How high have you started?

[JoeGKushner]

I've started in one game at 10th level, that was for City of the Spider Queen.

I've allowed another player to start at 15th level as a cleric to act as the walking band aid without beeing the walking band aid to much, when the rest of the part was 10th-12th level.

 

[maddman75]

I hate 1st level characters with a passion. I will never, ever again run a camaign with 1st level PCs, and beg any DM I play with to start us at 3rd level at the least. I prefer 5th. D&D is the most fun from 5th to about 12th level, so I see little reason to play it at levels below or above this range.

 

[Flyspeck23]

I have yet to start a campaign higher than level 1. At the lower levels, GMing seems to be more fun

New characters start at a level appropriate to the party, though.

 

[Yalius]

I just see it as... taking away some of the accomplishment if you start higher than first. Those are the formative levels for characters that kind of determine where the character is headed. Starting them higher with a story about how they got that way just seems like the easy way out.

 

[AIM-54]

I once played in a game that started at 10th level, solely because we wanted to try out 3E at higher levels.

I much prefer starting at 1st and going through, as I like the build-up to the "maximum fun" range of 5th-12th level. I think, were I to run a game again, I'd try and slow down advancement a bit to maximize time in that zone. YMMV, of course.

 

[Desdichado]

I hate 1st level characters with a passion. I will never, ever again run a camaign with 1st level PCs, and beg any DM I play with to start us at 3rd level at the least. I prefer 5th. D&D is the most fun from 5th to about 12th level, so I see little reason to play it at levels below or above this range.

I also like to start characters at about 3rd level, because that's still low level, but with a little bit of padding so you can have more challenging encounters and whatnot.

I also have little interest in playing anymore once I start to hit about 10-12 level tops. But I don't hate 1st level. I still have lots of fun at 1st level too.

 

[Storminator]

The first group I joined back in 1e were all 5th-8th level. Because of that rule, I had to start at 1st level, and keep getting killed. And keep starting over at first level..... but it was fun for some reason

We used to start a group at 1st level, and half would die, and the other half would level. Then we'd start another group, repeat, and merge the two half groups together.

After a while, we had a large group with no thief. Naturally, you can't start a new character at 4th level, and a 1st level thief would die hard and fast in a 4th level module, so we sent out 26 thieves on a Darwinian crime spree at the Keep of KotBL. All crime, all the time; no thief could stop until he was dead or the only one left.

And the names of these thieves? A-1, B-52, CO2, D-Day ...

In the end, it was H2O that survived.

PS

 

[maddman75]

IMO 1st level characters are apprentice level. They really don't have any business leaving home yet. IMC the only 1st level characters are young teenagers. 3rd to 5th is the standard, meaning that commoners and town guards will be about this level. Changing to this simple assumption results in a game world that IMO makes a lot more sense.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Duuude, where's my dice?

 

[eris404]

How high a level have you used to start a running game?

We usually start at 1st level for new campaigns, but one DM decided to start us at 12th level for a change of pace. Besides, he was impatient to use all those demons and devils in the MM.