Session as Episode as Level - a Serial Approach to a full-range campaign

[webrunner]

I'm currently running a campaign, and since
a) I plan to go the whole 30 levels
and
b) It takes us a while to get up and running and playing and doing a combat
and
c) we dont meet all that often

I wanted to make sure the campaign would actually finish before one of us died of old age. So I came up with the following alternate levelling system:

1- Each "session" is a self-contained "episode" - sometimes they end on a cliffhanger, but never just 'end' because the party is out of stuff.
2- Finishing a sessionisode awards a level and everything you get from that.
3- The party gets an Extended rest at the end of each episode, even if they dont have the normal 8 hrs (for example once they were going through a teleporter, and I told them it also 'refreshed' them). This saves bookeeping between levels.
4- as 3 of the characters are new to the game, I'm generous with magic items. I give each of them one magic item per level plus a 'party' magic item (like something wonderous) I give them a little less gold to compensate, however.
5- If we run out of time, we pause the session and when we pick up next time we finish the last 'session', level up, then continue.

This system has been working really well so far. I'm able to give recurring villians enough play without them being overused before they can be finally taken down.

They're about to do session 7 this week if the one person who may be sick isn't sick. And of course, session 10 and session 20 are going to be pretty crazy (as they're basically 'season finales' for the individual tiers)

So, thoughts?

 

[hipnotode]

hmm, 30 sessions is a VERRY quick amount of time to reach level 30 in. usualy i think the rule-of-thumb is that it takes about 10 encounters to reach a level, so unless your runniung pretty epic sesions dont be suprised if your leveling much faster than other groups (for example, my higher level party are at 24, and it has taken the group a few years, playing 6 hours or so most weeks)

3- The party gets an Extended rest at the end of each episode, even if they dont have the normal 8 hrs (for example once they were going through a teleporter, and I told them it also 'refreshed' them). This saves bookeeping between levels.

RAW state that you level up at the end of an extended rest anyway.

thats just mostly nitpicking though, if the point of it is to burn through the levels faster, so maybe you can swap DMs/try out new builds/settings ect. it seams like a pretty good system.

 

[webrunner]

hmm, 30 sessions is a VERRY quick amount of time to reach level 30 in. usualy i think the rule-of-thumb is that it takes about 10 encounters to reach a level, so unless your runniung pretty epic sesions dont be suprised if your leveling much faster than other groups (for example, my higher level party are at 24, and it has taken the group a few years, playing 6 hours or so most weeks)
RAW state that you level up at the end of an extended rest anyway.

thats just mostly nitpicking though, if the point of it is to burn through the levels faster, so maybe you can swap DMs/try out new builds/settings ect. it seams like a pretty good system.

Well as I said, we don't meet super-often, and I wanted to reduce the amount of time it took to do the campaign (after all, a regular campaign probably DOESNT go all-tier so it can be completed in less time).

So yeah, the intention is very much to speed it up.

 

[Mentat55]

I'll point you to a good article by Greywulf on this exact subject:

30 in 30: High Speed D&D

I will say that I really like the idea. It does not make sense for every group or every campaign, but I would like to run a game like this.

 

[MrBeens]

I'm currently running a campaign, and since
a) I plan to go the whole 30 levels
and
b) It takes us a while to get up and running and playing and doing a combat
and
c) we dont meet all that often

I wanted to make sure the campaign would actually finish before one of us died of old age. So I came up with the following alternate levelling system:

1- Each "session" is a self-contained "episode" - sometimes they end on a cliffhanger, but never just 'end' because the party is out of stuff.
2- Finishing a sessionisode awards a level and everything you get from that.
3- The party gets an Extended rest at the end of each episode, even if they dont have the normal 8 hrs (for example once they were going through a teleporter, and I told them it also 'refreshed' them). This saves bookeeping between levels.
4- as 3 of the characters are new to the game, I'm generous with magic items. I give each of them one magic item per level plus a 'party' magic item (like something wonderous) I give them a little less gold to compensate, however.
5- If we run out of time, we pause the session and when we pick up next time we finish the last 'session', level up, then continue.

This system has been working really well so far. I'm able to give recurring villians enough play without them being overused before they can be finally taken down.

They're about to do session 7 this week if the one person who may be sick isn't sick. And of course, session 10 and session 20 are going to be pretty crazy (as they're basically 'season finales' for the individual tiers)

So, thoughts?

The fact that you have put in the caveat that you can "pause" a session and carry on the next time is great.
We have been running without exp since a couple of months of 4e starting and it is great.
We level up when the story says to level up which gives the DM freedom to pace the game as he likes.

 

[webrunner]

I'll point you to a good article by Greywulf on this exact subject:

30 in 30: High Speed D&D

I will say that I really like the idea. It does not make sense for every group or every campaign, but I would like to run a game like this.

Just a heads up, the actual url is 30 in 30: High Speed D&D | Greywulf's Lair - but yeah, that's basically what I'm doing.

And it isn't for everyone, yeah, but it fits what I want to do. I actually have a 1-2 sentence write-up of every level up to 30 (30 i'm going to go over several episodes - kinda like ending a tv series with a special 2-hour movie), and it seems like it'll flow pretty well. So far it was basically:

1. Party wakes up in strange laboratory, is introduced to each other and the first main villain and his mercenary captain, escapes
2. Party tries to secure transportation to follow the bad guy, is introduced to second main villain group
3. Obligatory Eberron Train Battle, fight mercinary captain again
4. Party arrives in Sharn, gets caught up in a battle tournament. Fights mercenary captain for last time, gets locaation of villain's base.
5. Party assaults villain's base, only to have him escape to his airship
6. Party assaults villain's airship, other main villain group also assaulting the airship, finally takes down artificier villian, only to have his airship transform into a battle fortress.
7. Party takes down the mighty air fortress by blasting it's core, and is about to return to Sharn.

Our sessions usually take a long time (8-10 hrs including setup, cleanup, stopping to eat, etc) but we have tonnes of fun, and everyone gets lots of neat toys to play with.