4e - what kind of rate of advancement is typical?

[Oompa]

My players have been playing almost a year now, and they are almost level 4.. and they think it's fast..

We play around 4 hours in 2 weeks..

 

[Silversun]

I believe it says in one of the core rulebooks that the normal rate of advancement is one level for every three encounters.

 

[Jack99]

I believe it says in one of the core rulebooks that the normal rate of advancement is one level for every three encounters.

No rulebook said that.

It's 1 level for every 10 encounters. Which on average probably amounts to 3-4 sessions, depending on length and amount of roleplay

 

[MacMathan]

Let's see for the group I DMed it was 32 sessions and 7 levels to get through the first two 4e modules. I would say the average was once a month or four sessions of about 4-5 hours of play time each.

 

[Silversun]

No rulebook said that.

It's 1 level for every 10 encounters. Which on average probably amounts to 3-4 sessions, depending on length and amount of roleplay

My bad.

 

[S'mon]

We've played 25 x 4 hour sessions and the PC's just hit 5th level this weekend.

Using regular XP rules? That's about once per 6 sessions.

It sounds like every 2-4 sessions is typical, or slightly slower than the DMG indicates.

 

[wedgeski]

Using regular XP rules? That's about once per 6 sessions.

It sounds like every 2-4 sessions is typical, or slightly slower than the DMG indicates

I should have offered a bit more context, my apologies.

By the book rewards, yes, but several of our sessions have been pure investigation and RP. I don't award XP for roleplaying, only for the completion of goals, so XP per session for non-combat quests is pretty non-deterministic. It depends on how good/lucky the characters are in their investigations, as well as how well designed the quests are, of course (and I've designed my share of klunkers).

Also not to mention that we've had a bit of player-churn, and this always slows things down as new characters dip their toes in the campaign and get a feel for things.

Overall I'm happy with the advancement rate so far, and none of my players have complained since the last time I canvassed their opinion. It's a good example of how a real-world campaign doesn't necessarily play by the book.

 

[Storminator]

We level every 3 sessions or so. We only play once a month, so we just clicked to 4th level.

What I do as a DM is get together the level's treasure parcels and make sure to hand them out appropriately. After I've handed out all of the treasure, I know I'm free to level them. So I basically level the characters at speed of plot making sure that I don't mess up game balance along the way.

This is genius. It's old school! It's treasure that determines XP!

PS

 

[Rel]

I saw no reason to track XP in 4e so I just level them once ever three sessions.

 

[Mallus]

I saw no reason to track XP in 4e so I just level them once ever three sessions.

We do the same thing.

FYI, our group just turned 8th level. We started last September, play in-person roughly every two weeks for around 3 hours, plus play-by-post --including a few long, complicated combats-- between live sessions.

FYI, part II - in addition to gaining 8 levels, our group has elevated a pig to godhood, laid the groundwork for a Socialist revolution, and taken the theater world by storm. This is a more meaningful description of our accomplishments!