Rate of Advancement: A Level per Day?!

[KesselZero]

Has anybody else noticed that based on the recommended XP per encounter, encounters per day, and XP to level, the party should be levelling up every single day? For example, the DM's Guidelines suggest that a party can handle two Tough combat encounters per adventuring day. At level 1, a Tough encounter is 325 XP per PC. That means that each PC will get 325 XP from the encounter. Two of those equals 650 XP. XP needed to hit level 2 is... 650! This math roughly follows through for different levels and combinations of encounter difficulty. So is an "adventuring day" meant to cover an entire adventure, taking up three or four game sessions? Because I really don't think I can decompress two combats, however tough, into more than one session.

My best guess is that they've artificially lowered the XP needed to level to make sure they get feedback through level 5 for the playtest. But levelling every session just seems silly.

Thoughts?

 

[Stormonu]

I have no problem with it whatsoever. I've had games in the past where characters got enough XP they leveled twice in the same session.

 

[slobo777]

Very easy to dial this up or down according to taste.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

My best guess is that they've artificially lowered the XP needed to level to make sure they get feedback through level 5 for the playtest. But levelling every session just seems silly.

I suspect you are correct. It makes a lot of sense to have a very fast rate of level increase when trying to test out the rules.

 

[KesselZero]

I have no problem with it whatsoever. I've had games in the past where characters got enough XP they leveled twice in the same session.

Very easy to dial this up or down according to taste.

All true, and I intend to dial it back for my own sessions-- it just seems like a very strange baseline. I expect we'll see something pretty different by the time the rules are finished.

 

[Sunseeker]

To quote the Borg: "XP is irrelevant."

Run the game at the pace you want, tell your characters they level when you want them to, be happy.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Not every rule in the playtest packet is necessarily there for playtesting.

Sometimes you just need rules in there to get people to use the rules they do want tested.

 

[jrowland]

To quote the Borg: "XP is irrelevant."

Run the game at the pace you want, tell your characters they level when you want them to, be happy.

I've been doing this for years. Story driven level up points, not body counts. XP as a encounter/adventure building resource is fine.

 

[Li Shenron]

I have no problem with it whatsoever. I've had games in the past where characters got enough XP they leveled twice in the same session.

I don't understand why some gaming group are so anxious to actually reach the end of the game... When I am enjoying something I actually want it last longer

Very easy to dial this up or down according to taste.

Absolutely, which is why I'm not going to care whatever advancement rate they suggest.

But OTOH this raises the question why are the designers bothering with the current XP level thresholds... they are nonsensically precise. They would look better if rounded to multiple of 1000.

 

[Zustiur]

I don't understand why some gaming group are so anxious to actually reach the end of the game... When I am enjoying something I actually want it last longer

I think it's simple enough. Some people enjoy the moment. Some people enjoy the memory.
It's the difference between telling one truly epic story that takes years, or telling many shorter stories.