How often should PCs level up?

[willrali]

Time is precious. People want to progress. I loathe endless fluffing around on each level as a player (a game isn't a job for pete's sake), and when I run games, I try to make sure players level up each session (though our sessions are long).

I don't give story awards though. XP is awarded as we go for doing stunts, for coming up with good ideas, for planning and strategy, for killing things, and for the value of loot gained.

 

[zztong]

This is a tough question to answer. It depends on what I've envisioned for the game. I guess for the survey I'll focus on "typical" though it still isn't easy. Typically, we level when the story calls for it. Time playing isn't a factor.

One of my favorite games was for a university club. Your level depend on your academic rank. Freshman=5, Sophomore=6, Junior=7, Senior=8, Grad Student=9, so you leveled once a year.