, when we go through 6 week period of different people missing no one gains any levels. It works well at keeping attendance high.