Some Statistics from the first 25 sessions of my last 3E campaign

[el-remmen]

So I have been keeping some records about combat length and frequency for my current 3.xE campaign, "Second Son of a Second Son," and since we played our 25th session today and it happened to be a good cut-off point, I figured I would share it here on the boards for those who are interested.

For the record, there are 6 PCs and in those 25 sessions they went from 2nd level (and 0 XP) to 4th level (actually they hit 4th level at Session #21). Our session last about six hours. Some of the combats include the aid of up to three hirelings, but others do not include all the PCs whether because someone missed a session, or the party was split up (or some were unconscious for a fight).

In 25 sessions there have been 35 combat encounters.

The longest combat was 21 rounds long and the shortest 2 rounds long.
I did not include any combats where only 1 PC was involved, or where the PCs fought among themselves (of which there were three or four of varying lengths).

The average (i.e. the mean) combat length (rounded down) is 8 rounds.

The mode is 4 and 7. The median being 7.

The average number of combat encounters per session is 1.4.

There have been a total of 283 rounds of combat.

Anyway, I am not sure what all that means (if anything), but I love fidgeting with numbers and am curious about stuff like this. But if anyone has any questions about any of it, shoot!

----------------------------------------------------
Special thanks to Ciaran (who plays Timotheus in the game) for his excellent combat log and general note-taking (for the purpose of the story hour) which makes keeping these records possible.

 

[Lanefan]

And I thought *I* was a stats nut!

This is fine stuff! My only questions involve how does this all relate to real time? How long does an average round take to play out? Are the rounds getting longer (real-time) as the party and its foes advance in level?

Oh, one other question: are the combats getting shorter or longer as the party level advances?

Lanefan

 

[el-remmen]

And I thought *I* was a stats nut!

This is fine stuff! My only questions involve how does this all relate to real time? How long does an average round take to play out? Are the rounds getting longer (real-time) as the party and its foes advance in level?

I have not done any recording of real time, though I have meant to - so I can only say that I feel like each session tends to be a good balance of RP and Combat (though we RP a lot during combat). The most encounters we ever had in one session was four and they were 2, 4, 7 and 8 rounds long.

Oh, one other question: are the combats getting shorter or longer as the party level advances?

Lanefan

Well, I went back to the raw data and I compared the average length of the first thirteen sessions against that of the next 12 sessions. In the first case it was 6.9 rounds (let's call it 7), and in the second case it was 9.7 rounds (let's call it 10). So, yes I guess they are getting longer, though I am not sure how appreciably in practice.

So it breaks down like this:

First 13 sessions: Mean: 7 rounds, Median: 7, Mode: 4
Next 12 sessions: Mean: 7 rounds, Median: 8, Mode: 7

But that might not be that helpful of a distinction. Better to do averages at each level.

Level 2: Mean: 6.7 rds. Median: 7, Mode: 7
Level 3: Mean: 8.5 rds. Median: 7, Mode: 4
Level 4: Mean: 9.8 rds. Median: 11, Mode: None/All

Looked at this way, yeah they are getting longer as they go up in level, but only about a round longer each time. I can live with that.

 

[moritheil]

Wow, those are some long combats. What's the party like?

 

[el-remmen]

Wow, those are some long combats. What's the party like?

4th level wizard
3rd/1st diviner/fighter
4th level fighter
4th level priest*
4th level Priest*
2nd/1st/1st rogue/aristocrat/fighter **

*We use what are essentially "specialty priest" classes instead of generic cleric. One priest is actually pretty close to a base cleric, but the other has rage-like abilities instead of undead turning and a more limited spell selection.

** I use an adaptation of the AGoT Noble class as a PC class aristocrat in my games.

 

[buzz]

You had a 21 round combat with 4th level PCs? Was nobody attacking each other?

 

[Lord Zardoz]

If there was a significant amount of ranged combat at 1 or 2 range increments away, and people taking cover, or a great deal of movement, I could see a fight dragging on for quite a while.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Jdvn1]

Level 2: Mean: 6.7 rds. Median: 7, Mode: 7
Level 3: Mean: 8.5 rds. Median: 7, Mode: 4
Level 4: Mean: 9.8 rds. Median: 11, Mode: None/All

Looked at this way, yeah they are getting longer as they go up in level, but only about a round longer each time. I can live with that.

Well, the mean jumped 2 rounds from 2nd to 3rd level! I'd be interested in seeing how this plays out in the future. Average jump in number of rounds per level is about 1.5... Assuming level 1 rounds were 1.5 rounds shorter than level 2, then:
Level 1: 5.5 rds
Level 2: 7.0 rds
Level 3: 8.5 rds
Level 4: 10.0 rds
Levle 5: 11.5 rds
... Or...
# rds = 4 + lvl*1.5
Level 20 would be 34 rounds? I guess that doesn't sound right. It's probably a nonlinear function.

If you have this data in a spreadsheet, it's easy to figure out the standard deviations, too.

 

[McBard]

Interesting stuff, el-remmen. Another question: have you kept track of the average length (in real time) of each session? And, more specifically, average length in real time of each combat? I'd be curious to see those numbers.

I've kept similar data for my last couple of 3.X campaigns, and was especially interested in how many combats per hour we could run. This speed-of-combat (or lack thereof) was the major breaking point for my group with regards to 3.X. For the most part, combats can be fairly quick at low levels (10-20 minutes), but by mid-level they settle into 1 combat per hour...and only go up from there.

Bottom line breaking point: it just takes too long to run 3.X combat at just about all levels. (I don't want to hijack the thread with a tangent topic, but speed-of-combat is the first thing with which I'll measure and judge 4E: it's gotta improve for us to play D&D again. For what it's subjectively worth, I'd like to see roughly a half-hour per combat ceiling at all levels).

 

[el-remmen]

You had a 21 round combat with 4th level PCs? Was nobody attacking each other?

It was a fight with 6 PCs and 3 hirelings. It was spread out over an area of two small caverns and a hall that varied in width from 5' to 10'. The enemies had access to ways around the fight (to leave a fight and come back from one of the other ways) that the PCs did not. Also, this includes the arrival of reinforcements later in the fight while foes from the beginning of the melee were still up and fighting.

Also, both sides had means to heal themselves.

You can read about the battle in the "Second Son of a Second Son" story hour by clicking here. The specific battle starts about halfway through that installment.

EDIT: Oh, and they were 3rd level at the time of this fight, not 4th.

Just as a side note: I tend to run pretty dynamic battles with varying terrain and changing conditions over a wide area where smaller fights can be happening in the context of the larger battle. It is for this reason that the 4E news regarding the increased encounter area took me by surprise, because I don't see why people haven't been playing that way as it stands. .