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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BlindOgre" data-source="post: 4195262" data-attributes="member: 65364">Nearly every campaign I've run has started at 1st level and I've even run a few that started with zero-level, unclassed PCs that were actually a lot of fun.  Depending on the players and the campaign, second level has generally been reached in two adventures, third after three more, fourth after five or six more, etc., generally with a fair curve in time and challenge. With an experienced group of players over the course of a weekend, we might get through two to four phases (adventures). When less play time was available, those same four adventures spanned a few weekends. Pace, of course, depends on a lot of real-life factors beyond system mechanics and adventure design, no matter which system is used. However, even considering external influences, experience mechanics can have a significant influence on pace and challenge. One thing to consider about the value of slower low-level advancement is that it can be used to provide more opportunity for establishment and embellishment of characterization from a role-playing perspective (fleshing out the character background, basic tendencies, planning for the future, etc.). Much like in real-life, where a fair bit of our character traits are roughed out while we are in secondary school and college and later refined in our adult lives by work experience. If the first few levels are rushed, a character may soon have many heroic abilities, but not much in the way of a developed personality to add flavor and context to such heroic abilities.It's up to the DM and the players to make this work well. I've had groups that completed high-level campaigns happily go about creating new characters and spending weeks below 3rd level building and re-enforcing the foundations of their new characters. A heavy-role-playing group will enjoy the exercise, though a group that mainly digs orc bashing as stress-relief might be less interested in the finer points of character development. I've also had groups that had no desire to bother much with levels 1-3 and still managed to do a lot of character development while progressing through the introductory levels rather quickly. I don't think previous editions got it terribly wrong, just mildly wrong but good enough to only require a few house rules.BTW, I just canceled my pre-order of the 4e core books and will continue playing using the 3.5 system, for which I have tons of material. I will wait to see and participate in a few more 4e games at my local game shop before deciding whether or not to purchase the 4e set.</blockquote>

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