D&D General How many adventures per level?

[Mallus]

So I’m running 5e again. 2 sessions in and the introductory adventure is done, the party is level 2, and their 1st small expedition into uncharted territory begins on Friday. Which has got me thinking about pacing. What’s everyone’s preference when it comes to leveling speed? On average how many adventurers before turning the PC power dial up a notch?

This isn’t 5e specific. Feel free to chime in if you’re playing/prefer an earlier version. Prior to this we were playing Labyrinth Lord/AD&D mashup. Spent two pandemic years getting to L8/L9!

(well the thief got to L9…)

 

[Krachek]

Two years in pandemic we step from level 5 to 7.
This issue is very table specific.
some like levelling, some like the atmosphere of level 5-10, and some prefer high level epic game.

 

[DND_Reborn]

We took two years to go from 1 - 20 in 5E. I actually typically do one "adventure" per level (even in older editions), but the adventures of course got longer, more involved, etc.

Pace-wise, I like a level about every 4-6 weeks (assuming weekly sessions). I have found this pace keeps people more engaged (if leveling is a priority for your group?) and allows a group to make it to 10th level in about a year, at which point you can keep going or move on to a new set of PCs if you want.

The early levels (especially in 5E) might be in just a session or two, but it slows down after 3rd level IME.

 

[payn]

I usually go up a level every 3-4 hours of gameplay for the first couple of levels. Then, it slows down to about 2-4 sessions per level after about 3rd or 4th.

 

[aco175]

I find that 2nd level is about a night or two of gaming and level 3 maybe 2 nights. Levels 4 and 5 take 3-4 night of gaming and then things slow down some. It might take a couple months to gain levels 6-11. We do not play much higher than that.

My group likes to get a bit tougher (L3) faster and then slow things down and enjoy the mid levels.

 

[tetrasodium]

Often quite a few. My groups usually take a year or more of weekly sessions to go from 1 to low/mid teens.

edit: sometimes longer if the group is really involved in things but faster is pretty rare. I'm not sire than I can really give an "adventures" ratio though since those don't always fit cleanly

 

[Richards]

In my current 3.5 campaign, I decided I was going to ditch XP altogether and run exactly 5 adventures (of the size you'd find in a Dungeon magazine) of each level, for a grand total of 100 adventures over the course of the campaign. We're 28 adventures in and so far, so good.

Johnathan

 

[Burnside]

I usually do:

roughly 4 hours to get to level 2
roughly an additional 8 hours to get to level 3
roughly an additional 16 hours for every level thereafter

 

[Shiroiken]

Really depends on the edition. Back in AD&D, it usually took about 2-4 adventures to level up, since leveling was supposed to be slow. It was faster in 3E, but I don't really remember it too well in this regard. I remember 4E seemed to match 1 adventure per level, if not sometimes 2 levels per adventure. In 5E, I tend to want 2 adventures per level, giving players time to enjoy their toys before getting new ones.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Not sure about "adventures" as they're a bit variable.

I've always liked "a number of sessions equal to the level to which you aspire" as a good rule of thumb, so 2 to get from 1st to 2nd, 3 to get from 2nd to 3rd etc.

Then again, I've allowed characters to jump 5 levels at once when things get dull, so it's not like I'm consistent.