How long can you stay level XXX and still have fun

[anest1s]

Geez, with the responses so far, I'm surprised my players haven't revolted yet. I'm also surprised past players didn't quit the game sooner before other incidents caused us to part ways.

This topic is a reason why I started the other thread about leveling. I wanted to compare how I do things with how other DMs handle it. If the general opinion is that you should level every other session or at least once a month, I'm really surprised.

In our game, the PCs are around 9th-12th level. We play almost every 2 weeks, and we get about 6 hours of real gaming in each time. My wife started her PC 5 years ago at level 3, and she is close to level 13. I figured, at our rate, by these mid levels they should level maybe every 4 or 5 months (so that would be about every 10 (six hour) sessions. The strange thing is that seems "right" to me.

I try to run a more character focused roleplaying game world where the players get involved in their PCs life. There is no way I could pull this off if they level up once a month! It seems like they would become godlike before they have really even lived a full life.

I wonder if players that expect to level that fast actually play in groups that get things done much faster than we do? Our combats do take quite a while and we may have 2 combats a sessions at most.

I wanted us to level slower so they can play these PCs longer as mortals and less godlike. But compared to what I'm reading, I'm making them go at a snails pace. Wow. I should probably ask my players about this to make sure this isn't a problem.

So...in two sessions, how many encounters you give? Per in-game day? Is a day a session?
I was thinking slower lvling up would be nice too, but I don't want to make it tiring (like with half exp), and seeing how you do this for so long...

 

[TarionzCousin]

When Vin Diesel was XXX it was only fun for the first movie. So: about 100 minutes.

 

[Sunseeker]

Because you want the level up cookie or you want the challenges to change?

Can't it be both? I like cookies and I like more challenges. I'm honest about liking enjoying both.

I only ask because (to use 3.5 as an example) a DM with access to a decent number of the various monster books out there could probably put together months worth of sessions at any given level with very little repeat in foes.

I really have to question how many level 1-3 foes really are unique before they really all start to blend together.

I get the impression from what you wrote, and to a degree I think DnD creates this in most gamers, the gear and the class bonuses are the only real cookies that most players really care about.

I disagree, in fact I prefer gear-less games as it emphasies good playing over broken power-builds that revolve around having specific magic item A and B plus powers C and D to totally break the game.

"I saved the princess, earned the Kings affection, and had a public holiday named in my honor? Yeah great, sure sounds like fun. Oh you mean he is rewarding me with a +4 longsword? Now your talking!"

Exxagerated but I feel that this is how the game really fills out. Almost like you are playing World of Warcraft and your only really goal when leveling is to do it quickly and efficiently so you get to the end game material.

I ensure that the greatest cookie my players have is a good game, and I strive to make the game fun for them, even without crazy leveling and lots of gear.

That said, my stories can also be seen as fairly linear, I write them all myself and with that, it becomes difficult to come up with something for every contingency. Likewise, I'm also a bit of a steam-roller, I suspect we do more encounters/skillchecks/RP moments in my games than in a lot of other people's games.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Low level? I want to be rewarded- gimmie my damn XP! Low level PCs don't feel like they're making any progress without leveling.

High level? I don't care about XP. I want in-campaign rewards. (I'm part of a campaign that started in AD&D, was updated to 2Ed, and continued into 3.XEd, starting in 1986 to the present day. We haven't leveled since 2000.)

 

[Oryan77]

So...in two sessions, how many encounters you give? Per in-game day? Is a day a session?
I was thinking slower lvling up would be nice too, but I don't want to make it tiring (like with half exp), and seeing how you do this for so long...

I have many encounters ready to go. I actually enjoy prep work so I always have 2 to 3 future adventures prepped and ready to go. I also create "random" encounters and have them ready during every session even if they never occur. So it's not that I don't have enough encounters to give. I give them at the players pace (when they get to it). Sometimes I'll try to speed things up if I feel the session is dragging on. So hopefully the level progression speed isn't completely on my shoulders.

I'd say in two sessions (6 hours each), we average about 4-5 encounters regardless of the difficulty of the challenge (about 2 encounters a session). They can spend multiple rounds fighting 10 Gnolls as CR10 PCs. And that isn't an exaggeration. And on the flip side, they can push through an ECL 12 encounter in about the same time. There is no method to their madness!

This usually includes all in-game days. Sometimes a single session will take place in the same in-game day and have 2 encounters. Sometimes it may be 3 in-game days and still only be 2 encounters.

Combat definitely takes a while. I've heard people here talk about finishing their encounters in 30 minutes on average regardless of CR. So I imagine each players turn goes by really fast. Out of the dozens of players that have been in our group, I've never seen anything like that. I usually finish my action as DM faster than any player does and I'm controlling a dozen NPCs.

 

[CarlZog]

Generally speaking, leveling up is a pretty small element of my game enjoyment. As long as the setting, npcs and plot are engaging and appropriate to the level of the pcs, I'm pretty happy.

Having said that, the range of interesting situations a character can effectively participate in does rise dramatically after about 3rd level. So, echoing other posts, I'd say the first three levels should go fairly rapidly, but can then slow down a lot, prolonging that "sweet spot" of the mid-levels.

 

[FreeXenon]

For me leveling is a large part of the fun, so at least for the games and the people that I currently play with... leveling at least once a month is in order.

Now, if I came into a game knowing full well that we level not often and the plot and game are well enough its own reward, sure, I'd be happy jump on board! =)

Different games types and DM's mean different rewards. =O

 

[the Jester]

Heh.

Back when I ran 1e, a player once commented to me: "Man, when you finally gain a level in your game, you really feel like you earned it!"

Note that advancement was typically a lot slower than the modern standard, too.

 

[Baumi]

My groups (including myself) seems to like a level every 2-4 Sessions. Since we play every second Week (6-8 hours a Session), that means that we gain a level every 1-2 Months.

Tweaking Characters is just too much fun to strech it any longer

If we would play every week than I think there could be more sessions between leveling.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

My groups (including myself) seems to like a level every 2-4 Sessions. Since we play every second Week (6-8 hours a Session), that means that we gain a level every 1-2 Months.

Tweaking Characters is just too much fun to strech it any longer

If we would play every week than I think there could be more sessions between leveling.

That is about how often most of my DMs level players. What gets me is since they base it so closely off the official rules for xp and leveling our characters could literally level 2 or 3 times in the span of a single in game week. Just feels so fast.

It's like may 1st killing goblins, may 6th fought hill giants, may 15th killed vampire, may 29th slew balor. I know a bit of an exaggeration but that is how it feels at time.