D&D General Death due to old age

[dave2008]

So how does that work in actual play? Are you 1st level for months of real time before reaching 2nd? Do the players enjoy the slow leveling? I think it is cool that the game can do that, but it seems contradictory to the rules that encourage fast leveling (which I ignore myself). I wouldn't mind if players were stuck at 3rd level for a long, long time, but they like the sense of progression and getting better. For that matter, I wouldn't mind ending D&D at 9th after a long progression, and leave all the high level stuff alone.

In general yes, they can be at the same level for months. I like to make the in-game time to level get longer and longer for each level, it works out that way IRL often too, but not always.

I haven't had any complaints from the players, but I have never leveled fast so it is all they know! One thing to note is that they do get other rewards (treasure, equipment, stongholds, pets, NPCs, etc.) to keep things interesting.

FYI, we don't use XP, so we level when I feel it is appropriate for the story / how much they have accomplished or trained.

 

[Salthorae]

In general yes, they can be at the same level for months. I like to make the in-game time to level get longer and longer for each level, it works out that way IRL often too, but not always.

I haven't had any complaints from the players, but I have never leveled fast so it is all they know! One thing to note is that they do get other rewards (treasure, equipment, stongholds, pets, NPCs, etc.) to keep things interesting.

FYI, we don't use XP, so we level when I feel it is appropriate for the story / how much they have accomplished or trained.

I'm in a game right now @Nebulous where we were 1st level for at least 4 sessions. We've been playing weekly since... June in this campaign I think, almost weekly and we just made level 4 this week. We're using milestone leveling, and have been going for 20 weeks over three levels. There exists additional downtime in-game as well as the long realtime.

 

[Nebulous]

In general yes, they can be at the same level for months. I like to make the in-game time to level get longer and longer for each level, it works out that way IRL often too, but not always.

I haven't had any complaints from the players, but I have never leveled fast so it is all they know! One thing to note is that they do get other rewards (treasure, equipment, stongholds, pets, NPCs, etc.) to keep things interesting.

FYI, we don't use XP, so we level when I feel it is appropriate for the story / how much they have accomplished or trained.

I admit that I like that approach. IMO the sweetspot of D&D is 1st to 7th, when it is still not high magic and PC abilities and spells don't overshadow character backgrounds.

You mentioned Strongholds; have you seen the supplement Strongholds & Followers on DM Guild? It's freaking awesome. Really makes me want to incorporate that stuff, but I mostly run campaign modules and there's little room to explore that side of D&D.

 

[Nebulous]

I'm in a game right now @Nebulous where we were 1st level for at least 4 sessions. We've been playing weekly since... June in this campaign I think, almost weekly and we just made level 4 this week. We're using milestone leveling, and have been going for 20 weeks over three levels. There exists additional downtime in-game as well as the long realtime.

My group is 3rd now, running through Phandelver. We've played 12 times, about 3 hour sessions. They'll probably stay 3rd through Thundertree and level to 4th right before Wave Echo Cave, where they will need that boost to survive it.

 

[Salthorae]

I admit that I like that approach. IMO the sweetspot of D&D is 1st to 7th, when it is still not high magic and PC abilities and spells don't overshadow character backgrounds.

You mentioned Strongholds; have you seen the supplement Strongholds & Followers on DM Guild? It's freaking awesome. Really makes me want to incorporate that stuff, but I mostly run campaign modules and there's little room to explore that side of D&D.

I would say that is up to you as the DM whether you can fit the Strongholds & Followers stuff in or not!

Tyranny of the Dragon Queen two adventure pair seems like a place that could easily incorporate followers and stronghold rules. Maybe SKT and Tomb of Annihilation could use the follower's stuff.

SKT too seems like one where you can spread the timeline out a bit. Makes the ending a bit more dramatic when it's been years and years rather than just weeks or months (if you're read it/played it you should know what I mean).

 

[Nebulous]

I would say that is up to you as the DM whether you can fit the Strongholds & Followers stuff in or not!

Tyranny of the Dragon Queen two adventure pair seems like a place that could easily incorporate followers and stronghold rules. Maybe SKT and Tomb of Annihilation could use the follower's stuff.

SKT too seems like one where you can spread the timeline out a bit. Makes the ending a bit more dramatic when it's been years and years rather than just weeks or months (if you're read it/played it you should know what I mean).

Well yeah, if you stretch it out in the timescale of years I suppose you could fit a castle for each character into any scenario! Tomb would be difficult though, jungle castles wouldn't work well, and the no castle in the Tomb itself.

The S&F book also has some stunningly good artwork, you'd be surprised.

 

[Nebulous]

I should stop threadjacking this, sorry about that.

 

[dave2008]

I admit that I like that approach. IMO the sweetspot of D&D is 1st to 7th, when it is still not high magic and PC abilities and spells don't overshadow character backgrounds.

I agree. I have started thinking about some old school changes to stretch out the sweet spot. My group doesn't have much magic (a druid is our only full caster) so I have thought about reducing HP after 9th or 10th lvl. Maybe with our next campaign in 5 years or so!

You mentioned Strongholds; have you seen the supplement Strongholds & Followers on DM Guild? It's freaking awesome. Really makes me want to incorporate that stuff, but I mostly run campaign modules and there's little room to explore that side of D&D.

Strongholds and Follower was a kickstarter, not DMs Guild (you can't mix the two), but yes I've got the PDF. Unfortunately my group had a stronghold about 2 years before it came out. I will probably use some of it in the future, but my group has been on an extended expedition away from their keep (on keep for the whole group), so it hasn't come into play in a bit. Though when they get back...

 

[dave2008]

I should stop threadjacking this, sorry about that.

No worries - I like it!

EDIT: Oops! I forgot this wasn't my thread!

 

[Superbeast20]

Aging is something that always bothered me. Even large campaigns usually only last a few years of in game time. Though I like the idea of using it, unless you do a multi generational campaign it just never really comes up.