Well, the new ACKS campaign seems to be off to a strong start. Two sessions down, and I think the PCs have a chance to hit level 2 upon completion of the third session.
Assuming they level every third session (we skip one Saturday a month) and assuming the campaign remains vibrant, we could be looking at a game that covers all levels of play in about 12 months.
I have no idea if the leveling will stay at the same rate. As it is, I'n addition to the usual expo for overcoming adversaries and treasure looted, I'm also awarding expo for completing adventures, minor expo for successful proficiency use and a 10% bonus for completing weekly adventure logs at the Obsidian Portal site. All that, and the third session should allow them to hit level 2. It isn't guaranteed.
A level a month of mostly weekly gaming sounds about right to me, I just hope it fits with my players' expectations too.
When it comes to OSR style gaming, what is the rate of advancement in your campaigns?
(I'm avoiding 3x and 4e, as they are their own beasts, especially with the rate of advancement)
OSR Commentary OnThe Mall of Doom For The Mutant Epoch Rpg
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"In the twisted, dark future of 24th century America, heroes are needed
more than ever. Do you have what it takes? Recruited to investigate the
disappeara...
3 hours ago
As a purely personal preference when GMing, I like to base approximate advancement on real-world time.
ReplyDeleteSome groups I've played with can only play once a month, so I'll try to abbreviate adventures more (who wants a basic story that takes 3-4 months to get through)? XP follows suit for me.
If we can play every week it's much more along the lines you mentioned, every third session or so, but still dependent more on the story than an arbitrary time fix.
My current campaign has 6 PCs:
ReplyDelete1 @ 10th
1 @ 9th
4 @ 8th
We've played 123 sessions, had a lot of KIAs early on, and a bout of level drains on some PCs.
I think I prefer the slower rate of gain on a long campaign like this - it makes level gains a big deal. plus, I'm in no hurry for high level playing!
I think using time is a bad idea. Sit back, play, and the game will tell you in xp.
ReplyDeletei'm just trying to guestimate the pace it might take, and trying to figure out if my expo tweaks will need tweaking later.
ReplyDeleteThey may level in one session, then take 8 sessions for the next level. I'm just trying to get an eyeball on it ;)
Looks like my people are leveling every 4-6 sessions or so. These are usually four solid hours of play, and not completely hack and loot focused.
ReplyDelete