Quick question about campaign starting level

[Li Shenron]

If you take a look at your total experience of playing/DMing campaigns in any D&D edition, how often have you started a campaign exactly at level 1, rather than a higher level?

This question assumes you normally start a campaign with all PCs at the same level, otherwise replace "how often" with "how many PC".

The only edition of D&D I can say I've played extensively enough to make a conclusion on this topic is 3e, in which case after just a couple of years we pretty much settled to normally starting at level 3 to get a little more freedom in character creation. Occasionally I've also played in campaigns starting at much higher level, but these were practically always PbP, not tabletop.

 

[delericho]

We almost always start at 1st. Occasionally, we'll start at 2nd, just to give PCs a bit more scope.

Starting anything higher than 2nd is exceedingly rare.

 

[MerricB]

In all my years of playing D&D, the only time I haven't started at 1st level is because (a) I was joining an established campaign or (b) we were running a pregenerated adventure that needed higher level characters. All of the campaigns I've run have had PCs begin at 1st level.

 

[Blackbrrd]

We usually start between level 1-3, I have started a couple of campaigns at level 5-7.

 

[Kinak]

We basically always start at Level 1. We've also started at 3 before, but I like the level or two of onboarding players get, learning the ins and outs of their PC before things get too complex.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[Ahnehnois]

For me, the thorn here is the term "campaign". If I'm running a short-term game (say <10 sessions), I often start characters at higher levels. If I'm running a long-term campaign (>10), I usually start at level 1. I went for the second poll option.

To me, the experience of playing through from level 1 to the high levels is a big part of D&D.

 

[Li Shenron]

For me, the thorn here is the term "campaign". If I'm running a short-term game (say <10 sessions), I often start characters at higher levels. If I'm running a long-term campaign (>10), I usually start at level 1. I went for the second poll option.

Right! To clarify, by "starting" I mean starting fresh with a new group of PCs, whether it's a one-shot game or a long-term campaign. I used the term "campaign" but maybe I should have used the more generic expression "game of D&D" because for us there has always been the implicit possibility of continuing, even if officially it might be presented as one-shot (of course it's different if the one-shot game is at a convention, then it's really one-shot).

But in general, by the intentions of the poll a "campaign" is anything that takes the PCs across more than 1 level (not counting levelling up at the very end). Thus, if you just voted by making some sort of average between the two cases you mention, you voted correctly.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I/we start with level 1 characters like 99% of the time. What I've dome several times is starting at level 1, playing for a few levels and then levelling the PCs up to play some higher-level stuff.

In a long-running FR campaign under 3(.5)e the characters were taken from 7 to 10 by DM fiat in order to tackle "City of the Drow".

 

[Grogg of the North]

In my experience games start at level 1, sometimes level 2. The only times I've started at mid to high levels were for one offs.

 

[TerraDave]

Level 1

But...

Campaign last long...so time spent at 1 is pretty small. New players (and characters) joining normally start higher (though how I have handled that has varied, but normally above 1).