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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6282363" data-attributes="member: 4937">There are several problems with using Gygax's data to support the position that the rate of advancement has not changed.1) Gygax was specifically making his estimates to inform other DMs that they were leveling too fast.  2) The thread you are quoting from was using the data to prove that as designed, 1e would level more slowly than 3e as designed.3) Without a measurement of session length it would be meaningless to compare.  My sessions as a teen (especially during the summer months) were often 5-8 hours, broken perhaps by a meal, with occasional marathons of much longer.  In my current game sessions are generally 4 hours.  I'm not aware of what length of play Gygax was assuming for a session.4) Gygax notes the single biggest difference between 1e and 3e in terms of leveling speed, which is that by design levels after name level were intended to be slower.  Gygax estimates 25-37 sessions per level after name level, and notes that despite 4 years of 50-70 sessions per year, no player in his game had gone above 14th level - which was also true of Blackmoor.  This is certainly a difference in expectation even if nothing else is. 5) Even if as Gygax had intended 1e leveled at a particular rate, there very fact Gygax is giving this sort of talk suggests that the actual rate of advancement varied widely - just like with everything else in 1e.One character just obtained 7th level last night, after nearly 4 years of biweekly sessions roughly 4 hour sessions.  I don't have an exact count but I estimate about 70 sessions, or 280 hours of play.  That's roughly 40 hours of play per level obtained.  Granted, I don't play by RAW and consciously have slowed leveling to about half the speed suggested by the design to more match my expectations from 1e.   It is interesting that Gary had player playing up to 70 times per year, and it suggests to me a fervor that might suggest session lengths longer than the 4 hours I manage now weren't uncommon.</blockquote>

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