Rastus_Burne wrote:

Another question. The rules are very clear about rewarding xp. I really like the 'attendance' reward, as well as the delegation of xp for story, smart play, advancing the adventure and so forth. Out of interest I was curious approximately how many sessions it takes for characters to level. Obviously this depends on class, but it also has to do with the amount the Ref is handing out each session. What is the norm for your group?

I added all the rewards from last night's session (gold, xp, story, attendance) and I was only sitting at about 130xp each. This is probably because the characters did not acquire any great wealth, but it does seem quite low. I think it was an anomolous outcome of the session rather than a trend, but I'm interested in what other people usually divy out per session? Do you have a general guideline or does it vary significantly session to session?

I think the session is an overly arbitrary divider here. The question should be based on the adventure. My group tends to take at least two sessions even for relatively simple adventures. Others can go on for much longer. I give out XP whenever they are "back in town," whatever that means in the context of what they are doing--when they are safe and can count their gold and sort it into piles.

I actually owe them some attendance XP--I keep forgetting about it

But you as the Ref have a lot of control over how fast you want them to advance. If you do 1:1 GP:XP, things can accelerate markedly after one big haul. If you give out fancy magic items like Chainsaw, it can be even more marked for some characters. I don't think there's any sort of right answer. Follow the adventure where it leads, and when it's done, see how many XP they've earned. Then you'll be able to tell if you think it's unbalanced in a particular way or toward a particular kind of award or too fast or too slow.

Rastus_Burne wrote:

Out of interest I was curious approximately how many sessions it takes for characters to level. Obviously this depends on class, but it also has to do with the amount the Ref is handing out each session. What is the norm for your group?

Depends on the format for me.

In my G+ games, I find that running short sessions every few weeks sometimes makes it hard for people to stay engaged. So, I try to ratchet up the XP opportunities. For example, while a face-to-face campaign's level gain might occur every 4-6 sessions, in G+ it might be every 1-3 sessions. In both cases, the players' choices can always skew the progression... maybe they screw around one session rather than charge hard at the big score. Maybe they don't go back to town the very instant they have enough XP to gain a level. So, you can create whatever opportunities you want for them to gain XP at a given pace, but they don't always adhere to it and the actual distribution can wind up looking lumpy.

For what it's worth, here's the level progression from the first few reports of my G+ game. I have the actual XP awards in a file somewhere, but I'm too lazy to find it at the moment.

Session 1 - level 1
Session 2 - level 1
Session 3 - level 1
Session 4 - level 2
Session 5 - two level 3, one level 4
Session 6 - two level 3, one level 4
Session 7 - two level 3, one level 4
Session 8 - two level 3, one level 4
Session 9 - two level 3, one level 4
Session 10 - all level 4
Session 11 - all level 4 (TPK ends campaign)

Handy Haversack wrote:

If you give out fancy magic items like Chainsaw...

What? The Serpent Sword of Fal'doon? Greezq’lul’s Insect Armor? The Scimitar of Frozen Might? Book of Demon Summoning? Uzolok’s Ring of Jumping? Laser pistols?

I know Handy prefers the dagger +0, hahah!

Rastus_Burne wrote:

Hah! Thanks Chainsaw. Before I began my campaign I actually looked at the rate of level progression in your CJ. I appropriated rewards and xp based on that standard, as I thought it was a very satisfactory measure. 

No way! I'm flattered. 

I'll check my old AD&D White Dragon Run campaign journal at K&KA tomorrow night. That game was face-to-face and went about 25 sessions. We played mostly on Sundays from noon to six or seven o'clock. I think the PCs reached levels 5-6 over that period. Will check tomorrow.

I hand out plenty of loot so the PCs can gain levels, so I can justify using more horrible monsters.

Then I blow up their loot, douse it in acid, swallow it in bottomless pits, steal it with brazen strumpets, etc.

Rastus_Burne wrote:

Haha! So you have a rather sadistic agenda behind the front of a kindly ref?

No, he's onbviously a completely impartial referee! ;)
 

francisca wrote:

<sniff><sniff>

Brought a tear to my eye......

My players have the same reaction!