How long can you stay level XXX and still have fun

[KidSnide]

I'm also in the "slow campaign" camp. My current campaign started in 2000 at level 3 (in 3e). We converted to 4e in early '09, and the PCs are at level 8. Playing roughly bi-weekly, we complete a major adventure about once a year and have leveled about every other year. Now that we're in 4e, I'm thinking of increasing the leveling rate, but overall the progress within the game world matters a great deal more than mechanical advancement.

I played in another 3e game in which we started in 2001 at level 3, hit level 8 by 2005 and haven't advanced since.

That having been said, I'll agree that if you start at level 1, you want to let the PCs get up to a more satisfying level fairly quickly. The key is to figure out how long the campaign is going to take and to keep it in the "sweet spot" of whatever game you're playing in for the bulk of the campaign. The post-sweet spot level can be a lot of fun for a campaign's "end game", but I wouldn't want to hit those levels until I was ready to wrap up with that set of characters.

-KS

 

[S'mon]

Hm, for a regular weekly game with 4e rules, probably about once per two months, or every 8-9 sessions, would be ok.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Back in 1e we tended to level about once every dozen sessions until about 5th level, then about once a year after that - levelling took a long time in those days!

But we were never dissatisfied with it. Our satisfaction with the game came with our advancement in the game world, relationships made, maidens wooed, treasure captured, castles built, honours attained etc. Gaining a level happened infrequently and was only a minor bump in most cases.

One of the few things that I didn't like in 3e was the focus on rapid levelling. Yes, I know that I could change it, but we tried running it as is to start with, and everyone got addicted on rapid levelling with significant changes each time. The end result was much less investment in the campaign worlds and much more desire to bag a quick XP.

Cheers

 

[The_Ditto]

Level 1-4: I just want to get to about level 5 as quickly as possible ..

Level 5-10: I want to stay in this range ... FOREVER .. seriously ... I actually cringe at the thought of levelling up in these levels, and I mourn when I reach level 11 ...

Level 11+: Not thrilled ... usually start eyeing the next campaign ...


Reasoning:
levels 1-4 .. I find are ok, but don't fill you with alot of options ...
When you reach level 5-10, you're character is fairly full, has lots of options, plenty of feats, spells, skills, whatever ... (s)he's got a history, and has enough resources to generally go 4+ encounters a day easy if the DM isn't throwing really hard ones at you ...
Level 11+ just start getting into power creep, where battles are over in about 2 rouns, with the one going first, usually having the upper hand ... it starts to get boring ...

So yeah .. me, I like to see a steady levelling up to about level 5, then see it slow to a bloody crawl ...
I like being level 5 for a full year before reaching level 6 ... makes it really satisfying when you finally get there ...

 

[Beginning of the End]

At 60 sessions the PCs are 8th and 9th level. So about 7 sessions per level? Sessions average 8 hours, I think.

We halve XP awards for 3E to achieve this pace, which we're pretty comfortable with. Default 3E is too fast: You never have time to really explore what your character is capable of at a given level. 50-60 hours seems to give us enough time to really get familiar with a level.

 

[Celebrim]

I think it depends on the level.

At a weekly gaming pace of 4-6 hours per session, levels 1-3 should get out of the way within the first 3-4 weeks IMO. Mostly because there's only so many kobolds and zombies you can kill before things get dumb.

This is a pet peeve of mine.

My campaign is going on about 14th sessions. So far its involved among many other things giant city wrecking tsunami, an invasion of deep ones, possessed farm animals, giant spiders, swarms of flesh eating beetles, zombies, witch doctors, a giant crayfish, nasty little fairies, a fungus monster, a bone golem, a murderous cult of god-killers, and a dracolich. We just had a few players reach 3rd level.

Granted, my homebrew makes this abit easier than it could be, but basically it's all just numbers. There is no particular reason why you can't make the game work at 1st level as 15th level. One of my shticks as a DM is having the players encounter a diety early in the game. If anything, I find the low levels a bit more epic because its not as easy for the PC's to hand wave problems away. The game suffers a bit IMO when use rope is no longer a useful skill because the characters have so many more powerful abilities, and even at 1st level there is alot of opportunity of unabashed crowning moment's of awesome based not merely on what the character does or can do but what the player does.

For myself, as a player, it's the perfect time to level up when I've had a chance to use all my abilities creatively. If I know the spell, I want to find a situation where it proves handy. If I learn a feat, I want to use it and it be relevant. If I advance in my skills, I want to use them to solve problems. I find that with decent pacing that takes 4-5 4-6 hour sessions. Leveling up every session or two means that I'm gaining new powers even before I've used the old ones. It's a glut, and its not as enjoyable. I dislike changing numbers for its own sake and I particularly dislike having a character who has alot of game abilities but hasn't become well defined and lacks a game story other than a kill list. Even in cRPG's I'm not that big about leveling up. Leveling up is the boring way out. Figuring out how to overcome a problem using only the resources you have is more satisfying, especially after failing a couple times.

Eventually there comes a point where leveling stops being very important for me. If the game is good, eventually all I care about is advancing story goals and the occasional level up is welcome but unnecessary every 10 or so sessions. I have rarely played and rarely run games of D&D above about 13th level or so. At this point, we are talking about games that have gone on years, epic story arcs that have come to conclusions, characters that have become well-defined, and I'm looking to retire a character and start a new one.

 

[Lanefan]

My campaign is going on about 14th sessions. So far its involved among many other things ... an invasion of deep ones ...

If you've got 2nd-level characters going up against deep ones then either your deep ones aren't nearly as nasty as mine or your PCs did really really well...or ran away really really fast!

Otherwise, I pretty much agree with what you said.

Lanefan

 

[DragoonLance]

For me it really depends on the quality of the game offered by the DM. Sadly our current game is halfway though Revenge of the Giants, and we can't possibly get done with it fast enough IMO. I despise the combat treadmill of WotC "adventures." A clever, original, or imaginative game setting and I have no problem hanging out and savoring the experience.

 

[Lanefan]

For me it really depends on the quality of the game offered by the DM. Sadly our current game is halfway though Revenge of the Giants, and we can't possibly get done with it fast enough IMO. I despise the combat treadmill of WotC "adventures." A clever, original, or imaginative game setting and I have no problem hanging out and savoring the experience.

Hang in there and hope your DM runs it through to the end - IMHO the last section is worth it. I ran the last section stand-alone in my previous campaign; it fit with the story I already had, and turned out to be a perfectly reasonable adventure in its own right.

And to get off the combat treadmill, get your party to try different tacks. Negotiation, bribery, stealth, charm/dominate effects - there's more than one way to handle Giants.

Lan-"but making 'em fall down bleeding is still the most fun"-efan

 

[Mr. Wilson]

I level my PCs about once every 3 sessions. We play once a week for about 4-6 hours, minus dinner break.