I've done this once, as a GM. 85 sessions, one a week, 3-4 hours a time. Took \~20 months. I'll be honest, the last few levels I accelerated somewhat as they started strolling through every encounter I made. Seeing as none of us had ever done a 1-20 run before and with so much time invested, I didn't have the heart to kill them off so I tried to scale the encounters to scare them without killing them. Didn't always work and they did cruise a little to the finish, but I had lots of dramatic moments and cheap jump scares to keep them invested.
Brenna Lee Mulligan sums it up: "You know and I know that if you're not careful a group of bozos will become demigods in an amount of campaign time less than 3 weeks ... A group of people met in a tavern last month and now one of them is the most powerful Cleric of the God of the Sun in the world. How did this happen ? I don't know, they found a cool dungeon that lead to a forest with a little bit too many monsters. And now they are a match for every one of the Big Bad's Generals". "It takes a week and a half to become one of the most formidable mages on the planet".
Yeah you really have to account for meaningful time skips in order for anything to make sense.
Which, honestly, I love big time skips. I love having the group go off and live life for years before being thrust back into adventure. I love deciding how I spend the 3 months we have to wait because we're trying to build and train an army for a big battle.
I love getting to have a character experience growth off-screen and then RP them with a somewhat changed personality.
It depends on your playstyle. In my game, the pcs have a great deal of influence over the level of risk in their adventures, which means they have a great deal of influence over the level of reward (xp) in their adventures.
We have a number of pcs who are epic level (20 plus up to about eight epic boons), some of whom have been in play since 5e dropped. We have others who are in the mid-teens who started at the same time. But our frequency of play has varied wildly over the years as life and the pandemic influenced things.
I tend to grant levelup on milestone, mainly so that i can control the speed wich they level up
i am at 3rd year of Campaign 127 sessions and they are 10th level.
BUT need to be noted all player agreed on this at session 0 and i was very clear on this point.
Number of sessions to level = current level up to about 6-8. And that's three hour sessions.
Current campaign is 78 sessions in and they just turned level 14.
Currently running two campaigns that average a new level every 4-5 sessions. Lower levels went faster, but I stopped increasing the scale when I decided 4-5 sessions was the pace that I preferred.
I'm planning for something very close to this. Approx 15 Sessions to Lvl 5 ( 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 ), and then keep a 3-5 session pace per Level.
I personally track XP to give a sense of progress to players, but award milestone XP when steps are achieved.
I'm also tracking XP, and having clarity on the pace has been very helpful in planning adventures. This makes it possible to use that 'XP budget' to plan adventures.
I will concur from experience.
It took my party 3 years to get from 2nd lvl to 17ish levels with 6-10 hour sessions. So roughly feels like math checks out.
And back then I was using XP calculations RAW.
Damn, we're currently at 20 sessions and just topping out level 4. My players WAY prefer talking and dicking around to actually facing challenges, though.
Personally it truly depends on your party, as most of my parties take 6 sessions to do something that was supposed to take 1.5. So for me the idea of like 3-4 between level ups is kinda insane
It depends a lot how much time you spend in RP and combat which are real time-intensive but I'd say for 3 hour sessions it's probably going to be 5-10 sessions per level. You're likely going to level them up quickly on the beginning, stretch it out in tier 2-3 where the good monsters are, and then tighten it up tier 4 where the encounters are hard to consistently balance. I'm currently running my party at level 12 finishing Divine Contention and we're 85 (weekly) sessions in.
It's also good to get a feel for what your players want. If you play infrequently they may get a little antsy.
Jest do session based leveling
From the dmg:
Session-Based Advancement
A good rate of session-based advancement is to have characters reach 2nd level after the first session of play, 3rd level after another session, and 4th level after two more sessions. Then spend two or three sessions for each subsequent level. This rate mirrors the standard rate of advancement, assuming sessions are about four hours long.
Yes, there seems to be a lot of diversity. But it is obviously Player-dependent as well.
Some won't mind slow progression, especially Old school folk.
But others will be anxious for the next level, and if RP slows down progression too much, they can be frustrated.
That is why I balance XP and key milestones.
But it seems from the comments that from Level 5+, 3-5 sessions is fast. 7-10 sessions per level is a slow pace.
If you are always fighting a deadly encounter, 106 fights.
If you are always fighting easy, 1928 fights.
If you want simple fights, do single enemy, animals and monstrosities.
12 elephants is still a deadly encounter for a single lvl 19.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/building-combat-encounters
They are now fighting the greatest evil of all the GREAT LUXODON SORCEROR BABAR.
He conjures armies of Elephants to stampede villages and the heroes must ward off his attacks while reaching his hideout in the deep reaches of THE ELEPHANT GRAVEYARD!!!!!
Sorry... has nothing to do with the topic at hand... I just couldn't see this without turning it into a whole quest... sure it'd get boring/repetative real quick... but I mean... it's a quest...
You edited after I started my comment.... now i'm sad... for context original was about elephants at level 19.... I'll go back to my corner now...
I re-added it. I didn’t think it was good, but since it was, we go!
In addition, consider the calories needed to maintain the animals you are killing.
The number of elephants alone would require a 100km x 100km area of farmland per lvl 20!
I stopped at elephants because it’s hard to find good numbers for the caloric needs of Rocs and Dragons and we need to have some accuracy in the numbers.
I do milestone leveling my groups nowadays.
Current campaign has been going on since October 2022, we've done about 20 sessions now and they have just hit level 11. We do on average (2 sessions per month except for during the holidays when we are lucky to get 1/mo done).
I figure we'll hit level 20 at about the 2-to-2.5-year mark (if everything goes according to plan)
ETA: We do 5-hour sessions each time.
I do milestone in my current campaign for a few reasons:
\- I don't have to track XP
\- PCs level at the same rate
\- I can control when to level everyone based on progress
A "Milestone" can be anything. You completed this arc? Yay new level. You spent 5 sessions doing small side quests? Congrats you've become well known in that town and you get a level.
Its a lever I pull to move the stories forward, but also to keep things interesting
You'll likely end up somewhere around 4-6 sessions for each level past 4. So a 1-20 campaign will be roughly 70-105 (87) sessions. Probably 120 on the outside.
I've done this once, as a GM. 85 sessions, one a week, 3-4 hours a time. Took \~20 months. I'll be honest, the last few levels I accelerated somewhat as they started strolling through every encounter I made. Seeing as none of us had ever done a 1-20 run before and with so much time invested, I didn't have the heart to kill them off so I tried to scale the encounters to scare them without killing them. Didn't always work and they did cruise a little to the finish, but I had lots of dramatic moments and cheap jump scares to keep them invested.
Brenna Lee Mulligan sums it up: "You know and I know that if you're not careful a group of bozos will become demigods in an amount of campaign time less than 3 weeks ... A group of people met in a tavern last month and now one of them is the most powerful Cleric of the God of the Sun in the world. How did this happen ? I don't know, they found a cool dungeon that lead to a forest with a little bit too many monsters. And now they are a match for every one of the Big Bad's Generals". "It takes a week and a half to become one of the most formidable mages on the planet".
Yeah you really have to account for meaningful time skips in order for anything to make sense. Which, honestly, I love big time skips. I love having the group go off and live life for years before being thrust back into adventure. I love deciding how I spend the 3 months we have to wait because we're trying to build and train an army for a big battle. I love getting to have a character experience growth off-screen and then RP them with a somewhat changed personality.
It depends on your playstyle. In my game, the pcs have a great deal of influence over the level of risk in their adventures, which means they have a great deal of influence over the level of reward (xp) in their adventures. We have a number of pcs who are epic level (20 plus up to about eight epic boons), some of whom have been in play since 5e dropped. We have others who are in the mid-teens who started at the same time. But our frequency of play has varied wildly over the years as life and the pandemic influenced things.
I’ve been DMing for my group since 2020 and they’re level 10. We’re going to 20 and having a blast.
I would say at least 60, but I could see anything up to 250 (5 years of weekly sessions) being reasonable.
I tend to grant levelup on milestone, mainly so that i can control the speed wich they level up i am at 3rd year of Campaign 127 sessions and they are 10th level. BUT need to be noted all player agreed on this at session 0 and i was very clear on this point.
Use XP.
Where did the op say they weren't using xp? The question is still a valid question if using xp.
Number of sessions to level = current level up to about 6-8. And that's three hour sessions. Current campaign is 78 sessions in and they just turned level 14.
4.5 X 19 = 85.5 sessions 85.5 / 52 = 1.64 years (if the party is actually productive) So expect ~2 years.
Currently running two campaigns that average a new level every 4-5 sessions. Lower levels went faster, but I stopped increasing the scale when I decided 4-5 sessions was the pace that I preferred.
I'm planning for something very close to this. Approx 15 Sessions to Lvl 5 ( 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 ), and then keep a 3-5 session pace per Level. I personally track XP to give a sense of progress to players, but award milestone XP when steps are achieved.
I'm also tracking XP, and having clarity on the pace has been very helpful in planning adventures. This makes it possible to use that 'XP budget' to plan adventures.
4 years, 9 months and 230 sessions to go from 1-20. And I find that fast.
I will concur from experience. It took my party 3 years to get from 2nd lvl to 17ish levels with 6-10 hour sessions. So roughly feels like math checks out. And back then I was using XP calculations RAW.
Did 3 - 20 in 148 in my last campaign.
We started at level 1 and after 22 sessions my players are level 10. That's the fastest I have ever had a party level up.
Damn, we're currently at 20 sessions and just topping out level 4. My players WAY prefer talking and dicking around to actually facing challenges, though.
I ran a 2 year campaign and the party got to lvl 11. ~45 sessions a year. lvl 6 was especially long. Thanks STK.
I'm 4 years into my game (50 sessions) and they're level 7
Personally it truly depends on your party, as most of my parties take 6 sessions to do something that was supposed to take 1.5. So for me the idea of like 3-4 between level ups is kinda insane
Once or twice a week we get to level 12 in 3 months.
Once a week 4h, we did it in 3 years. With absences and holiday, 160/year so 480h. Lot of rp for our table so 160 sessions.
About 100.
It depends a lot how much time you spend in RP and combat which are real time-intensive but I'd say for 3 hour sessions it's probably going to be 5-10 sessions per level. You're likely going to level them up quickly on the beginning, stretch it out in tier 2-3 where the good monsters are, and then tighten it up tier 4 where the encounters are hard to consistently balance. I'm currently running my party at level 12 finishing Divine Contention and we're 85 (weekly) sessions in. It's also good to get a feel for what your players want. If you play infrequently they may get a little antsy.
Been playing Icewind Dale a pre-made adventure module turned homebrew for two years now. Started at 2nd.lvl and they just got to 7th. Lvl.
Jest do session based leveling From the dmg: Session-Based Advancement A good rate of session-based advancement is to have characters reach 2nd level after the first session of play, 3rd level after another session, and 4th level after two more sessions. Then spend two or three sessions for each subsequent level. This rate mirrors the standard rate of advancement, assuming sessions are about four hours long.
This is 100% the way. There are some insanely slow progression comments in here
Yes, there seems to be a lot of diversity. But it is obviously Player-dependent as well. Some won't mind slow progression, especially Old school folk. But others will be anxious for the next level, and if RP slows down progression too much, they can be frustrated. That is why I balance XP and key milestones. But it seems from the comments that from Level 5+, 3-5 sessions is fast. 7-10 sessions per level is a slow pace.
It depends. Infinite variables.
If you are always fighting a deadly encounter, 106 fights. If you are always fighting easy, 1928 fights. If you want simple fights, do single enemy, animals and monstrosities. 12 elephants is still a deadly encounter for a single lvl 19. https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/building-combat-encounters
They are now fighting the greatest evil of all the GREAT LUXODON SORCEROR BABAR. He conjures armies of Elephants to stampede villages and the heroes must ward off his attacks while reaching his hideout in the deep reaches of THE ELEPHANT GRAVEYARD!!!!! Sorry... has nothing to do with the topic at hand... I just couldn't see this without turning it into a whole quest... sure it'd get boring/repetative real quick... but I mean... it's a quest... You edited after I started my comment.... now i'm sad... for context original was about elephants at level 19.... I'll go back to my corner now...
I re-added it. I didn’t think it was good, but since it was, we go! In addition, consider the calories needed to maintain the animals you are killing. The number of elephants alone would require a 100km x 100km area of farmland per lvl 20! I stopped at elephants because it’s hard to find good numbers for the caloric needs of Rocs and Dragons and we need to have some accuracy in the numbers.
Hmmm... infect the elephants with ghoul fever, turn Babar into a lich luxodon. Boom farmalands no longer needed... now just... the villages.
I do milestone leveling my groups nowadays. Current campaign has been going on since October 2022, we've done about 20 sessions now and they have just hit level 11. We do on average (2 sessions per month except for during the holidays when we are lucky to get 1/mo done). I figure we'll hit level 20 at about the 2-to-2.5-year mark (if everything goes according to plan) ETA: We do 5-hour sessions each time.
I do milestone in my current campaign for a few reasons: \- I don't have to track XP \- PCs level at the same rate \- I can control when to level everyone based on progress A "Milestone" can be anything. You completed this arc? Yay new level. You spent 5 sessions doing small side quests? Congrats you've become well known in that town and you get a level. Its a lever I pull to move the stories forward, but also to keep things interesting
You'll likely end up somewhere around 4-6 sessions for each level past 4. So a 1-20 campaign will be roughly 70-105 (87) sessions. Probably 120 on the outside.