Fast advancement in Age of Worms and other campaigns

[MerricB]

It is too fast in the game-world. Too much change in too short a time, without any due cause. It just stretches believability for me.

This has been true for every edition of D&D, ever. It's a game mechanic, not a realism mechanic.

(I could quite easily progress from 1st to 20th level in AD&D in under a year of game time...)

What I do like about 3e is that the rules give you a much better handle on adjusting the speed to fit your needs.

Cheers!

 

[JoeGKushner]

One of the solid moments in Shackled City came when the party returned from the Abyss.

They were considerably more powerful then when they last left Cauldron to go to Redgorge.

Sufficie it to say that their power increase is noted by the other factions and that it's incorporated pretty well into the adventure I thought.

 

[Mark Hope]

The first arc of my most recent Dark Sun game took characters from 1st to 9th level in 13 sessions of 4-6 hours each. I deliberately upped the advancement speed a little bit and enforced months of downtime between adventures. Works pretty well. The players liked the feel of character progression and it matched the setting nicely as well.

 

[Sammael]

Too fast for me. My players just hit 17th/18th level last session after 4 years/132 sessions of campaign time. That sounds about right. They feel as if they've accomplished something, which I find lacking from faster-paced games.

Onward to epic levels.

 

[diaglo]

just finished session 33 (6 hours per session) for my OD&D campaign. highest level PC is 4th.

which is too fast imo.

i can't imagine playing at your rate Merric.

 

[JoeGKushner]

just finished session 33 (6 hours per session) for my OD&D campaign. highest level PC is 4th.

which is too fast imo.

i can't imagine playing at your rate Merric.

It's fun.

 

[Gundark]

I wonder if we were playing on a weekly basis (rather the "fortnightly if we're lucky" version), I'd be slowing things down and doing more roleplaying? (That isn't to say that there isn't any roleplaying, but certainly I tend to push the adventure & plot more than let people just swan about in bars.)

I must be different than everyone here. I don't have a lot of time for gaming, and like it when I game to see the group's characters progress nicely. It would drive me absolutly batty to play for years and not crack 10th level (if fact I wouldn't be playing in that game). I realise that what I'm about to say may make some people react but I would be quite happy to see a campaign run from 1st - 20th in about a year's time (assuming you could play weekly or bi-weekly) give or take a few months. In fact about a year and a half would be ideal. What?!?!? this is crazy?? why? How many campaigns die before 10th (or round a bout)? Look at the rate that Dungeon is putting out adventure paths, so far they have been top notch. I want to play in them, not be planning to play in them 3-4 years from now. There are lots of character concepts that I want to try, life is too short/not enough hours in the day.

 

[Beckett]

Doing my second session of AoW tonight, I'm hoping to average about three sessions per adventure. Playing every other week, that sounds like about how much time I want to spend, although 7-8 players does slow things down. Ideally, we'd have 7 hour sessions, starting about 5:15 when I get home, finishing up around midnight, but that's not always possible; tonight will be a late start since my GF (one of the players) is working until 7, and with her car in the shop even if we started without her, someone would have to go pick her up.

I could stand for it to take a little longer, but as both a GM and a player, I like advancement. It's not the only thing I like in a game, but it's part of my formula for enjoyment. I don't think there is anyone alive who could keep my interest in a campaign where I've put 180 hours into my character and have only gained three levels.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

just finished session 33 (6 hours per session) for my OD&D campaign. highest level PC is 4th.

which is too fast imo.

i can't imagine playing at your rate Merric.

Level 4? What twinks!

Our current game sessions tend to have slow exp as well. Playing *roughly* 3 times a month, starting at 4th level, my Oathbound PC's are nearing 8th level after a year. Part of that is to not overwhelm the 3 people who have never played 3rd edition with too many new abilities or new spells at once though and let them get comfortable with what they can do before bumping them up. I really need some kind of way for them to train skills and feats outside of the level mechanic... anyone know if Buy the Numbers allows for that (while still working with the level system)?

 

[Mark Hope]

I must be different than everyone here. I don't have a lot of time for gaming, and like it when I game to see the group's characters progress nicely. It would drive me absolutly batty to play for years and not crack 10th level (if fact I wouldn't be playing in that game). I realise that what I'm about to say may make some people react but I would be quite happy to see a campaign run from 1st - 20th in about a year's time (assuming you could play weekly or bi-weekly) give or take a few months. In fact about a year and a half would be ideal. What?!?!? this is crazy?? why? How many campaigns die before 10th (or round a bout)? Look at the rate that Dungeon is putting out adventure paths, so far they have been top notch. I want to play in them, not be planning to play in them 3-4 years from now. There are lots of character concepts that I want to try, life is too short/not enough hours in the day.

I'm in a similar position. My group plays pretty often, but there are 5 DMs in the group and we alternate time behind the screen. So any given campaign arc lasts two or three months max and then goes on hold for about a year until your turn as DM rolls around again. Because of this, it seemed important to me to get some decent level progression in there.

In the DS campaign I ran before this one, on the other hand, time was less pressing. We took 14 sessions of 8-10 hours each to reach around 7th level. I could easily see me taking this pace again, or even one slower. It all depends on the circumstances. I completely agree with the point above that, after a year of playing, I would expect to see the characters at 10th level at least, preferably more. In fact, iirc, under 1e and 2e rules, we would see characters reach "name level" (roughly speaking, double figures) after a year of weekly games, with things slowing considerably after that.

I recall there being some talk of WotC having done research and come up with the finding that the average campaign kept its momentum for a year, and so they set the progression to allow characters to reach 20th level within that timeframe, assuming regular play in sessions of a decent length. I'm not entirely sure I'd want to go that fast, but I do think that it's good that its possible to do so without it becoming game-breaking.