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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 6823100" data-attributes="member: 29398">Perhaps, but your later information tells me instead......that much of the problem was in fact sitting behind the screen.If the DM is too lazy to work out xp, or can't hit a minor curveball such as an unexpected change in the party lineup, then nothing I say is likely going to help. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Maybe not, but let's take these in order and see where we get, eh? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />1. Party - my games are intentionally "anything goes", and the party ends up being whatever it becomes through the run of play.  Sometimes they end up Goodly, sometimes anything but, and sometimes a given party will drift one way or another as its lineup and outlook morphs over time.  That's largely down to the players and the decisions they make.2. Plot arcs - believe it or not, I actually have these in my games at a few levels.  There'll be one (or two) high-level overarching plots, mostly behind the scenes, that influence the game now and then as it goes along and eventually will, may, or might become front-and-centre.  Then there'll be internal plots on a more here-and-now level that may or may not relate to the larger one(s); these can manifest as short adventure paths (3-6 adventures usually) embedded within the main campaign.  Tack on things the party themselves decide to do as side adventures or whatever, along with an occasional stand-alone adventure not really related to anything, and there's lots and lots of gold to mine for story.That said, it's entirely up to the party whether they follow my story arcs, tell them to get lost and then go do something unexpected, or a bit of both; all these have happened to me.  And the way I see it, even though I storyboard out the adventures I'd like to run in a campaign I've no idea what I'll actually end up running*, how the story will end up going, or even whether my storyboard is worth the page it's written on; and won't until the campaign is done.* - except the very first adventure; that's locked in ahead of time and the players have always been cool with this.3. Minimizing dungeon crawls/treasure hunts - here we'd differ, as I'm an old-school dungeon crawler and treasure hunter.  I'm awful at running city adventures and I know it, I can sort-of do political intrigue stuff, and wilderness isn't a problem.4. Non-xp advancement - I never want to say never, but if I ever do this it won't be in a D&D campaign.5. 4-6 sessions per level - if you're talking a typical 4-hour-ish evening session it'll take more than 4-6 of 'em to advance, particularly once the first few levels have passed.  The 3-9 range is the sweet spot in 1e (and it'd be modified 1e I'd be running, almost certainly), and I'd like to make that part last as long as possible.  That said, it raises the question of whether you are playing for story or playing for advancement; if you're strictly playing for story there'd be no need to ever advance at all, and if you're strictly playing for advancement there's no need for any depth of story beyond one encounter after another.  I'd hazard a guess all of us want a bit of both; but advancement to me is secondary as long as the story - or even just the immediate adventure we're in - is fun and egnaging.  Don't get me wrong - advancement is always nice - but it's secondary. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Er, hold on there [MENTION=6788736]Flamestrike[/MENTION] - your math is burnt.10th level - 3 levels = 7 levels, which over 8 years is a bit under 1 per year.Now, keep in mind a bunch of other factors:During that time you're not always playing the same character.  We jump between parties, characters come and go and retire and return and die, level loss sometimes happens, and so on.  I could spend half a week running hard numbers but life's too short so I'll guess: a character played continuously in my game for a year without any deaths or other hiccups will probably go up about a level-and-a-half; more if they are less than 3rd level and less if they are 9th or higher.  I might be erring low on that, it may be closer to two levels.  Overall, taking everything into account, the campaign as a whole - or at least the leading edge of it - tends to gain about a level a year. (yes the current highest got there a bit artificially but there also quite a few 7th-9th types who got there for real).As an example: the party I'll be running tonight ranges currently from 6th-9th level with one of the 9th's tickling 10th.  Sometime later this year we'll be putting that group on hold and jumping to another party, whose level range is (I think) 4th-8th; that group will run for a year or so and I'm not sure what'll happen beyond that (though I have some ideas, insert evil cackle here) <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Bleah!  I'm one of those players who likes to be familiar enough with my character(s) that I can largely ignore the character sheet most of the time except for spells if I'm a caster, which would be impossible if every month I had a new bunch of abilities dropped in my lap.We're an outlier, but I'm not sure we're quite as extreme as you may think.  That said, if your only D&D/PF experience is with 3e or newer I can see why you'd think that.Lan-"another pleasant side effect of long campaigns: I can take the time to put more depth into one setting rather than having to dream up new ones all the time"-efan</blockquote>

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