Accellerated XP and Treasure

[hailstop]

I've already been doubling XP for our campaign, but I find that even with that it's taking too long to get through levels. I want to do a full 30 level campaign in a reasonable amount of time.

So I decided when I want to end the campaign timewise, and it turns out that we'd need about 23 levels in 26 sessions. Yikes.

That said, I've found that the amount of 'stuff' you get per level really isn't much, so getting a level session wouldn't be a big deal.

The only potential problem would be regarding treasure, but I'm thinking that shouldn't be too much of a problem either.

It does make using any of the official adventures a bit problematic...would definitely have to adjust encounters.

 

[Fede]

I suggest you to ignore XPs completely, and simply level up when you feel to. You could very easily level up once at the start of each session., so that you can be level 30 in time for your deadline.

 

[hailstop]

I guess the next question is how critical it is to keep up with the treasure amounts. That'll be a lot of loot pretty rapidly.

I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing though.

 

[Syrsuro]

Why do you think a campaign in any way equates to 30 levels?

Carl

 

[hailstop]

The ending of the campaign involves completing the Rod of Seven Parts and fighting Tiamat.

Tough to do that if you're not Level 30.

 

[Regicide]

Typically I've removed encounters but granted the XP for them regardless.

Also I'll sometimes run only the first couple rounds of combat to see what players are going to do with it then just descriptively say whats happened. This is best if the players have an encounter that is very similar to one they already had.

Also I've found it best not to give the players choice on things that don't matter much. If they find a hole to climb down, ask them their climb skill and tell them they can get down or need ropes, if you just let them, they can bugger off for half an hour trying to figure out the best way to climb down. So if it's not an important encounter, make sure to stay on top of them and keep the time in line with the importance of the encounter.

Thats really the important bit if you're in a time crunch, stay on top of making sure time is spent where it's important. You're going to feel like a train engineer, but when you need to get to a point in a given amount of time it isn't the player's job.

In your particular case since you have so much ground to cover I'd also give the players 2 or 3 (or even more) levels between adventures/modules and say they spent a few months hunting/training/rescuing princesses/shopping/whatever. To compensate I'd increase the GP horde of module's big baddy at the end of each adventure to compensate for treasure missing from encounters that have been removed, and to give them the cash they'd have gotten in the levels they're going to get between modules.

 

[pokken]

In my game, the characters level every session and choose new gear every few sessions (per the DMG rules on higher level characters). It's too much book keeping to give out as much treasure as they are supposed to get per level in a session. We do not keep track of money at all except in terms of how much cash people have available.

Of course, I'm using a kind of weird world-traveling slidersesque dynamic, which caters well to the low book-keeping, character-focused game I wanted to run.

I do give out treasure, but typically only unique items or something necessary for plot purposes, or the occasional expendable item.

 

[Syrsuro]

The ending of the campaign involves completing the Rod of Seven Parts and fighting Tiamat.

Tough to do that if you're not Level 30.

Fine. But why do they need to start at 1st, hit every level, and end up at 30th.

It is the idea that you have to find a way to accelerate the experience to end up with this 'epic campaign' that confuses me.

Question: Do they have to start out as nobodies at the beginning? If so, why?

Question: Do they have to advance through every level on the way from nobody to demigod? If so, why?

It sounds like it would be easier/preferable to simply take one of the following routes:

Start them at level 21.

OR

Plan the campaign as a series of chapters, with a level bump between each chapter.

I guess my objection is that it just seems silly to advance that fast because you never really get a chance to play at a given level for more than one adventure - so you never really get to find out what you can do or can't do at any given level. Each and every adventure ends up being an exercise in "see what I learned overnight" rather than a chance to learn and grow into your current set of powers.

How about taking your 26 sessions and breaking them down into 5 sets of 4-5 sessions each with an introductory session at the start and a finale session at the end. And between each set of five sessions the players advance four or five levels. [Or the like, depending on how many different themic breaks your story requires).



Carl

 

[Paul Strack]

I guess the next question is how critical it is to keep up with the treasure amounts. That'll be a lot of loot pretty rapidly.

Give out one a level X+1 item each time the PCs advance to level X. This is 100% consistent with the treasure advancement rates in the rules and is a lot more palatable than big mounds of treasure.

 

[hailstop]

Fine. But why do they need to start at 1st, hit every level, and end up at 30th.

It is the idea that you have to find a way to accelerate the experience to end up with this 'epic campaign' that confuses me.

Question: Do they have to start out as nobodies at the beginning? If so, why?


Question: Do they have to advance through every level on the way from nobody to demigod? If so, why?

They're already level 7, been playing since last June (we play roughtly every 2 weeks). At this rate it'll be 2011 before the campaign ends...and that's with double XP.

It sounds like it would be easier/preferable to simply take one of the following routes:

Start them at level 21.

OR

Plan the campaign as a series of chapters, with a level bump between each chapter.

I guess my objection is that it just seems silly to advance that fast because you never really get a chance to play at a given level for more than one adventure - so you never really get to find out what you can do or can't do at any given level. Each and every adventure ends up being an exercise in "see what I learned overnight" rather than a chance to learn and grow into your current set of powers.

A fair point, but my counterpoint would be that there really isn't much difference level by level.

How about taking your 26 sessions and breaking them down into 5 sets of 4-5 sessions each with an introductory session at the start and a finale session at the end. And between each set of five sessions the players advance four or five levels. [Or the like, depending on how many different themic breaks your story requires).



Carl

That's an idea, but I'm not really sure how that's significantly different than what I have in mind.