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

[el-remmen]

Interesting statistics. I still can't wrap my head around it taking 25 sessions to get to level 4, though.

My last campaign ended at 11th level. It was 103 sessions long.

As you can tell, I am not giving out standard XP.

 

[Umbran]

Why is sample size decreasing?

Sample size = number of items being averaged. When he did it for the campaign as a whole, he had 35 items. For each level individually, he's probably looking at more like ten. Ten is smaller than 35.

The basic use of an average is to find the value around which the items tend to cluster. The more items you have in your sample, the more likely you'll be able to find the signal (central value) in the random noise, as the various random factors will tend to cancel each other out, and each one has less influence on the entire group.

Taken the other way - the smaller the sample, the more likely the average has been skewed by some random factor, or some short-term systematic influence that is not representative of the whole campaign.

In general, if you have a sample of size N, the random error in that sample is expected to go like 1/sqrt(N). Or, in order to cut the random error in half, you have to quadruple the sample size. So, going from a sample of 35 to something more like 10 is greatly increasing the expected random error in his sample.

 

[Jdvn1]

When he did it for the campaign as a whole, he had 35 items. For each level individually, he's probably looking at more like ten. Ten is smaller than 35.

Oh, I gotcha. I understood what el-remmen also figured, which is you were comparing level-by-level, as in 4th level had a smaller sample size than 2nd level.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Interesting statistics. I still can't wrap my head around it taking 25 sessions to get to level 4, though. Six sessions per level seems a bit... lots of sessions-y. Maybe my group just blitzes through things faster than yours, I'm not sure.

For reference, we just finished up Pathfinder Adventure Path 1: Rise of the Runelords. It took us 6 1/2 months (~26 sessions) to get to level 15.

-TRRW

How long were your sessions? Only 6 1/2 months to complete the Rise of the Runelords seems like a very short amount of time. Does your group mainly focus on combat, and not so much on roleplaying or is there some other reason that you were able to fly through it so quickly?

Olaf the Stout

 

[Piratecat]

Nemm, any idea how many total enemies they have killed? How many points of damage they've dished out? How much was done to them?

I've always been intrigued to know how many creatures a part of adventurers might kill.

 

[el-remmen]

Nemm, any idea how many total enemies they have killed? How many points of damage they've dished out? How much was done to them?

I've always been intrigued to know how many creatures a part of adventurers might kill.

I guess I could go through the notes and count it up the best I can, but that's more work than I want to do. It is definitely near 100, if not more. At one point they killed 40 to 50 goblins in three groups of 12 to 16, and two of those groups had 1 or 2 wargs with them, and the last one had an ogre along as well.

I have no idea how much damage was dealt out or taken.

For those who are curious they had 13 encounters at 2nd level, 17 encounters at 3rd level and 5 encounters (so far) at 4th level.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

This all very numbers heavy. Can us non-number crunchers (yeah, minority in gaming circles I know) have some sort of chart? I like a visual aid.

 

[Lanefan]

In case anyone is interested in stats:

We have played 12 times so far in my latest campaign.
All encounters are average party level +3-+6
Format is: # of players, average lvl, length of session, enc# - # of npcs/monsters (duration of encounter, rounded up to the nearest 15 min)

1st: 6 players, lvl 5, 5 hours played, enc1: 3 npcs (45m), enc2: 9 npcs (1h45m)
2nd: 6 players, lvl 5, 5 hours played, enc1: 2 npcs (1h15), enc2: 1 npc (15m), enc3: 1 npc (5 min)
3rd: 6 players, lvl 5, 5 hours played, enc1: 10 npcs (3h45 - ends in almost TPK)
4th: 6 players, lvl 5, 5 hours played, enc1: 9 npcs (3h30), enc2: 1 npc (30m)
5th: 6 players, lvl 6, 8 hours played, enc1: 3 npcs (45m), enc2: 6 npcs (2h30), enc3: 5 npcs (1h30), enc4: 2 npcs (1h15)
6th: 6 players, lvl 6, 5 hours played, enc1: 1 npc (1h), enc2: 1 npc (3h15)
7th: 6 players, lvl 6, 5 hours played, enc1: 2 npcs (30m), enc2: 7 npcs (2h15)
8th: 5 players lvl 7, 5 hours played, enc1: 1 npc: (45m), enc2: 6 npcs (2h45)
9th: 6 players lvl 7, 5 hours played, enc1: 6 npcs: (4h)
10th: 5 players lvl 7, 5 hours played, enc1: 2 npcs (30m), enc2: 7 npcs (2h15)
11th: 5 players lvl 7, 5 hours played, enc1: 6 npcs (1h30), enc2: 5 npcs (2h45)
12th: 5 players lvl 8, 5 hours played, enc1: 4 npcs (15m), enc2: 2 npcs (1h), enc3: 7 npcs: (2h30)

Cheers

OK, this gives some numbers in real time. By some chance do you have notes on how many rounds each of those encounters/combats lasted?

Oh, and what edition are you playing? (by the speed of advancement I'm going to guess 3.x but it could be any...)

Lanefan

 

[Jorunkun]

Here's my group's statistics, for comparison.

We play weekly online sessions (using Maptool), about 5 or 6 hours in length.

I have four players, whose characters (cleric, paladin, rogue, wizard) have progressed from 1st to 3rd level in 15 sessions.

We have between 0 and 3 combat encounters per session that last between 30 mins and a little over two hours.

Monsters fought so far include some 30 or so kobolds, 5 giant rats, 3 warriors, 4 stirges, 5 lizardmen, 2 ghouls and a ghast, a giant squid, a grey ooze, an ogre, an owlbear, 6 wolves, 2 huge spiders and an aranea. They've also escaped death at the hands of a 5th level druid.

As for progression speed, it's a matter of taste, isn't it? Because my campaign worlds are usually capped at level 10 or 12 and planned to last a year or two with many dozens of sessions, I prefer a slower progression. If you can't play as many sessions or prefer high fantasy and super-heroics, I can see why you'd want to level up every other session.

 

[Lanefan]

Here's my group's statistics, for comparison.

We play weekly online sessions (using Maptool), about 5 or 6 hours in length.

Is online play faster, slower, or about the same as tabletop? Just wondering, in terms of how this data relates to what we've already seen in here...

I have four players, whose characters (cleric, paladin, rogue, wizard) have progressed from 1st to 3rd level in 15 sessions.

We have between 0 and 3 combat encounters per session that last between 30 mins and a little over two hours.

Monsters fought so far include some 30 or so kobolds, 5 giant rats, 3 warriors, 4 stirges, 5 lizardmen, 2 ghouls and a ghast, a giant squid, a grey ooze, an ogre, an owlbear, 6 wolves, 2 huge spiders and an aranea. They've also escaped death at the hands of a 5th level druid.

As for progression speed, it's a matter of taste, isn't it? Because my campaign worlds are usually capped at level 10 or 12 and planned to last a year or two with many dozens of sessions, I prefer a slower progression. If you can't play as many sessions or prefer high fantasy and super-heroics, I can see why you'd want to level up every other session.

How long are your sessions?

Lanefan