A new game has started. What level are you?

[Xeriar]

Choose any option but "Always at first level". Choose the highest group you've used.

Cheers!

Sometimes that's not the point of these adventures though, I mean, in one game I'm in we've got several 'side-campaigns', where each character from the main party went and did their own thing, and the rest of us played 'minor' 'NPCs' (all at 11th-14th level) to the part.

We've also done one-shots like this, some of which evolve into their own campaigns for coolness reasons.

The new 'main' campaign started everyone at 3rd level.

A single answer is not appropriate, and even all this was for one person's world. I play with more than one person...

 

[MerricB]

The point of the question is this:

Do people always begin games at 1st level?

I've provided more than one option for the higher levels, because there may be a range of responses.

I assume that there will be a point in your gaming career where you will play at first level, however I'm interested in knowing how many people will never have any game start at more than 1st level. (Even for one-shots, tournament modules and the like).

Cheers!

 

[hong]

The point of the question is this:

Do people always begin games at 1st level?

I've provided more than one option for the higher levels, because there may be a range of responses.

The last two games I've DMed have started at 4th and 3rd level respectively. IMO it allows for more significant encounters than just the usual dire rats or kobolds.


Hong "Meepo notwithstanding" Ooi

 

[Zappo]

We always start at 1st, though I would like to start at 2nd or 3rd, so as to have more multiclassing options.

...except when I am DMing, in which case we start at whatever level I deem appropriate - has been from 1st to 10th, for now.

 

[Darkness]

This ought to be a multiple choice poll...

 

[MerricB]

Ah, but I didn't start the poll to answer the question you think I should have asked.

There is a very good reason why it isn't multiple choice: it gives you no idea of how many people voted.

If you think another poll would do better - feel free to start one!

Cheers!

 

[Darkness]

Ah, but I didn't start the poll to answer the question you think I should have asked.

There is a very good reason why it isn't multiple choice: it gives you no idea of how many people voted.

Fair enough...

 

[Arnwyn]

Always first level. *Always*.

 

[Painfully]

The short answer is 1st level.

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My most recent group I allowed to roll up their second level hp in advance even though we did start with 0xp and at first level. So when they reached second level they did not roll for more hp.

It doesn't completely remove the risk of getting whacked in one shot for the party's wizard, but for most melee types, it makes them more willing to take just one more swing at the bad guy rather than running.

And just FYI, the first adventure I purposely kept combat light. I used a pre-adventure I made up for Sunless Citadell that involved doing a lot of work within the city limits, but in the end there was a significant fight and my players actually burned down a merchant ship and had to run from the law! There was quite a lot of NPCs to track, but in the end my players actually liked it much more than the Sunless Citadel module that was mostly hack-and-slash .dungeoncrawling.

A combat-heavy 1st level adventure is very difficult to run fairly without killing somebody.

 

[Celebrim]

I like 1st level myself, but as a DM 1st level adventures are extremely hard to design. First level characters are so fragile, and so few resources that you have to really struggle to find the right mix of challenge. Also, from an RP perspective 1st level characters have one huge limitation - they are almost by default young and inexperienced, with little or no backstory. If you want a significant back story, or a character that has a little experience with hardship, you really need to have at least a level or two for it to really feel reasonable.

I've often toyed with the idea of allowing characters to start at 1st-3rd level (thier choice) provided each level they take they increase thier age by 50% or so. This would allow for a party with mixed backgrounds, but by the time we hit 4th-5th level, the xp difference is fairly trivial. It would also allow for adding low ECL races (not that I think the ECL mechanic is all that great). But, since I haven't had time to run a new campaign in some time, it remains an idea.