How fast to level up in game time?

[Oni]

Game time and real time need not coincide. One of my biggest pet peeves is the collapse of game time. The thought that you have to be on the go constantly that your characters never ever take a break from adventuring drives me nuts. The average adventurer is quite a wealthy fellow in most dnd worlds. I don't see why people are so resistant to going on an adventure or two, then holing up for the winter to enjoy your hardearned gains, build magic items, or whatever have you. It is not like you have to play out all this time, nothing stopping you from saying that you stayed the winter in the village, it was a pretty rough winter but you helped the villagers get enough food to survive and now that spring has come again you feel the return of the old wanderlust. Just because you character isn't doing anything doesn't mean you have to no do anything as well.

I like Quas' suggestion and would happily opt for the 500xp a month idea.

 

[Desdichado]

You can also adjust the XP assigned; lower it if you want a slower pace, raise it for faster, etc; it doesn't have to be set in stone, either!

Generally, it depends on the campaign how fast. The only really long term 3E game I've been in lasted about 18 months of real world time, and about 3-4 years game time. Lots of travelling, downtime in the winter when travel is impractical, etc.

Yeah, but those are basically all metagame, not ingame reasons. I can't think of any way (other than arbitrary assignment) to calibrate levelling with ingame timing.

 

[Paul_Klein]

For reference, in the Star Wars d20 system:

In the time from the start of Ep4 to the and of Ep6:

Luke gained 7 levels (2nd to 9th)
Han gained 2 levels (8th to 10th)
Leia gained 4 levels (4th to 8th)

That is in a roughly 4-year period.

Looking in between Ep1 and Ep2 (roughly 10 years), we have:

Obi-Wan gained 4 levels (6th to 10th)
Anakin gained 5 levels (1st to 6th)


*shrug* Just thought I'd throw that out there.

 

[Sanackranib]

leveling up

I figure at most the characters should gain 10 levels per year (game time) I incorporate time for training and use a calander in my game. the party is currently about 2d- 3rd level. I am giving out a set ammount of xp (with xp bonus for a few things) to control the advancement rate. (so it takes over a month and a half to level - 16 months in the Scarred Lands - some of which will be spent in training) the xp is on the low end but there are a lot of the weaker monsters to chalange them with and when their chararacters get a bit higher I will adjust the xp accordingly.
I like the lower levels because the magic level is weaker. the party should all have magic weapons by 5th level. they all have minor magic items ie: potions, scrools, wands,+1 rings etc. the guy with the +1 bracers has the most expensive item and he's not trading!
fighting the weaker monsters also goes a long way towards controling the money they get because weaker creatures have less. so the game is more balanced. we have had 6 sessions of a bi-weekly game, and so far all they PC's are having fun.

 

[MerricB]

My trick is simple: make as much game time pass as possible for the PCs.

How do I do that? Wilderness travel. Keeping track of time spent healing or supplying. Make them wait for items to become available.

And, most importantly of all: don't run too many "deadline" quests.

My last 6 hour session detailed ONE MONTH of game time. If you keep good track of time, it can add up!

I require one week of training for PCs, but I allow this to take place during other 'off' periods - not necessarily once the XP is gained. Thus, they can gain the level mid-adventure. This rewards them for good play, and doesn't interfere with the flow of the adventure.

Cheers!

 

[Creamsteak]

Game time and real time need not coincide. One of my biggest pet peeves is the collapse of game time. The thought that you have to be on the go constantly that your characters never ever take a break from adventuring drives me nuts. The average adventurer is quite a wealthy fellow in most dnd worlds. I don't see why people are so resistant to going on an adventure or two, then holing up for the winter to enjoy your hardearned gains, build magic items, or whatever have you. It is not like you have to play out all this time, nothing stopping you from saying that you stayed the winter in the village, it was a pretty rough winter but you helped the villagers get enough food to survive and now that spring has come again you feel the return of the old wanderlust. Just because you character isn't doing anything doesn't mean you have to no do anything as well.

I like Quas' suggestion and would happily opt for the 500xp a month idea.

I have to agree with this. I just joined another group to 'study' them (I should do reports on this stuff), and they double the xp award, and do CR/ECL totally wrong, then reward 'role-playing' experience for some absolutely short-sighted things, like player vs. player (not character vs. character) arguments. I gained 2 levels (6-8) in one night, and it upsets me. I also had to tolerate PCs going door to door asking for magic items (well... patron to patron, but still).

I'm going to ask about having 'hidden' experience, and giving the players more time to spend in towns relaxing and investing. Running from point A to point B to handle Artifacts C and D at all times is just too much work. Also, note that every encounter was an ambush set for the PCs... what is that?

 

[Umbran]

An adventurer's life is probably like that of a soldier - long periods of complete boredom punctuated by moments of abject terror. And boredom doesn't earn XP

Conan may have gone up in a 20-year career, but he probably wasn't slaying people every single day. He more likely had an occasional time where he garnered lots of loot, followed by times where he spent said loot on debauchery.

Similarly for D&D adventurers. They can easily have long stretches of time where they do little to nothing interesting. They can gain experience in quick bursts of activity, interspersed with periods of "downtime" as long as you find convenient.

 

[SemperJase]

Conan may have gone up in a 20-year career, but he probably wasn't slaying people every single day. He more likely had an occasional time where he garnered lots of loot, followed by times where he spent said loot on debauchery.

Actually, if you read the original books, the debuachery was short lived as Conan seems to have gone through money like water, and the slaying was quite often. Conan was the original hack and slasher. The books were pure action. Not realistic, but they were escapist fun.

I like MerricB's comment on game-time. My last DM got pretty good at tracking it. The party fought an epic battle that became a reference point time-wise. During one session, we were surprised to learn that in game time the battle had happened 6 months previously. In real time it had been a matter of weeks over two or three sessions.

 

[Shallown]

I thought my group was flying through levels in game world time but after looking back over the calender it hasn't been that bad. I find using a regular calender with room to jot notes helps keep the time relative and in mind for the GM. They sped through the lower levels and as they advance the time between advancing both real and game time starts to stretch. My players get a set XP for every session that is then adjusted up or down for difficult encounters and role playing so it is possible to earn as much for a session of city/town roleplaying as dungeon hacking. It honestly usually is less but not so much the players care, plus since I keep exp and not them they never really are aware of a difference.

They have been adventuring for 4 1/2 months and are now 8th level. But they will probably kill a month or more before they pop 9th and this trend should continue. I think the lower levels coming faster is okay and realistic. To get the basic understanding of a subject (in this case adventuring) comes fairly fast.

Just my thoughts

Later

 

[Zappo]

Hm... there are literary examples of people getting quite a heap of levels in a short time too. (Bel)Garion (from Eddings) gets to a very high level in one year, starting out from commoner. Other times, it's not a mountain of levels but still you can see a noticeable progression in a character's fighting skills in a relatively short time (Shannara series; most characters start out as newbies and get decent fairly quickly).

I don't think that there is a rate at which one "should" advance. It's a matter of campaign style, just as much as the setting you choose.