D&D 5E Free 60+ page Guide to Sword & Sorcery for 5E D&D

[Distracted DM]

Yikes!
Do you have a source for these "designer comments"? One session per level sounds very strange to me. I mean, a short, focused and limited campaign could be fun as a kind of "one shot", but I prefer long campaigns that could go on "forever" and where neither the GM nor the players really know what will happen (quite the opposite of an "adventure path", in other words). This requires level advancement to be slower than "normal", which may not be to everyone's taste.

Yes except I misspoke, it's not "1 session" it's "1 adventuring day." But looking at the info again, it's less than that

Interesting analysis thread where I found about said XP curve led me to
Older thread where it's talked about and the designer intent is talked about led me to
Designer comment - Mearls replying to why the 5e XP curve is so "wonky" after 10 as compared to previous editions.

 

[CapnZapp]

Luckily I haven't used XP in a loooooooooooooooooooong while.

Once you realize the only true purpose of xp is to provide a pseudo-scientific veneer to hid the actual truth: that the heroes advance just as quick or slow as the DM and the adventure needs them to!

...you realize calcuating XP is just busywork with no actual purpose, so you... simply stop, and instead tell your players they will level up whenever you tell them to!

 

[Distracted DM]

Luckily I haven't used XP in a loooooooooooooooooooong while.

Once you realize the only true purpose of xp is to provide a pseudo-scientific veneer to hid the actual truth: that the heroes advance just as quick or slow as the DM and the adventure needs them to!

...you realize calcuating XP is just busywork with no actual purpose, so you... simply stop, and instead tell your players they will level up whenever you tell them to!

I already went through that transition, and then transitioned back to XP. I value that veneer
Different strokes for different folks.

 

[xoth.publishing]

Yes except I misspoke, it's not "1 session" it's "1 adventuring day." But looking at the info again, it's less than that

Interesting analysis thread where I found about said XP curve led me to
Older thread where it's talked about and the designer intent is talked about led me to
Designer comment - Mearls replying to why the 5e XP curve is so "wonky" after 10 as compared to previous editions.

Thanks for the links!

Someone said in one of those discussions that "If Levels 11-20 take as long as 1-10, or even longer, people burn out and campaigns falter." but that doesn't make sense to me... what is worse, that you burn out at level 15 and the campaign ends, or that you quickly reach level 20 and the campaign ends? In both cases, the campaign ends! Better to have it go on "forever" and just end it when there is no fun left? I don't understand this fixation with "reaching level 20" and "winning" (?) the game...

 

[Distracted DM]

Thanks for the links!

Someone said in one of those discussions that "If Levels 11-20 take as long as 1-10, or even longer, people burn out and campaigns falter." but that doesn't make sense to me... what is worse, that you burn out at level 15 and the campaign ends, or that you quickly reach level 20 and the campaign ends? In both cases, the campaign ends! Better to have it go on "forever" and just end it when there is no fun left? I don't understand this fixation with "reaching level 20" and "winning" (?) the game...

Yeah, I don't know.

Chasing levels is hardly a new phenomenon though- players want to unlock the new features that they know are coming, what they planned for etc. D&D players usually want tangible mechanical advancement- preferably under their control.

I've had near level 20 parties, the players ask what they can do after this adventure with those characters, and how they can keep on leveling up. Epic level rules etc. I did not want to go there

 

[xoth.publishing]

players want to unlock the new features that they know are coming, what they planned for etc. D&D players usually want tangible mechanical advancement- preferably under their control.

Especially in 3E/PF, where planning that level advancement in excruciating detail all the way up to level 20 is its own little mini-game, which makes character creation take forever, and breaks the heart of the poor player when the "chosen one" dies on level 2 due to a bad die roll

 

[DarkCrisis]

This is awesome.

Don't seeing going over to well the modern crowd though.

Edit: and I'm just learning about this today

 

[Distracted DM]

Especially in 3E/PF, where planning that level advancement in excruciating detail all the way up to level 20 is its own little mini-game, which makes character creation take forever, and breaks the heart of the poor player when the "chosen one" dies on level 2 due to a bad die roll

I think that happens in any later edition as characters got more options to choose later on.

 

[CapnZapp]

Don't seeing going over to well the modern crowd though.

Hopefully we're temporarily overcompensating for past bad behaviors and sensibilities will oscillate back to a state more relaxed about the beauty of the unclad form

Happy you've found your way here, Dark. There's a lot of good S&S stuff up-thread (mostly but not entirely Xoth-related).

 

[xoth.publishing]

This is awesome.

Glad you like it!

Don't seeing going over to well the modern crowd though.

That's OK. People have different tastes.