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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 2640361" data-attributes="member: 9254">Wow, you people must have combat like mad.  I give out XP for RP and they don't level that fast.  My game's been running since November 2000 and the party is up to 19th level, starting at 1st.  We have 6-hour sessions every other week and miss a couple sessions/year so say we've had 100 game sessions and 600 hours of gaming.  That is one level every 33 hours of gaming. There is combat about 50% of the sessions and the campaign spans 5-years of game time.  (game calendar: September 418-January 424)  I average about a dozen encounters/level, with a lot of the combat coming in rapid succession (E.G. recently they fought a dragon, it fled, they pursued, he hid in other monsters' lairs forcing them to fight the other creatures to get to him resulting in 5-6 encounters in a row).  Trust me, leveling is all about pacing.  If you have story progression and interaction with NPCs sufficient to keep the players involved, you can level slower.  Most people go rather thin on story and heavy on action, which forces faster leveling.  That's not a criticism; the bulk of d20 players like combat so it is the easiest thing that makes the most people happy.  But it is like a diet of nothing but candy; you get fat quick.  Coming up with a gaming diet that isn't dependent on fat-XP combat is not easy.  The trick is coming up with a plot where the players can be constantly doing interesting things that have a purpose but that aren't XP rich.    Generally that means you have to alter the plot in mid-game to suit the players and characters.  Most DMs (self included) don't like changing the tone of the game but often that is what is required to keep everyone interested.  I didn't intend for my game to resemble a Tom Clancy novel (massive wad of plot followed by hectic action scenes) but that's what worked out for the best.</blockquote>

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