How long, in real time, would you expect a campaign from 1-30 to take?

[S'mon]

I know that was the claim for 3e, but, honestly, I don't think that it was all that achievable. I think it was a lot closer to about 2 years to go 1-20 (and possibly 3 years) in 3e.

I don't recall the PCs ever levelling slower than once per 3 5-hour sessions in my 3e campaigns, even when they were up around 17th level, and usually faster than that. There was a period ca 10th-14th when the frequent death & consequent loss of levels stalled advancement, though. For one 3e campaign I went over to 1/2 XP, which gave a 1/5 sessions rate - that was for Lost City of Barakus, which is designed that way.

 

[OnlineDM]

I've been running War of the Burning Sky since July 2010, playing about once every 1.5 weeks for four hours per session. The PCs are just about to hit level 15. At this pace, I expect us to wrap things up just shy of three years.

 

[Bold or Stupid]

First campaign ran July '08 to April '10 so 21 months.

 

[Vadriar]

I used to DM a group of 4. We've played for almost 3 years (minus a month), and got up to level 14. We average 2 encounters per 4 hour session (people show up a few minutes late, some social talk going on, a lot of fooling around at the table, unfamiliarity with rules, my sucking at DMing some aspects of the game, that kind of stuff).

 

[Hussar]

I don't recall the PCs ever levelling slower than once per 3 5-hour sessions in my 3e campaigns, even when they were up around 17th level, and usually faster than that. There was a period ca 10th-14th when the frequent death & consequent loss of levels stalled advancement, though. For one 3e campaign I went over to 1/2 XP, which gave a 1/5 sessions rate - that was for Lost City of Barakus, which is designed that way.

Well, it's not a poll, and my Google fu is failing me to find one (My google fu is getting better and I keep editing this post), but, http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/311462-how-fast-do-your-pcs-level-up.html shows a lot of opinions on how fast you level up in 3e. I just found a poll you started in 2002 http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/18599-how-many-hours-play-level-up.html that pegs leveling up at about 10-12 hours on average. Another poll from a 2010 http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/296896-whats-your-leveling-up-sweet-spot.html pegs leveling up at 3-5 sessions per level. Although, again, this one is not edition specific. (to be fair, I've never really found a huge disparity between leveling up times between edition but I accept that that's just my experience. YMMV obviously)

This thread from 2004 http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/82183-how-often-does-your-group-level.html has a nice spread between 3-6 weeks, with the peak at 3 weeks.

Ok, I'll stop diving back into the past now.

Polls that I do recall seeing generally pegged things at about 2-3 years to go 1-20.

 

[S'mon]

Well, it's not a poll, and my Google fu is failing me to find one (My google fu is getting better and I keep editing this post), but, http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/311462-how-fast-do-your-pcs-level-up.html shows a lot of opinions on how fast you level up in 3e. I just found a poll you started in 2002 http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/18599-how-many-hours-play-level-up.html that pegs leveling up at about 10-12 hours on average. Another poll from a 2010 http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/296896-whats-your-leveling-up-sweet-spot.html pegs leveling up at 3-5 sessions per level. Although, again, this one is not edition specific. (to be fair, I've never really found a huge disparity between leveling up times between edition but I accept that that's just my experience. YMMV obviously)

This thread from 2004 http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/82183-how-often-does-your-group-level.html has a nice spread between 3-6 weeks, with the peak at 3 weeks.

Ok, I'll stop diving back into the past now.

Polls that I do recall seeing generally pegged things at about 2-3 years to go 1-20.

Thanks Hussar - your links remind me that my D&D sessions ca 2002 (3e) used to be 5-6 hours on a Sunday afternoon, whereas now (4e) they're 2.5-3 sessions on a Saturday or Monday evening. So if the PCs still level up every 2-3 sessions, that's actually half as many hours of play!

Overall it does look like an average of 10-12 sessions of play to level is fairly consistent across 3e & 4e.

 

[S'mon]

I know that in my current 4e campaigns I'm preferring a faster levelling rate than previously. In particular in my Wilderlands swords & sorcery game I'm hoping for a level up about every 2 to 2.5 3-4 hour sessions, about every 8 hours of play, and to finally get to see Paragon and even Epic tier. The setting and the campaign themes are very well designed to accommodate high level play.

 

[d2OKC]

My game started in Sept. 09, we've taken a few month-long breaks here and there (actually, we are currently taking one while one of the players runs us through Gardmore Abbey), and my players are at about level 18.

We meet once a week (but, realistically, maybe more like 35 out of 52 weeks) for about 4.5 hours per session. Heroic tier ran about 8 months and paragon has run about 9 so far, with two more levels to go (but we have taken more breaks during paragon). I'm hoping that once we start epic, maybe after Christmas, the levels will start going a bit faster. I'm really considering kind of power levelling them through it, so we can finish somewhere around Sept. next year and make it an even three year campaign.

The next game I run is going to be a low-level sandbox-style game. This 1-30 arch has been a lot of fun, but I do think the committment is starting to take its toll on some of the players. They're having fun still, but it's difficult for seven people to meet every week on the same night. I don't expect perfect attendence from them (I'm reasonable about that kind of thing), and I haven't needed to be, because they've been incredible about it thus far, but I don't really want to push it much longer than I need to, simply out of compassion for their willingness to humor me for so long.

Anyway, I voted for 3+ to 4 years in the poll.

 

[Evilhalfling]

1st to 11th : 26 sessions: July 7th . 2010- June 13th 2011
11th to 14th : 8 sessions: ending September 23rd, 2011

2.3 games a month for 15 months. usually 5 1/2 hours per game.

At this rate If we had continued another 17 months, we could have reached 30th. just under 3 years.

just for comparison my 3ed+ games tended to also tended to last a little over a year, before I burned out. Most ended around 11th level. The one exception was a campaign we came back to after a years hiatus and played from 13th-20th.

 

[Ale]

I think that would take 4-5 years if you play 1/2 weeks.

I really want the 5ed have less levels (15 is enough). It could be heroic 1-7, Paragon 8-14 and Epic 15. I think that just few campaings sustains more than 1-2 years. So, reach the final level would be possible this way. So, it has more options of monsters per level, and reach the final level would be not quite impossible.

Like wow, the designs could do things to endgame.