How Many Hours Do You Usually Spend in a Level?

[saskganesh]

Voted 31-40 as a median, but really it varies.

L1-L2 can advance rather quickly, but its usually about a 20 hr pace. At L5-L6, advancement slows as XP needed grow so it can take 40 plus.

Of course, not all sessions are equal. Encounters vary, monsters vary, adventures vary. There's no standard.

 

[howandwhy99]

It's a game, so when the box says 2 hours to play that means not having lunch during, stopping for introductions to the family walking in, spill clean up, telling everyone about the film you just saw, and on and on. It does not mean 2 hours no matter what. It means the designers think this should take age-appropriate players focusing on the game about 2 hours to finish.

D&D levels can be completed more quickly. It is done per player though each players actions in the game affect each other. Speed is 100% the course and 100% the player navigating it.

By my understanding D&D gets harder every level. So even though each boost to character abilities prepares players to complete any given level it still generally takes longer to complete the higher one gets.

 

[Imperialus]

lemme see... My Labarynth Lord / AD&D game has been going on for 4.5 years. we'll say 40, 3 hour sessions per year. That's 540 hours.

Our MU is 6th or 7th level. Our thief is 9th level.

 

[marleykat]

21-30 hours (5-6 sessions) more than that and it gets old.

 

[Hussar]

For you folks that say, "well it depends" you do realise that this is a multi choice poll right? If it depends on different factors, then vote more than once.

Honestly, for me, it's rarely been "it depends". If the DM was doing XP by the book, in any edition, we generally bumped around the 20 hour/level mark. It might have been slower at some tables, faster at others, but, IME, that's always been the rule of thumb.

Which looks like it's fairly true for many tables. As I type this 60% of tables are 20 hours or less.

 

[JamesonCourage]

Which looks like it's fairly true for many tables. As I type this 60% of tables are 20 hours or less.

By the same token, aren't 82% also 21+ hours?

 

[Abraxas]

There are a number of ways to look at this poll

19 of the 47 votes are 20 hours or less only
21 of the 47 votes are 21 hours or more only

or
4... <10 hours
2... <20 hours
13.. 10 to 20 hours
3... <30 hours
2... 10 to 30 hours
8... 21 to 30 hours
1... 21 to 40 hours
2... 31 to 40 hours
2... 10 to 40+ hours
3... 21 to 40+ hours
1... 31 to 40+ hours
6... 40+ hours

or
4 up to 10 hours
19 up to 20 hours
32 up to 30 hours
35 up to 40 hours
47 up to 40+

 

[Umbran]

For you folks that say, "well it depends" you do realise that this is a multi choice poll right? If it depends on different factors, then vote more than once.

...

Which looks like it's fairly true for many tables. As I type this 60% of tables are 20 hours or less.

As soon as you start multi-voting, you can't say "one checkbox = one table", and the generalization becomes weak. If I am in three games, one of which is 17 hours per level, and two which are 30 hours per level, I only get to click two boxes - one of my tables is not getting counted.

 

[adamc]

Our sessions are 4.5 - 5 hours long, usually 5-6 sessions. So 20-30 hours sounds right, probably closer to the upper end of the range.

 

[Hussar]

As soon as you start multi-voting, you can't say "one checkbox = one table", and the generalization becomes weak. If I am in three games, one of which is 17 hours per level, and two which are 30 hours per level, I only get to click two boxes - one of my tables is not getting counted.

Meh. It's not scientific, it's a talking point.

If I was totally out to lunch here on the speed of levelling, I would expect the numbers to scale a lot higher than they are.