So, how many game sessions then?
Hi all-
My last major campaign, The Stroun Campaign set in the Theocracy of the Pale (Greyhawk), lasted 25 games. My wife and another player were the only ones to play in every game. We play every other week (on average). So this 25 game campaign took us about a year. We had a lot of fun. Here's how we do XP. Our current Hardby campaign is the same way.
XP for monsters and traps as per the CR/ PC level. Or as much as the DM percieves is important. We also give 10xp per skill and 15xp per feat used in a game session, with a max number of uses per skill / feat of 3 and a max number of XP from skills/feats is 100x level to be/2 (so if you are 3rd and going to 4th, you can only get 200 xp).
Being that we are in Las Vegas we also gamble. Before each combat, we guess which PC will fumble (and confirm) first, how many total fumbles and how many rounds the combat will take. Each is worth 50xp, and total fumbles if correct is multipled. So if you choose 2 fumbles, then you get an extra 100xp.
One thing that I tried when preparing for a new campaign was to use the XP chart that Unearthed Arcana proposes. After 5th level, it takes a lot more XP to go up. But they also suggest giving more XP for encounters. As such, one thing that we (me as the DM and the players) have disagreed upon is the pace in which PC's go up. I feel that PC's go up too fast, however, most players disagree. I see it that PC's go from their home, picking their noses to coming back less than a year later as a dragon slayer and empire saving hero. Thus why I like the idea of it taking much longer to go up in level. But as Ron, one of the players argued, he played in every game in the last campaign (25 games) and his PC's (when they died, I allowed a new PC only 1 level lower) never went above 13th. The highest PC that never died went to 14th.
So as he argues, after 25 games, and 1 year, it would take almost 2 years before he would get to use some of those high level spells. I agree and think that is the way it should be.
So how many game sessions do you do in a year? How many years have you and the majority of your crew been togeather? My previous group had been togeather for about 5 years. With my wife, Ron and Henry (and now my son), our core group is going on it's 2nd year as a whole.