Poll: Starting Point for Campaigns

[the Jester]

1st level, close enough to every time that I am comfortable calling it "always".

 

[hemera]

I generally start my campaigns at first level when I run them, but when the other dm runs (we switch off and on between campaigns sometimes) the game he generally starts at about 4th.

TL: DR I like newbies, he likes a bit of seasoning.

 

[howandwhy99]

After training for a class, no experience gained yet. So first level, no XP.

However, if gaining a level comes from mastering content, than any starting level could just as easily be considered "1" for a campaign's purposes. To have any advancement beyond that level, then you'd want enough levels divided in such a way as to really allow for the content of each to be explored.

 

[MoxieFu]

I am asking this poll in that should the new edition of the game explicitly take into account different game styles. Not everyone plays an ongoing campaign starting at level 1. Most editions of the game made that assumption, but I don't think it's generally true.
Maybe I'm wrong.

At this point with First getting 66% it looks like you are wrong.

 

[Sunseeker]

first to fifth. No higher than 5th unless I want to run an epic-type campaign right off the bat without the years leveling up the characters.

Generally speaking though, 1st when I want my players to feel like the greenhorns right out of training, or 5th when I want my players to feel a little more experienced. I tend to break my campaigns up in 5-level increments, with each arc being a new segment to the story, and we take breaks in between.

 

[Incenjucar]

I start at level 1. That said, because 4E's levels are all fully-functional, if my current game somehow peters out, I'm starting the next one at that level and continuing forth until I see every single level the game has to offer.

 

[OnlineDM]

I'm running three campaigns right now. All three started at level 1.

I did run a campaign for a while that started at level 5 at the request of the players, but I much prefer starting at level 1.

 

[Jack99]

1st nearly every single time.

 

[Mattachine]

At this point with First getting 66% it looks like you are wrong.

Perhaps, but perhaps not.
66% could be considered generally true. On the other hand, some might set the "general" standard higher.

Also, a poll here at EN World is incredibly biased. The people that post here are a very specific subset of gamers--tend to be older, more likely to DM, more likely to have played a very long time. Also, we are folks that post on internet message boards. Haha!

 

[KidSnide]

All of the 3e campaigns I played or DMed started at level 3 (except LG, of course). Most 4e campaigns I've been involved in started at level 1, although I think we would have switched to level 3 if we had continued starting new 4e campaigns.

That's for the campaigns (about half the games). For the other half, the purpose was to play an adventure, or linked series of adventures. Then we would start at whatever level was appropriate for the first one.

-KS