30th level at 21

[Breakstone]

Over my 14-week summer, I'll be running a weekly d20 Modern game in which the characters are agents of this Time Travelling sort of government organization, fixing errors in human history.

I think I'll be implementing a "adventures are exciting parts of your lives" rule, in which each week's session is a particularly exciting event. At the start of each session, I'll have the players roll on a "random mission chart" to see what they've accomplished between assignments.

 

[JamesL85]

Henry said:

Quick thought: halving the XP award or 75% of the XP award would be a lot less work on you and the DM.

I have a program I wrote that calculates the XP based on CR of the creature and the level of the characters. It would be simple to add an option for a different set of XP's/level array.

But I see your point......Thanks....

James

 

[S'mon]

Re XP, I've rewritten the XP table for my Lost City of Barakus campaign with 50% awards. Then I add bonus XP on top to get roughly 2/3 standard, 3rd level party averages 600 XP/session.

 

[JamesDJarvis]

Lots of good advice in the thread.

There is nothign wrong with a fast rise to fame and power. Mythology hasa lot of such figures. Many gain power and fame quickly and then are destroyed by their own weaknessess and foibles.

How to slow level climb (at least in game world time):

Make things far apart. If things are weeks apart (and the trips don't take too much play time) a lot of game world time will get eaten up. If a 10 week trip still only takes a session (or less) you might not have to worry about folks blipping all over the landscape. I've found players of Wizs get real tired of being te campaigns teleport service and if the players don't feel like travel time is boring and keeping them away from adventure they'll want to experience the adventure.

Keep track of the time it takes to make things. Days add up.

Spread out the high reward high challenge adventures. If folks have to work to earn exp it'll take a little longer to gain levels. There is also nothing wrong with the occasional cake walk adventure I use them as a reward for the more power hungery egomanical folks.

Training times. Use them if you want. As long as they are a feature of the campaign and not an obstacle they'll spread out the tiem flow without being annoying.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

Our high-level game that started at 11th level lasted just under a year, game time. My character both began the campaign and ended it being all of 25 years of age. Rather young for a cleric... who was "killed" along with two other PCs during a fight and now resides with her deity which was not too long before her 26th birthday (never did establish her birthdate....).

The newer campaign under the same DM is going a bit slower.... The character I have, a paladin, has aged a year since the beginning of that game. She started out at 19 and is now 20. She spent about 5-6 months in the middle of the game, travelling around trying to figure out her new "identity", having turned into a half-dragon during the meeting with the gods and the higher level party. The rest of her party left on their own ways right after this, most returning to their respective homes... but she still had some "adventuring life" left in her. And after that time, met the current group she travels with now.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

Sorry if I've missed someone else's post on this already; I just noticed that there is already a second page to the thread.

Mandating down time so that characters age between exploits is fine for elves, and even for dwarves. I'm guessing humans will be our benchmark, here, so they'll be fine, too.

Half-orcs and other 'short-lived' raced get royally hosed in this plan.

Skipping ten years of disinteresting campaign time, what do all want to do now that you've aged a bit and the world has moved on?

Halfling Rogue: hide out in the Inn I opened so the others won't find me. It's taken me all this time to earn back the other hobbits' respect.

Human Paladin: Select a squire from amongst my parishners to serve as a squire, for though my mind and faith have strengthened, my back has not.

Elven Wizard: What? Time to get up already? Didn't we just rid the world of that menace a decade or so ago? Alright, so be it; I'll just put the finishing touches on the longsword I've been enchanting and I'll be ready to go before the next blue moon.

Dwarven Fighter: We'll now that I'm an adult and now longer have to seek the clan's permission, I suppose we'll be off! But first, we feast!

Half-orc Barbarian: I'm the tribal elder now. I can't go anywhere! Leastwise, not without a walking stick.

The thing about levelling up in a quick hurry is that most heroic figures of legend in our own world have finished their conquest before they turn thirty. Those who haven't likely never will.

Boy, that's depressing coming from a 31 year-old college student who has yet to even conquer Northern California.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Half-orcs and other 'short-lived' raced get royally hosed in this plan.

Heh. That's a problem, now, isn't it?

In our Birthright game, we had PCs who were worrying very much about getting hit by middle age stat penalties before 20th level. We'd spent a great deal of time on realm turns, and had some big nasty fights with paltry XP due to the DM being an evil little git.

And, might I say how annoying it is that WotC didn't publish aging tables for tieflings until the last year?

Brad

 

[S'mon]

The thing about levelling up in a quick hurry is that most heroic figures of legend in our own world have finished their conquest before they turn thirty. Those who haven't likely never will.

This is a good point, and argues against much over 1 year/level; eg if PC is 1st at 16 they're 15th at 30. IMC King Sigurd the Conqueror, who will no doubt be a heroic or reviled figure of legend one day was 6th at 19 and now 18th at 27.

 

[S'mon]

BTW I put Middle Aged at 45 for humans, but I have removed the stat bonuses for age, just kept the penalties. I think that evens things up a bit between fighters/rogues & wizards/clerics. I also give stat bonuses 1/2 levels not 1/4 so an elderly high level PC can use those bonuses to keep his stats decent; magical augments are also attractive...

 

[Lord Judas]

My last game was very time-sensitive so I had to be sure to eat up time. The Cleric had gotten a prophecy that a city was going to be destroyed on an exact day and time by the BBEG (he wanted to create a "Tower of Souls" to summon his death god by casting 'Apocalypse from the Sky' from the BoVD). This is a very dangerous DM gambit, as too much or too little makes things not work.

I started by creating a world map with 3 major points of interest (a town and 2 cities) in a triangle with a 5 days ride in between. Every time they went back and forth, 10 days came off the calender. It doesnt sound like much, but it does add up. It made book keeping easy cause every time someone said "how long to go to x?" I would smile and go "5 days".

Many of the magic items were created by a master artificier in town. The party would routinely stop in for "upgrades" and he(I) would go "Ah, You want that magic sword eh? I can have for you quick! Just gimme 4 or 5 days..."

The party once had to go to an island nation and it was 30 days, one way, by ship. This kind of travel is great for chewing up large amounts of time.

Finally, my ace in the hole: Extra planar travel. No where does it say that time might flow the same on other planes. Now, I didnt age the characters unaturally, but you could. I used a trip to Acheron to make a month or two drop off the calender in a "week" to the chars. I used this little jaunt to fine tune the timetable near the end.